Internet: A Ministry Frontier&

Let’s have some FunErnest Staats Technology DirectorMS Information Assurance, CISSP, MCSE, CNA, CWNA, CCNA, Security+, I-Net+, Network+, Server+, A+

erstaats@gcasda.org Resources available @ http://www.es-es.net/2.html

Outline

• I Ministry Why?• Considerations When Opening an

Online Ministry– Safety Considerations – Social Networking Sites – Give users a reason to come back– Online vs Traditional Communication

Methods • The Power of Google• Ministry Resources• Fun and useful sites (Web 2.0)

I-Ministry-- Why

• The Consumer Electronics Association of America says that the average American home now has 26 different electronic devices for communication and media. The Consumer Electronics Association of America also tracks sales and consumer references for 53 separate gadgets.1

• 30% of online Americans jack into the Internet wirelessly• 45% of Internet users go online from someplace other than

work or home• 73% of American adults use the Internet • 94% of American teens use the Internet • 42% of American homes have high-speed broadband

connections

I-Ministry-- Why

• (We must) Devise methods to reach the people where they are.

--Let every worker in the Master's vineyard, study, plan, devise methods, to reach the people where they are. .--Ev 122, 123.

• Christ Follower or “Christian”

• GCA Church

Safety Considerations

• Be careful what your online name means or could mean

• Choose your words and photos wisely • Never use full names of anyone under

the age of 18 • Have a media release for everyone who

is going to be in your photos/videos • Everything put online stays online

forever… • Never give out or store personal

information on your website

Security issues COPPA

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act • The Rule applies to:

– Operators of commercial websites or online services directed to children under 13 that collect personal information from children

– Operators of general audience sites that knowingly collect personal information from children under 13

– Operators of general audience sites that have a separate children's area and that collect personal information from children

COPPA Requires

• A site must obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information about a child

• A site must post a privacy policy on the homepage of the website and provide a link to the privacy policy everywhere personal information is collected

• A site must allow parents to revoke their consent, and delete information collected from their children

• A site must maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of the personal information collected from children

Privacy Policy Must Include:

• Types of personal information collected from kids—for example, name, home address, email address or hobbies.

• Look at GC published guidelines that will be out soon or look at an example on my site

www.es-es.net/2.html

Security Considerations

• Make sure you have a written privacy policy • Make sure you have a media release form as a

part of your privacy policy

• Collect as little information as possible and make sure it is stored safely

• Be careful of what you post online and of what you say to youth online

• You are responsible for every thing you POST or collect online

Networking Sites

• MySpace has twice the number of views Google gets a day, for a total of almost 13 million a day. To put that in perspective, that’s 4,475 views per second.5

• MySpace gets 150,000 new users a day, the vast majority of whom (90%) are youth 14-24 years old.5

• Since so may are on these sites it’s a Great Ministry Opportunity

Networking Sites

• Below are some of the more common SNS

Give Users Reasons to Come Back

• New content

• RSS Feeds

• Chat /Interactive rooms

• Photo’s

• Blogs

• Streaming e.g. YouTube – YouTube 320 x240 24 fps mp3 audio 10 minutes less

than 100 mb

• Make it interactive or they will go somewhere else

Why Interactive?

• Author Leonard Sweet talks about our postmodern

culture as E P I C • Experiential, Participatory,

Image-driven and Connected

• Today’s Gen Yer’s are very “E P I C” in how they think and live

Online Design Strategies

1. Define and articulate your PURPOSE

2. Build flexible, extensible gathering PLACES

3. Create meaningful and evolving member PROFILES

4. Design for a range of ROLES

5. Develop a strong LEADERSHIP program

6. Promote cyclic EVENTS

7. Integrate the RITUALS of community life

8. Facilitate member-run SUBGROUPS

9. Build site for quick SCANNING

10. Write text in short chunks CHUNKING

How People Scan Online

Add Some RSS

• RSS Feeds Examples– GCAst http://www.gcasda.org/_sections/students/podcasting/rss/chaplaincorner.xml – Adventist Mission Podcast

http://adventistmission.org/podcast.php?channel=1

– Sabbath School University

http://www.sabbathschoolu.org/podcastlist.php

– LLBNmms://tvonline.llbn.tv/llbn

– HopeTVmms://live.hopetv.org/hopechannel

RSS Feed Examples cont.– 3ABN

http://www.streamingfaith.com/ASX_Files/3ABN_hi.asx

– Candle Radio- Pacific Union Collegehttps://64.62.163.130/kndl-fm

– Positive Life Radio- Walla Walla Collegehttp://plr.org/live.asx

– WOCG- Oakwood Collegehttp://69.80.226.199/wocg-fm

– 3ABN Radiohttp://boss.streamos.com/wmedia-live/tabn/7869/128_tabn-radio_050207.asx

– LifeTalkhttp://asx.abacast.com/life_talk-live-64.asx

– It Is Writtenhttp://www.iiw.org/podcasts/

The Power of Google• Either/or. Google normally searches for pages that contain all the

words you type in the search box, but if you want pages that have one term or another (or both), use the OR operator -- or use the "|" symbol (pipe symbol) to save you a keystroke. [dumb | little | man]

• Quotes. If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. ["dumb little man"] will only find that exact phrase. [dumb "little man"] will find pages that contain the word dumb and the exact phrase "little man".

• Not. If you don't want a term or phrase, use the "-" symbol. [-dumb little man] will return pages that contain "little" and "man" but that don't contain "dumb".

• Similar terms. Use the "~" symbol to return similar terms. [~dumb little man -dumb] will get you pages that contain "funny little man" and "stupid little man" but not "dumb little man".

• Wildcard. The "*" symbol is a wildcard. This is useful if you're trying to find the something, but can't remember the exact words. It's also useful for finding stuff only in certain domains, such aseducational information: ["dumb little man" research *.edu].

Taken From: http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/06/20-tips-for-more-efficient-google.html

The Power of Google

• Calculator. One of the handiest uses of Google, type in a quick calculation in the search box and get an answer. It's faster than calling up your computer's calculator in most cases. Use the +, -, *, / symbols and parentheses to do a simple equation.

• Numrange. This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).

• Site-specific. Use the "site:" operator to search only within a certain website. [site:dumblittleman.com leo] will search for the term "leo" only within this blog.

• Unit converter. Use Google for a quick conversion, from yards to meters for example, or different currency: [12 meters in yards]

The Power of Google

• Types of numbers: Google algorithms can recognize patterns in numbers you enter, so you can search for:– Telephone area codes– Vehicle ID number (US only)– Federal Communications Commission (FCC) equipment

numbers (US only)– UPC codes– Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airplane registration

number (US only)– Patent numbers (US only)– Even stock quotes (using the stock symbol) or a weather

forecast regarding the next five days

• Cached pages. Looking for a version of a page the Google stores on its own servers? This can help with outdated or update pages. Use the "cached:" operator.

Online Giving

Adventist Online Tithe/Offering Givinghttps://www.adventistgiving.org/about/Contact.aspx

Adventist Giving allows you to tithe and give your offerings online. Have your treasurer contact help@advetistgiving.org if your church wants to set-up tithing online

It allows you to customize what your church members see when they give on line (e.g. your own building project).

Some Great Web Ministries

– Better Life TVwww.betterlifetv.tvBetter Life Television is an outreach organization of the Seventh-day Adventists that is dedicated to broadcasting shows which are uplifting and lead to complete Christian living.

– Plus Linewww.plusline.org

Plus Line provides ministry support to Seventh-day Adventists throughout the North American Division. Plus Line is the official helpdesk for general church information.

– Bible Infowww.bibleinfo.com

Bible Info helps people around the world find counsel, direction, encouragement, and help — all from God's word.

– Bible Gatewaywww.biblegateway.com

The Bible Gateway is a tool for reading and researching scripture online -- all in the language or translation of your choice

SDA Kid Websites

• KIDSVIEW, THE ADVENTIST REVIEW'S MAGAZINE FOR CHILDREN, is now online.  Visit www.adventistreview.org and click on "KidsView" in the left frame.

• VOICE OF PROPHECY'S KIDZONE BIBLE GUIDES are online at www.kidsvop.com. Kids can share these with their neighbors and friends.  Read more about it at ww.vop.com/news_update/winter2006/page2.pdf

• VOICE OF PROPHECY'S KID'S CORNER-- Where kids can listen to Elder H. M. S. Richards, Jr. tell exciting Bible stories.

• Included are Adventist heritage features and pictures, a question-and-answer corner, as well as puzzles, mazes, and other interactive-learning activities. wwwwhiteestate.org/vez/vez.html.

• KIDSBIBLEINFO.COM-- A safe place for kids to find Bible answers to their questions, character building stories, games and more. www.KidsBibleInfo.com.  

Parents and Teachers

• The Ellen G. White Estate provides material ESPECIALLY FOR K-12 TEACHERS wanting to enhance their students' spiritual walk with Jesus. Visit www.whiteestate.org/godsmessenger.html

• CHILDREN'S SABBATH SCHOOL RESOURCES – www.childmin.com, 

– www.ssnet.org/qrtrly/qrtrly.html, and www.sabbathschoolpersonalministries.org/article.php?id=17

• Adult Sabbath School Lesson Podcast– http://

services.christianrecord.org/periodicals/media.php?a=1

Fun Sites• TinyURL http://tinyurl.com/

Cut-and-paste long URL’s into the box on Tiny URL's site and the site automatically condenses the URL into a shorter, permanent one that is much easier to share with others

• Interface LIFT Wallpapers http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/ Interface LIFT offers insanely high-quality and high- resolution images you can use as your desktop wallpaper or as a background in a PowerPoint presentation

• Custom Sign Generator http://www.customsigngenerator.com/ The Custom Sign Generator is a collection of HUNDREDS of fake sign and image generators. Create your own "For Dummies" book cover, ketchup bottle label, church sign, etc.

• Concert Ticket Generator http://tinyurl.com/g7vvo

With the Concert Ticket Generator, you can make customized, relatively realistic images of interesting or humorous concert tickets

• Look @ www.es-es.net for lots more sites

Top 20 Educational and Reference Websites March07

1. Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org 24.33%

2. Yahoo! Answershttp://answers.yahoo.com 4.23%

3. Dictionary.comhttp://dictionary.reference.com 3.79%

4. Answers.comhttp://www.answers.com 3.53%

5. SparkNoteshttp://www.sparknotes.com 1.62%

6. Google Scholarhttp://scholar.google.com/http://scholar.google.com

1.31%

7. Google Book Searchhttp://books.google.com 1.09%

8. Find Articleshttp://www.findarticles.com .99%

9. U.S. National Library of Medicinehttp://www.nlm.nih.gov .99%

10. Merriam-Webster Onlinehttp://www.m-w.com .85%

Source: Hitwise, Internet Visits (market share) for week ending March 17, 2007

Good Resources

• www.netfamilynews.org Current “nonprofit news service for “kid-tech news”. Based on the

premise that informal, engaged parenting is essential to kids’ constructive use of technology and the Net.”

• www.pbs.org/parents/growingwithmediaProvides information on how media “can shape your child’s development and what you can do to create a media-literate household.”

• www.safekids.comProvides a “guide to making the Internet and Technology fun, safe, and productive.”

• www.besafeonline.org Provides advice and information about Internet safety for parents and

teachers.Also suggests opportunities for discussing problems and share solutions.

• www.Vyew.com Free Always-On Collaboration and Web Conferencing

Good Resources

• www.getnetwise.org GetNetWise is a public service created by Internet industry

corporations and public interest groups with the goal of having “Internet users be only "one click away" from the resources they need to make informed decisions about their and use of the Internet.”

• www.netsmartz.org Created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited

Children and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, “ the NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational safety resource to teach kids and teens how to stay safer on the Internet.”

• www.kids.us kids.us is an Internet domain where “affiliated sites are

regularly screened and monitored” so that “parents and children can trust the sites to provide educational and appropriate online fun.”

Good Resources

• www.commonsensemedia.org

Provides family friendly reviews of media (e.g. TV, film, music, Web sites, games, and books) and parent tips on “healthy media diets” for families.

• www.netmom.org

Run by the author of Net-mom's Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages, provides a family-friendly directory of 3,500 of the best children's resources on Internet. This site highlights good sites for kids and provides safety tips for parents.