There are some things you should know about our ICTA team, and about this blog. Someday we’ll take time to describe these in more detail, but right now we’d like to just list them as some of our initial assumptions:

• This is a safe place to grow together. Mistakes are forgiven, people change and develop their perspectives. Comments (and most blog posts) are not indexed for posterity in Google or Archive.org. That’s why you have to log in to comment, and RSS feeds are private.
• We have significant commercial high tech experience. The methods, tools, process of business today are familiar and “easy” for us. We do our best to avoid diving into complicated jargon. At the same time, sometimes a bit of vocabulary is important for a given topic.
• We appreciate and value a Bible-based spiritual perspective.
• We appreciate and value good science, good use of math, engineering, planning and more. (We believe our minds and skills are gifts of God.) Sometimes you might even see a bit of math here. 2 + 2 = 4 anyone?
• We pray. Not asking a God made in our image to fulfill our desires, but talking with and listening to the God who loves us and loves to hear our hearts.
• We hope you, like we, are not out to offend but find a path together. This is not about unity at the expense of truth. But since we’re all seekers, we probably have more in common than we think, as we journey together toward God who loves us all.
• In other venues, we might write “G-d” instead of “God” out of respect for the Jewish tradition of never writing or speaking the holy name of God. However, as this is our venue, we hope you will not be offended that we do speak God’s name. In fact, a uniqueness of Jesus is that he introduces us to God as intimate Father who loves us more than we can imagine.

What do you think? Does anything else need to be said up front?

“OK, sure” I thought… he’s grateful because we were able to obtain the software for him at no charge. So I said, “that’s a pretty strong statement. What is so great about this? You’ve been doing online messaging around the world for a very long time.”

“It’s simple…and amazing,” came the reply. “With Groove, for the first time I know when the message gets to the other guy’s computer, and I know when they open it. I know who I am actually working with, rather than just sending messages out and not knowing what happens!”

Wow. Could the tiniest feature in Groove really make that big a difference?

Yes. And it’s not just found in Groove (a specialized collaboration software tool.)

What is this element? It’s something we recognized as a Spirit-Led Technology principle several years ago when we compared postal mail, email, audio teleconference, and video conference discussion products…

The question we asked was: how well can people interact using these various tools?

Interaction Technology Choices

Postal mail is the worst: when you send a letter, there’s no way to know if they open it, or even receive it, unless you talk about it later.

E-mail is almost as bad: while there are protocols that trigger a response for delivery or reading, the protocols don’t work very well and are often blocked. So again you don’t know what’s happening at the other end after you send an email.

Dedicated Tools like Groove are an improvement over normal email. Communication is secure, stamped with the date/time, and the sender always finds out when a message is delivered and opened. That’s what got our friend so excited.

Audio teleconferences are much better. If your partner walks away, you will know pretty quickly. Even better, you can hear emotion in their voice. Better still, you can sit quietly together in a phone call. That’ll never happen in email.

Video connections (webcam, etc) are better still. If someone at the other end steps away for a cup of coffee, or is just not paying attention… you can see it.

Of course, none of these are as good as sitting down together in the same room and taking time for an unhurried conversation. But hey, some of the above tools are pretty helpful, especially if the one you want to talk with is halfway across the country… or the world.

This is a good time to mention the new kid in town, a new technology for group connections. We at ICTA have been evaluating commercial Email Sending Providers (ESP’s) and have found some unique value to their offerings. Enough that we are putting scarce funds into using MailChimp to send our newsletters from now on. There are plenty of competitors; perhaps the most well known are Constant Contact and iContact.

To us, the most important element of the new tools is embodied by an optional MailChimp feature: their Advanced (AIM) Reports. Taking a page from spammers but putting the tools to wonderful use, these reports tell us exactly who receives our emails, when they opening the message, and whether they click on any of the links.

Simply put, now we can use email and know who is really a partner — who is receiving, reading and responding to our messages.

It’s easier and cheaper than producing a paper mail campaign, and more convenient than connecting on a worldwide teleconference.

If you are interested in receiving our newsletters, sign up in the box on this page.

Non-Tech Details

What’s it cost? Pennies per message. If your list is smaller than 100, it’s free. Smaller than 500, it’s only US$10 a month and US$8.50 with the 15% non-profit discount, for unlimited messages.

Is it easy? It will take a bit of time to learn the tools they provide for crafting an informative and beautiful message. They do the hard part though: making your message look right in every email software and web browser.

Tech Notes

How do they do it? If you understand web marketing, it is the same idea applied to email. Every email is set up uniquely, and the pictures in the email are connected back to the service provider’s computers. So any time you open the email, they know. But this time, it’s not about spam or selling you something, it’s a no-hassle way to tell me, your friend, that you were interested enough to open the email I sent you!

MailChimp’s advanced report service is better than most because it provides complete details. I can see what happens for each person in my group, not just statistics on the group as a whole.

I don’t know if they did it because they wanted to replicate God’s design for good relationship… but we praise God for giving such inspiration all the same.

[edited 12/23 to include Groove in the analysis list]