Activate & Converse

Bible Bloom screenshot
Going further down the line of thought about the implications of mobile in ministry, we would do well to pay attention to some of the lessons that are being unveiled on the side of mobile marketing initiatives. One of my favorite points of research and insight comes from Mobile Groove (formerly, MSearchGroove). In one of their recent published pieces, they go into two aspects of engaging people with mobile and driving the experience into something that can be better monetized. Here’s a snippet of the article:

…Whether you are an individual app developer poised to take your good idea to greater heights, or a company mapping out a more comprehensive engagement strategy with mobile apps at the center, it’s both exciting and terrifying to think about the opportunities ahead. But don’t limit yourself to strategies that drive, measure and monetize app installs. There are also huge opportunities around app re-engagement.

Don’t think this is just for the benefit of your customer. There is also a hard-nosed business model at play here because campaigns that only count app installs are on the way out…

Read the rest of Mobile App Developers: Use Messaging To Activate Users, Monetize Engagement at Mobile Groove

Remember how we talked about that mobile is made up of three parts: devices, services, and experiences. Its in the last piece experiences where you gain the sticky that mobile becomes. Its much, much more than having a library of content – seriously, if the content is only addressable to a small audience, you are carrying essentially a lot of dead weight. Its more than having something shiny that has the same features of a market leader, but your own twist on it. Whatever device accessory, application, or service you develop needs to also have the experience of what it means for someone to come back to it.

I’ll use Bible Bloom as an example. They have a pretty Bible reading app, and in that core it offers nothing more than other Bible readers (there are literally thousands of Bible readers out there). One of the ways they separate themselves from the rest is in using the Notification’s component of Apple’s iOS to give you a verse if you’ve not opened the app in some pre-set time (1 or 2 days, or a week). They activate the application at a point of relevancy (“are you meditating on the Scripture?” Joshua 1:8), and then opening it is the conversation you take with their application/service.

I know that some of you have been long into the business of creating content and then marketing to people. With mobile you have to get used to talking to them. Are you ready for that kind of reality with faith in this space?

[Infographic] How People Really Use Mobile

I think what I like best about this interactive infographic at the Harvard Business Review is that it invalidates the approach many have taken towards mobile and validates an approach that is more measured towards what’s actually happening. Decide for yourself (click thru for the interaction):

The Real Implication of All This Connectivity

Tesla Model S interoior shot, via Tesla Blog
Depending on your perspective, this article (via Paid Content) is either empowering or frightening. Most particularly, this quote:

…In a very real sense, everyone is a media entity of some kind now. That doesn’t mean someone with a few hundred followers on Twitter is the equivalent of the New York Times, but it does mean that a large corporation like Tesla Motors is on a much more level playing field with the newspaper than it would ever have been before. In the past, if Tesla didn’t like a review, it could a) call and complain, b) put out a press release and try to get a competitor interested in a story c) launch an expensive lawsuit (which Musk has also done in the past)…

Read the rest of Tesla, The New York Times, and the Leveling of the Media Playing Field at Paid Content

Now, you might read this and immediately feel that your ministry or media platform is being threatened. You might read it and feel that your school or seminary is threatened. You might not feel threatened at all, but it might open your eyes to something that’s been bubbling inside you or your organization for some time now. In all of those cases, good… you are looking at the implications of this tech with the blinders off.

Blinders off? You mean that this isn’t the case of “what can I do to get my/the message into everyone’s hands?” Yes, that’s not just what I mean, but its also the clear implication of this tech’s intersection with faith and why you should run to it, instead of away from it.

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” (John 4:19-26)

Can you stand to think that the point of this tech is that people will individually make their way towards a relationship with Christ and that the only part you have to play is making known to them there is no central temple, library, or behavior? That’s the implications of this tech, and the connectivity that it brings.

Are you ready for the implications of this activity being that people realize Emmaunel is very much the reality we should be living in daily?

Please Turn This Open Bible Visualization into A Mobile Bible Search App

Saw this visualization of a section of Open Bible’s dataset at O’Reilly Radar and instantly thought about this being a spatially-oriented application. Here’s my thinking:

The application would essentially be a single page, similar to Google’s landing page. The page would be connected to Open Bible’s dataset as that’s the only thing you’d be searching against.

You would then type in a phrase or term, and that would display not as a list, but as an zoomed-out (exploded) view of the entire data set. If you will, similar to the image attached to this post.

You would then get a command to press and hold the camera button (or volume button if you are on an iPhone, ha) in order to view into the data. Think like taking a Wii controller and moving around in a small space. That’s what you’d be doing here to navigate around the dataset.

Depending on the data’s output, it could be a circle (like pictured) or something more 3D (like GloBible) or even something 4D (going up/down/left/right/in/out to go through series within the data).

Yes, I’m aware that doing this would seem like it would be physically taxing, but the point here is an application that takes the aspect of searching and seeing associations between concepts and adds your motion as part of your means of tracking with the item. Given that many larger-screened mobile devices have some sense of direction (either through a compass and/or acceleromoeter), this could be something that really works to the advantage of internalizing concepts and placements of context in a similar manner that people describe knowing where something is in the Bible because they remember where it is on the page, not necessarily remembering the address or specifics of the context.

I’m pretty sure that something like what I describe can be done with PhoneGap. And, it could even be done almost completely in a browser, making it basically such that the coding to make this happen would be as open as the data hosted at Open Bible.

So what do you think? And think beyond your use of an app to search and see associations (many of you might be frequent users of Logos and not see the logic in doing a spatial interface like this). Picture how this could translate into taking these smartphones and allowing people who might be more sensitive to motion-interfaces to pick up and understand the Bible because its no longer presented or taught in a stricly linear manner.

Progress with Barcodes

It definitely seems that QR Codes have jumped the shark in respect to seeing and hearing about the, a good bit more. It’s even gotten me to go back to using business cards, now that there are enough people that either understand them or want to know more about them.

This past weekend, I experienced the latter in a very interesting manner. My God-daughter’s mom is totally not a techie. She used to bemoan my use of mobiles in church as recently as two summers ago. However, life has moved in such a way that she now has a Palm Pre Plus and really enjoys it for the communications, camera, and applications that are offered. So, you can imagine the surprise when she asked me about barcodes – and not just QR Codes, but Microsoft Tag codes as well.

She has an independent business that also works for her to disciple other women, and one of the things she noticed is that some other women were using business cards with the MS Tag on them. While she liked the idea, the MS Tag didn’t work on her device (there is no reader software) but she want to know more about it. I pulled out my business card and explained to her the difference between them.

With the MS Tag, it would be a need for the person scanning the tag to have a web connection. Besides the data on the other side of the tag, there was also some analytics and tracking happening. However, much of her audience doesn’t have data plans, or might not have good enough browsers on the mobiles they do have, so the QR Code was a better choice. With that 2D code, you can embed information such as calendar event data or even a contact card (similar to my card). You can even do a QR Code that is a pre-built SMS message. Then, that plus a low-cost printing solution like VistaPrint (which she was already using for her business cards) would make for a reusable contact point for everything from sharing contact information to making flyers more interactive.

Now, she wasn’t concerned with tracking, hence the suggestion of the QR Code versus the MS Tag, but it would be possible. And as I explained to her, using a barcode in this manner just adds a layer of interactivity to efforts to communicate and connect. You (usually) don’t put info in a barcode that would be easily discerned in an email, or even faster if typed. Giving a reason for folks to engage has that side benefit of making you stick in their head just a bit longer.

Of the past weekend’s conversations, this was one of the ones that ended up being very exciting. A friend not only adopted mobile tech, but found a means to help her small business along while increasing the ability to connect-engage with those she already disciples. In this respect, mobile being added to the Body like this hits every relevant aspect of life. That kind of progress with this tech is what I’ve been adamant about, and am glad to see it happen in surprising places.

What Mobile Takes Away

I am always intrigued about those aspects of life that mobile seems to take away. In some respects, adding mobile just seems like a stop and restart of some actions that we might have been very well used to. But, then also this challenge to see things and accept that we weren’t always acting in a way that was best for the world to see us live faith.

For example, where it used to be that the pastor read from the Bible, and then the congregation repeated the text as they heard, we then moved to Bibles in our pews. From those in the pews, we moved to Bibles on our dashboards. And then from there, we have Bibles in our pockets – first in a font size that we could barely manage reading with good eyes, and later through our mobiles – bigger font size, but definitely less on the screen.

Now, with that move to mobile, we don’t just have the Bible, but we have these connections to the text that were once the domain of our pastors. We can open up Logos on our mobile and be connected to the same depth of commentaries, maps, and multimedia that our pastors used when setting up the lessons. We can communicate notes in real-time with others who have read the passage before-hand, and gain insights that our pastors will have gotten to, and some that they would not.

We have “information-now” as the default, instead of as the privileged opportunity. And that is a bit concerning to some. Having that at our fingertips, whether we know how to use it or not, takes away some of the experience that we’ve been cultured to believe is a part of the worship experience. Depending on how we hold onto that culture, we might deem that this ability of mobile/web is too far, and therefore takes away from our culture something that we subconsciously cherish.

It reminds me of the story in Mark 4 when Jesus addressed the man who had a legion of demons inhabiting him. The people were used to their culture where he was pushed to the side and could not interact with their affairs. But, insert Jesus and not only does he become delivered from these, but their source of income – their very economic sustenance – in the pigs is challenged. Now, they not only have to deal with someone in their community that is an extra mouth to feed, but they also need to figure out as a community to live without the layer of wealth they they had before. It was a major shift, on where just this addition of Jesus, while wanted, produced results that meant they needed to grow more than they wanted.

I wonder if we think of our culture in the same way. That we want mobile, web, etc. to apply to now we address our communities, but really aren’t prepared for their impacts. And then when it does impact, are we bold enough to admit our cultural mentality and behaviors which might not have been the best, especially to those whom our former practices left behind?

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Mobile Ministry Magazine

Asking questions, presenting approaches, and experiments at the intersection of faith and mobile

Tag Archives: interaction

Activate & Converse

[Infographic] How People Really Use Mobile

The Real Implication of All This Connectivity