International Conference on Computers and Mission - Australia 2010

12/10/2010 - 10:00am
14/10/2010 - 4:00pm
Etc/GMT+10

The MI ICT National Network Leadership Team is proud to announce the 2010 Australian International Conference on Computers and Missions (ICCM).

The conference will be held on October 12-14 in Melbourne, Australia at the Institute in Basic Life Principles, 111 Mangans Road Lilydale Vic 314. See location details below.

Download the Registration form.

The Early Bird Discount will end on Sunday September 5th 2010 (updated).

 

The theme of the conference will relate to learning technologies, and the keynote speaker will be Allan Carrington, a YWAMer, and associated with MAF-LT, and is currently Learning Designer and Apple Distinguished Educator, Online Education, Centre for Learning and Professional Development (CLPD),The University of Adelaide.

Allan's question to you is: What does it mean to disciple a nation .... can technology help?

I think most missions have training issues to deal with, either in discipling new believers, or in training workers. How can technology assist in this task?

As well as the keynote sessions on this topic we will have some other sessions on learning technologies, such as Moodle, PLUS our usual array of topics such as security, Windows 7, Networking issues etc.

Sessions confirmed so far:

There will also be other less formal sessions.
If you are interested, contact David Miller (davidmiller@globalrecordings.net)

Location & Transport

Please note that the venue is about an hour from Melbourne CBD and up to 2 hours from the airport. We will be organising a shuttle bus to and from the airport, cost to be advised (possibly $30-50 one way depending on number of passengers).

The Shuttle Bus will depart the airpot at 8:30am on the Tuesday and return to the airport by 6:30pm.



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The International Conference on Computing and Mission (ICCM) is an annual informal (NO ties allowed) gathering of women and men who have a common interest in computers and mission. We share a vision cooperation for effective use of technology bringing the Gospel to every nation.

		  	  Full Cost	Early Bird
Onsite registration        280.00 AUD    250.00 AUD

Spouse registration       265.00 AUD    235.00 AUD

Off site registration       175.00 AUD    145.00 AUD

Day registration              89.00 AUD      75.00 AUD

The Early Bird Discount will end on Sunday September 5th 2010.

Registration includes accommodation (except for off site and day) and meals. The conference will begin at 10am on the Tuesday and end at 4pm on the Thursday.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
1. Put it in your diary
2. Organise the funding
3. Book your flights
4. Volunteer to present a session on a missions IT topic that you are interested in.
5. Ask a mate.

Note: Allan plans to run an in-depth 2 day seminar on this topic on the Friday and Saturday in Melbourne. More information to be advised.

Looking forward to seeing you all there in October.

Making the most of your ministry spending

Paul Zarb – Microworx.

In this session we'll be discussing the various options ministries have to maximize their IT spend. Areas covered will include licensing options & volume discounts, industry standard solutions deployed by ministries, as well as trends in IT & how they can be deployed in ministry. The session will have an informal style. Feel free to bring questions & share your experience.

Paul Zarb is a director & one of the founders of Microworx P/L. Microworx is focused upon helping churches, missions & charities to use technology to reach people more effectively and efficiently. Paul has been instrumental in negotiating with a large number of software vendors for special pricing for charities, and then passes those discounts on to their clients. Paul has extensive experience in software licensing, and regularly advises clients on their cheapest and smartest options.

Paul has a ministry background and worked for 20 years as the director of Students For Christ, an outreach and discipling ministry on Australian universities. Paul is married to Lucy, and they have two teenage daughters, Rebecca and Sharon. He is an avid cyclist, and is currently training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in November, 2010.

Moodle

Christine Bird - CMS

Lessons learnt from a web site redevelopment

Alan George - CMS

Social Media

David Miller - GRN

An interactive session on how Social Media can be used by missions in promotion, prayer support, recruitment, member care etc. What tools can be used> What are the pitfalls? What precautions should our members take?

David joined Global Recordings Network Australia as IT Specialist in April 2008 after 11 years as the CEO for Crosscape Technology Ltd, a mission assisting missions with IT, mobilising IT workers and network mission IT workers. David has a background in Unix/Linux administration and has been consulting with missions since 1997.

At GRN he manages the Australian IT infrastructure, assists with the USA infrastructure,and is part of the international IT team. He has been part of an effort to develop an IS strategy for GRN, has developed an intranet for the organisation. He has been part of a small team managing the GRN Facebook page.

He has a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Information Systems. David is married to Katrina and they have one dog, Sally.

Virtualisation

Kent Keller - CCCI

I will talk about the advantages of Virtualisation in our environment which include:

Disaster Recovery

Hardware Abstraction (Ease of HW upgrades)

Creating a test environment

19 year Missionary IT guy with Campus Crusade for Christ

Kent has worked on the technology side of the mission for 19 years, including Internet Ministry, Email Servers, LAN, WAN, SAN. He was one of the primary people to grow a datacenter from 3 servers to over 250. In 2006, started a virtualisation project in the USA to virtualise a large part of the Campus Crusade for Christ’s datacenter. Arrived in Australia in 2007 and since has led the vitualisation all of the services at their Melbourne, Sydney and Toowoomba offices. Primary experience in virtualization with VMWare products though he has had some experience with Windows 7, XP mode and Virtual PC. He has had no experience with Xen but has heard great things about it. Total virtual machine in Melbourne running on their 3 physical hosts at this time: 15+

Appropriate Solar Powered Computer Technologies to Enhance Vernacular Language Development within Papua New Guinea

Brian Chapaitis, M.E.E., Cornell University, USA, -- Language Software Services, SIL PNG Branch (Ukarumpa, EHP, Papua New Guinea)

The advent of new technologies, both the netbook and upcoming "smartbook" phenomena have greatly reduced research implementation costs in the field of Linguistics, Literacy and Translation work within Papua New Guinea. In addition, recent advances in several new solar technologies, such as CIGS (multi-crystalline) and Triple-Junction Thin Film solar technologies, have greatly reduced implementation costs below the US$ 3 per watt level. Coupled with recent research, the conventional wisdom of new style lead-acid AGM batteries as the basis for superior energy storage (although adequate) will be challenged.

The paper outlines appropriate new applications of affordable hardware and software such that independent Papua New Guinea researchers can be self-empowered to take on aspects of the Language Development task, and further enhance the use of vernacular in various village level community development projects. These activities were formerly held in the exclusive domain of outside expatriate researchers in the past due to very high implementation costs. Not so today. Tools for education and vernacular curricula development will also be discussed.

This presentation seeks to outline a tremendous opportunity for SIL PNG, various Missionary Organizations, Australian Aid agencies, and various University partners, to greatly advance the work of vernacular-based literacy and education materials (including New Testament translations) in rural PNG communities. Using new technologies, Papua New Guinea researchers and educators can become involved in their own, sustainable, language-based development, thus furthering the goals of vernacular education reform in this country and contribute greatly to the world's understanding of PNG's unique diversity of languages.

Biographical Sketch:

The author graduated with an Masters in Electrical Engineering, at Cornell University, USA in 1977 and then worked for International Business Machines (IBM) for 5 years before launching out and working for a few engineering startup firms in the State of Vermont., USA. His specialty was embedded microprocessor design and their integrated applications. Microprocessors led to the first personal computers, and as the industry grew, he continued to study their application for solving real-life problems. Brian became an engineering consultant for various firms. By 1986, he joined the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), in association with the Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT) which has been very interested in the useful application of Linguistic, Literacy, Translation and Language Development software packages that would be useful for expatriate researchers to decode previously un-written minority languages. Brian resides now in Papua New Guinea. Next generation software presently under development, and the new advances in hardware have led him to research tools to enable Third-World citizens to enter the work, formerly reserved for expatriate missionaries. Together with his wife, Helen, who is a medical physician in Paediactrics, they continue to minister in the local Aiyura valley church where they live.  He has one son, David, who went on to University and now pursues a career in Industrial Design and professional audio recording, living in Seattle, Washington, USA.  SIL lives and works in over 90 countries around the world, with over 70 volunteer nationalities represented in its volunteer workforce.

 

 

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