OSCAR Oracle

How did the Party go?

2010-03-03T12:55:00.003Z

On Monday, we celebrated our 10th birthday with a virtual party in our mission-focused social network, OSCARactive.

We had people 'drop in' over a period of 24 hours from across five continents. We started with someone from Sri Lanka just after midnight and ended with someone from Australia just before midnight a day later. For most of the time we had between 10 and 15 people logged on, interacting and participating. There was a great buzz about being involved in something truly global in real time.

If you missed it but would like to join in, we're letting some elements of the party run on until the end of the month. Just visit www.oscaractive.net and click on the party tab.

OSCAR's 10th Birthday Virtual Party

2010-03-01T15:34:00.002Z

It seemed appropriate that an online service like OSCAR should celebrate it's milestones online ... so today we're having a virtual party! It's an interesting concept that we have tried once before.

I had a letter from a trust last week who said that they thought 'online' and 'community' was an oxymoron, but then gave us a grant for having an inspiring vision! I think it's possible to build community online, we just have to stop measuring online relationships with a 'real' relationship yardstick. Very interesting programme on BBC about Facebook last week ... concluding that social networking is perhaps the first step in what could be a new 'total' communication revolution. Makes a change from the usual negative stuff that gets put out about it being a waste of time etc. That's a bit like saying talking to people is a waste of time. No, let's be more positive about what's happening online ... we're living in a revolution that could have great impact for the Kingdom.

OSCAR Annual User Survey 2009

2009-11-03T12:21:00.003Z

If you're reading this, please take a couple of minutes to fill in our annual user survey. It will help us improve our services and better serve you in 2010. Thanks. Go to http://www.oscar.org.uk/oscaractive/survey.htm

Printer Cartridge Price Challenge

2009-02-10T12:54:00.001Z

I challenge anyone to find a better deal on compatible printer cartridges than this one!

OSCAR's New CMS

2009-01-19T22:34:00.002Z

After a long development time, we've launched our new website content management system. This means that mission orgs can now add their own vacancies to the OSCAR website. Things are just starting to pick up ... we had 24 vacancies submitted last Friday in the span of a few hours!

Finding the Cheapest Airfares

2008-05-07T11:39:00.003+01:00

Access to the Web has turned everyone into their own travel agent. So is that it for travel agencies? Is it just about having access to all the booking systems or is there still specialist knowledge that travel agents have that we need?

For anyone looking for the best flight deal, I've recommended a process that utilises both the power of the Web and the expertise of specialised travel agencies. Take a look and see if it will help you with your next flight booking.

Vacancies Section Revamp

2008-04-02T15:30:00.000+01:00

We are in the (long) process of revamping our vacancies section so that it is more user friendly (i.e. searchable) and easier for organisations to upload and update their vacancies. With over 120 vacancies currently listed, this is now the most popular sub-page of the OSCAR website with close to 1000 page views per month. Watch this space!

Mission Opportunities on OSCAR

2008-01-14T18:22:00.000Z

In the last week or so, we've written to just about every UK based mission and mission support organisation (around 500 in total) giving some news about OSCAR and detailing various extra services like advertising job vacancies in our mission opportunities section. We currently have around 100 opportunities listed in this section but it's likely to increase over the next few weeks.
If you're looking for your next mission opening or placement, short or long term, or you know someone who is ... this is a good place to start!

OSCAR and Social Networking

2007-11-05T09:44:00.000Z

OSCAR is branching out into Social Networking. We already have a presence on several Social Networking websites and we're looking at how this 'newish' media can be a tool for building God's Kingdom and, more specifically, supporting the Kingdom workers. Why not come and join us?

Right at the start, I'm keen to explore the implications of mission workers in 'sensitive' situations using social networking. If you have concerns in this area, feel free to comment through this blog or add your wisdom to the discussion in the OSCAR group on Facebook.

A few more photos from the second week of New Wine

2007-08-18T12:07:00.000+01:00

Second week at New Wine

2007-08-05T22:18:00.000+01:00

First night of the second week at New Wine. The exhibition (called the Marketplace) has been really busy this evening, so if that's a measure of the week to come we'll have a busy week. Perhaps people came in to cool off from the hot day or maybe it was the call to 'do something risky for God' in the main meeting that brought the punters in. Lots of interest in the jobs board.

A few photos of our mission resource stand

2007-08-02T22:56:00.001+01:00

First week at New Wine

2007-08-02T22:31:00.000+01:00

We're approaching the end of our first week of running the mission resource area at New Wine conference. We have a 'jobs board' with 60 or so individual mission opportunities posted on it (from a variety of mission organisations), two literature stands with 24 different resource sheets and a couple of laptops with Internet access.

It's been a good week - out of the 12,000 or so delegates on site we've seen lots of people with a whole range of questions about mission and several obvious 'divine appointments'. One example from today ... a young lady came up and said 'You probably haven't got anything suitable for me - I'm a Mental Health Therapist and have a calling to work in Cambodia'. My co-worker looked through the vacancies on the OSCAR website and saw a job looking for a 'Mental Health Therapist for Cambodia!'. The organisation in question have an exhibition stand just 10 metres from us, so the young lady went and had a long chat with their representative. I talked with the rep earlier this evening and he said that he'd been praying during the last week for such a person and was just amazed when she showed up. It looks like she'll be an excellent candidate for the position. Praise God!

Personally, I love this stuff and, with all the online activity that I do throughout the year, really enjoy these weeks of helping people 'face-to-face'. It's hard work but very rewarding.

Mains water returns to Gloucester

2007-08-02T21:14:00.000+01:00

Just to update you ... I hear from my wife that mains water returned to Gloucester yesterday, though it's contaminated and will remain so for a few weeks (so they say). Which means that we can't use it for drinking during that time. Things can only get better ...

Fourth night without fresh water

2007-07-26T08:11:00.001+01:00

We're now into the fourth night/day without mains water supply. We've survived so far on reserves but drinking water is getting low ... It'll be a visit to one of the bowsers or water bottle distribution points tomorrow. The rain that's forecast should replenish the water butts.

Getting ready to leave for New Wine in Shepton Mallet at the end of the week. I never thought I'd see it in this light before ... having water on tap makes it positively appealing (even if it is a communial tap!).

Flooding in Gloucester

2007-07-23T12:16:00.000+01:00

Gloucester, where OSCAR is based and where we live, is experiencing floods .... as you may have heard.

On Friday afternoon it took me 2 hours to get from the OSCAR office (at Redcliffe College in Gloucester) to my house less than 3 miles away. The terrential rain flooded all the bridges under the railway (between Gloucester centre and the east side of the city, where we live). The bypass on the A40 at the Cheltenham Road roundabout became a river and many folk abandonned their cars, I turned around and passed by the college nearly an hour after leaving to try a different route. I got home by crawling through the gridlocked streets to, what seemed to be, the only way out of the city on the east side - the Metz Way flyover.

On Saturday I travelled up to Newark to set up the Mission Resource Stand at New Wine North. The M5 was closed for some of the way northbound, so I resorted to A roads. It took me 4 hours to get there, due to the flooding on the A46 between Tewkesbury and Evesham. The journey back at midnight was clear all the way down the M42 and M5.

Yesterday (Sunday), due to the water treatment plant in Tewkesbury being flooded, our fresh water supply in Gloucester ran out - so we're trying to make what we have last as long as possible. Years of experience living in Africa suddenly come in handy once again! It's still raining on and off, so we're using rainwater reserves for as much as possible.

In the last two hours the River Severn has burst its banks in Gloucester and low lying areas of the city are starting to flood. We're on slightly higher ground so we should be OK, but the electricity supply is being threatened as several sub-stations are very close to being flooded out.

Just in case you are wondering, the OSCAR website shouldn't be affected at all! That's hosted on a server in London.

A Busy Week Ahead

2007-06-02T08:20:00.001+01:00

It's the last week of term at Redcliffe so I'm gearing myself up for the farewells!
Plus I have several meetings and a course to attend.
I'm leading the music group for the graduation service next Saturday, so we'll need to practice too.
... Oh, and not forgetting the staff vs student volleyball match & barbeque.
I feel tired just thinking about it all!

Rent a Holy Wreck - no more

2007-04-28T00:01:00.001+01:00

I discovered this week that Ichthus Motor Mission are closing down! Oh no, what will the mission community do? We enjoyed a long furlough with an Ichthus car that was great - a 'well loved' (by all its previous omners, no doubt) and very reliable car - started every time without hesitation. And there's always at least one Ichthus car in the car park at Redcliffe at any one time.

Anyway, I made the announcement at Redcliffe on Wednesday and one worried looking student came up to me and said 'I've got an Ichthus car, what should I do?' Which brings me to the interesting point of this long and rambling tale ... Ichthus's website says that they plan to give away all of their cars to missionaries or their 'sponsoring organisations'! So I told this student and she got in touch with Ichthus. Turns out that there's a good chance she'll get to keep the car.

Anyone else need a motor?

Technical Support Examples

2007-04-25T09:30:00.000+01:00

True Stories from Technical Support (honest!)

Tech support: What kind of computer do you have?
Customer: A white one...

Tech support: Click on the 'my computer' icon on to the left of the screen.
Customer: Your left or my left?

Customer: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can't print. Every time I try, it says 'Can't find printer'. I've even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says he can't find it...

Customer: My keyboard is not working anymore.
Tech support: Are you sure it's plugged into the computer?
Customer: No. I can't get behind the computer.
Tech support: Pick up your keyboard and walk 10 paces back.
Customer: OK
Tech support: Did the keyboard come with you?
Customer: Yes
Tech support: That means the keyboard is not plugged in. Is there another keyboard?
Customer: Yes, there's another one here. Ah...that one does work...

Tech support: How may I help you?
Customer: I'm writing my first e-mail.
Tech support: OK, and what seems to be the problem?
Customer: Well, I have the letter 'a' in the address, but how do I get the circle around it?

A woman customer called the Canon help desk with a problem with her printer.
Tech support: Are you running it under windows?
Customer: No, my desk is next to the door, but that is a good point. The man sitting in the cubicle next to me is under a window, and his printer is working fine.

Thanks to www.grovebooks.co.uk for these gems.

Prevailing Whinge

2007-04-20T11:15:00.000+01:00

OSCAR had a visit yesterday from someone trying to set up a UK side of a small African based mission. This is initially for recruitment of volunteers and mobilisation but eventually for some fundraising too. The trouble is that they had been met with alot of negativity and opposition and were struggling to get established ... until they discovered OSCAR, of course!

Now you might have reservations about 'yet another mission' starting up, but I think we're sometimes too quick to judge and too selfishly protective of our position and status in our little world. In fact, it reminded me of OSCAR's early days. I had people who were quite vocal about their negative opinions, all stemming from the fact that they either didn't think it was going to happen or, if it did, it might encroach on their territory. When you're small and relatively insignificant, some others seek to use their standing to see that you serve their purposes and fail to see the situation through God's eyes.

I took the time to listen to her and think that their work is very good ... I also think that it would be very appealing to many young gappers and potential short-termers - so who are we to stand in their way? More than that, I often feel challenged to help in any way I can and allow God to work through me rather than have me as a barrier to His purposes. OSCAR has had it's day of reckoning with those early sceptics but I feel a responsibility to help others who are where I was.

It's always good to hear how people have found OSCAR an encouragement ... just a shame that a negative attitude still often prevails in our part of the Christian community.

FREE Broadband from Google

2007-04-02T17:31:00.000+01:00

Check out this new offer from Google, launched yesterday! www.google.com/tisp

Amazing Grace

2007-03-21T23:36:00.001Z

Went to see a pre-release showing of the 'Amazing Grace' tonight. Excellent. Some of it was filmed in Gloucester docks next to the cinema, so it was a special showing for the city 'big wigs' (and a few peasants too!). Go see it if you get the chance.

Get Out More

2007-03-16T14:33:00.000Z

This last week we've added a few more bloggers to OSCAR's blogging section. That's 18 so far. Almost every category has at least someone in it. The real challenge is to increase this further so that it has a good spectrum of those involved in mission. If you are, or know of, anyone involved in any aspect of world mission and have a blog ... why not include it in this section? Maybe there are others you could persuade to start a blog as being featured on OSCAR means that it will be read (maybe?) ... or at least noticed! Go on ... get out more (virtually, anyway).

Networking

2007-03-07T22:14:00.000Z

A large part of my work is about networking. Today was Home Church Leaders Day at Redcliffe College and about 30 pastors of students visited for the day. I took a session with them this afternoon on 'Serving as Senders' to help them enthuse and resource their churches into mission involvement. I hope it was helpful, but I must say it was a delight to meet them all. If you think that mission isn't on the agenda of most of our churches in the UK, you only need to meet a group of folks like this and you realise that it's very much alive and well in certain places. I was particularly impressed by one church who were getting involved with supporting a student even though they had no prior involvement with them before the mission organisation linked them up. Such commitment to mission and partnership is great to see.
Tomorrow I'm attending a meeting of the mission representatives in the South West region of the UK. Another chance for networking with a different mission group. Interestingly, they're discussing how to enthuse churches about mission. Maybe these two groups should meet sometime??

Have you got a minute?

2007-02-28T22:19:00.000Z

For me, the last day of the month is always long. It's the day I change the front page features on the OSCAR website and send out the monthly OSCAR Update email. It sounds simple but there's a whole process to go through to get to that point. Quite a bit of the work of collating new information, events, feature topics etc., is done on a continual cycle but there's still a fair amount that can only be done on the last day. It starts with pulling together the topics that I've already earmarked to feature. If there's a section of OSCAR that is featured, that usually involves a makeover of that section as well. The guest article that, usually, has arrived a few days before is imported into the site. Then menus, indexes and the sitemap need to be updated and link together properly. Dreamweaver, the software that manages the site, helps quite a bit! I also go through a number of mission course and event related websites to update the events list, though that has to be ongoing. Then I cut & paste the features, events, messages and the previous month's submitted job opportunities into the draft OSCAR Update email. When all the tweaking is done and everything works and links together, I get my wife to proof read it and tell me what she thinks (risky, I know)! Then after discarding most of it and starting again, the process is revisited (I'm kidding ... it's only usually on a few minor things!). When it's all ready to go, I upload the updated pages either late on the last day (like today) or early on the first day of the month. This is swiftly followed by emailing the OSCAR Update to around 750 subscribers. Finally I check it over again whilst it's online ... then relax!

Today I had the added bonus of uploading and introducing a brand new section (on 'blogs') which meant a bit more than usual ... though most of that work has been done prior to today. All in all it took around 12 hours. This may seem like a long time but if you divide that by the number of subscribers (750) its only around a minute each! Significantly less if you divide it by the 14000 visitors a month to the site. When I think of it in terms of people ... every minute is worthwhile.

Stay Connected Offline

2007-02-23T16:01:00.000Z

It's only when my Internet connection goes down that I realise how much I do that requires it. Of course, I have various contingency
plans for when it does go down (dial up etc) but I'm still amazed that even a slight drop in the convenience of a connection causes
problems to my work patterns. Such is the nature of running an online service.

As a pilot, even with satellite and radio navigation, you still learn and practice the basics of pilotage and dead reckoning (two
navigation principles) just in case you need them. I guess it's good to do the same for the Internet ... stay in touch with your
offline options. For me, it means things like 'pick up the phone' and 'learning to write again'! How quickly we adapt ...

OSCAR Enters the Blogosphere

2007-02-22T21:23:00.000Z

Well, after spending several months planning a new blogging section for the OSCAR website ... I'm taking the plunge and starting my own blog. It's quite a relief just to be able to write and not think about formatting and re-wording ready for publishing on a carefully crafted website (I'd like to think so, anyway!). Here I can just ... well ... blog.

I'm excited about using a new form of communication. Email changed my whole experience of mission whilst I was 'on the field' ... and the access to the Web that followed brought the world to my laptop in what seemed like a very remote corner of the world. Now I'm looking forward to a bit more 'real time' interaction with others around the world and blogging is one step, even leap, in this direction.

See you around ...