Tag Archives: content

The Info That Goes With Mobile

Amongst the challenges that many find within mobile, the idea of making sense of the amount of data that comes in is one that gets many people. Usually because we end up trying to answer the questions around return on investment (ROI). Yes/ there’s that challenge of identifying the data that we use, but what about after we get that data? What can we expose our understand better in order to change our approach or perceptions to what makes for effective ministry practices?

The MIT Technology Review recently published a piece looking at how data from mobiles changed bus routes. Here’s a snippet:

…Mobility data is created when someone uses a phone for a call or text message. That action is registered on a cell-phone tower and serves as a report on the user’s general location somewhere within the tower’s radius. The person’s movement is then ascertained as the call is transferred to a new tower or when a new call is made that connects to a different tower.

While the data is rough—and of course not everyone on a bus has a phone or is using it—routes can be gleaned by noting the sequence of connections. And IBM and other groups have found that these mobile phone “traces” are accurate enough to serve as a guide to larger population movements for applications such as epidemiology and transportation (see “Big Data from Cheap Phones.”)

Cell-phone data promises to be a boon for many industries. Other research groups are using similar data sets to develop credit histories based on a person’s movements and phone-based transactions, to detect emerging ethnic conflicts, and to predict where people will go after a natural disaster to better serve them when one strikes…

Read the rest of African Bus Routes Redrawn With Cell Phone Data at MIT Technology Review

The MIT Tech Review has also pointed to a slew of other mobile research data that will presented at an upcoming conference.

Knowing some of the folks who read here, this kind of data mining or analysis sounds probably too specialized, or at the least too intensive to be useful quickly. But I want to wager that is something that can be done on smaller, more informal scales by starting with observation.

For example, back with the Kiosk Evangelism Project, one of the initial theories on implementation were that people would be willing and able to put their mobile or memory card from their mobile into a machine and get content. I had my partner in the project go to the mall and observe how people were sharing content, and then go into various phone does and look at how the devices that sell the most were not used towards that manner. We had to look at distribution differently in light of that data, then come up with methods of access and discovery that worked for that kind of target audience.

Yes, you can go a lot further, as the MIT Tech Review piece shows. But, you have to be willing to look at the data differently, and be willing even to let the use of mobile disk to you, rather than making it say what you want it to.

Siine Writer and UI Design for Mixed Media Resources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae4_e0bRsHQ

For a number of years, we’ve been talking about how Bible applications need to do a better job of addressing the non-pastorial perspective for their applications. We’ve talked about both content and the over all user experience, but rarely have we been able to do more than just instigate more chrome, rounded corners, or a faster search. Almost non of the Bible applications currently available take into consideration the fact that there are more people who own and use mobile devices than those that can read (by stat: the Orality Network speaks that about 60% of the world is or chooses to be illerate; there are nearly 55% of the world’s population that has a mobile phone* (hardware, not account) – overlap, not symmetry).

When looking at Siine Writer and its approach to creating a keyboard that’s based around iconography, I smiled because there seemed to be some develoeprs/UI designers who get it – on a mobile device, context-tuned entry is more powerful the less the user has to do to invent the context they are inputting.

So here’s your challenge. You have a library of resources, and don’t have the time to go about creating read-first interfaces that respect every language you are trying to reach. Can you create instead an icon (and color pallete) driven approach that is better able to lead towards that expected experince that person should have towards your application? Do you know the context of those whom you are building this solution for to do this? Or, does your mobile ministry approach need to start more with analysis of the people group, leaving you less time to make mistakes or do extra work?

If you are looking to build or deploy updates to your Bible/Bible-related applications for more than just the 120 or so trade languages, I’d encourage you to take a look at Siine Writer, accessibility best practices (for example, IBM’s listing), and even conversations that designers and others have about icongraphy and culture. Speaking from experience, its very hard to create interfaces that convey meaning when you are used to letters, words, and phrases to do so. However, the Bible, and specifically its application into how it is applied today, endears us to have to consider context just as much as we’d consider content.

For those of you already thinking and working down this path, here’s a recent tweet with some links to icons, icon galleries, and icon design practices that should add to your efforts:

Khoi Vinh (@khoi) – Helpful replies to my earlier tweet about icons: iconfinder.com, iconspedia.com and a post at Owltastic. Thanks everyone.

~ Siine Writer found via Ubergizmo & Techcrunch

*Update: got a question via email about the 55% number. That data is in the ITU datasets. However, it was also published by Tomi Ahonen in Feb 2011.

Opportunities Coming forth in Kiosk Outreach Evangelism

In areas where connectivity is more of a luxury but there is still a need for distribution, innovating around various distribution methods is key to taking advantage of evangelistic opportunities. The following contributed post talks about one method using kiosks and some of the successes blossoming with this approach.
Image of Kiosk and intro screen
Church Lobby Kiosk, Christian Outreach Kiosk, World Religions Kiosk

Church Lobby Kiosk

The Church Lobby Kiosk is the key to reaching the world with God’s word using kiosk evangelism. It serves the local church by delivering sermons and music as people leave a service. It also trains a new generation of SD-card evangelists and creates awareness regarding the unprecedented possibilities of using touch-screen kiosks to distribute Christian content to the billions of people that own cell phones but do not have toilets.

Suggested Contents:

  • Today’s Message (Available within 3 minutes of being recorded)
  • Message Archive
  • Church Activity Videos
  • Audio Bibles
  • Evangelistic Movies
  • Gospel Messages
  • Christian Music
  • SD Card Evangelism Training Videos and Materials
  • Kiosk Evangelism Awareness Materials
  • Other

Christian Outreach Kiosk

Each Christian Outreach Kiosk is sponsored by an organization intent on making the knowledge of God available to specific people around the world. Contents can be custom tailored to the desires of the sponsoring agency.

Suggested Contents:

  • Audio Bibles
  • Evangelistic Movies
  • Gospel Messages
  • Christian Music
  • Other

World Religions Kiosk

The World Religions Kiosk is a software service available to the thousands of companies around the world that use digital signage to display paid advertising. These signage companies own and support the hardware and manage their own advertising sales efforts. Since they already have digital signs in airports and bus stations around the world, they are positioned to rapidly deploy thousands of World Religion Kiosks.

Most digital signs only offer information. The World Religions Kiosk offers downloads of the world’s bibles and sacred text in audio format, sacred music, messages and sacred videos. As the file is being downloaded, paid advertising is displayed and watched by people receiving content. The high international interest in spiritual information attracts viewers. The fact that the viewers are going to be watching the screen to discover when their file transfer is complete makes the ad space on these kiosks significantly more valuable than similar ad space on non-interactive digital signs.

Suggested Contents (Content is presented from world religion sources and includes but is not limited to):

  • Audio Bibles
  • Sacred Movies
  • Sacred Messages
  • Sacred Music
  • Other

For more information visit Kiosk Evangelism to learn about three kiosk configurations designed to distribute Christian content onto cell phone micro-SD cards. These 42”LCD touch-screen PC kiosks will be found in Churches, Airports, Railroad Station and Bus stations around the world.

The Future of Physical Bibles

2010 Future Trends Series: Bible Software | Bible Publishing | Physical Bibles

Whenever the subject of reading the Bible comes up, there’s this beautiful mixture of terms. Some would refer to the content, while others about the literal bound pages. Since we’ve already talked about the future of publishing and bible software, let’s take a look at the literal book and some possibilities that the two already spoken for areas will have towards this definition.

Digital Isn’t to Be Assumed
Much like we are seeing on the side of publishing, the future of the book is that of the book being a digital container before it reclaimed as a print one. This doesn’t mean that everyone will always default to a digital bible, but that the ease of getting, annotating and keeping content will fall first to a digital construct than that of an analog one.

Don’t agree? Let’s take a similar position as Fraser Speirs who has embarked on a project where grade school-aged kids have been given iPads and as an educational community, are learning the good and bad about the book being first digital. Here’s something that stuck out from a recent post that you should probably also consider here:

#4: Won’t the children lack “proper” computer skills?

Define ‘proper’, ‘computer’ and ‘skills’. Now define them as commonly understood in the year 2023, which is when a pupil starting today will leave school.

I’ve never taught to specific software packages and never will. Of course, we have to use actual real software, but there’s a big difference between “teaching Excel” and “teaching spreadsheets”. Don’t forget we still have MacBooks and iMacs too.

This is a constant tension in educational technology: do you teach for the current “business environment” or do you teach for learning? I prefer the latter. I’m not doing this just to produce the next generation of cubicle fodder.

A child graduating our school this year started school when the Apple Pippin was still current. How can I possibly know what specific technologies will be used in their career? It’s beyond absurd to even pose the question.

In some respects, going digital will look like this. In the meantime, we can see going digital meaning that our Bibles in content take on this form of being digital, but then we use devices such as the iPad or BlackBerry Playbook to augment the print text with a set of digital reference materials.

Flipping Screens or Waving Lights
Once we get past the initial hardware of the device, we have to start thinking about interactions and input. In this post-iPhone era of mobile computing, everything starts with the touch and swipe methodology. And we’ve seen that when it is executed well – and content follows – that the experience isn’t just pleasing, but it also offer a heightened engaged experience (re: Flipboard for the iPad)).

There are a few examples towards what this can look like, but here are a few that I think are closer to the current decade than many others. The first is a conceptual mobile interface from Mozilla Labs called Seabird. The second a user experience video from TAT displaying how someone manages several screens in the year 2014 in an environment that’s meshed and connected with contextual information – to this video, concentrate on the interactions of the person at the workstation as that follows our discussion more closely.

As we can see here, the idea of a physical device is more or less falling away, and the point is the best ways to interact with the content. I will agree that some of the possibilities describe usage scenarios that are at best very optimistic, but then again, what were you doing with mobile devices six years ago versus now (that would be when MMM started compared to today)?

Paper’s Re-purposing
I have to admit, I only know a few people that really like the feel of paper. Most people only know how to get information from a paper, and so that’s where their mental models are stabilized. And as such, there’s a good chance that paper just won’t go away, but it will find a more valuable purpose (replacement and transformation; an example of this in progress here).

Take a look at the periodicals section of any bookstore. Now run your hands over various magazine, ignoring the content, but paying attention to textures, colors, and the feel of the paper. Notice something? The magazines that you take hold of denote this feeling of permanence and quality that’s just not matched by other magazines. Take a feel of those pieces that are published quarterly versus monthly or weekly; notice how these feel. There’s a weighter feel, they are thicker and the paper stock is notably better. This is the future of paper, and specifically when it comes to Bibles, we can expect to see some similar transformations.

Not that we really need more versions of the Bible to choose from, but we will see better quality versions. I’d argue that we might see a trimming of some of the fluffy versions, and see more attention to type and detail since paper will have to fight for that more ingrained role – a return to the family Bible perhaps?

Still Carried, Less Stigmatized
I don’t think that every context will be fine without carrying a Bible, even in today’s rising tide of those who preach from their iPad, there are questions about whether a traditional print Bible is more comfortable for the viewing audience or not.

What is clear though is that the traditional definitions of a book are being challenged, and this is good. We should now begin asking questions around whether its fine or not to just have the text in traditional places for show, or spoken for in digital devices where the proof of it is displayed in our lives and communities.

A physical Bible still makes a pronouncement towards where you stand and whom you stand with. And even between those ground which disagree about how to interpret, there is an understanding that if a Bible is present, that a conversation can begin.

Recalling a recent movie, The Book of Eli, and the scene at the end where the Bible was placed on a bookshelf with several other books of faith – this was the only book that was held in such esteem to not only have the power to cause the issues which backgrounded the movie, but also have the power to restore life to those left behind. The physical book was a sign of the power that we who believe on it carry; but without living what was on those pages, or being able to read it, people were domed to die in their ignorance. Will people believe that not having the traditional, paper-bound Bible that they don’t have the same power to live the text? Or, will engaging the text first from a digital context cause life to happen differently, and with a slightly different hue than it had previously? We’re still early, and that script is yet to be written.

Content, Collaboration, and Mobile Ministry Case Studies

Update: You can now submit your case studies and research articles using this form.

MMM has been going on for over 5 years. In that time, the point of the posted content was simply to be available. Mobile was too young and there were too many unanswerable questions for content to serve a purpose any more than that. Having been in this position for a while, and several others having stepped up in various aspects towards creating content, what needs to happen at MMM is a lot different than where it traditionally has been.

There are seven (7) content categories at here at MMM:

  • Mobile web trends
  • SMS/MMS Engagement Strategies
  • Mobiles in Education
  • Languages/Language Resource Development
  • Future Tech and Impacts
  • Devices, Software, and User Interfaces
  • Accessibility and Access

It is within these areas that MMM’s content is now designed around. As a general rule, I’m posing on one (1) of these items and doing so once a day – to ensure that it generates the kind of discussion and reflection befitting a magazine (moreso than just a blog).

All of these areas are fit for the submission of resource materials and the development of content/best practices which would fit the need for those persons looking for resources or examples of execution.

Therefore, the process of submitting/publishing of content is as follows:

  • Person contact’s MMM (via contact form or Twitter) that they have a content idea; discussions around the idea take place (whether it fits MMM’s model or not)
  • If accepted, the person shares (via Google Docs, Google Wave, or similar) or emails the content so that it can be reviewed and edited (if needed)
  • Content is placed in the publishing queue and the submitter is notified when this item posts to the Mobile Ministry Case Studies page
  • If this item is a downloadable – the use of document sharing entities such as SlideShare or Scribd are recommended.
  • If this item is an analyst report, the user and MMM can opt to negotiate making this item a paid (PayPal) downloadable (details on this to come later and will be detailed on the consulting and training services page
  • Marketing of the content is shared between MMM and the content submitter

In this way, the content sees a healthy set of eyes before it is published, and also there’s accountability throughout the process, ensuring that these items are published.

It may be the case that you have the data, but not the time to create the report. For this, negotiating with MMM the best way to create and publish the content is advised as this is a paid service.

Please know that I’d really like to get more voices and content on MMM. For 5 years it really has been mainly my voice. And while God has blessed me with a lot of writing and perspective over the years, there’s no way that I can capture or spark the discussion towards everything that’s happening. Given that MMM is in my hands in a longer-term mode, I owe it to the Body to be available, and use what He’s given me to bless your efforts.

So if this works not just in terms of building content, but making something of strategic value for you or your missional agents/clients, let’s chat. Thanks for your time, and your prayers. Let’s engage folks with a mobile lens and give em Christ :)

Why There Are No Books on My iPad

I will chime in again with just about everyone else who’s used an iPad for any amount of time – its a very good device for consumption-based reading/browsing, and the battery life is phenomenal. Thing is, its not so great when you want to read certain types of content – mainly because, some things just aren’t available anywhere but in a browser (hence the title of this post).

When I purchased the iPad, I knew that there was a smattering of (e)books that could be downloaded to it. And I was very excited and intrigued about any perodicals which would use the Bonner’s Mag+ Concept as I knew that for such a device, making the content fit into a unique immersive reading experience was very key to enjoying the device.

What I didn’t expect was that I’d have to grapple with vendor lock-in and a lack of being able to port content easily.

It’s an Apple device. There’s not Windows, webOS, Symbian, MeeGo, or any other mobile platform coming out that can skillfully run on this hardware (without a ton of hacking). It’s not meant to be open or opened, and that keeps some things in a positive light – until you want to do something more and not go through iTunes or the AppStore to do it. I wish that in the respect to other software platforms, other tablets would use platforms as a means to enhance the consumer experience, not just tie them down.

The major beef for me though has to do with porting content from the iPad to my N97 (or whatever the mobile of the week is). Outside of those things that appear within a browser, I’m generally having to make the decision to either download on the mobile and put in a email draft folder to share with the iPad, or put it on one device and ignore the fact that I switch between devices frequently, but want to keep my content wherever.

And therefore, I’ve only downloaded samples of books. I can’t handle the idea of reading something on an iPad to be locked there, and then between Apple and the publishers to not have access to content that I purchased on any other mobile device that I own.

Saddest of these is that I’ve not really liked the Bible experience on the iPad. I’ve been looking at YouVersion for a few weeks now and it comes closest to the functionality that I get from Google Reader – I can read and note on any device, and both the native and web-based applications keep my information accessible no matter which device I’m using. There aren’t too many apps – or content streams – which do this in the PC world, let alone the mobile world.

Ideally, I’d love to be able to simply purchase the licenses to a (e)book and then be able to read/consume/share that content accordingly. But, right now, this has to happen more on the side of the Bible software developer to account for the user and the licenses, not so much on the side of the publisher. And with such the niche that Biblical software is, some items just are better left not purchased unless you can make the time investment into the device they are targeting.

So I’m left reading samples of some items, and sharpening my search and research skills for other items. I refuse to get into the game of jailbreaking (hacking) my iPad just to share content easier; and definitley don’t walk the line into piracy – the men and women who take the time to create, test, and market this software deserve to be compensated fairly for their labors. I just wish that it were easier to abstract the content from specific platforms, so that it would make for a better value proposition for me the consumer of the content.

Maybe if that happens, I can stop looking to paper books as models of truely mobile content.

Content Independence

With the new version of the Firefox web browser (v3.5) released today, I thought that it would be great to bring back up that topic of content independence. Specifically, when it comes to reading materials (Bibles, commentaries, etc.), are these items independent of a particular browser or reading application?

I don’t know that it is. Sure; there are more powerful and capable devices than ever before. And we can say that there’s more digital content out there than ever before as well. But when it comes to moving that content from one device to another (for example from PC to mobile), a lot of times, we are locked into one method and don’t realize it until we want to move.

I liken it to many of the desktop-grade Bible applications that are out there. All of them have some excellent content available; however, if you want to take that content with you, for many of these you would have to either purchase an entirely different library (software client and content), or manage some complex tasks before it can even be in a complimentary format.

And I don’t want to say it to fault the publishers and developers; truly, they do a great work in building and supporting the breadth of languages, regions, devices, and content available to date. However, I do want to call them to attention – especially in light of the move to users becoming more and more independent of a PC-based computing paradigm.

Content should be just that; content. It shouldn’t be attached to the presentation layer, nor should politics allow one silo to have prominence over another. If we are truly looking to good on teaching people to the ends of the earth, at the very least, content needs to be independent of the former ideas of reader/application.

This might look like Firefox, where mobile browsers take on an ability to utilize extensions which enable more functionality (this done at the developer or publisher level). Or this could simply look like more partnerships between publishers, developers, and users towards making content available, and sharing the load for marketing, management, and support.

Whatever is the solution though, I’m not sure that many Bible publishers and software companies will be able to stand pat as they are now: using dedicated readers, coding for specific browsers only, or limiting themselves to policial divisions in the hope of keeping marketshare. If the goal is to educate to the point of making disciples, then the content needs to be independent so that the accountability (individually and corporately) can take the primary focus of ministry activity.