It’s amazing how much stuff is free online these days… and a lot of it is worthless. But occasionally I stumble across a resource so great, I end up using it regularly in ministry. Here are three of my favorites right now.
Yes, that’s a URL, pronounced “is good.” It’s short because the only service they provide is shortening other URLs. The website is remarkably simple, and the owners claim they are “ethical” and “carbon neutral.” My favorite part, is that they don’t require me to login, yet they provide an effective tool for creating custom, shortened URLs.
I use it when I have web form or page that I need to verbally communicate, or need to print on an announcement sheet, that I want people to remember. So, instead of trying to tell them where to go and five levels of things to click on, and instead of trying to get them to remember a long series of words, numbers and forward slashes, I provide a short, memorable link.
For instance, the direct url to this blog is http://www.ericdwoods.com/2014/01/three-surprising-free-tools/, which is really hard to remember. So, I shortened it to www.is.gd/threefreetools. I bet you won’t forget that!
Stock photography can be expensive, and as a campus minister with few resources and little time, I usually found I didn’t have time to go out and do a photo shoot for every background image and announcement slide I needed to make.
The Stock Xchng, hosts nearly half a million free and royalty-free stock photos and illustrations that members have uploaded. Some of them are actually great images. All of them are available for high-resolution download by creating a simple, free account.
While some of the images require you to notify the owner of the image when you’re using their work publicly, most have no restrictions on use.
The featured image for this post came from sxc.hu, thanks to Scott Telle from Riley, IN. It’s apparently the only image he’s ever uploaded… but it’s a good one.
One note: there are some inappropriate images, probably perceived as art by someone… so be careful when you’re searching.
Open DNS provides free access to their Domain Name Servers… which are fancy computers that take the web addresses you type in and point them to the computers that host those websites. They claim their servers are faster than your internet hosting providers’ servers—and they probably are—but the real sweet thing about OpenDNS is their customizable filtering.
Their free OpenDNS Home service provides a simple to use parental control system you can apply to your entire home or church network by simply creating an account and changing the default DNS servers on your wireless router.
The service then allows you to block access to inappropriate websites and keywords by choosing a custom level of pre-defined filtering, or creating your own. It also logs attempts to access those sites, so you’ll know there’s the potential for a problem before it happens.
It’s not fool-proof. But it’s better than nothing… and it’s free.
What great [free] web tools and resources do you use in your home and ministry?