I’ve been asked by Dan at GTKAgenda to review their online task management/ planning application. I’ve mentioned previously Todoist which I used for awhile. After a few days of internet outage (web access issues is one drawback to being a country parson) I began using tools that don’t require an internet connection. Also, I don’t have access in my study, which is a good thing when it comes to getting thesis writing done, but also means that tools that require an internet connection are not useful for me. If that’s not an issue for you, you might want to give GTKAgenda a look. There are three levels of service. The free version is limited to 3 goals 5 projects and 5 contexts. The Basic is limited to 30, 50 and 50 respectively while the premium account has not limits. Basic is $4.45/ month and Premium is $7.95, plus there’s a 30 day money back guarantee.

The basic feature of GTDAgenda is is task management which can be organized using goals, projects, tasks, contexts, schedule and priorities. Using these Gtdagenda will list your next action you should be working on so you can focus on it. It also has a a calender and a helpful checklist. There is a mobile phone version too that allows access for while you’re away from your computer.

I like the flexibility of this app, let’s you follow strict GTD or Steven Covey, but you can also tailor it to meet your needs. (I especially like the Zen GTD implementation.)

Having a calendar included is nice, I like having these integrated instead of having to use separate apps/sites for scheduling and task management. The feature that stands out to me is the checklist. Having regular weekly tasks like printing a bulletin, sermon outline, send birthday cards on a list is a quick and convenient way to manage these small ‘mosquito’ tasks. I could also see how this would be useful for an exercise schedule etc…

Another thing I liked when checking out the site was the numerous examples of ways one could use GTDAgenda to implement different productivity strategies and for different jobs. It included a step-by-step by guide to setting up a GTD or Franklin Covey type system or using the app as a software developer or for the gym; however this leads to my major gripe – after I was logged in there was no obvious way to see these. If you are logged in you are taken to your home screen with no link to these nifty examples. In fact there is no obvious link for help with the features. There is now a help button on the homepage that is linked to send an email or to the help forums. But a simple way to a FAQ or the tutorials would be simpler. I had to log out go back and find the URL and log back in to use them. (I really don’t want to have to log into a site, then register and log into a help forum on top of that just to see how to use the basic features.)

GTDagenda has all the features you would need for scheduling and managing projects and tasks, however nothing stood out as a killer feature that would justify spending nearly $100 a year when there are competitive products for free.

Last week I tried to explain what open source and open formats are. This week, before looking at more practical reasons, I want to touch on the first reasons, namely that churches and the open source community share a lot of the same values.

I’m convinced that too much of the church (here in America anyway) has been too influenced by business models. Church growth and evangelism takes it’s cue too often from marketing. Products are sold to share the message of the gospel like a commercial advertisement rather than a proclamation of victory. (As an aside I think the church is partly to blame for the commandeering of the term ‘evangelism’ by marketing people.) I see ministers who model themselves more as CEOs than shepherds and worship is more of a product to sell instead of adoration of the God who saves. Therefore, I think its always healthy for the church to rub shoulders with other models of work: Eugene Peterson recommends reading a book about farming to consider our work as a pastor. Poets and novelists are much better companions to preachers than politicians and self-help gurus. There is nothing inherently wrong with sales or marketing — but the Church is not a peddler meeting religious needs.
Open Source Software operates on a different model from the idea of software as a product. Of course businesses involved still work to make money, but it is not through selling software. Software is created through volunteers or by programmers paid by companies that understand the value of open software. I believe that this community driven model has some commonalities to the way the Church operates.

• It is based on cooperation: people from a variety of backgrounds, with different needs work together to create a solution. In the Church, we share a common mission with the church down the road of a different denomination. Our work is not competing against the benevolent work of Goodwill. We cooperate with different agencies, churches with different beliefs and others to accomplish good in our community. Additionally, this cooperation should mean the work and involvement of everyone, all church members should participate actively in the work and mission of the Church.
• Transparency: One of the things I really like about open source is you can see exactly what’s going on, you can see the problems and understand how things work. I believe a healthy Church is transparent to the members. Anyone can sit in meetings that make decisions, people know exactly where money is being spent and we can discuss problems openly with each other to resolve them.
• Service: While it’s not part of the Open Source definition, Free software is involved with some projects that seek to serve others. I’ll mention just a couple:
  • Ubuntu Linux is a type of the GNU/Linux operating system. (It’s something that other programs can run on instead of Windows.) Part of the goals of Ubuntu, which is an African word that means ‘humanity to others’, is to be free of charge and accessible to as many people as possible. One of the ways they fulfill this is by mailing CDs free of charge (not even charging for shipping!) You can find it here.
  • Another project is the One Laptop Per Child that is providing laptops loaded with education software to children in developing countries. Free software seriously lowers the cost, first in the price of the hardware needed to run it and secondly by not having to pay for licensing fees.

  I really like feeling connected in some way to this type of work.

Again, I don’t want to try to lift the importance of the tools we use to do the work of the ministry to a central position, I simply hope to point out some good reasons congregations should consider the alternatives when deciding what tool is best for them. Next week I’ll mention some more practical reasons for using Open Source.