It’s going to be an adventure.
At least that’s how I feel in gearing up for this coming Monday being the day of full-time MMM work. I’ve not found the workstation/tablet, but I’ve got tasks and will be noting items to be done.
There will be some using of the region as the “office.” And probably some adjustments with the idea of using the Nokia N800 as a second, interactive monitor. It will be different, and fun.
Who knew that God could setup some neat moments like these?
Depending on where you might be reading this post, the idea of the mobile web might be new or old, often traveled or furiously avoided, anxiously anticipated or an exercise in new types of fear. No matter where you stand on the idea of the mobile web, that is – the internet through a mobile device that has a screen smaller than 5in, you do have an understanding that the mobile web is a polarizing subject.
It only gets to be a bigger challenge for those persons in markets where the idea of a mobile web is a dream that is ever so slightly out of reach. From the price of cellular data connections, to the reliability of those connections, to the price of the mobile devices, and the internet that they connect to; for many persons in these developing/emerging markets, the mobile web is just as much a chore for them as it is for some to find a pen and paper to write a snail message.
That’s why its good to see reports such as this one by Shikoh Gitau, Gary Marsden, and Jonathan Donner who looked at some of the challenges that persons in emerging/developing markets face when trying to live to the mobile web, but do so from a paradigm of use that’s mobile-only. Here’s a quote pulled from the report:
We found that the majority of the web-based e-mail operators do not support mobile-only origination of email addresses. For example, when trying to sign up for a Gmail account, we were instructed “Want a Gmail account? Go to www.gmail.com on your computer” To circumvent this obstacle, we prompted the participants to use Opera Mini to access to the full version of the website. However, even this presented some challenges; one of the participants’ applications for an email addresses was blocked when they could not use the image-based authentication employed by the registration system. The following message was displayed: “If your mobile does not correctly display the image below please login successfully on the desktop to enable your mobile login again. Enter the correct password above and then type the characters you see in the picture below.” Of course, the handset did not display the image correctly, but she could not access a desktop device.
Read the rest of this report here (PDF).
And while I can admit that some of the issues do stem from this idea of trying to extend the internet to something beyond a content-carrying medium, the fact of the matter is that there’s something a good bit wrong with our approaches to accessibility and usability – even for those persons who have multiple types of economies and devices – when simple things such as signing up for an email account or inputting device settings is problematic.
When we are looking at challenging our brothers and sisters towards creating solutions that work, and we are using the web as that source, we need to make sure that we are not taking for granted in the checks and balances of our development or services that there is access to “the same kind of environment that we have.”
There are more people using the mobile web than ever before (over 1.2 billion people globally, and growing really fast in the Far East). If we are going to use the mobile web to set a bar towards enablement and access, then it also makes some sense to make sure that we also have made it as easy as possible for mobile to remain a handshaking moment for those who’d like to engage.
Beyond that, it would help that we also start living more on the side of mobile-only (mainly) so that when developing these services and ideals, we can have a better frame of reference towards how to address problems that prop up.
This past weekend was Mother’s Day in the US (and a few other countries) and spending it with mom was definitely a treat. One of the things we did together was to attend her chruch (of which I was one-time a member) and just engage that time of fellowship and the Word together.
What I didn’t expect is to have another one of those inadvertant research sessions where I’d see and catalog a number of people and their mobile tech usage.
Mom’s church is a fairly large one (over 5000 people on just the main campus), and there’s a lot of technology that has been used there over the years. Before I left that church to center fellowships more around my college campus, I was seen there quite often with a Palm PDA in hand, reading the Word and engaging with others. It was a strange sight then, and I got dinged for “playing during service” many times before people understood that mobile was the way forward for many of us.
So this past Sunday, as we all stood to read chapter 2 of Exodus (the message was on the faith of a believing mother), I scanned the audience looking for familiar faces. Besides seeing a few, I noticed that there were a number of people reading the Bible on their mobile devices. Blackberries, iPhones, and a few others in cases where I couldn’t tell exactly the model. But this was neat. Mobile tech being used to read the Word. Totally not my experience of about a decade ago.
And then I saw a mother in front of me. She and her daughter were reading, but it wasn’t from a smartphone. They were using the Amazon Kindle and sharing the reading experience together. From my vantage point in the pew behind them, this was something they were both comfortable with. Even to the point of the mother highlighting and noting as the passage was being read.
I glanced over to my mom who had taken to looking at the Bible from my mobile device. I’ve had nothing short of trouble finding an easy to use Bible reader for her mobile device. And yet, there we were over the smaller screen (and larger text size than was in her printed version) engaging the Word in a public reading moment.
There are a lot of things that we can be thankful for mothers for. And on this past Mother’s Day, I noticed mothers playing a role of nuturing spiritual development while engaging within another stage of technology. Nothing really different, and at the same time, this marked a rose of a different kind showing its petals.
MMM is not the only organization understanding the benefits of the story behind and through mobile technology. A new connection point and partnership called The Mobile Movement has recently been formed to also extend this idea of understanding mobile beyond marketing and technology. Here’s a statement from their website towards the vision and mission:
The Mobile Movement was created as an organizing force around a force of nature called collective compassion. Now that we have done the hard work of building global connectivity, and are placing communications devices into the hands of billions, we commence the work of finding usefulness and meaning through applications that can help improve, extend and even save lives. Mobility has many meanings, but in our case mobility is all ABOUT movement – upward, outward and beyond traditional limitations. Mobility is about innovation, and constant creation – and while our vision is vast, we make real things work for real people through simple, socially driven applications provided at no cost to non-profits, helping them reach more people with information – services – and stories of hope that can inspire “perfect strangers” to acts of kindness and courage.
Lot’s of good work can happen with The Mobile Movement. Check out their website for more information and to connect with this movement of mobile proportions.
Via MSearchGroove
In some respects, I think I feel a bit like Ezra and Nehemiah when it came to rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, there are parts of rebuilding MMM that are taking longer than others. And there’s another aspect of things where assistance is being provided in areas that previously were solo-endeared. Its amazing really, but this is the slow build to getting things back to and better than they were before.
Some good notes:
That’s about it for now. There’s enough going on to keep a bro busy I’ll say that much. And even after the walls are up and done, there will be other tasks to get rolling on.
It is a great time to be serving the Body with this. At this intersection, life gets incredibly fun.
Just a headsup that old posts are now located at http://archived.mobileministrymagazine.com/
A hearty welcome to those of you who have been wondering where MMM has gone. Its really still here, but a bit behind the covers. Am in the process of moving to WordPress, and I’m learning my way as I go along.
One of the major things to get up and done is the older posts. Honestly, I know this will be hard as all get out, but will totally be needed sooner rather than later. There’s also that issue of a freshened design that needs to be ported to the WP side of things.
Beyond those admin items, there’s going to be a lot more time spent towards certain types of content, and getting face-to-face with many of you.
Its a new road, and MMM is my (Antoine’s) main gig now. Let’s go mobile together and give folks that Jesus they only read about 😉