Looking for graphics, audio or visual resources to spice up your next series?  This is my current list of sites that provide materials for ministry, some free and some may cost a bit.  Let me know of any sites that I have I missed in the comments.

We were on the road for a couple of weeks so I wanted to make sure we had our bases covered when it came to tech gear. Some of the churches we visited are savvy and have everything we could need, others not so much. This is what I ended up taking along:

Just started on a three week tour of Coptic churches throughout the Northeast, Canada and possibly California.  Our hope is to be able to learn how the various churches are using their gifts to do ministry and to share with them what we have learned from our churches and along the tour.  I’ll be traveling with my wife, a group from London and a few others from the various places in the US.  We are blogging at copticlearnshare.wordpress.com.  We are already off to a great start, please keep us in your prayers.

Lots of great stuff this week…

Clover - websites for growing churches and ministries - via the Digital Sanctuary.

Free email marketing for non-profits from VerticalResponse, up to 10k/month, via Idealware.

Signal vs. Noise - “You have to treat your employees like customers”

Spiceworks 3.0 released, details here.

Tony Morgan - 25 Web Apps That Make My Life Easier

If you missed it somehow, make sure to download Firefox 3.
Follow me on Twitter or catch my Google Reader Shared Items.

Our favorite card for video encoding is the ViewCast Osprey-100, we have been using it with Windows Media Encoder for years.  Recently, we began testing live streaming with Ustream.TV which uses Adobe’s Flash technology for streaming.  Their simple encoding client does not allow you to select which input on the Osprey-100 to use.  To get around this, fire up the free Windows Media Encoder  or the free Flash Media Encoder 2.5 and use it to select the input you want.  Once selected, Ustream’s app will see the same input.

With high speed Internet connections and relatively cheap webcams, multi user video conferencing is now a reality for almost any group or organization.  Several companies have hopped on to this bandwagon offering free or low cost software solutions that allow you to host online meetings or classes with ease.  We recently did a quick evaluation on  the following three options (thanks to #citrt for helping out with the initial eval):

  • MeBeam Video Chat - Simple, Flash based site that supports up to 16 users.  No software to install.
  • ooVoo - Up to 3 simultaneous users for free, 6 with the $10/month super option.  Capability to record conference in Flash.  Runs on Windows or Mac.
  • SightSpeed - Up to 4 users for $9.95/month on a personal account or $20/seat/month on a business account.  Video call recording supported on business account.

Our initial testing showed ooVoo with the best video quality and interface (no hard data, just our opinion), plus video recording and six users for $10/month it is a pretty sweet deal.  We put ooVoo into production a week ago and began using it for a clergy seminar.  Results came back overwhelmingly positive from all those who attended.  The only issue is that 6 simultaneous users may not be enough, so we’ll have to make the jump to MeBeam or just go one way (for the larger meetings) with Ustream.TV.

This summer my wife and I will be joining a group touring the Northeast, Canada and California visiting churches to learn about the gifts and talents God has given each of the churches and how they are used for His glory. We hope to take what we have learned and share them with the church as a whole. Please keep this tour in your prayers. More details on the tour blog:

Coptic Learn & Share

We are testing out live streaming our church with Ustream.TV. If it goes well, we will offer it along with the windows media stream for our main feed from the sanctuary.

David Bebawy, a techie deacon at St. George & St. Shenouda Coptic Orthodox Church in Jersey City, has started a new blog and already has a great write up on getting started with Google Checkout for Non-Profits. He also has details on Ctech (Coptic Technology) and Coptic Presentations. David also setup a Google Group for anyone interested in keeping up with Ctech.

Presentation from Ctech on May 27, 2008:

Michael Smith posted his notes from the May 2008 DC CITRT.

May08 DC-CITRT

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