It’s obvious these days that technology is changing our world.  But just how much is it permeating our world?

• The other day I was speaking with a missionary who was in rural Africa where he walked into a mud hut that had no running water, no electricity & no indoor plumbing – yet there sat (3) mobile phones! (Yes, there was reception in the village!!)
• During the H1N1 (Swine Flu) scare a few years ago, Google Trends was able to predict where the next outbreaks were going to happen based on the different kinds of searches people were performing – it was as accurate as the findings by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) but instead of being published 2 weeks after the data was collected – Google Trends was updated nightly.
• Facebook has over 600 million people on it (70% are from outside the US; almost 283.5 million are over 35 yrs old _*_) where people are interacting on a daily basis with people they wouldn’t normally see face-to-face on a daily basis & some that they do see in person daily as well.

I continuously have people coming up to me saying they’re not “technology people” but then I see the smartphone in the pocket or purse, an iPad under the arm and get a Facebook friend request from them later in the day.  They tell me that they don’t “text” (i.e. send text/SMS messages via their mobile phone) but then talk about following their stock portfolios using a web service.

Digital technology is now a part of almost every culture on Earth. It is a commonality that weaves the world into a giant quilt – each culture represented by a patch – held together by technology. Now each culture has integrated technology differently but it’s there all the same.  Banking in Kenya is done through mobile phones but in the US it’s done through web applications & ATMs for example.  However, both cultures use technology to handle a majority of their banking needs.

The idea behind our ministry, eDOT, is that we see technology as a significant way to reach into these cultures and reach people where they are.  We explore how each culture is using technology and help local churches & European-based ministries develop strategies that use technology as a way to engage their culture to fulfill their overall God ordained mission.

Join us in helping followers of Christ throughout Europe, North Africa and into the Middle East use technology to creatively engage their cultures.

My family got together this last Christmas and gave me one gift – a Kindle. (well, two – they included a case for it as well)  Now some of you out there (like my high school English teacher) are saying, “Wait, I didn’t know Courtney could read!?!”  It’s true, I don’t normally read novels or classics like Shakespeare or Judy Blume however I do do a lot of research reading.  I’m constantly having to read this whitepaper about a technology or a book about discipleship and I’m an avid reader of a special book known as the Bible and because I’m on the go a lot, a Kindle is a great way for me to carry a lot of different books and articles without having a pile of papers or a hernia.

Now if you want to know why I wanted a Kindle over an iPad or reading this stuff on my phone or laptop, just ask but here I’m going to show you some of the tricks I found very useful in making the most out of using a Kindle or just because I like to be different.

The Key:  The “Manage Your Kindle” page on Amazon
Go to Amazon.com and login.  Then click on “Your Account” and scroll down to “Digital Content” and there you will see a link to “Manage Your Kindle”.  On this page you’ll see a lot of info about what you’ve ordered (so if you remove a book from your Kindle, you can always re-download it without paying because it stays listed on this page).  Let me draw your attention to a couple of places:

Under your Kindle, you see the name of your Kindle along with a space called “Kindle Email Address”.  Make note of that address – add it to your Address Book with the name “Kindle Uploads” or something you can easily remember.

Now this email address allows you to send PDFs (as an attachment) to your Kindle.  This makes it very easy to get that white-paper or eBook (in PDF) onto your Kindle to read later.  If your Kindle has 3G capabilities, be mindful that this feature can cost you money so if you want to make sure its free, change the email address to be “@FREE.kindle.com”.  While it won’t automatically download until you are on a WiFi network, you can save a few cents.  If you have a WiFi only Kindle then don’t worry which email address you send it to as it automatically processes it under the “free” way.

Now this only works if you are sending it from a registered email address.  So scroll down to “Your Kindle Approved Email List” and make sure you have every email account you might send stuff from.  Maybe you add your spouse’s email address so that they can easily send you stuff that they find and think you might want to read.

If you are worried about doing this and having charges because you forgot to send it to the free address, then scroll down to the “Your Personal Document Charge Limit” area.  Set this to zero.  It’s the “Just in case” way to be safe there especially if you’re never going to receive personal files through the 3G connection.

Making my own screensaver
Personally, I couldn’t handle having all those author screen savers.  I feel really stupid with those super minds being shown to me repeatedly.  Plus, I wanted to make my Kindle my own.  That’s why I used this hack that allows me to use my own pictures as screen savers.  While this hack has no warrantee and could void your warranty from Amazon, it seems to work flawlessly for me (I was even able to seamlessly do an Amazon update recently with no negative affects or problems).  Follow the instructions closely and know that there’s two parts – first a hack to be able to install hacks and then a hack to replace screen savers –> http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Screen_Saver_Hack_for_all_2.x_and_3.x_Kindles#How_to_Update_the_Screen_Saver_Hack

Web Articles to your Kindle
I read a lot of websites and sometimes there’s articles that I want to read later.  The Chrome plugin makes doing that real easy.  Basically, when you use Chrome as your browser and have this loaded, you can be on a website – click a button and it formats and send the file to your Kindle.  Real easy.  Its not a screen shot and clears out a lot of the “stuff” on the website but you’ll get the content which is what you wanted in the first place.  Check it out at LifeHacker –>  http://lifehacker.com/#!5736907/send-to-kindle-pushes-web-articles-from-chrome-to-your-kindle

Search the Amazon Store
I have a problem with impulse buying.  When I’m in a book store, I’m like – oh, I gotta get this and this and this.  Not good for the wallet or for my suitcases when I’m having to lug all that around.  Here’s some ways to help with that:

• Samples:  Many of the books in the Amazon store allow you to download a sample of the book and read it.  Sometimes its a chapter – sometimes its more.  I’ve been looking for a good book on Android development and I’ve looked at probably 8 or 9 book samples before purchasing just one.  But I know I got the right one.
• Free collections: If you go to the Kindle eBooks area of the website and look at the list on the left, you’ll see a link for “Free eBook Collections”.  Basically there’s two of them – one is the “Kindle Popular Classics” area which are books like Sherlock Holmes, Pride & Prejudice, etc where the copyright for them has expired so foundations have put them into electronic format for all to have.  The other collection is “Limited Time Promotional Offers”.  This is the area where you want to periodically check as there can be some real gems in there.  I’ve found leadership books by top leadership development people, language helper books, educational resources, the Bible, and many others things in there.  I’ve probably ordered most of my books from this area.  [WARNING:  This area also has a lot of smut books. - I really wish they would remove those but apparently they sell]
• Check out the Newspapers, Blogs and Magazines that you can get automatically sent to your Kindle whenever there’s an update or new edition.  They’re fairly cheap and it saves trees going this route.

Outside  Amazon Resources for Books
There’s a lot of books out there being formated for the Kindle by various foundations like Project Gutenberg. Many of the books are similar to the ones found in Amazon’s “Kindle Popular Classics” but not all of them.  Doing a Google search for “Kindle books free” will give you a lot of places to explore.

Other than read books, what can a Kindle do?
There are many things the Kindle can do:

• If the book is formated for it, you can have the Kindle read the book to you.  Great for car drives – just get a cassette adapter (if you car has a stereo that can play cassettes) and it makes for a great way to listen to a “book on tape” only from your Kindle.
• You can also load some MP3s on it and listen to music while you read.  You just load the files while the Kindle is connected via USB into the proper folder and then you’re good to go.
• Did you know it has a web browser?  While not the greatest (I much prefer my Android phone over the Kindle for web surfing), if you ain’t got something else, it works!
• Synchronize your reading across platforms – I’m assuming you know that there’s Kindle Reader apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry, etc.  You can have books loaded on multiple platforms and haven them synchronize where you are so that when you stop reading on your Kindle and then later pick up your cell phone and open up the book there – it opens to right where you left off on the Kindle.  Nice, huh?

Ok, I’m not a Kindle freak (well, maybe a little) and I’m not paid by Amazon for this post but several people were asking me a lot of questions about Kindles so I thought I would post this.  I’m also not advocating a Kindle over other eReaders out there as they’ve got a lot of plus over the Kindle (and some minuses) so to each his/her own.  I have a Kindle and it works really good for me.

Got other ideas for how to use the Kindle even more effectively?  Comment.

Smartphones are increasing throughout the world.  Here’s a cool video that shows a timeline of how many Androids got activated over the last two years on a pretty cool wire map.  Very fascinating.  To a geek like me, I see each of the spikes throughout this video as people who now have one more avenue to which we can connect and disciple them with the Gospel.

Be sure to check out starting at 2:04 when it shows the activations in Europe.  Wow, what potential.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love to watch the yearly Eurovision Song Contest since moving to Europe.  It’s not that there’s great quality music or something really moving about it – it’s just a lot of fun to see different takes of music all come into one place.  Last night was the finale and it was invaded.  In the 2nd out of 25 songs, a man jumped on stage and “tried” to be a part of the performance.  It was rather a lot of fun to watch and unlike sporting events, security didn’t just run onto the stage and taser him but did get him to leave the stage where he was quickly escorted out.  (here is a YouTube clip of it all and the invasion happens at about 1:08):

Now here’s the interesting thing that bring this back to what it is I do – do you know how fast this information got out to those that weren’t watching?  Within seconds, Tweets were going out and a few moments later we were able to watch it again on YouTube.com .  This morning I awoke to find out what happened to the invader (he was arrested) and what his real name was and that he does this all the time in mainly sporting events (bet he knows how to out run a taser now and avoiding a tackle).  Even his Wikipedia page was already updated with last night’s antics.

[Update:  Switched to another copy of the video as the other one died - plus here's a link to the whole show available until June 19th]

So I guess my question is that if something as benign as jumping on stage can make its way around the globe so quickly – why do more important messages about things like hope and love seem to take so much more effort? (or only seem to come to me in emails with some fluffy Powerpoint attached?)

Social Networking is the communication of now, not just the future.  All around the world, people are gathering in online communities sharing their lives with one another and yes, they are in real community there.  One of the major online communities is at the site Facebook.  If Facebook was a country, it would be in the top 10 of largest countries (top five if you just take total number of accounts).  Now I am one of those people who communicates regularly through Facebook with friends and family back in the US (yes, even my dad is on Facebook!) and with friends that I have in Germany and around Europe.  I share a lot about myself through Facebook as there’s so many I keep in contact with there that I don’t have a chance to see face-to-face or talk on the phone with.

As people get more and more comfortable in a community, they begin to open up more and more – revealing more and more of themselves.  This is great!  Totally awesome as I believe people need to be free to share all parts of themselves with people who truly care for them.  However, the Internet is full of eavesdroppers.  People who listen in on these vulnerable conversations and take that information and use it for their own personal gain.  The biggest culprits are those that prey on the younger generations and the older generations.  For that reason, I just want to bring up the idea that all of us online just need to take a few steps to ensure that we can enjoy our communication online without worrying about being victimized.

If you are on Facebook, take a few moments and read this article about 10 Privacy Settings of Facebook and put into practice some or all of the suggestions they have there.  I really want people to enjoy being online but to do so in a safe manner.  God bless.

We’re really excited to announce the release of our new eDOT website .  Being a technology ministry, our website gets scrutinzied a little bit more than most peoples’ sites so its nice have a refreshing look and interaction.  For being an information website, I really like our new place.  Our goal is that this will help us recruit more people into working with us both in full time capacities, short term capacities and even as volunteers.  Based on WordPress (just like this site), it includes a blog (which I’ll be one of the writers on) and other changing parts.

This is a bitter sweet project as it’s Laura’s (our web developer) first major project since getting out of German Language school.  And will be her last major eDOT project (at least for a while) as she’s about to have her first baby.  Check out the blog she did about what it took to make this website work.  Not only did she do a lot of custom code for it, but she originally used so many different WordPress plug-ins (add-ons of code that people make specifically to work with WordPress) that the system would crash.  We actually had to scale back how many plugins we were using but it still works wonderfully.

The really cool part of this project was that everything we used was free. WordPress is open-source and so are all the plugins (we did make some donations to some of the plugin writers just becase they saved us some much by already having the code).

So please check it out and feel free to pass the link along to any friends or family that may be interested in using their technical abilities for helping build up the church in Greater Europe.

This past week, I got to spend some awesome time with other people who understand what its like to be a computer geek in the missions world at the ICCM-Europe conference.  It was really nice to have conversations about geeky stuff without people looking really bored or like you were speaking in a different language (even though we had about 9 different native languages represented at the conference).  Even more special about it was that we could talk about IT stuff but in the context of missions where issues like “how much sand does it take to destroy a laptop” or “how do you get connectivity to a computer in the middle of no where on a very limited budget” are common discussions.  Honestly, its a relief to have been in a place we everyone speaks your language (and I don’t mean English).

I was actually one of the conference speakers where I got to speak about using Moodle to create communities of learners not just in the academic worlds but for all sorts of education such as Bible study groups, discipleship training, church leader training, etc.  But the highlight for me was probably the TFM (Technology for Missions) contest.  With the urging of a couple of co-workers who were with me, I explained in both a technical terms and in Kingdom impact terms how eDOT is using laptops with various peripherals configured in a particular way to teach basic computer skills in a way that draws people into the local churches.  This concept we call Mobile Outreach Centers (MOC).  This small network of laptops uses a wireless router, hard driving imaging, a slew of open source software, USB keyboards and mice to be able to teach people who’ve never seen a computer before how to type, use the mouse, basic word process skills, basic graphic design, and even how to use email and surf the web safely. All of this with equipment that is easy to maintain, fits into two boxes that can be carried in the back of a small car and doesn’t even need Internet access (we have a web server and email server running on one of the laptops).  In our teaching, we use Scripture where ever possible and encourage our teachers to give their testimonies.  To do the initial teaching, we usually use teams from North America however after they have left, the computers area available for the local churches to use as local outreaches in their churches or to their church plants that are just getting underway.  We would love to see these systems eventually be used year round and to have them all over the place (currently, they are in Ukraine only).

Sergey learning computers in the MOC

For me the confirmation of the Mobile Outreach Center was when we won first place in the Technology for Mission contest. We’re looking for more short term teams from North America to come and run the initial training on these systems.  Would you be interested in leading a team? Contact me.

Ok, my feed-to-email provider has gone “bye-bye” so now I’m turning to FeedBurner to handle that for me which also gives me better information about how many are subscribing to this blog.

So if you are subscribed to receive this blog in your email and wondering why you haven’t heard from me in a while, this is why.  So please go ahead and re-signup by using the form on the right side.  If you’d like to receive blogs in your email every time I update, just use the form or if you use an RSS aggregator, click on the RSS feed also on the right.

Talk to you more soon.

Just some things to think about in a global world.

• Moodle – a LMS (Learning Management System) that we use to develop and run courses in. We also use it for several internal discussion boards.
• WordPress – originally developed as a blogging system, it also is able to be used as a CMS (Content Management System). We use it for many of our websites that we develop for other groups.
• WordPressMU – a multi-user, multi-blog version of WordPress that we use for our eDOT Teams website where we create a location for each team that comes on a short term trip to train them and help with intra-team communication.
• VMWare Server – a Virtual Machine server that allows us to quickly put up testing and production areas without interferring with our other areas and not requiring us to go out and purchase more equipment.
• Deki Wiki – yes, they have a free version. You just have to really look through their site to find it. This is perhaps one of the easiest to use Wikis out there. It has a great user interface and some great ways of interacting with our other systems. We use this to maintain documentation about, well, everything from server configurations to how to load a piece of software to documenting the projects we are working on.
• OSTicket – This is a streamlined web-based helpdesk application where users can fill out an online form or send an email to a specific address and it automatically creates a ticket for us geeks to work on. This is helping to reduce those requests from coming into our email box and just sitting there as a reminder until its done.
• LimeSurvey – This is a web-based survey tool that allows us to create and process surveys online. We use it for acquiring the skill sets of our volunteers and for other situations where we need to do a broadcast survey.
• Web2Project – a web-based Project Management tool we use to manage our various projects. It has some great mods including a Project Importer that allows me to develop a project using my Concept Draw Project software (or Microsoft Project) to develop the project plan and then import it into the web system.
• CentOS, Ubuntu, etc. – We use several different versions of Linux for various reasons but Linux is a very stable, streamlined server level operating system so it is perfect when using older equipment or just need something that does precisely what it says without all the flashy stuff (like an easy to use interface – our setups are usually command line).
• Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, FireFox, etc – Most of our more recent web development has been using these technologies. Before my arrival, most of the volunteers were Microsoft guys and so they were using systems that required ASP, .NET, etc but we are moving away from those (to some extent) so that we are not relying on Microsoft server technology as it costs more than a Linux box.
• OpenOffice – This cross-platform Office replacement application is great for those who just use the basics within the MS Office suites. We use this in our stuff where people just need the basics but can’t afford to purchase the full MS Office suite. This is our way of making sure they don’t just go out and get a bootlegged copy of MS Office since we’re showing them a legal way of getting software that still does everything they need it to. It’s powerful enough that several members of our team use it instead of buying MS Office.
• TrueCrypt – this open source encrypting software is great for encrypting local drives but we especially use it to encrypt USB memory sticks.

We’re also evaluating:

• FrontlineSMS – a free (to non-profits only) SMS system that allows you to do broadcast SMS or to be able to have auto-replys when someone SMS a keyword to your phone number. Works with the Clickatell online system or you can connect it to certain cell phones or a GSM modem with a SIM card. We’re looking at this for several different projects.
• Kannel – an open source WAP Gateway/SMS software. Cell phones are becoming more and more the way people are communicating and access the Internet. We’re looking at different ways to use the technology and I suspect Kanal is going to play a part in this.
• PortableApps – this suite of different applications is great for our work on USB memory sticks. Using this suite, we can run little, local webservers so a person can just pop in a USB stick and work on “web” based applications. Now they’re not really working on the web but they can share the USB sticks easily with other people.

Well, that just a short list of the different open source/free software we use at eDOT. Maybe one day I’ll go through some of the free software I use on my Mac or that we use on our Windows based computer centers. Maybe I should make a list of the free services we use online like Skype, DimDim.com, etc. What lists would you like to have?