Digital @ Leadership Network

Dealing with Spam in Outlook

Plastering your email address on your website, blog, and other places almost guarantees spam.  And once it starts flooding in, it seems to get exponentially worse.  I was tired of Outlook's Junk Email Filter not stepping up to the challenge.  Lots of junk got through, and I didn't want to sit there marking individual email addresses to block.  Very unscaleable...

I thought about switching completely to my Mac Mail client.  And I toyed around with Thunderbird.   Both email programs get trained on what you think is spam, through an algorithm called Bayesian Filtering made famous by Paul Graham.  (btw, Paul Graham writes some really good stuff for web geeks - today's for example)

Back to my problem with Outlook 07... a few months ago, I installed SpamBayes which also uses the same algorithm.  After a few weeks of training where I marked messages as Spam, the problem is significantly gone.  I'd guess 99% of spam doesn't make it to my Inbox.

SpamBayes is open-source (ie free).  If you're using another effective tool, let us know about it.  Here are some screenshots of what SpamBayes looks like in my Outlook 2007:

Update on 10/12/07: James and others insist in the comments that Gmail should completely replace Outlook :)

Eight Technologies That Could Change Your Church

In a recent article at Church Solutions Magazine, Lauren Hunter identifies eight different technologies that she thinks will revolutionize your church.  Here's her list... What do you think?

1) Customizable Church Management Software (ChMS)
One of the most interesting trends I’ve noticed this year is the trend toward customizable ChMS. More than your average desktop application or even Web application, innovative technology companies are building in ways for churches to edit and customize management tools to fit within the organization’s needs.

2) Secure Online Communities
Integrating a secure way for people to communicate with one another within your church Web site can be an extremely powerful tool in building relationships within your membership.

3) Online Ticketing, Registration and Giving
Outreach is perhaps the most important call of any church. This being said, Web-based services such as online ticketing for events, online reservations for classes and online payments for tithing and registration fees are critical to caring for the members of your church and reaching outside the church to draw others to Christ.

4) Volunteer Ministry Management
Volunteer Ministry Management applications allow the church to manage their volunteer teams and be able to let people sign up online to volunteer for ministries, teams and events. It also allows the members to enter their skills, talents, passions and other attributes into the system so they can match up with the right serving opportunities for them.

5) Integrated Communications
While most churches make use of e-mail to communicate with staff and members individually, other technologies can be utilized to increase communication and get the word out about events, prayer requests, special requests and more.

6) Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM is more than sharing the data about a member and allowing everyone to view and edit their parts of it; it's about creating processes and workflows inside the software. For example, with a good CRM, the church can set up a process for connecting new visitors and assimilating them into the church.

7) Child Security Software
In the past year, it’s become increasingly obvious that churches need to get on board with child security check-in/check-out software. In churches with more than 300 members, putting a system into place to electronically check children in and ensure that they are being picked up by the correct guardian is very important.

8) Benevolence Tracking
For many churches, benevolence has become a thing of the past because of rampant fraud and difficulty in managing the process. New Internet technologies have made it possible to create online shared tracking systems that can be used in local communities as well as nationally, to curb fraud and resume benevolent giving as a significant church ministry.

What do you think?  What technologies would you add (or subtract) from this list?

You can read Lauren's entire article here...

Todd