Everyone looks forward to receiving their family directory to help them connect with their school or church community. Now, with the growing digital environment (smartphones, tablets, etc.), there are new publishing options and security concerns for your organization to consider. The good news is that these options can save your school or church time and money, and provide better security than the paper version. This article will explore the following posting options and their security implications for both you and members’ families:

• Print – a hard copy of the directory with physical distribution.
• Desktop: A directory file that resides on the reader’s computer.
• Online: Directory data is hosted online and can be accessed over the Internet.

A primary concern we all face is preventing the directory from falling into the wrong hands (both for privacy reasons and to ensure that the directory is not used as a marketing tool). Keep in mind that their families have a vested interest in protecting the directory, since their own information is also in it. (Ironically, at our school, the only abuse we’ve had is a parent, who was on the board, spamming soliciting his real estate deal.)

Impression
Hard copy is still the most common form of directory publishing. However, with today’s easy-to-use and readily available scanning tools, it’s actually the least secure. When you print on paper, you can’t stop families from giving a copy to a friend or scanning it into a PDF and then redistributing it (in fact, we’ve heard this happened in a couple of schools). Most home printers now come with features that make it easy to scan a document in minutes. Another drawback of the printed directory is the lack of ability to track where unauthorized copies are coming from.

Another big consideration with printing is cost. Printing a church photo directory with color photos is very expensive. You could print in black and white, but that would have much less impact. With current economic conditions, cost will always be a factor.

Desk
A desktop directory is a file (usually a PDF) that resides on your family’s local computer. The file is not on the Internet and does not require the family’s computer to be connected to the Internet to view it. The desktop directory is easily distributed by email. Plus, parents can print only the pages they need (class lists, phone numbers, etc.) saving paper and the environment.

There are two main security options for the desktop directory:
Encrypted PDF with Digital Rights Management (DRM)
DRM is the technology used to protect music and electronic books. With this method, the directory file is licensed on a single computer so that it cannot be passed on to another user. While this is probably the most secure publishing option, it is also the most cumbersome for both the board coordinator and the family to set up and manage. The family has to install a reader, then a license key, and then download the protected file. I’ve found that many families have a hard time navigating the process and don’t like the DRM restrictions. Some are also reluctant to install a new program on their computer due to the possibility of introducing a virus.

Also, if you allow printing (and we’ve found that almost everyone wants the option to be able to print), many DRM systems have issues in the Mac operating system that can limit the effectiveness of DRM security.

PDF protected with “Social DRM”
While an unprotected PDF has no security and DRM has very restrictive security, there is another option called “Social DRM” that is becoming popular. This consists of password-protecting the PDF (using a unique password for the school or unique passwords for each family) and then watermarking the directory pages with the family’s personal information (usually their name plus email address or the telephone number). The PDF can be opened and viewed with a standard PDF viewer and does not require any special software.

While this does not prevent directory redistribution, it does act as a significant inhibitor, as it can trace copies back to the family that incorrectly redistributed them. The password also limits unauthorized access in case the file falls into the wrong hands. As with standard DRM, there is also the ability to disallow printing (although, as noted above, most families want the option to print). A protected PDF provides security, is easier to use than standard DRM, and also allows your families to have a copy on multiple computers.

online search
Online search is an easy-to-use, secure, and low-cost publishing option. Each family can be provided with a unique username and password with the option to search for family and student contact information (without the ability to change or download data). Search can be done from any device with a browser, including smartphones. A good search program will only display the contact details of one family at a time, making it difficult to “farm” the database by cutting and pasting the information displayed on the screen into another application. Also, the family photo can be updated regularly to keep it fresh.

A useful feature of online search is the ability to provide hot links where users can click an email address to start an email or click a phone number to start a call (think smartphone ). The main drawback of searching online is the lack of a hard copy. However, most people are on their computer or smartphone when they need to look up directory information.

conclusion
With the advancement of technology, there are now more options for publishing a family directory than traditional print. Your school or church needs to consider safety, ease of publication, ease of distribution, and ease of use by your families when deciding how to publish your directory. Finally, these options are not mutually exclusive and can be used in combination. For example, our local high school provides both a protected PDF and an online search. This gives their families the ability to print and also provides instant online and smartphone searches while on the go.