Just released for your WordPress site is a free plugin that will automatically backup your website to your Dropbox account.
It can backup both your theme and site files as well as the database that stores content.
You can choose the frequency of updates as well as how many backups it keeps for you.
Dropbox is a service that I covered at my breakout session at the 2011 CBFVA General Assembly.
Dropbox is a cloud-based file-synchronization service. In other words, it’s an online hard drive.
Once downloaded, you tell Dropbox which folder you wish to be online – this is your Dropbox folder. Every file you place in the folder will be synced up online.
Thus, if you are ever away from your computer yet need a file that is in your Dropbox folder, you can login to Dropbox’s website and access it.
You can also attach Dropbox to multiple computers. If you have a work computer and a personal computer, you can share your synced folder between them.
Finally, do you have a large file, such as a video or mp3, that you wish to share with others? You can share that folder with whomever you want, turning Dropbox into your own personal file or FTP server.
Dropbox gives you 2 GB of storage for free. 50 GB comes with a $9.99/month or $99/year price; 100 GB is $19.99/month or $199/year.
Ideas for church use:
- Virtual file server: if you have several members on staff that need a quick and easy way to access common folders, Dropbox may work.
- Virtual FTP service: if you need to share large files with members of your worship team or other members of the church, Dropbox may work.
- Share files between a computer in the office and your computer at home.
PCMag has a pretty good review of Dropbox.
I led a breakout session at the 2011 CBFVA General Assembly held in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Overall I covered three topics:
- The advantages of using WordPress and other open-source (free!) CMS’s for your church website.
- Three popular cloud services: Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Dropbox
- Innovative ways to incorporate technology into your church’s ministry such as Skype.
We had a great session despite a lot of material in the short amount of time. I will try to unpack some of what we talked about in future posts.
