Web 2.0 "critical" to church, says Anglican CIO

Web 2.0 is critical to the Anglican church if it is to keep up with today's youth, according to the Sydney diocese's CIO.

"The church is investing heavily in Web 2.0 technologies," CIO George Lymbers told IDC's Directions 08 event yesterday in Sydney.

Lymbers said developing tools which automatically protect users' data is important, saying that today's youth don't understand how to use Web 2.0 tools in a security-conscious way. "We want to protect them, and in doing so protect the reputation of the church," he said.

Web 2.0 also helps with the spread of the churches holdings: "We have thousands and thousands of properties," he said, adding that the church uses Google maps to link into databases to keep track of them.

However, the expanse of the Sydney diocese — over 2,000 sites "spread all over the place" — makes implementation of Web 2.0 difficult according to Lymbers, who says the extent of collaboration between sites depends on how much organisations are willing to pay for a connection.

"Telcos drive me crazy," he said, adding that they always promise to help minimise costs but the organisation is "led down the garden path more often than not".