Email restored

Email has been restored to the sfsonrise.org and sfcampus.org domains. Happy emailing!

Now hosted on Fat Cow

The Sonrise and CCF websites are now being hosted by Fat Cow. Cowabunga!

If you experience any outages or missing pages, please comment! We want to make sure the website is up and running as smoothly as possible.

New website host in progress

The Sonrise and CCF servers are in the process of being transferred to a more dedicated hosting service. There will be some downtime during the transition, but we hope to have the service up and running soon...and at more blazing speeds!

See you soon.

Upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04!

Not terribly exciting news on the web server front, but we just had to let you know--our server's been successfully upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04! The upgrade from 8.10 --> 9.04 is modest but brings about the latest features from Ubuntu and is a testament to the almost seamless upgrade path (as far as we can tell) from 8.04 --> 8.10 --> 9.04.

Let us know if you have any feedback from the upgrade, and happy surfing!

Web Server Down 11/28, 10pm - 11/29, 10am

UPDATE (2008-11-39, 9:48am): The server upgrade is complete, and service to stuffy.hopto.org (and related websites) is restored.

The Sonrise web server will be down for a server upgrade from 11/28, 10pm - 11/29, 10am. We will be upgrading the server software from Fedora 9 to Fedora 10 to take advantage of the many refinements and polish included in this latest release of the Fedora open source powerhouse.

Status Updates
2008-11-29 (9:48am): Fedora 10 updates complete. Flipping on the switch for serving web pages through this server.
2008-11-29 (9:07am): Fedora 10 installation complete. Beginning updates. Re-syncing time with NTP servers.
2008-11-28 (11:52pm): Fedora 10 netinst failed. Now trying preupgrade; so far, so good, downloading files in preparation for update.

Web Server Down

UPDATE (2008-08-09, 8:36pm): Our website is back up! The malfunctioning hardware has been replaced, and service restored.

The Sonrise web server is down today (8/8/08). As much as we'd like to say that it's because of a torrent of traffic for the Olympics, it's really just because of a networking hardware failure. We're looking to procure a new device and plan to have the server up and running shortly.

Website Address in Transition

Where did our website go?! Not to fear, it's still here. The old UCSF server for registered campus organizations (RCOs) was recently decommissioned, and in its place arose a new server from the Office of Student Life (OSL). The OSL is kind enough to host this server, but to use the server we would be restricted to a content management system rather than using our own customized website. We've been testing our website on our own hosting system for the past several months and seen performance above our expectations.

Rather than using the management system, we have decided to keep our website. New UCSF web policy does not allow automatic redirects, however, which is why we have a placeholder page on the OSL server. On that page we have a link that leads directly to our original site.

Schematically, it looks like this:

ucsf.edu/sonrise --(automatic)--> rco.ucsf.edu/index.php/sonrise/index --(manual)--> sonrise.hopto.org

We do not yet have access to our OSL page, but as soon as we do, we will update it with further information about our group and our website.

Website Down on Saturday, 7/12

UPDATE (7/13, 9:21am): The server upgrade has been completed and httpd web server has been restarted. Welcome back to sonrise.hopto.org!

UPDATE (7/13, 1:34am): A concurrent internet connection problem delayed the upgrade, but the upgrade has now been completed. Packages are being updated to the latest state of Fedora 9 prior to launching httpd.

The Sonrise website will be down on Saturday, 7/12, from 12pm to 12am for server upgrades. We are upgrading the server from Fedora 7 to Fedora 9 now that 7 is no longer supported, and 9 has proven to be a stable platform.

The Return of the sfsonrise Login

If you've checked the resources page recently, you may have noticed that we now include the Churches Chart and Sonrise directory logins through the sfsonrise account, rather than your own Google account. That's because the sfsonrise account offers more security through a separate password limiting access only to those who actually come to Sonrise.

Best of all, if you have the invite for these pages, you can still access the pages through your own account! Just let me know if you've misplaced the invite or want me to add you directly.

-David

Updated Sonrise Songbook (2008-05-01)

An updated Sonrise Songbook has been posted on our Google Groups. An online changelog has also been created to track the new additions and updated songs in the book. If you have a song you'd like to add, please don't hesitate to post it to the Group!

Post Your Sonrise Special Event

You've been planning your special event, but no one knows about it... Too bad.

j/k! We've just added a special area where you can post your Sonrise special event. You can add details such as name, date, and sign-up URLs by filling out a simple form. Your event will appear automatically on our Schedule page. Later on, if you need to make any edits, you can change your event directly on the special events spreadsheet.

I hope this will help you promote your event at Sonrise...and for others to find it. May God bless your heart for brothers and sisters at Sonrise and around SF!

New poll (please vote) - new contacts - and other website updates

Hi Sonrise,

We've been working on a few new website updates, and I'd like to expose you to a few highlights.  Mostly importantly, please vote on our poll!

New Poll
We've posted a new poll asking for your perspective on the vision for Sonrise's growth.  As we continue to grow, we are still very much concerned with your personal spiritual growth and creating the best possible environment for that.

Voted in the primaries?  Now vote at your nearest Sonrise precinct.

Didn't vote in the primaries?  No prob--redeem yourself at the Sonrise poll!

New Bible Studies Blog
Frequently people tell me how much more they get out of Bible studies when they get to read the passage ahead of time.  We're trying to make that easier by posting passages on a dedicated Bible Studies blog before each study and posting handouts afterward.  You can even post questions ahead of time or comments/follow-up questions afterward!

New Contacts
We are well underway in our leadership transition quarter and have posted contacts/pictures for our new leaders and their ministries.  We're blessed by their willingness to serve and desire to let Christ be invested in our lives on and off campus.  Please keep our leaders in your nightly prayers! (or come to a prayer meeting!)

And of course, if you'd like to get involved in serving now or in the future months, it's never too late.  Just let us know!

Post Past Handbooks and Other Documents

As our Sonrise Google Groups becomes more active, it's a great time to explore some of its additional features.  You may have noticed the Files section, where we post Sonrise Songbook updates and other files.  I know many of you have spent lots of time on retreat/banquet handbooks and other art or documents.  I'm sure that fellow sonrisers would love to use them for their ministries, so please post them here!

Built-in Blogs and Discussions
Because of our several blog/groups/main sites, we've collected and embedded them into our main site.  Now when you click on Discuss or Blogs, you'll be taken to view these sites right from within the Sonrise website.

Prayer and Mission Ministry Pages
Prayer is an oft unrecognized bedrock of any Christian fellowship.  Sonrise is no different!  Check out our new Prayer Page for prayer meeting updates.  There's also been talk of a first-ever Sonrise Missions trip.  We've all talked about "medical missions"...how about joining one for a week?  And of course--let's keep this in prayer!

New Website Notes Blog
Wondering about some newfound website quirk?  Looking for the latest updates?  The new Sonrise Website Notes keeps you up-to-date with known issues and new features.  You can even post comments/feedback on how we can improve the site!

Many thanks to Ken for his continual suggestions/feedback on the website!  If you have any thoughts or questions, I'd love to hear from you.

Blessings,
David

Gathering of the Blogs

If you're reading this blog entry, you've probably realized that Sonrise has more than one blog. We now have 3 blogs, and to make things as easy (as 1-2-3) as possible, we've collected them together in a new page on our website. Now you can pass back and forth among all the blogs without ever leaving the website. Handy links are included in each blog's sidebar in case you want to view the blogs in their own page (shift+click).

Now You Can Sign Up for Cooking Online

The Cooking ministry page has a new look and a new input: another editable online spreadsheet. We've been looking for ways to make signing up for cooking easier, and now you can click on the "Sign-Up Here" link to starting add your name right from within the website. Hopefully the by-now familiar spreadsheet makes things easier to navigate as well.

Just a little history...believe it or not, an online cooking sign-up was the original reason we started thinking about creating online editable pages. Collaborative pages took off with our retreat planning pages, but now we can do the same with cooking. Please post any feedback on your experience signing up!

Testing a New Sonrise Server

While browsing through the Sonrise website, you may have noticed that an unfamiliar address pops up into your URL bar: http://sonrise.hopto.org. That's because we're testing a new address redirected from our old one, http://ucsf.edu/sonrise. UCSF has notified web server owners that their server "will be decommissioned, without replacement," so we are beginning to test alternative server locations in preparation for the loss of server space. Keep in mind that we have been notified that the old address will still work by simply redirecting to the new address.

Please post comments on your experiences with the new server!

Handouts Now Being Posted

Handouts are again being posted on the website, now on the new Bible Study blog. At the top of each blog entry for which we have handouts, you'll find link titled, creatively, "Handout." If you missed Sonrise that week or were profoundly struck by some salient point, here's your chance!

Many thanks to our Bible study leaders for putting their time and hearts into these studies and for making their handouts available.

New pix

New pix from Winter Retreat 2008 now litter the website. Yes, the front page picture is doctored. We gravitated to a ski lift named "Sunrise" and couldn't help but make the association with our own Sonrise.

Don't forget our Picasa site, which hosts numerous picture albums from past events.

And stop by our YouTube group. Feel free to post your own videos!

Event planning: group chat on Gmail

During event planning for our last retreat, I was impressed to hear how the cooking team took a night out for a Google Spreadsheets/Gchat/AIM collaboration session online. The menu went from empty to full tummy in the span of a few hours with the contribution of the entire 5+ person team. The hybrid chat/online spreadsheet solution greatly simplified collaboration across town.

Want to make things even easier? I just read that Gmail incorporates a new group chat feature. AIM had this awhile back (I haven't seen it since, but I know that at least Pidgin has it), everyone seems to be using Gchat these days. Now we can group chat directly in Gchat, directly in Gmail. If that allows us to collaborate and fellowship online all the more...that's all the better!

Enjoy,
David

Website Update! (version 3.2)

The Sonrise website sports a few new features in honor of Thanksgiving, or more precisely, in honor of the One to whom we give thanks! Point your browser to our website to find a few new frills (in time for the turkey grills!):

Overhauled sidebar: featuring a tabbed interface with sections for the blog feed, poll/shoutbox, calendar/events central, and picture albums feed.

Improved Ministries pages navigation: the old Ministries page tabbed interface has been replaced with a modernized interface that allows for direct page loading from external pages.

Embedded documents consistency: if you have permissions to edit documents embedded in the website, you'll notice that documents are displayed in View mode by default so that you can see the page as anyone else would (with links for editing).

Events Central: an embedded document built into the Schedule page as well as the Cal sidebar tab, for quick reference to online sign-up spreadsheets.

More details can be found here.

Enjoy, and happy Thanksgiving!

Trouble in (Published Docs) Paradise

UPDATE: A workaround has been added to the newly launched website! Now Google docs are embedded in view-first mode, meaning that they look like normal published documents. To switch to edit mode, a link is provided at the bottom of the document. (2007-11-19)

There seems to be another Google published docs bug floating around again. If you're not able to view the various Ministries Pages while logged into your (or the sfsonrise) Google account, you're not alone. The workaround is actually to log out of Google while viewing the pages. I know that can be a pain, but we'll keep looking for a bug fix from Google...