Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
By WhambiEnock 2009/AUG/BIT/1497/DAY
A Project Proposal Submitted to the Department of Computing and Information Technology in Partial Fulfillment for the Award of a Bachelors of Information Technology of NkumbaUniversity
August, 2013
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 3 Background ...................................................................................................................... 3 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 4 Objectives of the Study .................................................................................................... 5 General Objective ..................................................................................................... 5 Specific Objectives ................................................................................................... 5
Scope of the study ............................................................................................................ 5 Justification ...................................................................................................................... 6 Literature Review...................................................................................................... 7 Website ..................................................................................................................... 7 Webpage ................................................................................................................... 7 The Internet ............................................................................................................... 7 The World Wide Web ............................................................................................... 7 Static Websites .......................................................................................................... 8 Dynamic Websites .................................................................................................... 8 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 2 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3 2.1.4 2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6
Conducted Research ......................................................................................................... 8 Role of church Websites .................................................................................................. 8 How People use Religious Websites ................................................................................ 9 Religious Websites Practices ......................................................................................... 10 The I-church ............................................................................................................ 10 Church of Fools....................................................................................................... 10 Cathedral of Second Life ........................................................................................ 11 Church online .......................................................................................................... 11
Linking Offline and Online Religion ............................................................................. 12 Uses of Church Websites ............................................................................................... 12 Key success factors for a Church website ...................................................................... 14 Church websites need to be interactive ................................................................... 14 Church Websites need to be Welcoming on the door ......................................... 14 The benefits of owning a Church Website ................................................................. 15 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 16 1
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 16 The research design ........................................................................................................ 16 Requirements Collection ................................................................................................ 16 Interviews ................................................................................................................ 16 Questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 17 Documentary sources .............................................................................................. 17 Observation ............................................................................................................. 17
Data analysis .................................................................................................................. 18 System Analysis and Design .......................................................................................... 18 Systems Analysis .................................................................................................... 18 System Design ........................................................................................................ 18
System Construction ...................................................................................................... 18 System Testing ............................................................................................................... 18 Validation ................................................................................................................ 19 Anticipated Limitations .................................................................................................. 19
3.7.1
References ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 24 Work Plan and Schedule ........................................................................................................... 24 Proposed Budget ....................................................................................................................... 24
Chapter 1
1.1
Introduction
Introduction
Technology is affecting the gospel environment (vatican.va, 2003) and it is impacting religious leaders (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2005) and hanging back timidly from fear of technology or for some other reason is not acceptable (Pope John Pau IIl, 2000). Websites are relevant to many activities and programs of the Church including traditional missionary work, catechesis and other kinds of education, news and information, apologetics, governance and administration, and some forms of pastoral counseling and spiritual direction (Pope John Pau IIl, 2000). Although the virtual reality of cyberspace cannot substitute for real interpersonal community, the incarnation reality of the sacraments and the liturgy, or the immediate and direct proclamation of the gospel, it can complement them, attract people to a fuller experience of the life of faith, and enrich the religious lives of users (church123.com, 2002). It also provides the Church with a means for communicating with particular groupsyoung people and young adults, the elderly and homebound, persons living in remote areas, the members of other religious bodieswho otherwise may be difficult to reach (Jennifer Schuchmann, 2007).
The Website I propose will include a registration mechanism and process for collecting user data, the system will also provide for an electric work flow regulation system and method, including a storage mechanism for accessing stored information and aback up mechanism for ensuring the integrity of the users information.
1.2
Background
Mr. Tomusange William Bifaaki (the founder) claims that in 2002 when he was a store keeper at Uganda Batteries Limited, God told him to resign from work and start Christian Center after God revealed himself to the apostle in a dream telling him that his people are crying and are in great problems; therefore he should go and spread the joy of the Lord to the whole world and in 2003, Joy Christian Center was started with five members in a hall opposite the former Sax Hotel
which was rent by the founder and senior Pastor of the Church. The five Members who started the church are: 1. The founder 2. Miss. Caroline Nyonyiwa 3. Mr. KattaBenrich 4. Mrs. Harriet Katta and 5. Miss Kisa Christine The Church was started with the main purpose of preaching the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of man, helping needy children through feeding programs, taking them back to school and providing housing (accommodation). The Church was also to help in community development, e.g. building medical centers and schools, providing clean water in rural areas that is Kigalama in Mityana Districtand Buyengo in Jinja District, establishing and maintaining Churches, starting School of Ministry (Schools for Pastors and church leaders), starting up orphanages and help other vulnerable groups such as the elderly, widows and the disabled.
Currently the church has opened up braches in other parts of the county like in Jinja district where there Joy Christian center Butagaya, Joy Christian center Wansimba and Joy Christian Center Buyengo. Onother brach is in Ntungamo called Joy Christian Center Ntungamo, in Mbarar there is Joy Christian Center Mbarara, in Masaka there is joy Christian Center- masaka. All the branches are called daughter churches. Two orphanages have also been started and these are source of hope childrens center and Joy childrens center Masaka. Next year a school called Joy christaian academy will also start in Masaka district.
1.3
Problem Statement
It is crystal-clear that the current website for joy christen center Najjanankumbi located at Uniform Resource Locator (URL) joymissionsug.org did not full the requirements specified by management when commissioning Mr. Kaggwa John the job to develop it. The church management wanted a website to avail general information about the church, hear and partners (Sponsors and daughter churches) and departments, support the activities of the church e.g. 4
registration of church members, informing the people of upcoming events for example conferences and making the organizational goal known to the public. The website was also to be designed in organizational colors i.e. green, blue and red.
All the about requirements were not fulfilled since the website ended up having only one page (index page) which even failed to be in organizational colors (The simplest requirement) hence a need to improve on the website.
1.4
1.5
The system scope will mainly focus on Joy Christian Center- Najjanankumbi. It will involve pastors, administrators and believers. The system will handle: prayer requests, inquiry of appointments and registration of members and daughter churches, notifying users about upcoming events e.g. conferences. However the system will not be able to send any message on the users mobile phone, allow users to chat online or make uploads.
1.6
Justification
As already mentioned the current website does not avail information about the church, church partners and the activities which the church performs yet the church need publicity (getting known in the whole world) in order to attract many people to join from both Uganda and Internationally. This stress the need to improve on it
Chapter 2
2.1
Literature Review
Introduction
This involves relevant literature and evidence that support the reading of what other people have written down about the same area (Website for the church)
2.1.1 Website
This is a set of related web pages containing content such as text, images, video, audio, animations etc. (wikipedia.org, 2013). A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet address known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web (wikipedia.org, 2013).
2.1.2 Webpage
This is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A webpage may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors.
2.2
Types of Websites
There are many varieties of websites, each specializing in a particular type of content or use, and they may be arbitrarily classified in any number of ways for example personal websites, government websites, wares websites, religious websites etc.
2.3
Conducted Research
Different research has been conducted to find out to what extend internet and should be used to support community building and online participation (T Hutchings, 2010), (Webb M.S, 2012), (Michels D.H, 2009). This research takes different forms and is aimed at
different practices, but ultimately share the same goal as mentioned above. We will now look deeper into the conducted research and present the major outcomes. We will do this by examining all research one by one and stating the most important aspects and findings.
2.4
Websites play an important role in community building and sustaining and giving churches more acquaintance (Hutchings T, 2011), however they will not replace existing channels of communication (T Hutchings, 2010). While blogging and posting pictures and texts online improves communication on a daily basis, personal contact with community members is still 8
very important (Webb M.S, 2012). After interviewing 1056 church leaders, finding urgue out that websites play a big role in attracting and sustaining new members; however websites alone is not enough (Michels D.H, 2009). After intensively following and interviewing a pastors that websites and internet can be great tools for preparing churchgoers for sermons and meetings (Michels D.H, 2009).
2.5
It is important to determine how people are using the internet and why they are using it. Religious websites to be effective need to become domestic first, like the telephone (Campbell H, 2005). If that happens, websites can be a perfect religious tool for building and sustaining active communities by providing a religious network, a place for worshipping, providing religious identity and serve as a missionary tool to attract potential new community members (Hutchings T, 2011). A case study of 35 religious church websites in Charlton-England found out that people see websites as an opportunity to explore other communities, share believes and religious symbols with other believers and share their opinion about religious matters with others (Teusner P.E, 2010).
Another research also studied religious websites and revealed relevant results. They studied 200 religious websites and found five themes of those websites mainly use to talk about personal religion, didactical content, criticism and personal issues related to faith, news and information and coordination of practices (Cheong P.H, 2008). These findings show that religious websites provide an opportunity for many different discussions, learning and information sharing. Also websites have a potential downside. If church website becomes too personal they might
encounter negative response to their viewers, because web posts can be read by a lot of different people with different cultural backgrounds. These people might interpret them in another way not as intended (Teusner P.E, 2010).
It is found out that websites are useful for alarming the masses about disease outbreaks and earthquakes, because people notice things and post them. Maybe it is possible for churches to do such a thing as well. They could use websites to find out what problems occur within their communities (Savage N, 2011).
2.6
Four different researches conducted claim that the use of websites and internet by churches has not occurred undetected. Online churches have attracted considerable scholarly and popular attention over the last two decades, featuring in new media research, journalism and Christian commentary, but their significance for participants remains largely unexplored. Academic studies of these churches have so far relied on short-term research and addressed a limited set of concerns, dealing almost exclusively with ritual forms in virtual worlds (Hutchings T, 2011). Although large parts remain unexplored there are also a number of practices that have been explored by research and case studies (Jenkins S, 2008), (Radde-Antweiler K, 2008) (Hutchings T, 2011). According these researchers, these are the examples of good practices.
online characters could meet each other and visit services. To attract people the church was built in a style people resemble from the real world. Soon the online church became a success and the number of participants increased fast. In 2007 the church went temporary offline, yet it is available again as St. Pixels.
2.7
There has also been research conducted to determine to what extend online and offline religious life are linked to each other and how this linkage impacts both offline and online religious life. Online activities are mainly the consequence of the changing offline life (Campbell H, 2005). Offline life is becoming more and more networked due to the technological inventions and
improvements. Due to the shift from communities to personal religion, people require a more and more networked life to keep sharing believes with other religious people. There is a potential danger in these shifting religious lives. Less people are going to the church to be together as a community in a physical way (Campbell H, 2005). Others argue that while online religious life is growing fast, this is no threat to offline religion (Cheong P.H, 2008). Offline and online religion are closely linked to each other and do not exclude each other (Stewart A.R, 2001). After studying the online activities of several religious women she found out that the texts they placed on websites was always linked somehow to their personal church life (Stewart A.R, 2001). People take the experiences they have from their own offline
church life and use these experiences to inform other online. Online and offline religious life do not substitute but complement each other (Stewart A.R, 2001). Strong online relationships can stimulate offline activities. (Ploderer B and Thomas P, 2008) These offline activities will otherwise never occur, because they are not stimulated in the offline world. For example a person who never goes to church nor has religious friends, can be stimulated to go to church by online religious friends this person has strong relational ties with.
2.8
There has been a steady increase in the number of Protestant churches using Web sites since 2000 (Cooper and Kitty Munson, 2002), States that Churches, as well as many other non-profit entities, need effective websites to portray their intended message and attract members and visitors to check out more about what they offer. Over the last few years the church web design industry has picked up significantly with some designers focusing solely on producing high quality church websites. A research conducted has shown that more and more churches are
12
figuring out the importance of having a great church website since the world is becoming a global village.
Church Web sites are being used for a variety of reasons. A study of church Websites conducted by the Pew Charitable Trust found the primary uses of church Web sites are to provide information about location and times of worship, posting mission statements and basic tenets, and providing links to other religious sites. (church123.com, 2002). Later (Sturgill Amanda, 2004)conducted a content analysis of more than three hundred Baptist Church websites and determined the primary uses of church Web sites had not changed much. She did note, however, that the main focus of the majority of the church websites she viewed was providing times for worship services others see church Web sites as a very effective marketing tool, a way to reach potential new members(Pope John Pau IIl, 2000)
Along with providing pertinent information about the church itself and being an effective marketing tool, it is believed that Websites have helped build faith communities for congregants. Churches with Websites reported that using the Internet helped congregants stay in touch with each other as well as with the church staff and the surrounding community. Church leaders see Web sites as one more way to connect with members. Primarily they see the Website as another way to transform the lives of their members.
Many church leaders use Websites to reach their congregants. Youth ministers are now using websites as a means of keeping up with the younger people in their churches. Lara Blackwood, youth minister at First Christian Church of Fayetteville, Arkansas stated, Theyll get the word faster if I post it as a message on the website than if I try to call them. Others use the popular website as a means of watching out for their young charges, making sure they are not posting too much information about themselves. Religious leaders are also using websites as a means of communicating and maintaining relationships with their peers across the country. In addition, Hess asserted that websites has
13
helped ministers become more efficient in their worship preparation, leaving more time to devote to the more personal aspects of their ministry.(vatican.va, 2003)
Many religious institutions are using their websites to stream worship services via audio and/or video file. Those institutions taking advantage of this technology believe it to be a tremendous way to minister to those who are unable to attend worship services and as a means of reaching potential new members. Likewise, streaming video/audio files is a fairly inexpensive investment, especially if the religious institution already has a website, and the returns are well worth the investment (Jennifer Schuchmann, 2007).
2.9
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Chapter 3
3.1
Methodology
Introduction
Research methodology will reflect the research design that will be employed and the particular methods that will be used to gather data relevant to the study. The techniques for data analysis and interpretation will as well be highlighted, and there will also be displaying in detail of the population targeted.
3.2
Research design is the planning strategy of conducting research. It plans what to be observed, why it is to be observed, how to record observations and how to analyze and interpret observations and also how to generalize such design in a detailed plan of how goals of research will be achieved.
The study will be a formal survey research that will be done to identify, describe, analyze, and interpret the existing website at Joy Christian center- Nakjjanankumbi and how it is used by authorities in the study area. This particular research design (survey) will be employed by the researcher.
3.3
Requirements Collection
3.3.1 Interviews
The interview method is the use of verbal questions to respondents as a research tool of data collection. Research interview is prepared and executed in a systematic way, controlled by the researcher to avoid bias and distortion. This method will be used so as to get firsthand information about the issue at hand. It will involve direct interactions of the interviewer, the church members and the pastoral body. The method can also point out the options of the interviewee regarding the strength and weakness of the current. 16
The groups involved in the interview will be enabled to clarify on any matters that are not clear since it is an interactive face to face verbal question method. The interview method yields a high responsibility and low refusal rate since it usually involves direct contact (face to face interaction). However, it is thought that the interviewer's response may influence the responses given by the interviewee. Language barrier may also bring about wrong interpretation of the questions asked.
3.3.2 Questionnaire
This is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. This method will be employed as well. Questionnaires will be distributed among the relevant authorities in the respective departments at joy Christian Center. The type of questionnaire to be employed is a self-administered one. It is chosen because it gives chance to the respondents to fill in their answers at their own time. The researcher will also collect the opinions of staff about the new system to be set in place.
3.3.4 Observation
This method employs vision as its means of data collection. It implies the use of eyes rather than just ears and the voice. The researcher will watch and observe clearly the way the activities are done for example registration of members is done at Joy Christian center Najjanankumbi.
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3.4
Data analysis
Data generated from the above methodologies will be checked for efficiency and integrity also the analysis of the collected requirements will be done using the tools of the Entity Relationship Diagram and Data flow diagram. Preliminary study will be conducted before the data collection exercise commences so as to establish the reliability and validity of the data collection instruments, i.e. whether the instrument for data collection will be worthwhile to the data the researcher required. Adjustments to the instrument will then be made as necessary.
3.5
3.6
System Construction
The proposed website will constructed using php, Mysql, html, Adobe Dreamweaver cs5,adobe Photoshop for graphics and Eponosis flash menu factory which I used to create the web menus.
3.7
System Testing
In this stage, the systems unit testing is used to test the units of the system independently with purpose of ensuring that the system protects data and maintains functionality as intend. Security 18
concepts like confidentiality, integrity, availability and authentication are considered great factors. Users will also be given time and change to test and evaluate the system if it meets their requirements.
3.7.1 Validation
System validation is enforced to ensure that the entire integrated system meets the user requirements. The integration of the various components of the website for joy Christian center is achieved through data input to the system and obtaining the output information. In case of any errors, correction measures will be followed until the expected output is achieved as required in the specification
3.8
Anticipated Limitations
Some information could be confidential hence hindering the researcher from getting to the information source. There could be a problem of lack of enough funds to help support research during the processing of necessary documents needed. There is limited time scheduled to meet deadline for report presentation.
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References
Alexander B. (2006, March 1). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? Educause Review. Retrieved January 5, 2013, from
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/Web20ANewWaveofInnovati on/40615 Benny Hinn. (2007). Benny Hinn ministries. Retrieved February 24, 2013, from http://www.benninn.org Brown A.P.G. (2005). Modelling a Real-World System and Designing a Schema to Represent It. Calfonia: AGP GROUP. Campbell H. (2005). Spiritualising the Internet: Uncovering Discourses and Narratives of Religious Internet Usage. Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, 1-26. Cheong P.H. (2008). The Chronicles of Me: Understanding Blogging as a Religious Practice. Journal of Media and Religion, 107-131. church123.com. (2002). Retrieved January 22, 2013, from
http://www.church123.com/church_website_target_audience.htm Clyde L.A. (2000). A strategic planning approach to Web site management. New York: The Electronic Library. Cooper and Kitty Munson. (2002). sky open web design: In web design essentials. Sydney: Gloal Productions. Costello R. (2009, January 28). The fundamentals of Web site strategic planning. Retrieved December 20, 2012, from
http://www.websiteprofitdoctor.com/MC_BP_articles.asp?article=01_28_03_01.txt Crupi C. (2009, February 1). Enterprise mashups part I: Bringing SOA to the people. The SOA Magazine(XVIII). Retrieved Deceber 20, 2012, from http://www.soamag.com/I18/05081.asp
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Dr Criflo A Dollar. (n.d.). world changers. Retrieved January 12, 2013, from www.worldchangers.com Dr. Reinhard Opperman. (2001). User-interface Design. New York: Institute for Applied Information Technology. Dullea James. (2006). An analysis of structural validity in entity-relationship modeling. Yeol Song. G Jacobs and Vanderheiden. (2001). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. interactions. McgrawHill. Hutchings T. (2011). Contemporary Religious Community and the Online Church. Information, Communication & Society, 1118-1135. Jenkins S. (2008). Rituals and Pixels: Experiments in Online Church. Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, 94-115. Jennifer Schuchmann. (2007). Streaming Sermons: Use the Latest Technology to Reach Your Community and the World. Your Church, 34-47. Kaplan A.M. and Haenlein. (59-68). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 2010. Lida B. Hull S. & Pilcher K. (2003, February). Breadcrumb navigation: An exploratory study of usage. Usability News. Retrieved December 20, 2012, from
http://www.surl.org/usabilitynews/51/pdf/Usability%20News%2051%20-%20Lida.pdf Lidwell W. Holden K and Butler J. (2003). Universal Principles of Design. Gloucester. ChaltonEngland: Rockport Publishers, Inc. Linda and Timothy J. (2005). Computing Concepts (i-series). Calfonia: Allied graphic. Matera M. Rizzo F and Carughi G.T. (2009, March 14). Web Usability: Principles and Evaluation Methods. Retrieved December 16, 2012, from
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Michels D.H. (2009). Dipping Into a Shallow Pool or Beginning a Deeper Conversation: A Case Study of a Ministers Engagement With the Internet for Preaching. Journal of Religious & Theological Information, 164-178. Nijssen Douque. (2005). Data Base Description. North Halland: McGraw Hill. Palmer J. W. (2002, June). Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics. Information Systems Research. Retrieved December 16, 2012, from
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http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/communications/documents/hf _jp-ii_mes_20000124_world-communications-day_en.html). Message for the 34 th World Communications Day. Vatican. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from
www.vatican.com Radde-Antweiler K. (2008). Religion Becoming Virtualised: Introduction to the special issue on Religion in Virtual Worlds. Journal of Religion, 1-6. Rod parsly. (1999). Rod parsly. Retrieved January 10, 2013, from www.rodparsly.com Savage N. (2011). Twitter as Medium and Message. Communications of the ACM, 18-20. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. (2005). Islam and Modern Technology. Islam & Science, 109-112. Simmons, E. C. (2009, January 19). Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates. Retrieved December 16, 2012, from
https://books.google.com/books?id=XBtZWF7kTJoC&printsec=frontcover Stewart A.R. (2001). Text and Response in the Relationship between Online and Offline Religion. Information, Communication & Society, 1204-1218. 22
Sturgill Amanda. (2004). Scope and purposes of church web sites. Journal of Media and Technology. T Hutchings. (2010). The Internet and the Church: An Introduction. The Expository Times., 1119. Teusner P.E. (2010). Imaging Religious Identity: Intertextual play amongst postmodern Christian bloggers. Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, 111-130. vatican.va. (2003). Retrieved March 14, 2013, from
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc _20020228_church-internet_en.html Webb M.S. (2012). Church Marketing: Building and Sustaining Membership. Services Marketing Quarterly, 68-84. what is. (n.d.). What Is. Retrieved january 20, 2013, from www.whatis.com wikipedia.org. (2013, March 17 ). wikipedia.org. Retrieved March 1, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website
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Appendices
Work Plan and Schedule
Activity
Requirements Collection Systems Analysis Systems Design Systems Construction Systems Testing Weeks
1 2 3
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Month
March
April
May
June
July
Proposed Budget
NO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Item Flash Disk Compact Disk Photocopy Typing and Printing Transport Binding Presentation Fee Miscellaneous Total 3 3000 3 Copies Quantity 1 3 Price Per Each 40,000 1000 10,000 42,500 40,000 3,000 10,000 127,500 25,000 9,000 100000 50,000
24