Mobile Ministry Magazine

The 180th Carnival of the Mobilists has gone up at M-Trends. Great articles for this week's reading.

There's only two weeks until I (personally) host the Carnival of the Mobilists over at my personal website. I wasn't thinking about it until this morning, and now I'm nervous.

Labels: Carnival of the Mobilists

In a conversation via Twitter (yes, I know that's a bit of an oxymoron) after yesterday's post, the idea that content needs to be independent was in some respects validated, but there's that aspect of publishers and developer rights that's rarely heard in this discussion. So I asked, what would this question of content independence look like if we didn't just say "we want it" but actually proposed a "how to do it?"

So let's try and answer that. And your feedback is key (especially those of you with some vested careers in this).

Here are some thoughts I have:

• Start with the content that is already within the domain of users (notes, bookmarks, etc.). This content should already be using an XML-based format that is readable in any Bible application regardless of platform (PC, mobile, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.). This much should be done now. I'd say a commonly supported plugin that any Bible application can use that would unify formatting and content types would be enough for this.
• Concerning those newer translations which are already available in the public domain through publisher agreements (thinking ESV, NET, and a few others); where can open source developers and advocates join together in coding and marketing this raw content to whatsoever persons/orgs need it? In this way, we leverage open source not so much for the cost savings, but for the people-energy that it generates. Allow the push to use the software come from the grassroots angle (small groups, the pastorate, etc.) and then also the bigger angles (software and educational organizations banding together to promote code and/or study camps for example). Use that energy to create points of engagement and interest from those outside of those groups.
• Publishers have a vested interest in keeping their formats licensed, so how about instead of attaching the license to the Bibles, the license is attached to the user(s). Much like what some software companies do, publishers would allow a user or group of users to purchase a license which allows limited usage of that content; and a digital token is given that is simply asked to be reregistered a few times a year at no cost. Publishers get sales and metrics; people get content in as many ways as they can view it.

Those are some of my ideas. What about yours?

Labels: accessiblity, accountability, Bible, content, open source, software, tech

With the new version of the Firefox web browser (v3.5) released today, I thought that it would be great to bring back up that topic of content independence. Specifically, when it comes to reading materials (Bibles, commentaries, etc.), are these items independent of a particular browser or reading application?

I don't know that it is. Sure; there are more powerful and capable devices than ever before. And we can say that there's more digital content out there than ever before as well. But when it comes to moving that content from one device to another (for example from PC to mobile), a lot of times, we are locked into one method and don't realize it until we want to move.

I liken it to many of the desktop-grade Bible applications that are out there. All of them have some excellent content available; however, if you want to take that content with you, for many of these you would have to either purchase an entirely different library (software client and content), or manage some complex tasks before it can even be in a complimentary format.

And I don't want to say it to fault the publishers and developers; truly, they do a great work in building and supporting the breadth of languages, regions, devices, and content available to date. However, I do want to call them to attention - especially in light of the move to users becoming more and more independent of a PC-based computing paradigm.

Content should be just that; content. It shouldn't be attached to the presentation layer, nor should politics allow one silo to have prominence over another. If we are truly looking to good on teaching people to the ends of the earth, at the very least, content needs to be independent of the former ideas of reader/application.

This might look like Firefox, where mobile browsers take on an ability to utilize extensions which enable more functionality (this done at the developer or publisher level). Or this could simply look like more partnerships between publishers, developers, and users towards making content available, and sharing the load for marketing, management, and support.

Whatever is the solution though, I'm not sure that many Bible publishers and software companies will be able to stand pat as they are now: using dedicated readers, coding for specific browsers only, or limiting themselves to policial divisions in the hope of keeping marketshare. If the goal is to educate to the point of making disciples, then the content needs to be independent so that the accountability (individually and corporately) can take the primary focus of ministry activity.

Labels: accessiblity, accountability, Bible, community, content, software, tech

Here at MMM, we spend a lot of time talking about mobile technology education. And there's a good reason for that - there isn't much talk about it out here. At the same time, the idea of what makes up various learning methodologies tends to change all around us. After taking a spin through the archives here, and thinking about my own workflow methods, I started asking the question if in this more-digital time, that we are taking the time to reassess how we teach and learn various items.

One of the rabbit trails led me to looking at the group called Sugar Labs. These are the folks responsible for the operating system which is on the OLPC device. I immediately gathered from looking at their website is that effective teaching requires one to constantly reevaluate how they are learning.

For example, in a small group that I lead, we talk through the subject "how to study the Bible." However, that "how" becomes a very wide question in the context of learning styles, economics, and even attention spans. In our current study, I'm challenged with helping the team learn about different methods of utilizing cross referencing in order to understand and learn Scripture and to this I'm challenged towards really paying attention to what they are learning and then presenting the lessons in ways they can grab and excel with. To this point, I don't know yet what will be successful, but I do know that if I'm not careful to consider their eyes, then they'll miss seeing the point.

The other part of this is that I've got to look at how I'm learning. Today I'm making decisions regarding different screens that I use in my personal workflow. Those screens describe a bit of the spatial way that I learn and parse information and my environment. In this, I see that the environment isn't under my control, but I do control how I learn from it. For those things mobile, this is a key point that separates it greatly from other media.

Labels: education, OLPC

Some weeks ago, and probably even as this post is going up, the MMM account was sent two emails, one was from a pastor in India, the other from one in Central Africa. Both looking for something that presents me with a significant challenge - they asked for someone to come teach them utilizing the mobile and biblical know-how that they have seen on these pages.

Normally speaking, emails of this sort come in and I'm quick to pray (read: forget) about them. But these two have stayed in the inbox, staring at me for a number of days. And I'm challenged. Challenged because for once, I'm not sure how to respond.

Yes, there's the literal going overseas and talking with people I've never met (but isn't that was a missionary does). Then there's also the challenge. Does MMM speak anything of relevance to those audiences that are already mobile and just looking to sharpen their edges towards what God has called them to do - connect, share, teach, and build? I don't know. And the challenge in front of me in this keeps me totally still.

And then I read this piece over at TechCrunch (Crossing the Digital Divide, Rwanda Style), and I start to see yet another challenge. That the comforts of the misplaced views of mobile-life here in the states has dulled my abilities to see what is happening in other places. I mean, this is the reality of it. Else reading this wouldn't be challenging me in the same wise that the OLPC challenge did for me the past two years.

God, I wish that I could just pick up from the day-gig, go to these places, serve Christ, and learn from people who are doing this a whole lot better than I am currently. Though God, I'm challenged with the thought that presented with the means to go, that I'll shrek back, fearful that I've been talking here a whole long time and don't really know what I'm talking about.

To this I'm challenged, to be really ministring via these mobiles, not just in those places that are comfortable.

Labels: commentary

This is another great post series that has been going on and has recently concluded. Over at Challies the topic of discussion is simply titled "Don't Take Your iPod to Church." The series is in multiple parts (Part 1, Part 1.5, and Part 2), but all are some great reading.

And you can bet that I've made a post there. Here's my comment towards what was written in Part Two. Hope to see you commenting there (and here) :D

Labels: communication, education, iPhone, iPod, study, tech

I responded to another of Gabe's insightful posts (Twittering in Church) because its a subject that I think needs all kinds of abilities to understand. Afterwards, I wanted to post the response here - as this is a slightly different audience - and continue some of that discussion because it hits on areas of contention that have been had online and off. At the same time, this is the kind of discussion that we should be having as a gathering (here @ MMM) of tech-enabled, worshipers of God. Here's the comment (please do read the blog posting and comments afterwards for the complete context):

Teaching what is appropriate and not is a cultural and social function [of technology]; this should be something that is done independent of the technology trends [for example in discipleship], and at the same time it [the teaching/discipling] should mind those trends and give wisdom where needed.

Simply saying that "because a pastor is preaching doesn't mean you should be texting and tweeting" is not a remedy for the issue – that is, you are only addressing symptoms of a greater thought that most likely wasn't taught. Namely: ethics (re: Proverbs and Ecc.).

It is only after teaching these ethical issues of social, technology, and culture that one can sit and make the rules that others suppose should be the case of this digitally native and very social generation. I’m sorry folks, but most of you commenting are more like myself where you sit as a late Gen X or early Gen Y-er; you aren’t native to this way of communitating and therefore your "rules" and "perceptions" will cause more problems than they solve.

To those peeved that people can text better than they can recite books and doctrine, do a better job discipling and then maybe you won't have the tech issue to harp on as loudly. And yes, I very much practice what I preach – Gabe can totally vouch for that much.

Lastly, I too am of the opinion that "church" is what happens in-between the Sunday worship gatherings. That the active acts of creating community with people in and outside of the Christian faith should be what defines church. If this action is spilling over into our use of tech, and moreso into those worship gatherings, then we need to (a) redefine and further emphasize what it means to be a gathering of worshippers, and (b) do a much better job of discipling one another towards healthy boundaries and margins, making sure that we don't miss that knowledge and understanding of this specific time and space towards technology, while sharing the implications of this change and what it needs to mean for us and those around us as we engage in this thing called church.

Labels: church, community, mobility, SMS, twitter