Of course I said yes and made it abundantly clear that to do it justice I would need an unrestricted version and that it would be totally unbiased without fear of favour. The only pre-deal I agreed to is that I’d let the company see this review first so that they could “respond to it as necessary” – you can see their response at the end in red.

So…

Who are Brightfilter?

They are a Bath (UK) based company that is fairly new (since 2004) to the world of filtering but appear to have made quite an impact already. They provide internet security solutions that “protect children online both at school and at home”.

From information found on their website they only “provide solutions” that meet standards or guidelines published by groups such as: CIPA; IIA; ISPA and IWF. They are also now a McAfee Premier partner.

What do they offer?

The easy answer is to say see the web but in short they offer:

• Family surfing protection and
• Educational surfing protection

Though these two broad sweep categories are far from the complete picture. The first is via a windows application and the second is typically via an appliance such as the McAfee Web Gateway unit.

Reviewing Brightfilter is a post from: Church Techy

Those of you that know me from reading here and from Twitter will also know that I’m not in this for the fame or even the fortune. But every blogger wants to know they are being heard.

No matter how small their audience.

We all crave feedback.

I’ve just completed the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog(ger) which is Darren Rowse’s (he of ProBlogger fame) ebook having picked it up to go through the OurChurch.com 31DBBB Project – and I want to publicly thank Paul of OC for his efforts in staging this project.

However, the final day (which was yesterday) co-incided with me thinking about my celebratory 2yr post for the blog and the last days project was all about planning.

What surprised me though was that rather than give me the kick up the backside to do it (and typically I’m an organised planning type of person anyway) for the betterment of this blog – actually turned out to be a much more melancholic thought process along the lines of “should I go on?“.

So I decided on a quick recap to see what have I brought to the world of blogging in the last 2yrs?

• I’ve brought my unique voice.
• I’ve brought a technical view that isn’t always seen in other blogs and this has hampered my blogging. It’s made the ‘niche’ I’m in a very narrow one and I’ve tried – except for the very occasional post to stay away from personal or political or spiritual thoughts. Perhaps that mix would have been better for you?
• Ive brought my willingness to share my knowledge and to continue learn from you.
• And I’m trusting that this allows you to learn as well.

However.

The reality is that in 2yrs most of my posts have averaged zero responses.

• And even when I deliberately try to court controversy (I Am a Criminal) I get very few replies.
• Amazingly, by far and away my most popular post in terms of SEO is my brief spiel about nlite for Windows 7.
• And my most popular for comments (3 Links to Starting on Twitter)was due to the 31DBBB project and this type of post I don’t typically do as I see it as information already easily available.

So for 2yrs I’ve been trying to work this out.

• Trying to understand what folks want?
• Trying to understand what will make folks respond.
• After all, my stats show that you visit here in your 100′s each day.
• The stats further show that I’m getting repeat visitors – which implies I’m saying something you want to read about.

In short – I don’t understand.

And so rather than plan specifically for this blog yesterday’s task leaves me with a weird taste in my mouth.

One that says “give it up Stuart“.

One that says “put it all on your personal blog then no-one will care how infrequent you post“.

So that’s where I’m at.

BUT – I’m extremely thankful for the last 2yrs and extremely blessed to have interacted with some of the folks I have (Lee of Security_FAQs or Greg of TheBetaVersion) and hopefully get to know them a bit.

I’m grateful for the crowd of us that co-write (cough) over at ChurchTechMatters. Even if we don’t write like we should we have formed a community.

I’m extremely blessed and thankful for all the folks on the 31DBBB project – some of whom have been kind enough to comment here or drop me an email or two. There’s over 60 of them but the ones that stand out right now are: Paul at Live Intentionally – Phillip at SynapticLight – Jennifer at JenniferJanes – Jon at BlogOneAnother – Kevin at Campfire Cowboy Ministries – Chris at The Prayer Experiment – Nolan at NolanBobbit – Seiji at The Ignition Point and L.L and Becky and JD and the Coffee Couple and so on.

The reality though is that at this point I just don’t know what’s next for this blog.

For now, I will say this: as and when a subject matter crops up that is right and relevant to the blog I will continue to add them whilst I make my mind up. My Internet Safety Sunday series will continue and my usage of Twitter and commenting on other blogs will also continue.

• Have you any thoughts to add?
• And I mean any at all on the direction of the blog, my writing style (or not), the subject matter, what you like, don’t like, etc?

Reflections is a post from: Church Techy

I had precisely two bits of “tech” with me as I was more than happy to shed the need to connect. In reality, I could have reduced the tech to one – my iphone as it has a GPS built in and thus makes my Garmin surplus. Well not yet it doesn’t – that is not until the battery life improves and the accuracy gets locked down.

But I digress.

In the nine days we were away as a family I seriously used my tech once – and that was the GPS when we did a day of geocaching around Saundersfoot and Caldey Island.

Other than the very rare phone call or text message I checked my emails once a day at the most.

We enjoyed, as a family, getting away from the TV, from the computers, the Nintendo DS, the xbox, the … well you get the picture.

It’s good to detach, de-stress and recharge (oh look, a tech play on words).

Whilst I don’t think we need to go as far as committing Seppukoo it is important that we identify the distinction between real life and online.

Equally it’s important we take time to detach ourselves from the addiction that online life can so easily become.

Don’t get me wrong – there is great value in our online personas and one hopes that the person I meet online is the same as the one I’d meet in real life.

There is great value to be had online and great stores of knowledge to be tapped but let me ask this:

For those of you, like me, who are over 40 – how much did you rely on technology as a child?

My fear is not that we over-utilise the tech or get caught up in it (though that is a genuine concern as a parent) but it’s what being online might be doing to our creative selves.

I refuse to let my two youngest (the same for the eldest but he’s an adult now) ‘play’ with or via tech all the time. I make them ((horrid dad that I am) go outside or build something with lego or play a game with cards or … again, you get the point.

I come across so many young children these days that are listless or agitated or hyper or angry or bored or … and whilst I don’t have any facts to back it up (do you?) I do have a very strong belief that most if not all of this is caused by being too connected.

Or as I’ve seen it said – hyper-connected.

Let me ask you this:

• Are we sometimes too hyper-connected?
• Do we not spend enough time away from technology?
• Have you ever passed up opportunities in real-life due to your online activities?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one so please dive in and comment – especially if you are a first time commenter or vehemently disagree with me.

Lessons In Restraint is a post from: Church Techy

Do I honestly want to know what you think or am I happy to live on in blissful ignorance? Being the person I am I’ve opted for the latter and am grateful to Paul at OurChurch.com for giving me the opportunity to be reviewed by my fellow bloggers on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge.

So onwards then.

To give some idea, I’d really appreciate feedback on the following items (one, many or all), but do feel free to throw any brickbats my way no matter how trivial they may seem to you.

So, layout and design first:

• General layout, font size, width of the text (I want it wider – do you agree?) or blog, readability, etc …
• Colour / graphic elements. Is it too blue? What about the header – I know I need a graphic / specific ChurchTechy logo but I’m grappling with lack of ideas – can you suggest something or better yet design me one?
• Sidebar elements. Is there too much, too little? If so, what should change?
• Would you prefer the “alternative layout” (see bottom of the post for an image and the bigfoot bit would become a CT image)?
• Advertising – I’ve been an avowed anti-adverts person partially because I don’t want to get into the battle of trying to understand them and integrating them but mostly because I’ve not taken the blog that seriously. But if I included adverts would you care? Would you click through if relevant?
• The “more tag” – until recently I’ve been a regular user of the more tag so as to keep the homepage down to size, but of recent have stopped that as most folks land directly on the post page anyway. But I really want to know if you click through when you see the “read more here” tags or not?
• Does the blog display well in your browser of choice? If not, what’s wrong / missing / broken?
• Is it easy enough to find other content?
• Have you noticed the Skribit tab on the right hand side? Would you ever use it? Or should I dump it?

And now some thoughts about the content:

• Are my posts too technical or too dumbed down?
• Do I come over as patronising?
• Am I covering the topics that interest you?
• If not, what’s missing?
• Do you like my use of graphics? I decided about 6 to 8 months ago to start using them in every post – should I do more, less?
• I know this is a technically aimed blog but of the posts you’ve read are they aimed right for you? Would you care if I included off-topic posts? Please also tell me if you are a technical or non-technical person?
• Are my posts too long? Or should I offset those by including shorter ones?

And a final area of thoughts comes under other:

• Does the site load quickly?
• Do you like the use of the IntenseDebate plugin?
• Would you like more options to register for commenting?
• What about my ‘About‘ and ‘Vision’ (EDIT: no longer present)pages – are they useful? Do you ever read these things? Are they missing anything or do they have too much/ little in them?
• If I didn’t have a tag line (mine’s “Where Tech meets Church”) would it matter?
• Anything, and I mean anything else?

Click for larger version

Thanks for taking the time to read this request for a review and I do hope you take the time to consider and answer as many of my queries as possible.

If you only have the time or patience to answer just one point then that too would be as useful as answering all the points. Finally, if you want to address any of the points in greater length then do feel free to use my contact me form.

Blog Review Time is a post from: Church Techy

Is it just something you do because you can?

Or is it because you feel called to the role or even because you were asked (probably by the pastor) to do it.

Or do you do it because you feel “called” to the role and this is your vision?

The reality is that it shouldn’t matter which caused you to be where you are – however I have found that with the few christian techs that I know in person it does make a difference.

The difference tends to come out in one of a few ways that I’ve spotted with the biggest being in our attitude towards security.

By it’s very nature the job we do day to day as techs tends to be one of secrecy with the security of the data we watch over either through backups; website maintenance; network maintenance; etc. Security should be the very watchword of our existence.

Because of this professional day to day nature I’ve seen the complete opposite attitude when out of our work role. We get careless or slipshod or believe that it doesn’t matter when dealing with our church role. Unfortunately I’ve even seen professionals be like this on a day to day basis. I work under tough security conditions daily – to just tell you what clearance I might have would be against the conditions of that security and so I do understand that a relaxation of our attitude can sometimes (inadvertently) go a step too fat the other way.

The point I’m coming too though, is that you are probably like me. When you leave work you want to forget about it, you want to kick back and chill and not worry about day to day restrictions. Does this chilling and kicking back then transfer into the work you do for the church?

I know I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past and have let things slide either in myself or in what I let the users I serve get away with.

But quite a few years ago I made a decision that even if it costs me personally I am going to stand up and be counted.

What about you?

Are you up for being counted?

Service or Security is a post from: Church Techy

I posted a comment that said I don’t have any real hard and fast rules but I decided I ought to clarify what my thinking is (and if it helps you, then great) and the few I have are these:

I’m likely to follow you if you tweet:

• about God or your faith (and not just my God/faith)
• about my job – IT, security, networks..
• my hobbies & passions – gadgets, rugby, cricket, IT, media, church tech..
• other stuff that interests me – self help, study habits..

I’ll also likely follow you if you appear to be someone that will interact with their followers and not sit aloof and only tweet, never reply and never thank when assisted.

On the other hand, I’ll probably not follow you or unfollow you if you tweet:

• about the same one thing all the time, e.g get 1000′s of followers here type
• >10 tweets at a time (why?)
• spam
• porn

And that’s about it.

I’m happy to have folks I follow that aren’t the ultra clean we christians would like or sometimes expect fellow brothers or sisters should follow. Why? Simply because we are called to be ‘in the world’ so I can’t do that if I don’t allow those who oppose my views. Secondly we are called to be ‘not of the world’ and I do that by not bitching, by not gossiping, by not using language I shouldn’t, by … well you get the picture.

What about you?

Do you have twitter friend standards?

Twitter Criteria is a post from: Church Techy

There is something called “Twitter Etiquette.” There are a number of articles that have outlined what not to do with Twitter, and I have read most of them. Consider this post as a summary of all those pointers.

Some of the points are downright obvious “don’t ignore others” – “don’t defame others” – well at least I think they are; whilst others I just totally disagree with “don’t neglect trending topics”. However the one thing that really got my goat about the article was its presentation of points as accepted facts without any explanation.

Take:

#10. Do not tweet way too less (People forget your existence) and
#42. Do not be reluctant to unfollow people who don’t tweet often

Why?

If your purpose in using Twitter is to learn stuff or follow links to blog posts, etc and not to actually promote yourself or your brand / business then what is wrong with only tweeting once in a blue moon? To my mind this makes the tweets all the more interesting – so long as they are.

#11. Do not only follow celebrities (They are boring)

Why not?

If this is your idea of relaxing then why not? Personally I don’t think I follow any huge names but the few ‘celebs’ (and I use that word guardedly) I do follow all, so far, have something worthwhile to say.

#17. Do not auto follow back everybody and
#18. Do not follow everybody you meet (Be selective)

Why on earth not?

What harm can really come in auto-following someone? Clicking on random links from DM’s is another story though. Or why shouldn’t you follow everyone you meet (not quite sure what is meant by ‘meet’ here)?

It’s your twitter account so do what you want with it.

OK, if you want to build a brand or a business or a huge following then that’s one thing, but if, as I suspect, like most of us on twitter we are just ordinary Joe’s and Jane’s then I don’t get these.

Let’s have a look at some more:

#30. Do not neglect trending topics

Tell me why?

More subjectively, let’s do this by looking at the trending topics right now:

#nowplayingPeople are tweeting their media choice of the moment.
#OhJustLikeMePeople are tweeting things that they’ve discovered they have in common.
#MJis
Liverpool
#imthekindofperson
#idoit2People are retweeting things they have in common.
Justin BieberThe young Canadian R&B/pop singer has a lot of fans who like to tweet about him! His second album, My World 2.0, comes out March 23.
My World 2@justinbieber’s new album comes out March 23 and his fans are excited.
#hcrHealth Care Reform. People are tweeting news about this issue in the U.S.
I’m okay

Not one of those things is even remotely making me want to click on them.

And when Michael Jackson died I didn’t need trending topics to tell me – I’ve got lots of celeb obsessed folks around me that couldn’t wait to let me know. That and even with only a few followers you’re still bound to hear stuff like this.

#34. Do not forget to archive your tweets (Back up! I use twapperkeeper)

Another why?

I can guess some reasons but I’m here to learn from you so tell me why you think I should back up my tweets – don’t command me and expect me to do it blindly -though I know some will.

#43. Do not forget to integrate your tweets with other social media platforms, such as Friendfeeds, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Surely this is only relevant if you’re attempting to build a brand or promote one? Personally I see and use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as three separate entities. I have some crossovers but on the whole different uses for different sites.

It also makes me less ‘samey’ and a more rounded individual because I’m not following the same folks across three platforms – what’s the point in that?

#48. Do not forget to install a mobile app to help you tweet while away from your computer
#50. Do not leave your iPhone charger at home when you are going out (It has happened to me three time when I tried to use TweetDeck with an exhausted iPhone battery.)

My answer to these two – get a life and stop worrying about the online aspect of it.

It will still be there when you do get battery power.

Dis-connect for a while.

Talk to those near you that you love or love you.

Sadly this brings to mind a tweet I’ve seen only this morning:

I love “couch time” with my beautiful wife on Sunday mornings! We’re talking about our up-coming anniversary!

No names, no pack drill and I’m not picking on them but the point is why are you tweeting this? If you love that person enough to talk with them then put down the phone / laptop / whatever.

What annoys you about articles like this and am I as guilty as some of the points I’ve raised?

Sunday Rant. Why or Why Not? is a post from: Church Techy

Pick Me!  Pick Me!  Little Ollie was certain that he really didn’t matter.  After all, he was the smallest of Too Smalls.  And like all the Too Smalls of Stiltsville, he desperately wanted a pair of stilts.  Surely that was what he needed to fit in, to be important.  So every evening at six, he pleaded to get picked.

Then for some reason no one quite knows, Ollie was given a pair of stilts.  But it wasn’t as wonderful as he had expected.  Birds used him for a perch.  Why didn’t he feel any better than he had before?

This is a delightful children’s book by Max Lucado and definitely one to read with your children not too them or for them to read alone – especially younger children.

There is lots that can be drawn out of the story about feelings that people have. Naturally, some Americanisms are included but these are easily explained. There are some wonderful illustrations by Maria Monescillo and again they provide lots to talk about and ensuing discussions from these. There are details that could be missed by younger eyes and that a parent could use to get them more involved in the story line and consequently the morality of the tale as a whole.

All in all the book is an encouraging message for children.

When you feel like you’re the smallest of smalls then Jesus’ love can make you feel like the tallest of talls.  A delightful rhyming story about the Too-Smalls who live in the Stiltsville and in particular Ollie, the smallest of Too Smalls.His desire to be involved, to be seen to be like the others ultimately ends up with him getting hurt until he meets Jesus who chose low over high telling him, “Keep your feet on the ground. You matter already.”

Tallest of Smalls – Book review is a post from: Church Techy