Nina Simone singing “Here Comes the Sun.” Nina doesn’t need any explanation, she’s just incredible. Enjoy.
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My Other Haunts  |
This song by Midlake, which is an odd band that does odd songs that are somewhere between folk and 70s rock, reads like a prayer.
My first bit of liturgy, for this mornings #tworship. Yes, I know…. maybe I can bronze it? It’s a little thing, but it was fun to do.
At church this morning we heard a hymn I’d never heard, the lyrics were gorgeous though. I’ve been trying to track down a performance of the song but have so far failed miserably. So if you know of a copy of Signs of Endings All Around Us please let me know. — Also, still playing around with the website. So you may notice some changes. ALSO, the last line of the opening prayer was absolutely stolen from Paul Tillich. Somehow, I don’t even remember how now, I came across that sermon of Tillich’s that has been so instrumental to me. It never stops knocking me over, forcing me to contend with things new and old every time, forcing me to be challenged and be accepted at the same time. My understanding of Christianity is wrapped up in this sermon, perhaps better than any text I know…
At this point, this passage and other parts of Tillich’s sermon “You Are Accepted” have appeared many times on this blog. I cannot imagine that will change… I return and I am again left knowing that something in these words speaks to my very being. My particular axe to grind, in regards to technology/IT/and people using these technologies, has always been how often ‘technologists’ (the term fits well enough) seem to go out of their way to create hurdles for average people to use technology. Now, sure, some of this is simply a certain level of job-protection, and a great deal of this is that the technology is simply not user friendly for someone who is not a specialist but a lot of it remains poor decision making on the part of the technologist in regards to the people (besides him/her) that will actually be USING the technology. I do believe, firmly, that the role of anyone who helps deal with technology for an organization has to be an enabler for those around him and those who are ‘on the ground’ to use these technologies. This might mean making certain technological concessions, losing some of the control that technologists so love, or simply going with something ‘inferior’ because it is more user friendly. It’s not inferior if people will actually USE that technology as oppose to something more complex or powerful that is too intimidating or difficult for your non-specialist to make use of. If you have a website but its back-end (where someone makes posts, etc) is too arcane, the staff isn’t going to use it more than absolutely necessary, which in turn reduces the effectiveness of the website to do its job. What makes this all the more pertinent is that while ten years ago it was hardly ‘easy’ for someone to update a web-page; creating a web-page, sharing video, setting up a podcast… all of those things are very easy now. You can make it difficult: you can use proprietary formats, complicated software, you can decide to make all sorts of poor decisions that will make the life of you, the generator of content, and the user, the consumer of the content, much harder. Churches and non-profits are particularly guilty of this, usually because there is so much institutional inertia to keep doing something a particular way and there is neither the will or the skill to start doing things in new ways. Now, clearly we shouldn’t just jump on whatever bandwagon is available but there is a point when the way we have done things gets in the way of what we hope to accomplish. A visit to many a church or nonprofits website makes it clear that some things need to change. So what am I getting at? Well, I think the topic needs more airing out. This is something we need to be talking about and thinking about more. I think we have to be careful with the tech decisions our organizations make and the people whom we go to for advice. Some technologists are going to suggest the ‘best’ technical option without considering the ’soft’ issues of usability, sustainability for the organization, creating independence from a particular company, portability of data, or expensive specialists, etc. The role of the technologist has to be the enabler, the person who makes it easy for the people who do the work of the organization to do their work better and easier. All this comes to an article I just read on the subject, and a quote I feel sums it up quite well.
This was another life for me, when I was doing game development.. but the people at Bioware are pretty amazing, and Child’s Play is a charity I try to donate to no matter what every year. Kids need lots of things, but they need a chance to be kids too – especially when they’re sick! Every little bit helps – so play a free game on Facebook, or donate directly, but let’s help out some sick kids! As an added bonus, those who play can get $10 off Bioware’s new game “Dragon Age: Origins” (which is also pretty incredible!) So if Dragon Age is on your Christmas list, play the Yeti game, pick up the game with the coupon, then donate that $10 you saved to Child’s Play! If you’d like to donate to Child’s Play without dealing with any Yeti/Santa entanglements, you can do so by clicking on the pic below!  Donate to Child's Play
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