We’ve looked at what mobile can look like in the next decade. We then took a look at some internet trends for 2020. Now, we have a look at 2025 by Cisco and the Monitor Group’s Global Business Network. Here’s a snippet:

The four scenarios: The interplay of these uncertainties can result in a large number of plausible scenarios for the Internet’s path through 2025. The report focuses on four scenarios that portray challenging and distinctive alternative stories about how the world might unfold:

• FLUID FRONTIERS: A world in which the Internet becomes pervasive and centrifugal. Technology continues to make connectivity and devices more and more affordable (in spite of limited investment in network build-out) while global entrepreneurship – and fierce competition – ensure that the wide range of needs and demands from across the world are met quickly and from equally diverse setups and locations.
• INSECURE GROWTH: A world in which users – individuals and business alike – are inhibited from intensive reliance on the Internet. Relentless cyber attacks driven by wide-ranging motivations defy the preventive capabilities of governments and international bodies. Secure alternatives emerge, but they are expensive.
• SHORT OF THE PROMISE: A frugal world in which prolonged economic stagnation in many countries takes its toll on the spread of the Internet. Technology offers no compensating breakthroughs, and protectionist policy responses to economic weakness make matters worse – both in economic terms and with regard to network technology adoption.
• BURSTING AT THE SEAMS: A world in which the Internet becomes a victim of its own success. Demand for IP-based services is boundless, but capacity constraints and occasional bottlenecks create a gap between the expectations and reality of Internet use. Meanwhile, international technology standards don’t come to pass, in part because of a global backlash against decades of U.S. technology dominance.

Read the rest of the press release.

To read the full report visit the Monitor Group’s Global Business Network and Cisco Newsroom websites.

2025 is a long ways away. Think back to 15 years ago and the changes that have happened since then. Its safe to say that we guessed but couldn’t exactly predict what would happen now. Nevertheless, there were some lessons and prophets speaking things then that have and haven’t been heeded. What might we be entering into in 15 years that we aren’t necessarily listening to right now?

I mentioned some time back how Evernote has been factoring into my iPad use. Besides being an neat replacement for the Notes app there, and Active Notes on my N97,  it also serves as a scratch-pad and archival place for the posts that appear here.

There are other ministry uses for Evernote that I’ve come across, and some which just sound like great ideas. Here are a few:

• Using Evernote and a mobile bible application to record notes from Bible studies and sermons
• Using the audio recording feature of Evernote to record snippets of voice alongside those notes
• Creating a digital scrapbook of a ministry/missional endeavor
• Using a dedicated (and secure) Evernote notebook to collect images of receipts and other pictorial accounts of various expenses for accounting needs
• Making a shared notebook for a small group Bible study or scrap-booking project

Those are just a few of the items that I could think of. Because Evernote works on just about every mobile and PC platform, the potential for uses can be pretty large and deep. There’s also free, premium, and sponsored options within the service to fit certain means as well.

What might be some ways that you can use Evernote (and its wealth of options via Trunk) to enhance your ministry activities?

From the recent ICCM-Europe Conference, Cybermissions has shared their presentations.

• The Future Of Internet Ministry (a 20,000 ft overview of where Internet ministry is at, also lots of links to resources)
• An Introduction To Mobile Ministry (an overview of ministry using mobile devices and how to get started)
• From Information To Transformation (how to move from just dump-trucking information on to people to actual Christ-like transformation, using technology)
• Phronema; Creative Low-Cost Information Management Using Google Custom Search Engines (a Technology for Missions talk)

A great body of work done here, and lots to chew on when looking at mobile, missions, and Internet.

For more information and to view previous presentations visit the Cybermissions website.

The International Conference on Computing and Mission (ICCM) is an annual informal (NO ties allowed) gathering of women and men who have a common interest in computers and mission. We share a vision of cooperation for effective use of technology bringing the Gospel to every nation. For more information, and dates to their next conference, visit their website or connect with them on Twitter (@iccmeu).

What kinds of mobile(-friendly) applications and services work best for pastors getting up to speed with mobile and social apps?

Though there are several, and a lot of preferred ones depending on the mobile platform you choose, we’re going to highlight a few we’d recommend for certain use cases:

Reading and Studying

• Kindle
• Logos
• Olive Tree
• Bible Web App
• Evernote
• Google Docs

Communication and Fellowship

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Foursquare
• The Table Project
• Meetup
• Greater Calling
• IM+

Budgeting and Administration

• Google Apps
• Dropbox
• Church Community Builder
• Splash Money
• PayPal

Those are a few we like. Pastors, what are some apps that you prefer to use on your mobile?

Bonus question: do accountability apps factor into your recommended apps?

If you’ve not figured from our Retweets of the Week series, Twitter can be a veritable treasure trove of content. One of the more recent tweets to come across the brow was a link to an article talking about Conan O’Brien’s reinvention using the “new” technologies of the Internet (Facebook, YouTube, branding, etc.) versus the “old media” (print reach, TV, radio, etc.) that he was well versed and quite successful in.

What stuck out (besides the writing) was the quote noted at the end of the Fortune article:

Then O’Brien thinks it through like a digital-media guy. “Ten years ago, if my situation with NBC had unfolded, none of this would have happened. Yeah, maybe I was 10 years too late to do The Tonight Show that I wanted to do,” he says. “But I was just in the nick of time. Do you know what I mean?”

Due to his situation with NBC, he had to react differently. Taking the route that he was used to wasn’t an option – that is, if he wanted to continue doing what he is doing.

Can the church afford to not be similar? Can any religious group?

Yes, there’s a notable difference in the way that some leaders interact with tech and the way their communities interact with it (not digital immigrant versus native, a different kind of divide that’s not fully understood or researched). It is a matter of shift – the kind of shift that happens every few generations that drastically alters how we continue living.

I won’t yet take the position that the digital transformations happening endear themselves to larger changes happening to faith cultures (there is a parallel happening) – but I will say that its no longer a time to sit on any sideline and say that you won’t engage. We have to be cognisant of the levels of relationship the Spirit encourages (Acts 1:8) without letting passions for one type overrun the rest (tweet).

And so we are challenged. Not just to become digitally savy, but to refine how we interact with one another in light of church/faith character no longer being “broadcast the message and wait for the results.” Similar to how Conan and others have found with performing, we need to understand that ministering also means engaging.

Engaging is beyond just making a website, establishing just another broadcast channel, and simulating interactivity with SMS and Facebook. It is becoming an active participant within the lives of people who do and don’t make a distinction between virtual relationships and offline ones. Its becoming a voice mediating the struggles people have when their contexts, and brokering the gaps with the same passion that is usually reserved for “being political” to maintain a presence. Its being instead of posturing. All with the results of an infusinon of faith on a level that is altogether familiar, and altogether bent towards the paradigm of life that people live now.

So what are you waiting for? Or rather, what has your faith community stopped waiting for from you and decided to find in another space?

Here are some of the items that we’ve retweeted on Twitter in the past week. By no means is this the entire list (you’d have to follow us to keep up), but these are some of those items that have stood out.

• tomiahonen – 5.2B mobile phone subscriptions and 3.7B ‘unique users’ means 34% of us have 2 or more mobile accounts; 6% have 3http://bit.ly/dNiszj
• anthonycoppedge – When relational (not physical) proximity increases, authenticity happens more naturally. Authentic relationships yield the best results.
• davehackett – Edmiston’s PPT: How Internet ministry can become transformational. Now posted at http://www.cybermissions.org/articles/ #mobmin #ieway
• textually – Schools Swap Old Mobile Phones For Classroom Resources http://bit.ly/hVZGTV
• soonguy – Vodafone Releases Webbox $100 Internet Keyboard for majority world – effectively a working PC http://bit.ly/hXczd0 #mobmin #ieway#missions

If you’ve got something you deem worth sharing, be sure to point it out to us (@mobileminmag) or use the #mobmin hashtag if its directly related to mobile ministry efforts.

These kinds of contests seem to often fly under the normal noise lines of media, or get pushed to the rear of some types of programs, but I think that there’s much to be learned from what Microsoft is doing here with their Technology for Good Contest.

The Technology for Good Contest is a way for Microsoft to highlight some of the work happening within Washginton state area non-profit groups after they have been given donated software. The contest winners draw light to some of the most effective and innovative methods pursued.

This year’s winners included Seattle Works (Increased Efficiency = Bigger Community Impact), Densho (Preserving Stories About the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II), and YWCA Seattle, King & Snohomish County (YWCA Seattle, King & Snohomish County – Technology for Good).

There is a submission gallery which includes all of those who submitted items for this contest, several ideas in here worth doing in multiple regions (Utilizing Technolgy to Increase Health Access, Creating Employment Opportunities for Blind and Deaf-Blind Adults, and Improving Case Management for Homeless Families Through Technology to name a few).

Winners received a $5,000 unrestricted cash grant, up to $100,000 worth of donated Microsoft software, consulting services donated by NPower Seattle, and more.

Given the examples here, how can your ministry or organization take existing work to create an opportunity for the positive welfare of others? Whether or not you get a prize from Microsoft, what ability do you or a ministry have in-hand to effect the immediate community you serve?

And if you have done items of this sort, drop us a line about it so that we can get some more eyes to your efforts (and be less of a silo about what works and what doesn’t).

~ via TechSoup

Around this time last year, a slide show looking at mobile trends for the next 10 years was released to wide acclaim and conversation. The amount of contribution and conversation around this effort spoke loudly to where many people see mobile, web, and other computer technologies going. We even posted our take on these trends, focusing on specific implementations to faith communities.

This year, we’ve got another info-graphic to poke your mind towards the Internet as it would look in 2020. From the folks at Intac, there’s a lot on here that’s not always easy to see in pictures. Here are some of the points noted:

More People Will Use the Internet
In 2010, there are 1.8 billion Internet users and a world population of 6.7 billion. In 2020, it is estimated that there will be five billion Internet users.

The Internet Will be More Geographically Dispersed
The estimated world population in 2009 was 6,767,805,208. The estimated number of Internet users on December 2000 was 360,985,492. The latest data shows the current number of Internet users at 1,802,330,457. The penetration of the Internet into the population is 26.6 percent. The growth of Internet users from 2000 to 2009 was 399.3 percent.

The Internet Will be a Network of Things, Not Computers
Today, the Internet has 575 million host computers. Expect billions of sensors on buildings and bridges to be connected to the Internet by 2020

Lots of things here, and much of it aligns with what we saw in last year’s report. What sticks out for you? Or, what doesn’t go far enough?

Thanks to the announcement of the Nokia-Microsoft partnership, I’m getting another one of those chances to think about open source and closed (curated) platforms and ecosystems. There’s always rumblings in the digital faith space about open source and how it can play a role as the/a answer to issues and reach, but too often, I’m hearing open source pitched as a platform solution, when the issues with evangelism, missions, etc. have more to do with ecosystem impacts than just platforms.

It is my opinion that the shift that the Nokia/MS partnership heralds is this acknowledgement that ecosystems are the next playing field for mobile, not platforms. Not that platforms (and the developers that come with them) aren’t important, but that their role isn’t any more important that issues of access, logistics, and flexibility to response.

When it comes to digital faith, we have several platforms (electronic bibles and music to name a few), but very few real ecosystems (the function and nature of Bible societies, and to some extent publishing companies, fills this view nicely). Centering just in on Bible societies for example, it isn’t just the distribution of Bibles, but the curation of faith through social programs, translation services, assistances to for- and non-profits, policy management/lobbying, and (hopefully) the sharing and maturing of believers who define faith first by belief in Jesus Christ. In a sense, they are a hub of several types of activities – so just advocating “go open source” doesn’t meet how they can respond.

Going open source with the disemenation and distribution of Bible texts could be part of their solution – when the matter of network assets, logistics, printing, and analytics has been answered. Going open source where the text (video and audio) can be structured and openly built up can be a solution – when the matter of monetizing the work so that those translating and making those structures can feed their families has been answered. Going open source with the hope of participation isn’t the same as already having community involvement in other aspects of fellowship (digital or otherwise) and opening up a further work doesn’t stress community threads. If you will, open source anything doesn’t matter – its how going open (shared duty, accountability, and responsibility) effects the other spokes of the wheel.

As I tweeted recently, “mobile open source initiatives need to not just answer the platform questions, but ecosystem relevance (whether tied to others or on it’s own).” In respect to digital faith initiatives, we’ve not only got to be able to say “go open source,” but identify the impacts that doing so will endear to current ecosystems. It might be the case that going open source for a platform in the chain will disrupt the entire sea – knowing this, and then helping individuals, ministries, and organizations navigate life afterwards is not just a mobile opportunity, but a key to displaying service as technology’s fingerprint to ministry intiatives.

Time for another mobile activity. In our last one, we took a big step – you were asked to try becoming a publishing point for Gospel content that you created yourself. In that activity, you essentially were able to do similar to what Bible societies and publishers have done for a few thousand year,

This time, we are going the investigative-conversational route of a journalist. With the end result of having the elements of a story that can be created in one of several modes.

For the following activity you will need:

• Any mobile phone (preferably yours)
• The ability to record video or audio
• Courage

Step One:

Get associated with your mobile device. Take some time to figure out whether you can record audio or video.

Usually, there’s an application called Voice Recorder or Recorder on your device to do this. On some devices, this functionality is built into the Notes application. For videos, you should find this feature within the camera settings for your mobile.

Step Two:

Make a trip to a place where there’s a steady, but not necessarily high amount of people traffic (coffeeshops are great, libraries, waiting rooms, and food courts are great).

Your first goal here is to observe and note how people are using their mobile devices. Either by recording your voice, or the people themselves (get permission before you do this), note things such as how they maintain eye contact within conversations, whether or not they “play” with the device while in conversation, etc. Are there some people taking pictures of various items? Or, do you hear conversations about applications, ease (or dis-ease) of use, etc. Note these items in your “journal.”

Step Three:

This is where courage comes in. When opportunity presents itself, approach a person (or a small group) and ask them simply if they like their mobile device? Ask this question openly, giving them room to expand on reasons why they might like or not like the device.

You’ll be asked “why do you ask” and your response can be that you “are doing a mobile activity for Mobile Ministry Magazine. Its an activity designed to help me better understand how people are using mobile devices, and how I can better understand them in the context of my faith.”

After that, allow the conversation to take its course.

Here’s Your Opportunity: Open the Door

As you can tell, this kind of activity can easily get into evangelizing about your faith. It can also dive into a conversation about devices, apps, games, or challenges with mobile. The goal though is to simply open the door of conversation, and before you converse, you’ve already investigated the environment and gotten a base understanding of the context. In a sense, your time in observation will allow you to not ask the wrong questions.

We talked about being like a journalist in this activity. And that’s definitely the case – observing, recording, and questioning your environment. Your story elements are there, and now you can begin to put together a picture of the social fabric of that area. When you asked the question about liking one’s mobile, you shed some light on one aspect of social life, and as you dug into faith or other topics, you added color, layers to the story. What you ended up with is a picture of that environment, and all the information you’d need to respond by faith to the needs there. Imagine doing this exercise with youth or singles’ groups – what kinds of different stories could come from this investigation of life and faith?

Once you’ve had this conversation, note it and mark what you did right or wrong. Come back to this post also and share your experiences. What could have made broaching the conversations easier? Or, how could your mobile been better able to help you during that observational period?

Personal Testimony/Caution:

I commonly do this behavior – and usually over the course of weeks am I doing the observations. In many cases, I’ve got to take a little longer in explaining and demonstrating MMM as the question, “do you like your mobile,” I’ve been told can come off like a pick up line. To that end, I’ll simply say be mindful of whom you are asking, and the context in which you approach anyone – depending on your heart/walk and their’s, this could be interpreted differently. Be respectful above all things.

Previous Mobile Activities/Experiments:

For more information on activities similar to this, read our MMM Mobile Web Server Experiment Report (available in PDF, Google Doc, and blog post (pt1, pt2, pt3) formats) and the last mobile activity – Creating an Opportunity for Gospel Interactions.