This past weekend, we were updating the Mobile Bible Apps page and noticed that the list was getting a bit out of hand. So, we redesigned it a good bit.

First thing that you’ll notice is that the applications are now broken down by the mobile or web platforms. We’ve got all mobile platforms covered with iOS, Android, webOS, Symbian, Maemo/MeeGo, and Windows Mobile.

We’ve also highlighted SMS Bible Services, Java/Non-Smartphone, and Audio Bibles as there’s a big push happening to get bibles and other content in these areas.

For most of the platforms, in addition to highlighting some applications, we’ve pointed to the application store for that platform (where possible) with a search page that highlights not only Bibles, but other content such as themes, reading plans, and more.

We’ve also added a very important section that’s been often asked for – Accountability Software – featuring Covenant Eyes and X3 Watch’s software for iOS and Android devices. Hopefully, other mobile platforms can be addressed and we can get those added here as well.

This page was redesigned to make it easier for you to find and use mobile and/or web Bibles and other software that will encourage your faith walk.

If you are a ministry or developer with software for one of these platforms (even if its just an update), let us know about it so that it can be added here.

It’s 2011, no excuse to not have your mobile and web untouched by Biblical software now.

Over at 3G Doctor a new initiative has been announced which aims to create the world’s first “Mobile First” Public Healthcare System. From 3G Doctor:

The program will:

• Create personal health records for the Albanian population based on the model developed by 3G Doctor and their partners in the UK and Ireland
• Provide a secure portal accessible by Albanian mobile subscribers that will support citizen engagement with personal health records, access to patient communities and healthcare Information resources.
• Introduce an informed remote voice and video consulting service (similar to the private 3G Video Mobile service developed by 3G Doctor) to the Albanian public via collaboration with selected public health centers.

The collaboration effort is aiming to submit a partnership application for European Union funding.  Current partners in this effort include 3G Doctor, Albanian Ministry of Health and Public Partners, Instant Medical History UK, and IVeH.

To learn more, or to find out how you/your organization can become a partner in this effort, reference the contact information on the 3G Doctor announcement. There is a deadline of making your request known for participation by January 12, 2011, so don’t wait on this effort.

A great story hit the web some days ago (CNN via Textually) about how doctors in Tanzania have used the speed and flexibility of mobile banking to lower the barriers of giving treatment for various health ills. Here’s a snippet:

Doctors at the Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania clinic (CCBRT) say the average cost of a return bus ticket for a woman traveling from a rural area for treatment is $60, a huge amount in a country where the majority of people live on $2 a day.

“We use the mobile phone to actually transfer those transport grants to the communities, so that those woman can reach our facility — and then the cost of lodging in a hospital, we also bear the costs,” says Erwin Telemans, who runs the clinic.

Using mobile to improve health care has been a common theme around the world, where this specific story gets legs is that its happening via mobile banking initiatives – services which started out very grassroots and have become quite effective and pervasive.

View video at CNN

Its Not Just Physical, Economic Health Also Effected

M-Pesa is one of the first mobile banking initiatives to come out of Africa (starting with Safaricom in Kenya and making its way across much of the continent) and currently handles hundreds of millions of transactions (the CNN article quotes 700 million transactions last year for M-Pesa). One analyst said that M-Pesa is being used by 35% of Kenyans, and is projected to be 20% of Kenya’s GDP for 2010. Essentially, what’s happening with these doctors isn’t just saving lives, but also giving economic health to a country.

A simple SMS is able to save a life, and then foster an economy. That’s the opportunity happening in mobile, how are you looking to do similar kinds of work in 2011?

The first Mobile Ministry Forum, held this past December 2-4, assembled 16 missional, technology, and media-focused persons (representing 15 organizations) to focus exclusively on building a shared understanding and use of mobile within the context and application of the Christian Gospel.

Conversations and working-sessions developed plans for mobile-oriented objectives such as training curriculums, expanded collections of research and analysis, and the establishment of a global practitioner community that shares this understanding of the world’s fastest growing communications media.

This forum was the result of understanding the unique channel that mobile continues to carve in our developing understanidng of digital faith initiatives. In representing the two-way nature of mobile, this forum, and the activities of its participants, seeks to demonstrate innovative and contextually relevant avenues for conversation for all persons looking for the place where their faith intersects this new digital paradigm.

A Few Highlights

There were more than 10 organizations represented at this meeting of the hearts and minds of those movers and shakers in the mobile ministry space. Organizations represented included:

• Campus Crusade for Christ International
• Christian Broadcasting Network
• CyberMissions
• Distant Shores Media
• Frontiers
• International Mission Board
• Global Short Film Network
• Kiosk Evangelism
• Missionary Aviation Fellowship (Learning Technologies Division)
• Mobile Ministry Magazine
• Role Model Software
• visionSynergy
• Visual Story Network
• Worldwide Evangelization for Christ (WEC) International
• Mobile Advance
• Wycliffe Bible Translators

The two day meeting was composed of several working sessions which aimed to put a consistent voice to activities in and around mobile-enabled ministry practices. Activites aimed to clarify the reasons for and definiton of mobile ministry; put some structure around what a global Christian movement – mobile-enabled – would look like; identify gaps, obstacles and opportunities; and finally leave from the session with some action-items (assigned and prioritized to the session participants).

In addition to these sessions, the people gathered fellowshiped in several side conversations and meals. There was also a few hours set aside for praise and worship with members of the local community.

Session Takeaways

There were numerous facts and opinions shared, but here are two that should stick out the most:

Working Definition of Mobile Ministry
Connecting and engaging the lost with the life-changing message, community and mission of Christ through personal, mobile technology.

Vision Statement for a global Mobile Ministry movement
[Within] ten years, every unreached person will have had a chance to encounter Christ and His kingdom in a compelling, contextualized fashion through their personal mobile device.

Full Report, Media, and Connect

A formal report covering the entire forum as been published on Google Docs and is available to read/share.

In addition, the Visual Story Network as put together a photo gallery of the Mobile Ministry Forum.

We encourage you to connect and reach out to the participants of this first Mobile Ministry Forum. All of these organizations connect via websites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks. So, not only would you be tapping a resource that’s at the leading edge of the mobile space, but also one that’s wholy relevant to digital faith initiatives.

2010 was one amazing, hectic, and transforming year. In respect to mobile, the world seems to have begun hitting a stride seeing mobile as something more than a flash in the pan. That’s always been the view from MMM. Mobile intersects with digital faith behaviors, and enables us to send and receive a lens of faith that’s a bit different, a bit fresher. Chances are, in 2011, you’ll refine some behaviors and push a bit more. How could that look in 2011? Let’s take a look first at mobile, then at what’s in store for MMM.

A Mobile Lens for 2011

Mobile will continue to push towards the front of technology, health, educational, and policy conversations in 2011. What will be most interesting is the overlap. As we talked about some last year, contextualization and cross-functional knowledge will play a bigger part in understanding the role of mobile and the impacts to digital faith behaviors. Those individuals and groups that pollinate their mobile perspectives with multiple arenas will remain ahead of trends and applications.

In hardware, we are still looking at more of the same from basic devices (slates, candybar, tablet, some clamshells). Storage and processor technology is again on the verge of stepping up a generation, but battery power isn’t. We should see a few more attempts with device and network intelligence on devices, but only at the highest model ranges. Look at what you see as high-end right now, it will be low/mid-range by the fall.

Price points for devices will come down to orughly $100USD for a smartphone sans contract (currently $130-150). This will continue the transformation of some (mobile savvy) developed markets towards being largely populated with new smartphones. That said, feature phones will continue to sell huge in most markets – and the 2nd owner market should also grow. Service prices will hold steady for a bit longer before we start seeing more tiers in data service offerings with larger carriers. Keep an eye on SIM cards, these might be changing – and not just in size.

Software will continue to go the route of paying attention to user experience and smoother user interface design, though we will get some attention paid to optimization and information security. I wish I could say that users will care about security, but situations such as WikiLeaks shows us that this will remain governmental and enterprise conversations.

Looks like we are on the verge of some jumps in the amount and attention paid to audio and multi-lingual approaches. However, the easiest paths for developing these solutions will continue to be with web-dependent data and transaction services.

Open source will continue as an area of opportunity and frequent barrier in software and business development. Religious content is one of the heaviest areas where DRM and antiquated processes remain, and so the change here to more fluid models is still some time off. We will see more attempts like the Kiosk Evangelism Project and The Evangelical Exegetical Commentary that will push some open source behaviors forward – the catch being with regional and legal issues which don’t change so quickly.

Mobile applications will continue to dominate the conversation in smartphone-heavy markets. Mobile web will pick up steam after Q1 and newer devices will further blurr the line between web and native applications. Would be nice to see a bible software company lead in this area – Logos’s Biblia was a great stepping stone to this.

We will see people more empowered with mobile to create their own solutions through more app-wizard-like programs and processes. I’m not sure if it will come from the faith-based space or outside, but I can see a few groups doing more with mashup-technologies that empower individuals to create solutions, instead of waiting for a larger network to be the solution.

MMM in 2011

With 3/4 a year under the belt as MMM as Antoine’s primary focus – and the addition of two voices for regional and development interests, there’s been a lot of learning and pushing taking place. Here’s some of what you can expect from in 2011.

• Reorganizing the Mobile Bibles page
• More development of the mobile ministry definition and its applicable areas
• Adding additional contributors, with a goal of 1-2 primary contributors from outside our majority US/UK audience*
• Creating more opportunities for speaking/consulting engagements for our primary contributors
• Structuring a mobile ministry course offering around the Digital Disciples effort
• Redesigning the site

If you will,  all of this is simply building on the core so that the depth of content hits on as many applications of mobile and digital faith explorations as possible.

2011 aims to be filled with a lot more sending and receiving of Christ in mobile and we invite you to be a part of the signal. Connect with MMM and let’s continue to enable the Body to see the intersection of faith and mobile technology.

*If you are interested in being a contributor to MMM, make your request known via the Contact Form. Include links to sample writing pieces, up to three (3) areas of focus/interest, and how often you’d be contributing by writing. Those who can write in a language besides English are heavily preferred, though all applicants are equally considered.

Yesterday, we hit on the top posts of 2010. Today, we look at the top 10 topics based on frequency of use here at MMM. In one respect, this gives you an idea of how we focus on various areas, and in another respect points to areas of interest and notable subject areas throughout 2010.

#10: SMS
Makes a lot of sense that SMS would be a popular topic. Its how it was a popular topic that becomes interesting as you see the various types of posts on the topic.

#9: Software
The software industry is constantly changing, and this year in mobile has been no exception. Lots of viewpoints here from applicaitons to developer relations.

#8: Social Networking
What comes first, going social or going mobile? Hard to tell sometimes with the amount of conversations around both.

#7: Bible
It strikes me as amazing how the Bible stays in the conversation no matter if we are talking reading, communities, software, or successes in this space.

#6: Communication
As with social networking, simply communicating tends to be a common meme within mobile. Lots of potential here for more work.

#5: Education
We’ve been intentional at look at education as a part of the fabric of being mobile, and this year’s posts have fought hard towards that fact. Look for much more in this space in 2011.

#4: Tech
Technology is a term that be be denoted to any tool. Effective technology – especially in this space – is another conversation. We’ve had several of these.

#3: Resources
MMM also serves as a springboard towards research and reosurces in the mobile ministry space. As with education, this is a topic that’s bound to rise higher in 2011.

#2: Community
How does the tech and resources filter into the local community of believers? Plenty of coverage around community engagements such as Lausanne, discipliship, and more.

#1: Mobility
It would almost be obvious to say that mobile would be at the top of the list. Mobility is not just the tools, but the processes, the policies, and the implications. Next year, we might default this one out of the list.

Those areas accounted for lots of coverage here. We are expecting this list to shift a good bit in 2011. What do you think might be some of the topics that would make this list next year here at MMM? Speak up in the comments or on Twitter (@mobileminmag).

Being the end of the calendar year 2010, we thought it a good idea to take a look back at some of the top posts from this year. Here are the top 10 posts which have generated attention and conversations this year.

#10: Agapage – Internal Church/Org Paging
Proving that there’s still room in mobile for past solutions, Agapage’s church/org paging product showed some of the more innovative tools to come into the mobile space for local church communities this year.

#9: How I’m Using My iPad
It took MMM a while to jump on the iPad bandwagon, but when we did, the response here and on Twitter took off.

#8: Book Review – Thin Places by Chip Furr
A brother who has become a consistant supporter of MMM, his book review here has been a common visit not only for its content, but for its impact.

#7: More Accountability Software
An area that’s getting more and more attention as people are going mobile. How do we take steps to be accountable in such a personal domain?

#6: What is Mobile Ministry?
This year, putting forth a definition of mobile ministry. Next year, well, you’ll have to walk with us and others to see what happens there.

#5: Mike Milton’s Lessons from the 2010 Lausanne Conference
One of the largest gatherings of believers from all over the world in the last three decades. Lausanne presented an opportunity to see and learn from the world’s Christian faith community.

#4: The Evangelical Exegetical Commentary As a Sign of Publishing’s Future
We talk a lot about trends here, and this post highlighting the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary seemed to strike a nerve with many of you. Lots more changes like this to occur in this space.

#3: The Future of Bible Software
Similar to the previous item, talking about something that’s been near and dear to digital faith causes some ripples. This post has constantly ranked high in terms of views since it was published.

#2: Compairson Thoughts on iPad and Bible Study Apps
Showing some of the attention that the iPad has garnered, this post not only strokes the aspect of what applications to use but also how we go about studying.

#1: Bibles for Mobile Devices
The best (hey, we’re biased) listing of free, paid, and open source Bible software for mobile devices. This list has seen several updates this year and points to one very obvious entry point for digitial faith initiatives.

That’s our top 10, what about you? What posts or topics from MMM in 2010 have most impacted you? Speak up in the comments or on Twitter (@mobileminmag).

A few notes before the holiday pause:

On December 25th, YouVersion (and others) will be engaging in a Global Share the Bible Day. MMM supports this effort and asks that as you do enjoy any gifts, that you also take the time to share the Word with your friends/family – or if you’ve missed keeping to that reading plan, that you reengage yourself to the Word and the present-gift that it is.

In the same wise, I’d like to encourage you all to enjoy the holiday weekend with one another. And even if you aren’t able to spend it with the people you want to, that you would at least take an effort to rest your spirit, and reflect on the gift of the present. Each day is meant to be unwrapped and enjoyed as a gift from God. Take your gift, each gift, and enjoy the day you have been given.

Melissa, Brett, LJ, and myself will be taking time away to rest; and next week we’ll be back with the usual posting schedule. So that means no updates here, on Twitter, Google Buzz, or in the MMM Nokia App. Email will be looked at on occasion, but this is really a break that’s needed to refresh and retune for the new year.

Thank you as always for your support, and may this Christmas and holiday season be full of joy, peace, and the occasional new gadget. See you next week.

For as much as the holiday is great for family and rest, its also a good time to get some reading in. Here are a few items that have come in recently which might make for engaging reading and reflecting on a new or old mobile reading device:

• Carnival of the Mobilists No. 244 at Volker on Mobile
• Insider’s Guide to Mobile from Tomi Ahonen
• Presentation and Notes talking about literacy in the digital age from Ben Grey
• The Internet in 2020
• Jarbyco, an SMS service for churches, has several case studies
• And a few books from Amazon: I Live in the Future, and This Is How It Works and Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design

Do you have some interesting reads that you will be engaging in this holiday season? Share yours in the comments or via Twitter.

After a number of conversations, further readings, and a excellent mobile ministry forum (report coming as soon as I slow down), there’s still this lingering feeling that the definition port forth here towards what is mobile ministry while not bad, just might not have gone far enough.

So, in the spirit of how this initiative is run, I want to put out a refreshed subset of that definition that I’ve been sitting on. It is one part just trying to get into a place of better understanding how to best apply a definition, but also lead towards developing and finding the research/case studies that support mobile ministry as an effective tool.

For a refresher, here’s the definition:

Mobile ministry is the skillful use and application of computer technology classified as mobile for the context of fulfilling the Christian (religious?) designation of forwarding the proclamation of the key ideals and history of the faith, following form to and innovating on top of cultural and faith traditions within applied contexts.

And here’s what I’ve been sitting on:

Mobile in missions: contextualizing Gospel messages; business as mission opportunities; technology in politics/global conversations

Mobile in Media: specifications around video/audio/text engagements; mobile applications alongside broadcast channels; mobile service development/infrastructure concerns

Mobile in discipleship/education: curriculum development; special education; educational explorations (OLPC-like initiatives)

Mobile Marketing/Analytics: SEO; security and access; local media channel development; mobile applications alongside and independent of broadcast channels

Spiritual implications of connected spaces: theological constraints/precedents; directions for educators/parents/local communities; psychological/cultural effects of mobile vs other personal/connected technology media elements

Mobile in Moment: use of connected services and applications; SMS/MMS; effects of and effects towards social and linear networks; personal use; theological constraints/precedents

So, in looking at mobile ministry as a tool, practice, or context, its becoming clear that how mobile is being defined determines its best application.

With that said, do you see any areas here where the Body is already equipped to move quickly into mobile? Or, do you see gaps that need to be addressed, before mobile ministry is regarded as wholly beneficial?