I was asked a while back to help out a church with their computer network. I tried to be clear that I'm not a good network administrator. I can do some things, but what takes me hours takes real professionals a few minutes. Asking me to be a network administrator is surely a sign of desperation on the church's part, seeing how I'm not a particularly religious person and I'm not a gifted geek. I'm a script kiddie at best.
So I started an audit of the church's computer network. You know you're in trouble when you hear:
- I think we have the Windows 98 source CD around here somewhere.
- Virus checker? What's that?
- You mean you need a license for each PC? We've never done that at home.
- Who will know if we don't have a real license for each PC?
My first experience at the church was in a small computer lab primarily used by their pre-school. Apparently, the concept of spyware is foreign to some. When adult images started popping up and they couldn't figure out why, they called me.
The problem is, like most growing churches, there isn't an IT budget. In fact, the funds used for technology is only done ad hoc when there is an emergency or the DSL bill arrives monthly. The collection of PCs at the church are donated or purchased second-hand. Most of them use the same Widows 98 installation. There is no content filter for the Web. School starts at the end of August–oh my.
What I've decided to do is take a computer inventory first. I found a great open source project just for this type of thing: phpMyInventory. This project will do exactly what I need for the church and other people than me can log on the inventory part of the Web site and help out.
After the computer inventory, I plan on only using Windows on PCs when I have a license. Since the IT budget hardly exists, I plan on using the desktop installation of Red Hat's Fedora. I recently installed it at home for proof of concept. It's amazingly usable and fast and free. Keep in mind that I haven't installed Linux for desktop use in years. Most of my Linux experience lately is all command line on my Web server. Those years away have given me respect for how far it has come. I'm way impressed. There is no reason non-profits should be spending money on Windows PCs when Fedora has everything anybody could want.
The last part of my plan is to help the church author a technology plan. The technology plan is important and neglected. Their cousin, the marketing plan, gets all of the attention. A good technology plan will have a timeline with specific technology goals. Done properly, an organization's accountant can read the technology plan and help the organization plan accordingly. Like anything else, technology costs money, even when it's donated.
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Unrest by Parkway Drive