When you go to buy something on eBay, you look at the seller’s reputation, their “Feedback Profile.” It’s that magic number that says this person is okay to buy from. What is interesting to me is that a rating of 97% is great, but you may not buy from the person if you see two people saying the same bad thing about the seller, even if there are 300 people saying the opposite same good thing about the seller.

If you’re looking at ChMS products for your church, don’t throw Fellowship One out of consideration because of one post that I’ve written.  For my church, ACS is the right solution.  For your church, Fellowship might well be the direction you need to head.  Weigh the pros and cons of each heavily before making such a spendy decision.  I write posts, good and bad, about what I know and who I’ve interacted with.  To me, not sharing what I know would be burdensome, so I hang it out there.  The decisions are always yours to make.

Please hear me well that I am not bashing Fellowship Technologies.  My interactions with them otherwise have always been positive.  They seem to be a terrific company overall.  In fact, I’ve personally recommended them to a couple of churches who have ended up purchasing the product.

I am very encouraged by the quick response of Fellowship on yesterday’s post, and I wanted to share that with you here.

Curtis Harris wrote in this morning:

Matthew, I can’t apologize enough for the blog comment that apparently came from our company.  This is nothing we would ever condone and certainly not something I would want to be a part of; for so many of us, me included, this is a chance to use our God given skills for His purpose… it is our mission field.  I am very embarrased that this type of thing has happened and prior to this took some pride that we were above all that.  Sorry again.  Curtis Harris, Co-Founder and Director of Product Strategy.

Ah, just as I’m writing this post, I noticed that Jeff Hook, the CEO of Fellowship Technologies commented on the previous one.  It’s certainly worth a read.
Read the rest of this entry »

The boys at ACS have created this proof-of-concept digital signage app that show data being pulled directly from Facilities Scheduler and AccessACS for use in your church lobby (or wherever else you may desire).  Pretty interesting ideas.  Check it out yourself at http://www.churchlife.mobi/upcomingevents

I just found this interesting story on C|net today claiming that:

After years of exploring the matter, Microsoft has finally started offering an ad-funded version of Microsoft Works in some countries. Users who run the software see a small ad as they are writing their document or editing their spreadsheet.

This looks interesting, and I hope that it’s a successful pilot for Microsoft. What do you think about ad-supported software? I’m a big fan when it’s a good product. Spiceworks is my favorite in that category - that’s one piece of software that I consider priceless.

While I doubt that we’ll see (m)any of these designs in actual production, it is interesting to see the creative ideas that people come up with.

Pictured is the “Bloom,” entry #908 in Microsoft’s 2007-08 Next-Gen PC Design Showcase.

Head on over; check out some of the imaginitive designs; and vote for your favorite.

• Link: Next-Gen PC Design Home
• Link: 15 Offbeat Computer Designs