Church IT in Davos

Did you see the interview of Rick Warren by Robert Scoble at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland?  Now that’s some church IT! 
I am a huge Rick Warren fan.  This video shows how amazingly tech-savvy he is.  Definitely worth 9 minutes to watch it.

Tim Berners-Lee and the "Giant Global Graph"

Tim Berners-Lee (the REAL inventor of the Web) recently posted on his blog about the idea of a "Giant Global Graph" - a name intentionally chosen to suggest parallels with the "World Wide Web." 
People have recently begun using the term "social graph" in reference to one’s network of family, friends, and acquaintances along with [...]

MinistryTECH and Spring CITRT

 
This year Terrell Sanders of MinistryCOM fame is starting a new conference for ministry A/V and IT called MinistryTECH.  The inaugural event will be in Oklahoma City, April 3-4.  The next day, April 5, we will have the Spring Church IT RoundTable (CITRT) at Crossings Community Church, also in Oklahoma City.  See details on Tony’s [...]

How far to Antarctica?

Tony posted a comment, asking how far south I was at Cape Point. He question was prompted by my wise crack that there was “nothing to spoil the view but Antarctica.”

My head getting sunburned at Cape Point
The southernmost tip of the Cape of Good Hope is called Cape Point, which is the [...]

The beauty of Cape Town

Belatedly, but as promised, here are some pictures showing the beauty of the Cape Town landscape.

Above the University of Cape Town, looking NE

Cape Town waterfront

High School in District 6 with cloud-covered Table Mountain in background

Hout Bay, looking W - [...]

Cape Town Wrap-up

What lingers the most with me is the contrasts, perhaps even contradictions of Cape Town.  The city is beautiful with mountains and ocean views in every direction.  The weather was perfect (except for the wind).  The people were hopeful about their young democracy (less than 14 years old).  The economy seems dynamic and entrepreneurial.  Yet, [...]

Cape Town Day 6

This is my first chance to report on our last day in Cape Town, having been in transit for the last 33 hours.
Day 6 for us was Sunday, now a continent away.  We went to worship at JL Zwane church in Guguletu township.  Guguletu is also in Cape Flats, right next to Philippi where iThemba [...]

Out of Africa

I’m writing from the floor of Dulles airport at 8:23 am Eastern, having left Cape Town at 7:00 am Eastern yesterday.  Let me say, for the record, that 19 hours on a single aircraft (Johannesburg to DC) is inhumane.
They just now called our flight.  I’m KC-bound.  Will post more later.

Penguins!

As promised …

How to make your electrical stuff work in South Africa

The is a dual South African outlet.  (Each outlet has a switch above it, which seems to be common here.)  Before leaving, I went online and bought a cable with a "universal" 2-pin connector on one end and a South African plug on the other.

The South African plug looks like something you’d use to [...]

Cape Town Day 5

Saturday was our one and only "down day" of the trip.  What a refreshing break!  Laura and I took the commuter train two stops south to Simon’s Town, home port of the South African Navy and the famous Boulder’s Beach penguin colony.  We saw the ships;  we didn’t see the penguins.  Maybe tomorrow?  (I did [...]

Cape Town Day 4

On Friday we drove along the coast of False Bay from our B&B in Fish Hoek to Philippi, a very large township in the Cape Flats area.  We saw a mixture of affordable, middle class starter homes close to the beach.  Further inland there is a sea of small, concrete block houses.  Our guide, Raymond, [...]

Cape Town Days 2 and 3

I didn’t post yesterday because I couldn’t keep my eyes open after we got back from a long day.  Turns out when you combine motion sickness medicine with a long day, short sleep, and delayed jet lag you have an overwhelming need to sleep!  To understand why I needed motion sickness medicine, read Laura’s post.  [...]

Cape Town Day 1 - Masiphumelele

Instead of blogging myself this evening I helped Laura prepare a pictorial post of our trip to Masiphumelele today.  Check it out.
No time tonight for me to add much except the following quick notes:
1. Although it’s a shantytown, Masiphumelele is 1st world in a number of ways.  Most/all of the homes and businesses have electricity [...]

Aerial photos of South Africa

 
Downtown Johannesburg.

False Bay just seconds before landing in Cape Town.

The buzz around social networking becoming more open

In my continuing series about interoperability and openness in social networking systems and sites, I direct your attention to
Robert Scoble - Can we get a first step in social networking portability?
Dave Winer - Bebo running Facebook apps
Aaron Linne - On the Data Portability Initiative
Joe Suh - Social Network Platform Wars

Into Africa

I write this from 33,000 feet above the central Atlantic Ocean, bound for Johannesburg and then on to Cape Town, South Africa.  While there we will be meeting a number of ministry leaders, visiting AIDS clinics and orphanages, learning about South African history and apartheid, visiting Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, taking pictures [...]

The BBQ tour continues

Does this look from the outside like a place where you’re likely to get great barbecue? 

Turns out the food is fantastic.  Oklahoma Joe’s in Kansas City is in a gas station/ convenience store.  (And yes, that’s Travis pretending to pump gas.)  

The staff person in the restaurant we asked to take this [...]

Nerds learning Arena

This morning was our Arena implementation kick-off meeting where we invited all Resurrection staff to a demo by Ben Lane, our designated Arena trainer.  After lunch we began training for the IT Department to get an in-depth understanding of how it’s all put together and how it works.

l to r: Leo Johns, Ian Beyer, [...]

Facebook cautionary tale

If you read Robert Scoble’s blog you know about his problems with Facebook today.  He ran a script on Plaxo to import his Facebook friends.  Facebook’s system detected the script and blocked his account on the basis that it violated the Facebook terms of service.  When he explained what happened they reinstated his account and [...]

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