Over at Mobile Advance, a weekly list of links to news and happenings in and around mobile is posted. Here’s a snippet of what’s in Weekly Web Watch #23:

General/Other

• The 4 S’s of Mobile Design
• Mobile Design & Development (book published by O’Reilly Media, now available to read for free online)
• Jihadists use mobiles as propaganda tools (BBC Report)
• Entering a new dimension – Jihad via Bluetooth (In-depth research, Part 1, Part 2)
• It’s all about connections: Kirusa and txtAfrica push mobile services to Africa
• The 6 Ps of a Successful Mobile Technology Strategy (Part 1, Part 2)
• Going Mobile, Embrace Its Unique Characteristics
• How mobile phones are turning into phantom limbs
• Pixel Proliferation: A Toolset For Managing Screen Resolutions
• Touch Gesture Reference Guide
• Evaluating Text-to-Speech for eLearning Narration
• Digital Republic’s Karim Khalifa Maps Out Mobile Marketing Opportunities In Middle East
• Completely mobile newspaper launches in Africa
• Teaching mobile journalism: It’s not just the tools, it’s the mindset
• How to Get the Most Out of Your iPhone as a Reporting Tool
• Giving Radio Listeners a Voice

Read the rest of Weekly Web Watch #23 at Mobile Advance.

This is continued from Part 1, posted previously.

I mentioned earlier that the services layer is where we’ve seen the most work happen in mobile ministry. Part of that is because of the maturity of that layer, the accessibility of that layer due to (simply) the existence of the Internet, and the (usually) generous offering of compatible APIs between services and some families of devices. This allows the ministry/organization/individual developer to focus on making sure things plug together neatly, and they can put more energy towards the experience that is to be gained from using their application.

But what if you want to focus on the device layer? What are you in for? Let’s just look at a few device platforms that you could support:

• iOS (Apple)
• RIM (BlackBerry 5, 6, and 7)
• Android (1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 3 (Honeycomb), and now Ice Cream Sandwich which has no version number and spans several device form factors both mobile and not)
• Windows (WM 6, 6.5, Phone 7, and Phone 7.5)
• Nokia (S40, S60 Feature Pack 2, Symbian^1, Symbian 3, Qt 4.5)
• Brew (incompatibilities across carriers)
• HP (WebOS 2, 2.1)
• Samsung (Bada, Bada 2)
• And several mobile devices which use proprietary OSes that cannot be developed for directly, but are sometimes enabled on the carrier-level for some services (see the graphic in this Vision Mobile article for details)

And that’s just what I could name off the top of my head.

You can’t focus on the “mobile = devices” meme. You can’t even let that maintain more than 1/3 of your thoughts on mobile. When you do, what happens is that you start to make smaller the addressable persons who would be able to successfully utilize produced content, or even enable them to produce content for themselves.

Let’s say that you want to focus on the services layer. What are you in for here? A small list again:

• WAP
• HTML (4 and 5; devices support different and mismatching pieces of these)
• SMS (MMS, shortcodes, carrier-specific rules, analytics that matter, etc.)
• APIs to default applications (requires platform-specific SDK)
• APIs to web services such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. (read the terms of service for what you are able to access and what compromises you or consumers might have with these).
• Content Management Systems

Again, just a few pieces. But you can’t just say “go SMS” and not also be cognizant of the fact that SMS broadcasting rules are different in various countries/carriers. You also need to be able to scope carefully what your entire workflow will be for that communication from the creation of the message, to what happens with the data about that consumer, to expectations for them and your organization.

I’d go into experiences, but you might be getting it now – you can’t just think about mobile as some isolated channel. It isn’t isolated, and the entire mobile definition is predicated on the synergy of devices, services, and experiences.

The potential of mobile is that there are 5.3 billion accessible persons who can be touched in some way by a carrier of the Gospel. The realistic assessment is a lot smaller, and requires more than just a passion for the theological command. Our passions also have to account for the ability to get to the message in an accessible manner. That’s more than a device. And ultimately, it requires us getting on a deeper level than the channel itself.

This post was previously titled “Digital Disciples Charlotte Meetup,” but that is changed as this is not a Digitial Disciples event, but Charlotte area Digital Disciples are invited to attend and connect. This post has been updated to reflect that change ~ Antoine

We mentioned on Twitter yesterday that an update for Digital Disciples Charlotte was coming, and now we’ve got the details to pass along.

Gabe (founder of Digital Disciples) and his wife are visiting Charlotte, and have relayed that Digital Disciples in the Charlotte area are invited to come out to the Charlotte Creatives Meetup and Lunch. The details for this are as follows:

Date: Friday May 27
Time: Noon
Place: Warehouse 242

Please note, you have to RSVP as seating and resources are limited. Please find the remainder details as well as the link to RSVP at Eventbrite.

Apologies to those who might not be able to make it out because of the time. But, do at least note your interest on the Meetup site so that we can let you know of future meetups.

In Reference to Digital Disciples Charlotte

It has been a long time since the last time we’ve come together. Looking forward to connecting with Gabe and Warehouse 242, hoping also this can spur us and the Body of Christ in Charlotte into better serving one another.

Working dates for the next couple of meetings as well with the summer here. If you have suggestions, use the Meetup site to suggest and we can go from there.

I was reading some information recently about some evangelistic engagements happening in various parts of the world, and lots of these are being started with the mindset of using the Gospel as the leg to stand on that will improve the social conditions of various areas. Many times, missional or evangelical engagements start with this idea, but end up succeeding or failing because of the immediate next domino – how does the group being evangelized then stand on its own?

For example, you (or your organization) starts an effort to educate a social group because it has been identified that the location is well trafficked and that there are several people in that area who have shown a hunger for learning. Your methods involve establishing a school, and you account for the people, the building, and even much of the startup expenses related to at least getting 6 months to a full year to see it through. What’s left to do but to go there right?

Well, not exactly. You are developing a school, so what is the curriculum that you will be using? What will be your measures of success? Because you are effectively building a well in an oasis, how you you going to navigate the other areas of society that will be effected by the introduction of a place of education? You’ll need laborers to help with cleaning, and you might need to have a backup plan towards how you’ll acquire and support teachers? What kinds of other activities will that building employ? And how does the establishment of an educated class of people prepare for life after that education if there are no jobs befitting what they’ve just learned in that region yet?

The last question tends to be the one that should make us all pause a bit when it comes to our engagement of others with the Gospel by computer-based methods. We’ll gladly educate them on the things of the Word. Equipping them to skillfully speak and handle the Word of God to address moral and psychological wounds that might be present. But, what’s next? How did we help them to also create opportunities for those infrastructure or technical needs that might be present?

I wonder, if when establishing our technology-driven evangelistic methods, if we could also have a focus on the other skills (lately, that’s been sounding a lot like Exodus 25-27 like skills)? Which not only will allow those groups to demonstrate the Gospel, but to also provide a means of supporting themselves beyond the initial generations taught.

In a lot of respects, its rare to talk about Bible apps for one specific platform – there so many – the causality of Bible apps for the Symbian platform has been one of those questions that has gnawed at me a bit. Not so much even for the lack of applications, but the missed opportunities because of where the Symbian platform has been represented.

What is Symbian?

Symbian is a mobile operating system and platform that’s been used by Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Fujitsu, and LG for mobile phones. To date, there have been over 600 million devices shipped and sold with the Symbian operating system, making it one of the most prolific  in use.

Nokia has been quite adept at making Symbian fit its needs. It has pretty much been selling Symbian devices longer than people have given credence to there even being a category called smartphones. To that end, Symbian has been deployed with more carriers and in more world  regions than all but the most basic of Java handsets.

Unfortunately, it is also considered an older platform that while stable and optimized for mobile devices, falls quite far behind some of the newer entrants in respect to ease-of-use, developer tools, and ease of finding applications. And so Symbian recently befell Nokia’s reorganization efforts (first spun into an open source platform, and now to be greatly minimized  over the next years  to be replaced by Windows Phone).

Symbian and Bibles

By accident of niche, Biblical software usually is a fairly easy one to fill. Find a publisher that has the languages that you want to address, write the application to deliver it, and then make it available. The issue with Symbian is that its actually a pretty difficult platform to build on. Without getting too technical, its just plain to say that developers have needed to had a certain type of older technical knowledge (previously) or invest in toolsets (Qt, Java, etc.) which required a good amount of patience before progress.

When I moved to the Symbian platform in 2008, there wasn’t much to find for Bible apps. Laridian, Olive Tree, Symbian Bible, and Go-Bible were pretty much your only options. And for a while, this was just fine and covered most of the Symbian devices that were in existence. When Symbian went to a touch-based user interface (UI), things got a lot fragmented, and Symbian Bible pretty much became the only option (Best eBible came on the scene later). Which was good and not good – a free application, using Bibles formatted for the Palm Bible+ application, and had no support for newer translations. Newer platforms ended up with a very easy “in” for adoption, they had what people could read, and could find.

A Missed Opportunity…

In light of all of that history, its easy to say that Symbian (and the companies associated with that platform) might have missed an opportunity to take a platform that has already made considerable inroads even further. But, it had a good bit going against it, and so it is now in the position it is in.

But does that mean that all potential opportunity for this platform have been lost? I’d say no, if technical aptitude is seen as a gift that can benefit the Body. When I say technical aptitude, a platform (like Symbian, but all qualify here) benefits by such knowledge as developer tools, device interfaces, language mapping, usage analytics, etc. A person who is skilled in any of these areas would be a suitable team member for a larger project creating an application, service, or refining a digital faith experience. These persons have to be looked for in “not normal places” as their gift isn’t something you’d find in Exodus on the way to creating a mobile altar (Exodus 25-27).

There’s also the benefit of much of Symbian’s assets being made available in open forums (for example Forum Nokia), through some open source technologies (for example Qt), and through the continued ownership of Symbian devices (installed-based analysis by Vision Mobile). In effect, there’s a lot of folks out there who can still benefit from a Bible solution on this platform.

The Lesson for Other Mobile Platforms

It is easy for the market, and popular (loud) opinion to state where you should place your development resources. Certainly, making plans for mobile software you’ve got to take into account devices, services, and experiences (the entire frame of mobile) and what is currently and what will be in the years to come.

When it comes to religious software, you also have the opportunity to always tap into the installed base of current users. Many times, your frequent fans and users of digital faith items will not splurge on the latest devices or services, though they will want to receive some of the same experiences that newer devices offer. It is in this that the opportunity lies, and where its possible to not just make a product, but help drive older platforms to a friendlier sunset.

Currently, there are several mobile platforms that have come and gone (Epoc, PalmOS, Windows Mobile), and some that are pretty much on their last legs (Symbian, older versions of Android and iOS, RIM’s BB OS 6 and earlier). Developers looking to cut their teeth on a mobile platform to learn and to provide experiences should not forget these platforms. And at the same time, you should go into any project with a clear (and simple) goal and definitive timeline. You  will not be able to support those devices for very long when the official support has faded.

Lastly, when you are a platform that has cultured a community of content, but you are no longer able to support that platform, utilize the open code and support communities of Code.Google, Forum Nokia, SourceForge, GitHub, and others as places to put your code and release notes. There might be someone willing to take up the project, or at least help you migrate your project’s contents into a newer platform. For example, MMM participated in an effort to update the Rapier Bible application for Maemo 5 devices, fixing some linger bugs, but that also set the stage to develop (and later release into widespread testing) a Bible application written in Qt from the ground up called Katana. The rewritten application leans on lessons of the former, but has a much longer viable life because of decisions made early on to support certain content and programming hooks.

For Symbian, it may very well be the case that the sun is setting for it as a leading mobile platform. It is also the case that there are some years and various regions of users that still haven’t been served with digital faith content though having a platform capable of supporting it. Do keep that in mind as you consider your mobile strategies, and remember to study the past platforms for what is probably going to happen to many others in a nearer-than-you-can-expect future.

This is a story sent to us from the mission field. The details are true, but names and physical details have been changed.

All, though, is not great and glorious.  Satan has never given up his ground without a fight and following Jesus on the path of the cross is still too often forced upon His followers even today. This last week we received word about “Anna”, a young woman who had fallen in love with Jesus and was following His ways. Anna was actively sharing about Him with friends and other women in her area by playing various songs, poetry and videos for them on her mobile phone and sending those materials on to those who were interested via Bluetooth phone-to-phone transmission.

Anna was killed last week by her brother at the direction of her father. Anna had been told her following Jesus had brought shame upon the family and was given the opportunity to stop loving Jesus and stop following Him, but Jesus was a more precious treasure to her than life itself. [Praise the Lord] she now rests in the embrace of her eternal Father knowing closer fellowship with Jesus than she ever experienced on earth. Pray for the other believers whose safety is still threatened, for her family who now, more than ever, need the forgiveness that can only be found in Christ. Pray for us as we seek to find lessons that God would have for us from what has happened. 

It is clear in several conversations (online and offline) that mobile ministry is one part understood for its potential, and another part misunderstood at how mobile can best be applied in ministry contexts. I think that this opens a can of beans by stating it like this, but its better that its just stated now since mobile ministry is still at its infant stages.

(Refined*) Definition of Mobile

Communication and computational events facilitated through the use of handheld devices which expand personal contexts to mediated and shared life experiences.

(Refined*) Definition of Mobile Ministry

The use of, and application of devices, services, and experiences classified as mobile to experience the fullness of religious faith traditions.

*Both of these refined definitions were taken from our GCIA 2011 Presentation Deck; you can refer to our other discussions on the definition of mobile ministry by using the tag reference to our articles on this subject.

There are a few pieces to note within this definition key to my position on this. First, mobile isn’t about having a certain kind of mobile device. Mobile devices are considered to be any computing device that is portable. That means laptops, tablets, PDAs, phones, music players, personal media players, gaming systems, and even calculators are mobile computers. What you do with them doesn’t yet drive the definition, these are all devices which process several types of input and output another type of data without physical tethering by either the user or the computing device.

Next, there are three parts of mobile which aren’t exclusive to mobile, but do drive the understanding towards how to proceed forward. Mobile is made up of three layers: devices, services, and experiences. Devices include all of those which I described in the paragraph above. However, when you hear “mobile devices” in marketing and similar communications, it is implied that you are speaking of computing devices that have screens between 5in and 2in in diameter. This doesn’t mean that other devices aren’t mobile, only that the marketing term for mobile has been constrained to this type of device form factor only.

Portable devices without a screen that also facilitate computing-style interactions are also mobile computers, but again, marketing or functionality determines their name, and therefore their perception. This includes how we think about portable computing devices for those with disabilities.

After the idea of devices, we have services. Services include those applications, wireless networks, applications (and their frameworks and development tools), and those tools of analysis and monetization that enable the devices to perform/facilitate communications or describe/analyze events. On this layer you have the fun of mobile platforms, cellular frequencies, developer tools, regional idiosyncrasies towards using a device (SIM, no SIM, MVNOs, etc.), SMS, etc. It is in this layer that much of what has happened to date in terms of the application of mobiles in ministry has taken place.

Lastly, you have experiences. Experiences include “soft” aspects of mobile including design, marketing, intended effects (education, salvation, discipleship, etc.), and the environments effected by mobile (politics, psychology, theology, etc.). The experience of any mobile device, for example, how hard is it to call up a verse in the Bible when listening to a preacher, overall determines how we judge the device and service layers of mobile as an entire experience.

One of the many difficulties that organizations (not just in terms of digital faith) are having with mobile is that they are letting the device layer direct the application of mobile to their intended audiences. Unfortunately, when that happens, especially when you take smartphones out of the equation, is that the development of consistent experiences and integration of services becomes very difficult. Engaging any mobile audience requires a clear understanding of how these three layers are going to be effected, and decisions need to be made very early in the process as to what layer you will most focus on, and how you will craft your expectations around that layer.

This continues in Part 2 next week.

Over at Mobile Advance, a weekly list of links to news and happenings in and around mobile is posted. Here’s a snippet of what’s in Weekly Web Watch #22:

Apps

• What is the cost of developing apps for mobile marketplaces?
• Sizing Up the Global Mobile Apps Market
• Most Engaging Phone Apps: Top Picks May Surprise You
• On a small screen, user experience is everything
• How to Make an App: What Dev Tools Do Professional App Makers Use
• Developing for Mobile Platforms: General discussion and best practices
• Best Practice Guidelines for developing quality mobile applications
• HOW TO: Create a Blockbuster Mobile App
• Web App Masters: Native or Web-Based Mobile Apps?
• Are Cross-Platform Mobile App Frameworks Right for Your Business?
• New Frameworks Give Mobile Web Apps a Boost
• Need a Mobile Web App Template? Mobile Boilerplate 1.0 is Here
• BOLT SDK allows developers to make HTML5 apps for feature phones
• XUI – A JavaScript Framework For Simple Mobile App Development
• Zepto.js – A Framework For Mobile Applications
• New XML Standard for Super-Fast, Lightweight Applications Announced by W3C

Read the rest of Weekly Web Watch #22 at Mobile Advance.

Last week, you saw that we posted sketchnotes of our time at the 2011 GCIA Conference. Here’s a small recap our our time there.

Day one was spent getting to know the area where we’d have the conference. Mount Hermon, California is a very beautiful place. After arriving, and being told that I was a bit early for check-in, I took some time to walk around the ground. Redwoods and sequoias all over the place. Taking a small trail walk was a humbling introduction to what I would begin to understand as one of the common themes for the week.

Day two there was actually the first day of the conference. After introductions and a shared devotional, we got into the day’s sessions. Day 1 of the conference centered on social networking (see the sketchnotes, top-left corner). Presentations by Jesus.net, Cornerstone, BeRemedy, World Wide Open, and several others pointed to the growing use of Facebook in outreach, discipleship, and evangelism efforts. There’s a lot of room in terms of just Facebook activity for several players, but probably at lot more potential outside of using English languages.

Day three (that is, Day 2 of the conference) talked about web evangelism. The day was bookmarked by two great words of encouragement by Stephen Douglass (CEO of Campus Crusade), we heard more about what was happening with Campus Crusade, Jesus.net, and the conversation opened a bit more towards understanding hot just the opportunity, but the implications of using the web as part of the discipleship and engagement effort. I also got a chance to hear from the author of the book Netcasters – to which we’ll have a review coming of that book. Many people also participated in the canopy tour, which took you on heights amongst the redwoods. Apparently, there was also a 2000 year old redwood there – I didn’t go (heights and me don’t get along), but that would have been great to see.

Day 3 of the conference was dedicated to mobile. Clyde Taber (Visual Story Network), Dave Hackett (VisionSynergy), and myself were present to present – and we had Cybermissions and URMobile presenting virtually. Suffice to say, that was probably the most stretched day technologically, but one which ended with several questions and possibilities in terms of what MMM can bring to the table to assist with efforts in that space.

Day 4 of the conference had to do with visual story and visual media. I’ll have to mine for what happened then as I had an early flight out and missed that day of presentations and final remarks.

I will say that personally, I was edified, challenged, and humbled by the impact that many are making in the Body. I’m also quite pleased to see how many people and groups are working other. Also, the “big ships,” and how they have turned and are focusing their efforts not so much on the technology, but making sure that they don’t lose sight of former and new audiences with their Gospel presentations and engagement efforts.

Side note: do a YouTube search for My Last Day by the Jesus Film Project. Amazing artwork and production to their familiar storyline. Graphic warning, but you’ll want to let this one hit you and others.

Other than that, it was an encouraging time just connecting. The brother that I roomed with is working with a group doing some incredible work to train pastors and be solid believers in the Asia region. They have a ton of good stuff, and you can bet that we’ll be hearing some great things of their works as time goes on.

Lastly, I would encourage you to reach out to the GCIA or any of the groups noted on the sketchnotes and partner with them. A unified voice speaks more to Christ’s need to be heard and received than anything else we can do (peep John 17:20-26). If we can work hand and hand, no matter what out issues might be before and after, we’d have the kind of voice and impact in this world that won’t just win people to Christ, but it will have the better effect of making a better world to live in for us all.

About the Sketchnotes

There was a lot of information passed throughout the conference, and it was my hope to capture what I could using the sketchnotes method. I was able to get a ton, and for various reasons left certain names/items out. However, if you really want to see how the first three days of GCIA connected, I’m not sure that there’s a better way than with this kind of picture.

You can click on the picture, and then download it to view at full size. It was created totally on my iPad using the Adobe Ideas application. However, I took full advantage of the iPad as a canvas here and there is more to explore as you zoom into the image. There’s text and color all over the place.

I have pulled out most of the organizations that appear in the notes as tags to this post if items aren’t clear. Most should be, but just in case, that should help some. Many of these groups we’ll end up talking with/about again, stay tuned for those moments.

Apologies to the GCIA group for not getting Day 4 in there. If I were able to attend those sessions, I’m sure that I would have gotten them to fit in there. As you can see though, there’s a lot of detail here, and I hope that I did you all a good service by creating this.

I caught it while traveling last week, but didn’t make the effort to repost – hopefully correcting that now. The 248th Carnival of the Mobilists has been published and its being hosted this month over at the WIP Connector blog.

Its a small set of readings this month, but there’s a good amount of reads to keep you thinking and moving in and around mobile-focused issues from the perspectives of several in the industry. We’ve got two posts in this edition – our Good Friday and Easter Mobile stories.

Check it out, with your other weekly readings, I’m sure you’ll enjoy.