Audience7
From MissionTechWiki
Contents |
Overview of audience
There is a huge need for similar ministries to be able to share certain data with their sister organizations, as well as being able to share metadata with the various missions research organizations. Sometimes this is as simple as sharing a list of languages that the Bible or the Jesus Film has been translated into. Other times missions would like to coordinate efforts on the field, so that they have a better infrastructure.
The Need
The sharing of information between mission organizations allows missions to work more strategically. Most of the information that comes from the Joshua Project comes from data that has been collected from many different missions. This data can then be used to compile maps depicting the progress (or regress) of the spread of the Gospel.
Shared information also helps missions know where to send missionaries. Some organizations prefer to send missionaries to locations where there has already been considerable missions influence. Other missions specialize in sending people where no Christian influence already exists. To do either of these, you need to know what other missions are doing.
Wycliffe Bible Translators came up with their Vision 2025, which is "To see a Bible translation program in progress in every language still needing one by the year 2025." As they started working towards this goal, they knew they could never achieve it alone, but it would take working together with other mission organizations. As a large organization, they realized that even they needed to leverage the strengths of the larger body of Christ and work together. They share knowledge, resources, and even people, as they work towards that shared goal.
With the desire to share knowledge comes the need for an IT infrastructure to allow that knowledge to be shared.
The Problem
One would think that Christians would be good at sharing knowledge, but we are not. A lot of it has to do with knowing what knowledge is appropriate, but a lot of it has to do with trust and security.
Security
There is a lot of different types of data that can be helpful to a mission.
- Language information - What languages are there and information about them
- People information - What people groups exist and information about them
- Geographical information - What geo-political regions exist and information about them.
- The above information combined - what people groups, speaking which language, and where they live.
- Who is working with the above people groups
- What materials exist for those people groups and how to access them
- What materials could exist and how to have them built.
Of these items, some of the data is relatively easy to obtain, maintain, and share. Information about the states within Mexico can be found most anywhere. But some information can be very costly to share. Names and addresses of missionaries living in dangerous locations could have very bad repercussions if they were released.
If sharing this information could get missionaries killed in various countries, then most of those mission organizations try to protect that information very carefully. So sharing that information with sister organizations is very hard for them to do.
Some Solutions
A few missions have built very close relationships with sister organizations to the point where they have IT policies that allow them to trust the other organization with the shared information. But this happens very irregularly.
Usually organizations can remove critical pieces of information from the data that is shared, so that the actual people are not put into jeopardy if the data gets out of hand. There is still a lot of care taken to guard against the theft of the data, but the security becomes less of an issue.
Other technological growth at this time
Infrastructure
Because we are focusing on security and the secure transfer of data to reach this audience, a lot of infrastructure must be built. Security requires a careful audit of the infrastructure, the data, all data exits, and all areas data comes into the organization. Not only does the technology need to be looked at carefully, but one also needs to look at less noticeable things as the use of sticky-notes.
A complex interaction of policies, policy enforcement, policy revision, and user training all works together to make something secure.
On top of all that, the mission organizations need to build a trust relationship with each other so that they are willing to share the information.
Data
For organization to share data with each other, they need to be using the same database keys. The Harvest Information System (HIS) is a cooperation between a number of organizations that are developing standardized coding conventions for this very purpose. One major problem is that most data management systems that mission organizations use do not natively incorporate these key-codes. Most organizations need to somehow shoehorn the keys into their existing systems, which is a LOT of work.