derekjberg.com » Church IT

Google Apps for Places of Worship

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:12:10 +0000

Hi, I’m Derek and I don’t blog much…

So I got an email today that I expect to be pretty big news in the Church IT circle. After Google took Places of Worship off the eligible list for Google Apps for Non-Profits the middle of last year, they have now come back and thankfully changed their mind it seems. Places of Worship and some other 501c3s are back on the accepted list as long as they meet the other requirements, here’s the email so you can read it with your own eyes.

Hello,

We are always evaluating ways to improve the Google for Nonprofits Program and we’re excited to share some new developments with you related to our eligibility guidelines for the program.

Organizations under the following categories may now be eligible for the Google for Nonprofits Program:

Places or institutions of worship

Programs requiring membership and/or providing benefit solely to members

Websites with a primary focus on selling goods, products or services

Car, boat, and real estate donation websites

Consumer credit counseling

All other Google for Nonprofits eligibility guidelines must be met to participate in the program. As always, your organization must have 501(c)(3) status and have received a letter of determination from the Internal Revenue Service to be eligible for Google for Nonprofits. To learn more, please visit GuideStar.

We will be rolling out the updated eligibility guidelines over the next few days. If you believe your organization meets the updated eligibility guidelines for Google for Nonprofits and are still interested in receiving program benefits, you can log in to re-apply here.
Sincerely,The Google for Nonprofits Team

While I’ve had Woodland on Google Apps long before this became an issue and they grandfathered us in when it happened, I know many others are still wanting to have the debate of Google Apps versus Exchange and now you still can!

So in the comments, why do you thing Google changed their mind?

Finally! A WordPress Theme for Live Events

djberg — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:23:22 +0000

Finally there is a theme made for and designed specifically for live events. I’ve been doing live streaming of our church services and other special events for close to two years now on a wordpress theme but have never been able to find a theme that does exactly what I want. I’ve searched every which way I could think of involving live streaming, live broadcasts, live video, etc and always been dissapointed. Now Live Theme has what I want with these great features:

Twitter Stream
Countdown Timer
10+ Backgrounds
Video bumpers
Facebook integration
Schedule display
and more!

A quote directly from the livetheme site:

Live Theme is a video-centric WordPress Theme designed for live event broadcasting, community interaction, and all around awesomeness. Yes. Awesomeness.

Go check out Livetheme that is based of the very popular and award winning Standard Theme!

Worship song recorded with only 7 iphones

djberg — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:47:47 +0000

As I am doing more and more with video and worship, this has my wheels turning, more coming as I try out a few things that most would consider out of the box

Five things I took from the 2010 CITRT

djberg — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:47:06 +0000

Anytime I go to a conference, training, meeting, pretty much anything I try to look back on it and figure out what I took from it. While it’s not always specifically about what I got but key learning points, bits of info, people I met, etc. So here’s a look at 5 things I took from today’s Church IT Roundtable:

While we do IT it’s not about the technology it’s about the people
We are not alone in this, there are other guys and ladies that have had the exact same problems we’re having right now. Just for the fall 2010 Roundtables there were 179 people (last count I heard) that all want to see each other succeed and came to meet with others to prove it. Remember that even if you are a “1 man shop” your team is out here rooting you on. Find another local Church IT person(s) and meet regularly with them over the phone, over lunch, however you need to, and use them to vent, to pray, and to encourage.
You can’t please everyone all the time, and that’s okay. Along with that it’s okay and healthy to say “no” because somethings can’t be done because of time, budget, manpower, etc.
Every platform, OS, phone, etc, etc, etc will not fit every person, ministry, or church, we have to know the environment of who we are working with and where we are working at to know what the “best fit” will be, it won’t be perfect because they were all created by people, but when we take the time to match the real “needs” and not listen to what everyone “wants” we’ll empower people to do the most ministry.
While we do IT it’s not about the technology it’s about the people. (Yes, I put that twice on purpose)

Also check out Andrew’s highlights from the Fall DC CITRT Meeting

I’d be interested to hear some of your insights!

Favicons made easy

djberg — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:16:41 +0000

I used to find it to be a chore to create a favicon for my websites, but the last time I did a google search I found http://www.favicon.cc/ which allows for the easy creation of a favicon either pixel by pixel or by the upload of an image. After that it’s a simple download and then upload to your hosting.

Wondering why to use a favicon, what it is, and more: (From Wikipedia)

A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon is a 16×16 or 32×32 pixel square iconassociated with a particular website or webpage.^[1] A web designer can create such an icon and install it into a website (or webpage) by several means, and most graphical web browsers will then make use of it. Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page’s favicon in the browser’s address barand next to the page’s name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page’s favicon next to the page’s title on the tab. Some programs allow the user to select an icon of their own from the hard drive and associate it with a website.

Adding Google Apps account Sync to Apple iPad

djberg — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:00:33 +0000

It’s true I recently got the Apple iPad to use as another communication and connection device when away from the office or home. While I’m still learning the different apps I’ll want to complete the different tasks I do, obviously one of the main things I want to easily access is my contacts and calendar. I went through and added my account on the ipad using the GMail button as we use GApps. It loaded email just fine but my calendar and contacts did not work. After some further googleing and searching I found and did the following which allowed me to properly do a Google Apps sync on my iPad (instructions i found said Apple device so I assume this will work as well for iphones and touches though I only did on ipad). This is all found on Google’s site on a couple different pages but I want to make sure it was easily found the next time I needed it.

All instructions found on Google’s Support site:

Mail, Calendar, & Contacts:

Set Up Your Apple Device for Google Sync

If your business, school, or organization uses Google Apps, your administrator will first need to enable Google Sync before you can take advantage of this feature.

1. Open the Settings application on your device’s home screen.
2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account….
4. Select Microsoft Exchange. Yes, choose this even if you are not using Exchange

Enter Account Info

5. In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an “Unable to verify certificate” warning when you proceed to the next step.
6. Leave the Domain field blank.
7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.
9a. Choose Cancel if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
10. When the new Server field appears, enter m.google.com.
11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.

12. Select the Google services (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts) you want to sync.

13. Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your phone, select the Keep on my iPhone option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes.

If you want to sync only the My Contacts group, you must choose to Delete Existing Contacts during the Google Sync install when prompted. If you choose to keep existing contacts, it will sync the contents of the “All Contacts” group instead. If there are no contacts on your phone, the latter will happen — the contents of your All Contacts group will be synced.

You’ve set up Google Sync! Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your device. You can also open the Mail, Calendar or Contacts app and wait a few seconds to start a sync.

Choosing Which Calendars to Sync

Open the Safari browser on your phone and go to http://m.google.com

Click on Google Apps user? at the bottom of the screen.

Enter your domain name (e.g., YourDomain.com).

Click the Sync icon in your domain area (this section has a green background).

Select your device to configure Calendars.

National CITRT Event at Saddleback, March 11-12, 2010

djberg — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:02:06 +0000

If you are Anyone responsible for Information Technology in a ministry setting … Business Admins, IT Directors, Network Admins, Helpdesk, staff or volunteers … regardless of church/organization size, then You will NOT want to miss this amazing opportunity to learn from your IT peers from across the country! Check out the CITRT website for all the latest details:

http://citrt.pbworks.com/Spring-2010-National-Church-IT-Roundtable

Google Wave and Voice Invites

djberg — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:52:54 +0000

This is a simple and easy blog post, I have 8 Wave invites and 2 Voice invites. Leave a comment with what you want and i’ll give them out. Enjoy!

Using fIRC to connect to CITRT IRC Chat

djberg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:44:38 +0000

I’ve had a couple people ask me how to get this setup and I also want to make sure I don’t forget so here goes:

In the Connect screen:
Nickname: you choose
Real name: your paren’ts chose
Default channels: #citrt
Ident: I put same as nickname
IRC Server: chat.freenode.net
Port: 6667
Hit the Connect button, you will then see a pop-up telling you it’s connecting to server.
Then click on #chat button, once there hit on settings button(4 line button) to choose “Join Channel”
Add citrt and enter
Then click on the #citrt button to be entered into chat

Evernote and twitter

djberg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:50:03 +0000

I’m always looking for ways to better remember things that I come across online or in twitter. Well it seems you can use a mention or DM of @myen in twitter once you have your account registered and it will automatically enter that info into Evernote. I find this to be a quick and easy way to save stuff for later, I just hit the Retweet button (so i don’t have to type it all out) and switch it to a “d myen”

What do you use to help stay organized?