Another great look at mobile use in Africa, this time from the side of mobile enabling social change. Here’s a snippet:

Technology in itself does not lead to social change. For change to take place technology needs to be appropriate and rooted in local knowledge. People decide why and how a particular technology will be used and, depending on the political and socio-economic environment in which they live, adapt it accordingly. As we shall see from the case studies in this book, there are considerable local innovations and non-instrumental uses of the phone – using phones in ways not intended, that step outside their technological aspects and which attempt to bypass traditional power structures. Firoze Manji describes this process as ordinary people taking control of their destiny rather than technology driving the change: ‘Social change is actually driven not by technologies but by ordinary people being able to exert an authority over their own experience and, through common actions, developing the courage to determine their own destiny.’

Read the rest of the excerpted chapter of SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa and order the entire book from Pambazuka Press.

This is worth the time it would take to read. Not just because of the perspective – and how much it will snap reality into the Western-side of the Body, but in the explanation ofTechnology, Rising Middle Class, and the Future of Evangelism in Africa in Africa, we can see even more why the mobile lens is so important to understand for its abilities and it implications. Here’s a snippet:

…Utilize Africa’s New PC to Preach the Gospel…Rather African Christians had better utilize their “New Mobile Phone PCs” to effectively evangelize and mobilize for the Gospel. I recall a New Testament Teaching Seminar I helped organize in Uganda, Africa about three years ago; much of the mobilization was through Text Messages to the many Phone numbers given to us. Interestingly, we did not need to put up radio advertisements and posters, rather we wrote a few letters inviting Pastors and relied on SMS Text messages to the many individuals who then passed over that information to others…

Read the rest of Technology, Rising Middle Class, and the Future of Evangelism in Africa atYesu Mulungi.

Given the energy around the recent post about moving MMM to Google Wave, I thought it good to link to a post at my personal site which gives a bit of the history behind me (Antoine) and the technology that’s penned a good deal of my life. Key thing to keep in mind, this is just my story, the Body has to enable folks to see this and tell their story and the story of the Gospel within whatever lens is appropriate. How MMM does this is something to be further opened as we get closer to BibleTech.

Continuing the discussion on the implications of mobile/web technology. Here are some more questions to spark the discussion. Remember, you can answer here or over at Twitter.

• How does the globalization of mobile/web effect the perception of community?
• Does it matter on a local level where the affluence of mobile/web isn’t as felt?
• What are the negatives of mobile/web? How do we adjust?
• What legislation has helped or hindered the Body’s ability to respond to these negative issues, and what are the future challenges?

Ok, that’s all that I’ll throw out there for now. Let’s open the box and come to terms with what is the now of this intersection of faith and mobile tech. And start talking about how we’ll address these items.

After the last post about moving to Google Wave, I thought that it would be good to open the box a bit more as ask the open question about the implications of mobile/web in the Body. I’ll throw out a few questions now, and a few more in the next post. Its an open sounding board, so fee free to respond here or via Twitter.

• What are some of the implications from the perspective of simply being connected?
• What are the good and bad points?
• What are the implications on family and social structures? How does the Bible assist in addressing this?
• Or, is this something where we’d need to become more knowledgeable in cross-disciplines such as psychology, sociology, etc. so that Bible application is done in light of Biblical truth, not just guesswork?

More to come in the next post.

Original post with comments

One of the items on the plate is a change of content management system for MMM. Due to a change that’s happening with Blogger – effective near the end of March – FTP publishing will not be doable. This takes away something that has been a solid feature and advantage for MMM. And while this change is understood, it does mean a change.

So besides looking at content management systems like WordPress, TypePad, and Drupal, one of the thoughts that has kind of come back around is the idea of using Google Wave as the landing place for MMM. One, the ability to instantly allow people to embrace the discussion here would be much easier. There would also be a much easier route towards not just finding content, but also people that connect with it.

The downsides are that Google Wave currently sits as a Google-served product – so without a Google account there’s a problem. Also, until I can become a bit clearer about running an MMM specific Wave server, I’m not sure that there’s enough time in the day to play admin to something that would be cool, but would also have its share of issues.

So I’m kind of putting this out here – and on Twitter, and on Wave – to hear from you. What would you think of MMM going to Google Wave? Or, if there’s an open source solution that’s similar (and won’t get bought out in the next 5min), what would you recommend and why?

Original post with discussion

This is a piece that was written for the BibleTech Conference blog: A Technologist Living Outside of the Silos. Its a thinking piece – or a motivational one – you’d have to come to BibleTech to hear this one 😉

Caught this over at the Digital Evangelism Issues blog the other day. Suffice to say, MMM definitely sits in the group of culture that thinks differently. Here’s a snippet of what I mean:

Lateral thinking is so often a key to success. For instance, food-processing engineers were trying to create a machine that could crack nuts. Problem was, to adjust the squeeze according to the exact size of the nut and the strength of its shell. Unless they could precisely calibrate the exact pressure needed for each nut, many were damaged. As so often, the answer was completely different: put the nuts in a vaccum and the shells would just burst off with zero damage or loss.

Read the rest of Making Holes, Not Drills and consider your strategies and approaches and whether you are thinking outside of the box enough to see the solution clearer.

Just a reminder that you can meet up with Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM) and many other bloggers, ministers, teachers, and organizations from all over the world at this year’sBibleTech Conference. There are tons of topics being covered over the two day event, and if anything like last year the backchat (Twitter, Facebook, and in the hallways) will be just as engaging.

This year, MMM’s topic will be Mobile’s Christ-Led Encounters (last year’s was calledMobile Technology and Connecting Communities) . Here’s the presentation abstract/summary:

Mobile has now taken hold as a main fixture within the regular consciousness of most mainstream technical thought. From sociology to psychology, transportation to entertainment, Facebook to the Good Book, mobile is now at the tip of every tongue in being that next great area of opportunity, engagement, division, and law. Still a new media, mobile suffers from the same growing pains centering around the question: “what’s its relevance?” Through the Body of Christ, we can point to some examples of mobile taking root in engagement, evangelistic, and opportunistic measures. We will look at some of these areas as a means to describe what has happened, but also in light of what can still be explored with mobile. It is from this lens that we can engage audiences towards utilizing their mobiles-in-hand as a handshake to open the door for an engaging Christ-encounter.

Hopefully, that has you a bit excited towards what’s to come – and not just from MMM. Be sure to register and get your hotel reserved as soon as possible. There’s a conference discount for the room, and you don’t need to worry about food. It will be in San Jose this year, and so we might get more than the 20min of sun we saw last year 😉

Looking forward to reconnecting with many of you, and seeing some others for the first time in person. But, don’t let conferences be the only time you choose to connect with MMM. We are on Twitter, engage the local Charlotte, NC community with Digital Disciples, and are available for other presentations and engagements through Inner-Linked. Suffice to say, we’re mobile – and at BibleTech, you’ll hear more about this mobile lens and how you can respond to it. See you there!

In the last post we talked about being engaged or enslaved to tech, here’s an example of taking control of your tech, using it wisely, and being quite productive with it:

…When you look at it from this perspective, it’s pretty easy to understand how always-connected handsets that provide a full-web experience are struggling to take off in emerging markets, and why Opera Mini has 46.3 Million users worldwide. Honestly, what good is a full-web experience when I can only open 10 full websites a month without going over my monthly allowance, and when I have to stare at my screen for 15 minutes before one page completely loads on my snail-speed connection?…

I can’t say enough about what Rita has done except to say that even here in the USA, we need to look harder at the solutions and opportunities we propose, and really meet where its appropriate use given the conditions, instead of reaching for something that isn’t a good – nor wallet-filling – experience.

Read the rest of Rita’s post at Symbian Guru and let us know some ways you’ve taken the bite out of the costs of your mobile use, while staying or increasing in productivity/ministry.