YWAM Information Technology - Ethics - Comments

Nervous

Donovan — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:33:48 +0100

I am no where near the paranoid type, but when people use Google for almost everything, it does make me wonder... you use google mail, you use their collaboration tools for sharing calendars and contacts, you store documents, etc. and now your medical records. I wouldn't had all of my personal data over to Microsoft and I don't see Google as any different. By the stuff I already use... Google reader, some mail, etc. they already have enough stuff on me as it is!

the complexity of trust

crashsystems — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:22:09 +0100

When you talk about trusting a company (as opposed to a person), things get rather complicated. In this case, I'd trust Google from a technological standpoint to hold onto such information, provided I used a good password and didn't have a secret question thats answer was my mom's maiden name. Their business model is such that it is in their vested interest to maintain my trust.

The one area where I would know better than to trust them with this data is if it was something that I didn't want to get into the hands of my national government. Any company holding your data is going to comply with a gov issued order to hand over info, but in this case my medical information could be obtained via other means (and I have no medical records I want to hide from the gov). Same thing goes with email. The vast majority of email that I send/receive with my Gmail account is the sort of thing that isn't harmful to ether myself or others. There is the occasional email though, especially when emailing certain people in other countries, where I know I couldn't trust Google. In these cases I encrypt these conversations, and I carefully guard that encryption key myself.

ekagetumit

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BBC report on campaigners hit by decryption law

Mike — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:12:18 +0000

As a follow-up to Neo's note the BBC report today on what is thought as the first application of this law.

There is an interesting report in the BBC News

A very interesting quote here...
"Once a request has been issued the authorities can then issue what is known as a Section 49 notice demanding that a person turn the data into an "intelligible" form or, under Section 51 hand over keys.
Although much of RIPA came into force many years ago, the part governing the handing over of keys only passed in to law on 1 October 2007. This is why the CPS is only now asking for access to files on the seized machines.
Alongside a S49 notice, the authorities can also issue a Section 54 notice that prevents a person revealing that they are subject to this part of RIPA. "

This implies they can both demand your keys and you cannot tell anyone you have done this!

TrueCrypt is also mentioned in this report and the possible "plausible deniability" offered therein.

The potential risk of application of similar law in an unfriendly state is rather scary...
(and it is just 'England' that has gone so far yet?)

Blessings
Mike

Is programming from the devil

willis — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 13:39:09 +0000

yep... uhm.. no,

okay, it's hard and as a functional application consultant I am convinced that it also needs a special gift to program!

Willis
Application Consultant / Information Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/willis

From Mercy Ministry to IT

alex.costa — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:44:00 +0000

Very interesting post. Thank you for sharing your heart with us. I just thought I would share from the the other side, from non-technical into technical. I joined YWAM in 95 to work with Mercy Ministries, I was working with deaf children and training, I had no computer skills at the time but suddenly I started to get involved with IT. Now I work with IT full time in YWAM from pc maintenance and networking to some web programming. I really saw God guiding me through my learning and I can see on my everyday the importance of IT in 21st century missions, we acctually have a lot of catching up to do as a mission. My heart is still in Mercy Ministries and I long to see better communication so YWAM can share the huge amount of experience it has in this area. I believe that what I'm doing is very relevant for missions today, my focus is not IT/Communications but on the empowering of others. When I see better processing of applications, information sharing, YWAM teachings freely available as podcasts, experiences from across the globe being shared instatly, interaction between ministries I'm reminded that what we (in IT) are doing is helping to impact lives.
Maybe because I come from a non-IT/Programming background I strougle less with this.

Walk don't hop

R.Blevins — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:55:57 +0000

Since I'm the one who you're quoting, I thought I'd weigh in on it as well ;-)

This is a long story, but I'll try and cut it short. A year-and-a-half ago, God told me to leave the Communications department here at Heidebeek (Holland). He wanted me to move out of my comfort zone and develop the worship leading side of me. So I moved into the Worship Department and the Staff Care and Development Department here at Heidebeek to develop some other giftings.

This whole last year, though while making some strides in the areas of worship and even teaching on worship, I have been frustrated in the area of IT and web development. I was struggling with knowing that I am called as a worship leader/teacher and thinking I had to lay down web development/programming/IT altogether.

Finally, a couple of months ago, I was asked to come and help Jeff Fountain with the YWAM Europe websites (ywam.eu, hfe.org) and God said, "Go for it!" It has been in the last couple of months that I realized He wants me to do both.

I'll share one of the words here that people had for me, which may help some of you as well.

Someone saw a picture of two legs, like standing on two different things and keeping balance. I had seen myself swinging back and forth between the two things, and a wise woman of God here commented that that's how you walk: swinging back and forth, first one leg and then the other. Otherwise you call it hopping and walking is much less tiring than hopping.

I'm still struggling, too with the two seemingly disparate sides of who God has made me to be.

Linux on a laptop

neo — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 04:08:12 +0000

OK, so I was sitting the last weekend the whole time at my desk and tried to install Linux on my laptop and compared the installation with installing Windows. They are working now both on my laptop pretty well, maybe I need to install some more software, but I am able to work woth both systems. Yes, they are installed parallel on my computer.

To be honest, I found it easier to install Linux, I installed Kubuntu, because the system was useable right away. Windows, it's W2k cause I can not afford a newer version, I needed to install the graphic card, sound, network, USB, etc. Basically a whole lot of work was needed to get a running system.
Installing Linux was much easier. I needed to choose and format the partion, the same knowledge is needed for Win installation, enter some names and passwords, like in Win, and thatÅ› basically it. The system came with a whole bunch of software, USB, sound, graphic, etc. was working. I had access to my network and the internet right away, no extra installation or setup needed.

Well, I know that W2k is comapred to a up-to-date Kubuntu version pretty old. However, I have no idea why people are still afraid of installing Linux. Things are working different, that's true, but it's something what everybody can learn. At least everybody who learned to install Win and programs for Win. It's not highly complicated or something like that.
By all means, I am not a Linux Guru, see my questions regarding Linux in other Blogs. I just learned at some piont how to install Windows, and I find it, with up-to-date versions, pretty easy to install Linux, too.
In fact, I'm writing this message right now with Linux and also listen to some nice mp3's.

I would also, like Chris, like to get Mac. I got some ideas for recording music, however, the sound card would cost as much as other people spend for a computer, so I am even far away from dreaming to be able to afford that. But with getting a OS for free, a whole lot of software, etc. it's way easier to save some money to hopefully make this dream (one day) come true.

Greetings from the MatriX,
neo

Good Point

bill.hutchison — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 06:17:15 +0000

Good point Kent. I'll keep that in mind with future polls.

Any suggestions out there for what people want us to do polls on? What information would help us in YWAM know what's happening in the world?

Cheers...

another question for the Poll

kent — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 08:50:16 +0000

It would have been good to have a "I don't know" answer on the poll. Not all of us in IT are involved with maintenance on a base.

My transition from 100% pirated to 100% genuine

Dan B — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 03:47:25 +0000

Hey guys,

A few months back I was in gathering down in Perth, Auz when a friend began to talk about integrity in software usage. I'll admit, I was a bit sceptical. But after hearing again from Schmale himself a few months later, I began to think (and then, finally, pray) about the idea of moving over to legit software.

I think all it really takes is a bit of determination (and maybe conviction). I also had the bad luck (just kidding) of someone keeping me accountable in this area... and I was challenged to make a decision one way or the other.

I started by listing all my pirated programs by name. Creative Suite CS2, Adobe Premiere, Macromedia stuff, MS Office, etc, etc... Then I figured out the retail costs, which totalled about $3000 USD. I told my wife I was willing to give it all up IF God could replace it it. She sorta stared at me in shock and said, "Really? You're only gonna do it if God meets YOUR conditions?" When I realized how dumb that idea was, I decided to get rid of it all and give it a go, and then see what would happen. I figured it was up to me to obey what I felt God was saying and then let him provide IF he wanted.

That was 6 months ago. I was broke then and had no cash for buying software.

Since then I have reformatted my hard drive and made a fresh start. I use absolutely NO pirated software, I've destroyed pirated disks that I bought in Bangkok, I bought an Academic version of MS Office on eBay for $99, I use a horribly outdated version of CorelDraw 9 (which I despise, but will use until I can afford Adobe), and have begun collected some really cool freeware and shareware programs that I absolutley love.

All in all, I am glad I did this. After all, if God isn't able to provide or chooses not to, then I sure as heck shouldn't be in this line of work that requires such software. But as He does provide, it only confirms to me His interest and owndership of the ministry that I do.

Cheers!
Dan B

-----------------------------------------------------------
"God doesn't call the qualified...
He qualifies the called"

Linux

tofirius — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:48:50 +0000

I completely agree with you regarding Linux having the same desktop power as Windows & Mac, & if you look back at my last post I said that you can totally do everything office-related on Linux. The problem you run into on Linux is when you go beyond office-related computing & start trying to get into audio & video editing. From personal experience, there just *is not* any viable solutions for those types of uses, unless you have tons of time & don't mind hacking your way through Cinelerra to edit a professional video or Ardour to record professional multi-track audio. In order to get these to work, again from personal experience, you have to pray that you'll find just the right device driver for your audio card or ieee-1394 firewire port & videocamera. I'm describing a bit of an extreme example, but not an uncommon one. There is hope with these programs for these uses, but just not yet.

There is *some* promise with Scribus as a professional desktop layout alternative to InDesign, PageMaker or QuarkXPress. However, again from experience, it is sorely lacking in a lot of areas. Yes, it is actually possible to produce a 4-color brochure ready to be printed at your nearest offset printshop, but it requires some work to get there.

Again, I completely agree with you about Mac being a far superior product for multimedia use. I wish I had one! ;-)

Again, from personal experience, Linux will still not give a 100% guarantee that usb & wireless adapters will work "out of the box". However, there is a small program available for Linux made specifically for wireless adapters called NDisWrapper. The entire purpose of this program is to allow you to run Windows-based drivers for your wireless adapters. This is due to the fact that some wireless adapter companies will not release their hardware specs to the public, so that open source folks could write Linux drivers. Usually this program is shipped already installed with any newer version of Linux.

For USB devices, I know at least MEPIS will recognize them at boot-up, but I've never experienced any plug-n-play operability. Also, you'll usually have to either manually mount them, or find the right program that was written to interact with that specific device.

I've found that, overall, MEPIS has a much higher amount of driver support for different devices than does Ubuntu. After working with both, MEPIS turned out to be easier to get a pc running than with Ubuntu. However, Ubuntu has much better support documentation available than does MEPIS. But I found that the guys on the MEPIS IRC channel (irc.freenode.net #mepis) were ready to help with issues. So, I think after you experiment with them, it'll come down to your preference which you like best. MEPIS uses the KDE desktop, whereas Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop.

I think we are saying the same things just from a slightly different perspective. In our office here in Latvia, most of the computers are running Linux. But I can tell you those have not gone without problems... but then again... neither have the Windows pc's either! ;-)

Cheers,
~Chris

Chris Bischoff
YWAM Latvia, Communications
www.ywamlatvia.com
www.chrisandlydia.net

Please get me right in this

neo — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 07:56:34 +0000

First of all, I know that we canÂ´t leavr God out of the middle, thatÂ´s why I wrote --"my" missionary-- instead of --my missionary--. Please recongnize the quotes.

My piont was another one. Also get me right here please. I am not against buying brand software. If you need it for your work, you need it. My question is, what do I really need for my work?? Do I need Word, Excel, etc because everybody is using it? If you are a designer you probably need Photoshop or InDesign. However, I donÂ´t need Word or InDesign to write a newsletter to my supporters. I would say that most people donÂ´t use the potencial of a free program. So why buying a more powerful Software, which basicaly has more feature I donÂ´t use?
Word and OpenOffice can do the same things. OpenOffice also creates PDF files, a big advantage compared to Word. I think that we need to re-think the WHY getting this or this piece of Software.

I guess that a lot of people expect that others expect them to have the same Software, also I discovered that a lot of people think that they can not do their work or comunicate with others if they donÂ´t have this or that program. What freedom it would be if we, as YWAM could communicate that we donÂ´t have to have all the brand Software, that Open Source can do the same and that itÂ´s not evil, like a bigger company tried to tell people that it is. I believe that we could set people free to buy the Software they really need, incl. having enough licences, if they use Open Source, Freeware, Shareware in those areas were they donÂ´t need the so called Industry Standard.
As I said earlier, I believe that a program like GIMP is able to do more than most people are needing a graphic program for. The same with OpenOffice, the Mozilla Foundation is coming up with a calendar solution calles "Sunbird" that looks pretty powerful to me, e-Sword, a powerful Bible program, etc.

Linux.
I donÂ´t know if Linux is underdeveloped. Video, Graphic and Audio editing is working very well on a Mac. In fact, for Audio editing a Mac is still the best way to go. Mac OSX is based on FreeBSD which is based on Unix, so is Linux. I would say the companies are afraid that they donÂ´t get enough money when porting their Software to Linux. I can understand it from a business piont of view. A noneconomical product sooner or later can bring the whole company down. ThatÂ´s not wise to do, however, I think Linux as OS has the same desktop power like Windows or Mac.

However, I have a laptop and will check ASAP (this year or next year, I donÂ´t know) one of those Linux options you linked to. Then I will see how easy it is to install and/or get the Hardware working. I wanted to do that anyway. However, I think video or sound card is not the big deal, more interesting might be a wireless adapter or USB devices. I actually donÂ´t know if or how Linux is supporting USB devices. Plug and Play or is it more like Plug and Pray? I will find out.

Greeting from the MatriX,
neo

Definately a Hot Subject!

bill.hutchison — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 04:11:57 +0000

This certainly seems to be generating a lot of comments.

To put in something about your question about discounts for software purchases David Couper put a post on this site that you might want to read about software discounts from Microsoft:

Microsoft Select

In addition, like you said, our base gets a lot of educational discounts on software from different corporations, plus we also get discounts from some hardware manufactures as well since we are an educational instute.

Personal Conviction

Maks — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 02:30:27 +0000

We all have to be careful in this...as it is a lot bigger than we imagine...God has been speaking to me about my music and films that I have that I don't own....I ended up buying and/or deleting all the songs which I didn't own the rights to listen to...I also ended up spending a lot of cash on purchasing registrations for a few very used (by me) programs.

In Brazil, there is so much piracy, it's often easy for YWAM to start following suit...we need to stand against the lies of the enemy...if we DON't have an official license to use Windows XP, then we DON'T use Windows XP...as simple as that.

On another note, as UofN training locations, we should all be entitled to Educational or Special User license agreements etc on software. I know that the Lausanne base buys many licenses at a discount...I believe the rest of the YWAM world should be entitled to this. It would certainly help us in Brazil.

Tim Edwards
YWAM Curitiba, Brazil.
EFL, Genesis, IT Admin.