Website and IT Report 2010

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The church website (www.bpuc.org) attracts an average of 560 unique visitors per month, compared with 660 in 2010. The most viewed page is the home page followed by the Office Administrator job description (listed fourth for Office administrator job description in Google search), weddings, contact details and current events.

The implementation of the new "look" for the website has still not been completed by me. A key blocker was that there was no documentation about how the website was built. This now exists and it remains for some PHP and CSS to be written to transform the current pages into the desired look. Once this is complete there will be further revision of content and addition of new content particularly for visitors by the group led by John Hughes (Alex Sims, Tina Bussenschutt, Neryl McCallum, Karan Hudson and Derek Munneke).

All computers (Church office, Bari School and hall) continue to have their configuration documented to facilitate rebuilding should hardware fail or computers be stolen or damaged. This has greatly reduced the maintenance effort. All hall computers are now running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. A systematic approach to acceptance/rejection of donations has been taken along with consolidation of spares. Further Computers and monitors which were surplus to requirements were disposed appropriately with ZeroWaste SA. Another round of disposal is required for the older Pentium III machines that are now surplus. As at 29 January 2011 the spare computers take up about 1.4 cubic meters of space in the southern tank room, down from 1.9 at the same time last year.

Other activities completed in 2010 include:

  • Automation of backups for the church website
  • Upgrading of all hall computers to Pentium 4 standard
  • Change from Cable to 'naked' ADSL
  • Provision of new office computer

Plans for 2011 include:

  • Assist Bari School with selection of new computers for curriculum development using grant received.
  • Running Introduction to computers and the internet courses based on federal government Broadband for seniors (http://www.necseniors.net.au/) program to increase the confidence and skills of older members of the congregation in using computers and the internet.
  • Documentation of (existing) procedure for blocking inappropriate websites from public computers in the hall
  • Further reduction in the amount of unused equipment stored
  • Exploration of social media and mobile services to further BPUC's mission (in line with recommendations from the Communications Working Group)
  • Progress towards automated rather than manual backup of all computers
  • Development of electronic order of service

My biggest learning from 2010 was the huge returns from documenting a desktop computer's configuration, it might seem tedious at the time but saves lots of effort in maintaining computers for others to use. With Derek Munneke's help I have continued to assist with the church’s computing needs, including providing support for the office, ministers and the Bari Cultural School.

Alex Sims
IT Co-ordinator

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