One of the areas where mobile seems to be making some headway as a catalyst towards ministry engagements is in the media field- and especially in areas where traditional means of data collection, analysis, and even diagnosis is not as able to happen. And while I know that one day we’ll get to the point where there will be sensors in or around our mobile devices that will correlate to health and wellness, it is really neat to see some of the work that is happening around that field right now.

The 3G Doctor is probably the premier website discussion medial and mobile. This site isnt’t just a technology demonstration either, it is actual doctors in the field, experimenting and collaborating to learn and share the lessons about what’s possible given the abilities of mobile in areas where traditional health managment just can’t happen. Check out the 3G Doctor Blog for some additinal analysis and insights in this growing field.

The field is commonly referred to as mHealth (mobile health) and covers everything from applications, to services, to regional and global policy development. mHealth initiatives don’t just seek to wave a flag that mobiles can access emergency health services, but look to embed an entire ecosystem of health and wellness practices which as fostered in some respects by mobile devices or the mobile web. What’s been most interesting in the mHealth arena has been some of the specific regional topics which have been addressed: pregancy topics and prenatal care, nutrition, AIDS prevention and education, domestic violence, and excercise and wellness.

There’s also a great deal of information coming from entities such as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Foundation, the World Economic Forum, and Mobile Active.

As with other aspects of mobile, there’s going to be a uptick in the information acquired and the education dispersed towards medical, health and wellness needs in the near future.To those communities and organizations who deal with health and wellness, the rise of mobile as another tool on the belt should be a welcome sign, and a empowering one.

A few months ago, I was invited to a local gathering of pastors who met to talk about an initiative and to pray together. Given that at the same time, I had started to take MMM full-time, it was a great opportunity to both fellowship and get some additional information towards the spiritual and technical climate here in Charlotte. What I wasn’t prepared for was the scope of that meeting.

The meeting was to discuss the involvement of many churches and ministry organizations in the Charlotte area to work together in praying for and joining the conversation around the the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism, which is happening this year in Cape Town, South Africa. Given the abilities we have with technology, and the sheer number of ministries in Charlotte (I’ve been told that there are over 750 churches alone in Charlotte; looking for the stats back this up), the meeting was to ask these ministers to share in their resources to be a satellite showing of some of the wealth of the information for this conference since many will not be able to attend.

It was at that point that MMM began to feel very real, and very relevant. There was this global conversation happening about evangelism and how the growing sociological and technological landscapes were changing and how the Body could walk with Christ (John 17) in the midst of this change. And so I sat and listened to the hearts of these pastors, prayed with them, and have since been following alongside the larger conversation around the Lausanne Conference. There is some pretty neat stuff going on.

About the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism

Pulled right from their website, here’s what the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism is all about:

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Lausanne III) will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, 16-25 October 2010. The Congress, held in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance, will bring together 4,000 leaders from more than 200 countries to confront the critical issues of our time – other world faiths, poverty, HIV/AIDS, persecution, among others – as they relate to the future of the Church and world evangelization.

Cape Town 2010 (CT2010) is not just a one-time meeting, but God willing, will be a catalytic event in the life of the church – drawing leaders together in purposeful prayer, humble repentance, strategic dialogue and decisive action. Together we will seek the Lord as we examine the world and our culture to discern where the church should invest its efforts and energies to most effectively respond to Christ’s call to take the gospel into all the world and make disciples of all nations . . . lives changed for all eternity, broken families mended, physical and emotional hurts healed, communities transformed.

So, you can see, this isn’t just any kind of conference, but one that seeks to truly pull in the cultural understanding of every area where we have been called to evangelize and empower. Very neat stuff. But even better is the local connections happening through Cape Town GlobaLink and the Lausanne Global Conversation.

Cape Town GlobaLink is basically a large multimedia forum where various sites will be able to connect with one another, and then share in the media resources both from the conference and from those meetings/conversations that happen after the conference concludes. Group membership is required for this area in terms of interacting with content.

The Lausanne Global Conversation is another social networking initiative, designed to facilitate the conversations before the conference, based on a series of 12 articles which are focused on the conference themes.

The Intersection of Faith and Mobile Tech

One of the most encouraging aspects of this conference that I’ve seen so far is a shared understanding that there’s a large need in the Body to not just use the newer/faster technological tools at our disposal, but that we also want to understand their implications towards the traditions of faith and their influences on culture. Several of the Global Conversations pieces have dived well into this topic, and it would seem that a healthy piece of the discussion at the conference will be brokering some shared understanding amongst the various ministries and cultural groups which will be represented.

MMM is honored to be playing that role of a missional technology resource for those churches participating here in the Charlotte area. It is both a blessing and a challenge to analyze the technological landscape and not just be a service-person (“can you build this for us,”) but an agent to stroke the minds of those persons who are already in position in the various ministry groups here to better understand how their IT resources can be used – without overextending people or resources, while empowering those people and ministries which might not have anything to offer.

Another group which has seen some increased attention from MMM locally has been those who are not connected to local ministries. Given the reputation of Charlotte as “part of the Bible belt,” I was shocked to find out how many people here are simply disheartened with the state of the church. The Lausanne conversation also has hit on this growing phenomena, and it will be really cool to see many people and para-church groups also come together for this Lausanne conversation and how it address shifts in worship such as this.

Today, MMM will be engaging with that same group of pastors to pray for this conference and the many conversations that it is already sparking. Before we move forward from this intersection, we’d like to make sure we are following the Light and not just stopping to look at Him. Join us in prayer for the global conversation, our local communities, and a concerted effort to be less about our specific niches, and more about His specific people.

Your Participation

You can participate in the Lausanne Congress by visiting their website, following them on Twitter/Facebook, and even engaging within the conversations. If you are attending, this is also another way to connect with the global Body, and then create relationships which will allow you to equip your local communities with the wisdom and understanding of local and global issues around the church.

At this point, MMM isn’t attending the conference in South Africa (it would indeed require a miracle of being supported to do so at this point), we’ll be engaged locally here, and continue to use this site and Twitter to share lessons learned and some alternative applications. Join in the conversation and own your response to being Christ in your community.

One of the brothers that I sit with is a poet. He and I have a great time talking about many of the topics that he comes up with and how these topics many times just come out of nowhere. From time to time, we’ll start on a meme and prose starts to flow as the language of our conversations. And it never fails that neither of us records or writes it down. It lasts for a moment, and the memory of the experience is great, but we both know that it would be great to capture that moment, and look at it later for wisdom and recollection.

In the same vein, I always wonder about those moments with the other arts, where we are there to observe, but many times don’t think to take the opportunity to record a snippet (video, audio, or still image) of the opportunity. Yes, there are some moments where social rules or even a stated request might prohibit such recording, but when it permissible, how often do we take in some of those moments for recollection?

If you do collect those moments, how do you share it either with yourself in the future, or with others? Does it even matter that it is even something you can view/hear later, or does just the moment to archive that event pass as just what was needed? I know that I find myself looking back on images, poetry, and even music from years ago every so often to train my memory not to forget, but I’ve also noticed that there are some stores of media that I rarely go back to – its like I captured them for the moment, but it’s becoming a bit of an unused/unreferenced digital pile.

Going a bit back to the title: is mobile a valuable tool to use to capture the art of the moment? Do you find it enriching for you or others to use mobile in those moments.

A good friend of mine and I were talking the other day about mobile and an epiphany that he had concerning mobile ministry. This person has know me longer than MMM has existed, so he’s seen me push and prod folks in the Body to understand this media/arena a lot sooner than some others, and at the same time, he (admited to me in that conversation) that much of what I said just went over his head.

Our conversation took place as he was in the midst of wrapping up a 10 week pastorial internship and he was not long from preaching for Sunday service. In the surrounding context of a church community that leans heavily towards being older, witha sizable teenage member base, he spoke up saying, “I think I finally get the need for mobile ministry. With information at people’s fingertips, we’d do well to teach people how to get it, use it, and skillfully live with it.”

I smiled because it has been this think of thinking that has been a part of some conversations recently as I’ve gone out and about talking about MMM and why such a perspective is relevant.

When we think about this idea of being skilled, or having a proficiency in something, very rarely do we (on this side of the economic world) think about picking up a fork to eat as a skill, or even typing on a keyboard. We take for granted that because we are embedded into a culture that does these actions that learning will happen, and what’s right and wrong about how we learned those actions will be tuned over time and social development.

With mobile, things are a bit different. Right now, we have this digital life playing the role of something being layered over the experiences of the primary age groups and cultures. Things that some do easily in a digital domain (develop applications, search and read news, etc.) are items that are still foreign to the general understanding towards how we live. And because its not native to many, we have a number of these instances where we are trying to learn how best to handle not just the use of the digital tool, but the implications of the digital-associated behaviors.

The grounds for mobile ministry therefore takes on two perspecives: an understanding of the technology and tools to relevant audiences, and an understanding and maturing of behaviors related to the implications of digital-associated behaviors in the lens of a Christ-centric lifestyle. Here, there’s room for both perspectives, and a hopeful sharing of the awareness that learning has to happen faster to match the tools and behaviors which have also changed.

To my friend, mobile ministry takes on a context of being a part of the glue a multi-generational church can use to knit the experiences of the older, with the zealous energy of the younger (Titus 2:1-8). To another, mobile ministry takes on the context of methodologies and standards which allow for the economic transformation of communities which might not have an infrastructure in place for traditional social services. In any respect, mobile ministry endears a response to life and community, thru the lens of the Gospel – meeting the needs of others, to display the hope for this life and the life beyond.

Two things:

Digital Disciples is tomorrow. Hope to see (or tweet) you there.

On a personal note, I’m having all kinds of thoughts about the continuance of MMM. I wonder – in part – about its relevance and need. Not just whether it’s meeting a need, but if it is really a point worth living and emphasizing. To me, mobile has become a behavior, it is not an accessory to how I do computing, or live life in Christ. Doing this full-time puts that in perspective, and also causes me to ponder the direction its been taken.

Weirdly enough, there is an outgrowth of MMM that keeps coming back, and that is enabling people who don’t have basic essentials (job skills, etc.) to learn and acquire those skills while growing in technical knowledge. A moment the other night reimpressed upon me how doing this site, even at this point full-time, has put me in a position to apply concepts of mobile and ministry to assisting others find direction in their wildernesses. Whether that’s something to re-evolve into teaching, or just a ticking of a passion even more to my core, I’m not yet sure. But, I’m impressed to consider my heart, and the direction this site/mission has under my watch. From that, God drives this life in His ways.

We’ve talked about the Carnival of the Mobilists (CotM) many times here before. But, I’d really like to plug it again in light of yesterday’s post about marketing and development in mobile. If you want to be a few steps ahead of the market – or a few steps behind it making a better product – the opinions and analysis shared each week with the Carnival of the Mobilists is hard to beat. You really do hear from the thought leaders and companies in mobile.

Check out the Carnival this week at WIP Connector. To follow where it will be each week, I’d recommend following the CotM on Twitter.

Ever since returning from the Uplinq conference, we’ve been involved in some rising conversations towards how developers, businesses/organizations, and people can better understand mobile in the context of making or marketing mobile applications – especially in the faith-based arena. It is true that not only are purchasing tendencies slightly different, but there are also some other considerations that carry some more weight than others.

This post will serve as a high-level understanding of this subject, and hopefully provoke some decent discussion towards taking some steps forward.

Identifying Opportunities
Probably one of the more striking things to hear is that there are tons of developers who don’t know what to build. The other side of that is that there are a number of companies and organizations which have specific needs, but don’t know how to go about finding the developers or marketing communities that have those resources to assist them.

So, let’s start with the question of “how to identify mobile opportunities within this faith-based space?”

Similar to MMM‘s noted content areas, there are specific areas in which I commonly hear needs:

• Real or near-real-time translation services
• Multimedia editing and distribution
• Enhanced SMS/MMS services
• Moderated communication or devices
• Parental or organizational mobile device and web management
• Curriculum development, collaboration, and analytics

These areas aren’t large items in and of themselves, but do point to some of the basic (and no so basic) area to which there’s a need. Of course, after you get to this point and know that you have an opportunity in hand, what’s a next step?

Connect with Developers or Marketers (or Your Intended Audience)
This is the aspect of mobile that’s understood to be called engaging networks, or building out your social web. For example, when looking to address a need in language translation, you connect with organizations such as Wycliffe who have done this for sometime. You connect with those platforms (web, Symbian, Java, etc.) which have a heavy presence in multiple regions and languages. And you leverage existing works (many lexicons are already in an accessible XML or XML-like format).

Connecting doesn’t just mean grabbing their resources, it also means to become a participant in the discussion around that resource. You improve the code-base, or you engage in the design and testing, or you improve the visibility of the effort in your own social networks. In other words, you don’t need to be a developer or a large organization for many applications, just an idea is enough sometimes to kick-start the effort.

This enables you to not just get an application done, or find one that suits you best. But, it gives you something to say as an opinion/thought leader in that community when its time to change or clarify focus.

A Common Debate: Focus on App Stores or Mobile Web
No matter whom you speak with, there’s going to be a discussion (or plenty of discussions) about the idea of building an application for a specific mobile platform or building the application as a web service, accessible to more devices, but dependent on several environmental factors. Many things depend on the application, and how much connectivity and native device functionality will be needed. But, it’s not as difficult of a scenario as it might seem. Here is some guidance in this area:

• Ascertain from the outset where the content within the application will be used, and focus your efforts there primarily, with a secondary use case in your back pocket;
• How much existing content exists in another application; do you need to just bridge to the API, or build a custom data set to support your functionality;
• Do you have the budget to build, test, and deploy to several platforms, or only a select few which are vital to answering the problem;
• Is your offering unique enough to be found amongst the thousand of applications which inhabit many mobile app stores.

Part of the debate stems from a failure to understand the needs and abilities of the target audience. For example, if you are considering to build an application to assist missionaries manage expenses while on their trips, consider that they are most likely using a rented or more rugged device (possibly w/o a touchscreen), they are not going to have an expensive data plan to go through several web pages before an item is recorded, and they are probably in need of some kind of off-device backup mechanism.

Target the choice about whether you build an application or offer a web application based on the real needs, not just what’s popular to develop for.

Defining the Successful Application
After the application is built, and the audience has received and begun offering feedback, you want to ask the question about the application’s success. Did the application set out to enable what you wanted it to? Were there any hurdles in the build, testing, or marketing phases of the project that you’d know better about the next time around?

You also ask the hard questions such as: were there too many hands in the pot (too many project managers, developers, marketers, etc.); was the marketing effort enough to justify the actual versus potential users; was the support structure accounted for; and so on.

Logging your impressions of the project from its initial thoughts, to the moment where you consider the solution built will enable you to best denote what success looks like. And while you might have some wild expectations, it’s key to stay realistic, and persistent (because sometimes, applications developed in a flurry can have a long shelf life without much maintenance).

Other Points
There are some other points that you should consider when making or marketing a mobile application. Here are some which follow the points above:

• Get involved with developer relations groups such as WIP Connector, Code.Google, and the various carrier and manufacturer developer groups
• Pay attention to both the popular and niche analysts who dissect trends and understand some of the intricate details towards the lifecycle of mobile
• Don’t be afraid to try something new in respect to the user interface, or even the entire user experience; however know that things which look and act familiar, are more likely to be used
• Develop your support and feedback system early in the process (example happening here with MeeGo)
• Consider security: not just device loss, or corporate management, but scenarios which are out of your hands such as fraud
• Whether the application is free or paid, consider various community and monetization strategies to support the effort after the initial project
• Document your journey (aka, write whitepapers and case studies); chances are, you might be traveling a road others will want to learn from, so your lessons learned here prove to be vital beyond the scope of your product

Beyond this, I would simply say to just go out and create something. Find out those pain points in your local or global communities, and work with as many hands as possible to use your gifts to develop into the solution.

Much like when Paul and Apollos noted how they might plant and water, but the Holy Spirit is the cause of the increase and the Body is edified towards Christ and the Father; you too want to plant and water in mobile those things that the Holy Spirit can (and will) use to enable us all to glorify the Father (John 17:21-24).

I have recently goins back to using a mobile web server on my primary device. Unfortunately, I have also started using several more mobile devices (a few to own a few more to review). One of the challenges that I keep running into is this idea of keeping data synchronized between devices.

Usually, I like what’s possible with the Symbian devices I have. There is an application on it called Phone Switch which can sync browser bookmarks, contacts, calendar entries, and a few other system files. Generally speaking, this works out very well. The problem comes when I am looking to move to another platform, for example, the use of three Google Android devices currently.

With these devices, I have to take a different outlook. Since I do not sync into a PC, I would need to leverage my Google Account and sync information to those devices with them. Now, I could go the route of syncing all of the info from my Symbian devices with Google, but I have not at this point. What I do sync with these devices is email and a few specific contacts.

This is good, but I often end up with situations where I don’t have the rig data or content that I need, and even my business card which sits on my mobile web server, because I’m not necessarily using these devices and serves to the best of their abilities to date.

Therefore, I am increasingly looking at certain types of cloud services which can handle my jumping between various devices, and I’m starting to notice something pretty neat – there’s a lot of energy around not just cloud serves, but how we best want to use them.

I think back to the time at Uplinq and a conversation with a representative from  Funambol , and her question about how services such as Funambol can work alongside personal and organizational sets of data. Much like how I am taking one core set of info and using across several devices, services such as Funambol look to the cloud (the internet and different network services) and these devices to present something that delivers consistent information when you need it.

Microsoft Exchange is another type of service which is able to take information from mobile and PC devices, and then serve it to what devices you need. Like Funamobl, this is a paid service, but is more likely to be used and managed in a larger enterprise setting. I used to use this a lot, but information policies and guidelines (some of which I participated in developing) had me adopt it to a deeper level.

The challenge is finding services and content which works everywhere, but that also respects your privacy and enables enough of an ability to connect that you never feel limited. Google has a great handle on this, and to some degree Facebook, Yahoo, and MSN. There are still a few too many hoops for me to jump thru. Maybe not for some who manage fewer devices and types of content.

It is really interesting though to see the push for mobile devices to be much better supported. Content and access are much less in a silo with mobile. And cost of data access (time, as well as economics) is going to be a question to those in sparsely populated areas, or those who travel often internationally.

Funambol has a really neat solution for individuals and smaller organizations in respect to these. MS Exchange is better for larger groups. And Google seems to do well in filling in the blanks. I need to figure out something, so that I can better boot into using the information that I need in the most efficient manner.

Just a reminder that Digital Disciples will be meeting this Saturday, 10am at Dilworth Coffeehouse in the Ballentyne area of Charlotte, NC. The rest of the meeting meeting details, including a map, are here. Depending on weather and number of people, we might just have things on the outside of the coffeehouse. We’ll be discussing the way forward for Digital Disciples in Charlotte, as well as a small sharing of a presentation on discipliship that’s been shared recently. Looking forward to seeing you there.

By the way, look for the guy with an iPad and too many mobiles on his table if you’ve not met me before.

In the years since MMM has been inked and online, there have been several types of interfaces posed as what’s next. In a slideshow shared at SlideShare, the idea of interactive reading and its accompanying devices and interfaces as it’s changed in this new century are explored.

A friend asked me yesterday what Bible application that he should choose to use for his iPad. I didn’t just have a question to him of whether he wanted something for reading or studying, but also how he planned to interact with the content. This is the kind of decision that digital interfaces will add to the decision process around reading. For developers, its going to be an interesting set of challenges to play with. For readers, well, what kind of stroke do you use to swim through content?