Tag Archives: mobile web

Did You Miss Monday’s Webinar

Great opportunity to talk about the #mobilechurch w/@symbiota... on Twitpic

Mobile Ministry Magazine was a special guest on one of the latest Symbiota webinars. This past Monday, we talked about mobile ministry (#mobmin); specifically, how churches can leverage SMS, mobile web, and mobile apps in order to grow those deeper and wider connections inside and outside of faith communities.

Good this is that if you missed this one, that you can still make another. This webinar will be held again on Dec 3rd and Dec 17th. All you have to do is sign up and show up. Just showing up gives you a chance to win some great prizes, so its totally recommended. Here’s an overview of what will be talked about in the webinar:

Visitors are increasingly using mobile devices to search for churches information, listen to sermons, and pay tithes and offerings. Your church members are mobile, how about your church? On this webinar we will be helping churches understand how to get their message through, on the most important method of communication today: Mobile Phones.

What you will learn on this webinar:

  • 3 Major myths about cell phone usage that are not true.
  • Dissecting the noise about mobile websites and mobile apps.
  • Tips on using mobile to increase donations & giving.
  • Why your church cannot afford to not be ready for mobile.
  • How to not to miss up to 50% of people searching for your church.
  • Connecting members to small groups using text messages
  • Keys to integrating Twitter and Facebook with mobile.

You’ve got two more times before the year is out. Sign up for this webinar and learn more about the services Symbiiota offers at their website.

Mobile (Yes), Website (Probably)

A few days ago, we retweeted an link to an interesting article:

RT @SeattleMing: No Mobile Website? You’re Probably Turning Customers Away http://m.entrepreneur.com/blog/224238 #mobile #smb #business

The article basically relates the fact that for those doing commerce, sales, marketing, or any other kind of engagement activity that a mobile website is at the very least what you need. Now, this is a point that we’ve said before – even going as far to recommend that you might want to reconsider your efforts towards making a mobile application until you have finished that initial effort of making a mobile website. But, after reading this article, and considering exactly what contexts people find themselves in, I’m ready to make the statement that you (individual, organization, community) does need to be mobile, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they need a website.

[I hear the thinking happening now. First he goes on and on in the beginning of the year talking about not making a mobile app the center of your mobile strategy, and then there's this push for SMS and mobile website considerations. Now, he's saying that a mobile website probably isn't needed? Uh... I thought MMM was the one who had their minds wrapped on straight?]

The ideology behind Instagram is very intriguing, and very much factors into this. The other part of things again speaks to that aspect of being in a context where you might have a mobile device in hand, but you might not necessarily be mobile. With Instagram, you have a community of people, who essentially snap images, add filters (because their cameras don’t really take awesome pics to begin with is my opinion here), and then post them thru and app to people who follow them. Officially, there is no central website. All of the interaction for Instagram happens in the app, and if you aren’t in the app, you might see fleeting pieces of the experience when those photos in the app are also shared on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.).

Its mobile, but not exactly the base of a mobile website. Yes, there is data connectivity being used, but that’s happening through APIs that work with the camera hardware through a simplified application. The application is probably not even as necessary, as something like Instagram could just as easily supported email or MMS for receiving the photos and encouraged (smartphone owners) to use the default or a recommended 3rd party app to do things like filters and such. You’d not have the following aspect, but you would be utilizing the network of folks whom are already in your phone book. Yet think about it, none of this is happening in a way that is different from how your faith community is already connecting with one another.

Your mobile device has a camera, speaker, microphone, ability to record audio and video, compose messages in a memo or in a text/email app, receive/make voice calls, send/receive DMTF codes… whew. You get the drift. And if you are like me, your mobile probably does a bit more like has HDMI or composite video output, an FM radio receiver and transmitter, has a memory card slot, can attach to USB accessories like portable hard drives, memory keys, has the ability to receive files via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, or can send to a media center device the multimedia content on it (DLNA, AirPlay, etc.). There is a lot happening within that little device, and you have to constantly not just consider what it is that people think is the default of what they want to do, but also consider that there are many other screens pulling on their attention spans and that if you want to be noticed, then your approach has to be distinct.

Mobile is a lot more than downloading an app that asks you for some measure of personal information. Its more than being restricted to a web browser or a programming language. Mobile is about capturing at the right moment the context and communicating that to someone on the other end of the collection of cell towers between you and them. Discover that and you find the magic bean that is what mobile can grown/build/encourage for you. Don’t restrict your mobile efforts to an app, website, or SMS. Look at the device and go further. And then when you do, be prepared to be surprised by what people will do with the tech when you show them a little bit more than simply tapping a keypad or pinch-zooming on a screen.

[Infographic] Global Mobile Data Costs

This infographic was put together by Android Tablet Fanatic by aggregating publicly available data sources. For those of you looking to travel, these are some of the costs that you’ll be looking forward to. Click on the image to view it full-sized.

Whether you are traveling domestically or internationally, check out the latest pre-paid rates and keep those data costs in mind.

When Mobile Becomes Virtually Real

Having finished reading You Are Not A Gadget, I am sitting in this space between imagination and reality. In a lot of respects, I am back near that place I was when MMM started, I am thinking about this question of mobile and whether the religious community is ready or equipped to answer it.

What is that question? It is a simple but profound: what happens when our tools become appendages then become doorways of experiencing faith in ways that are virtually real, but altogether a different lens than anything before it?

Dangerous question isn’t it? I am literally asking if we understand mobile and all other digital contexts not as they can become a part of our faith language, but that they develop interpretations and experiences of faith that have no grounding in what is understood now as “faith practices.”

Am I proposing that mobile, and later personalized virtual computing (augmented and virtual reality), will derive experiences that will be considered “living out/by faith” even as they have nothing in common with current faith practices outside of a shared history and end-expression*? Yup. And this scares the mess out of folks.

Take mobile. In every interview that I have done for mobile ministry, the question has come up if I can see there being a time when some aspect of mobile tech will take away the treasured face-to-face interactions. I always am careful to ground the answer in context – it depends on the environment and the faith practice/behavior that needs to be exercised. The answer isn’t will it, but rather in what contexts will it. Looking at it that way is exciting and scary… and it is this that we have to address.

Is your faith so grounded to a specific context that you can’t live outside of it? Or, is the way you would like to live out your faith so undefinable by the dominant digital faith contexts that you know that you feel and act out of a limited and unfulfilling spirit? Or, maybe this tweet better fits, “A friend calls mobile the “appendage,” does your church/ministry have a gym for that appendage or is it relegated to a diff zoning ordinance?”

For many people, there is little to no difference between online and offline expressions of faith. Does the description of your faith end where virtual reality begins, or can you confidently walk through the door of mobile/augmented reality/virtual reality and translate the beauty and immense glory of God into something unique yet altogether familiar? Expressions change, faith keeps a consistent and definable fingerprint.

*One can, and many do argue that if the apostles were to be ported to today’s time period that they would have a very hard time identifying a Christian inside the context of a church service, but would more readily see Christ-following in “secular” functions such as the United Way, Red Cross, etc.?

Infographic – The Internet in 2020

Internet_In_2010Around this time last year, a slide show looking at mobile trends for the next 10 years was released to wide acclaim and conversation. The amount of contribution and conversation around this effort spoke loudly to where many people see mobile, web, and other computer technologies going. We even posted our take on these trends, focusing on specific implementations to faith communities.

This year, we’ve got another info-graphic to poke your mind towards the Internet as it would look in 2020. From the folks at Intac, there’s a lot on here that’s not always easy to see in pictures. Here are some of the points noted:

More People Will Use the Internet
In 2010, there are 1.8 billion Internet users and a world population of 6.7 billion. In 2020, it is estimated that there will be five billion Internet users.

The Internet Will be More Geographically Dispersed
The estimated world population in 2009 was 6,767,805,208. The estimated number of Internet users on December 2000 was 360,985,492. The latest data shows the current number of Internet users at 1,802,330,457. The penetration of the Internet into the population is 26.6 percent. The growth of Internet users from 2000 to 2009 was 399.3 percent.

The Internet Will be a Network of Things, Not Computers
Today, the Internet has 575 million host computers. Expect billions of sensors on buildings and bridges to be connected to the Internet by 2020

Lots of things here, and much of it aligns with what we saw in last year’s report. What sticks out for you? Or, what doesn’t go far enough?

Tomi Ahonen Mega-Post on Becoming the Next Millionaire Mogul in Mobile

Tomi Ahonen has been quoted several times on this site as many of his insights have contributed to the understanding and application of mobile technology in the digital faith arena. Suffice to say, when he puts an idea down, it’s worth reading, rereading, and making steps to adjust.

Such is how I feel after having read his latest 20K+ word article about the mega-opportunity in mobile. Thankfully, Ahonen speaks in more than monetary terms. And given the insights he and several others in mobile share, the opportunity in mobile for great gains is just a matter of capitalizing on the opportunity. Here’s a snippet of the article:

MOBILE IS BIGGEST ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (EVER)

Now, that is a massive statement, isn’t it? I mean, biggest? Ever? But before you jump to your next task on your to-do list, please consider just this fact. One industry on the planet has to be it. All others pretend, but factually, one of the thounsands of industries does truly have to be the biggest economic opportunity of any one time. Earlier on in the past century it was oil. Created the oil barons and billionaire oil sheikhs. Late in the century it was personal computers. Made Bill Gates the wealthiest man on the planet. At any one point in time there is one industry which is the best to be in. (and yes, even if biggest at one point in time, is not guaranteed to be ‘of all time’)

Today that is mobile. Mobile has become a Trillion dollar industry. Not the biggest industry on the planet, but one in a very rare category to pass the Big T of a Trillion. Television is not that big (has never passed half a Trillion dollars in annual revenues). Computers are not that big. Radio is not that big. The internet is not that big. Cinema is not that big. Newspapers is not a Trillion-dollar industry. Neither is air travel, credit cards, advertising, music, pharmaceuticals, hotels, videogames, the coffee industry, etc. Imagine if you were there to be one of the big ‘barons’ of one of those industries when they were in ‘hypergrowth’ stage, you’d have retired rich today with probably universities, airports or even cities named after you…

Read the rest of How You Became Next Mogul in Mobile (and a Millionaire) at Communities Dominate Brands. Also, you might want to add a cup of coffee or tea and a sandwich for this one (the reply from Martin Geddes, then Tomi’s reply).

For something a bit shorter, but packing a similar punch, check out this interview of Tomi Ahonen over at Mobile Zeigeist.

Retweets of the Week (Jan 30 – Feb 5)

Once again our Retweets of the Week feature highlighting some of the items we’ve retweeted in the past week.

If you’ve got something you deem worth sharing, be sure to point it out to us (@mobileminmag) or use the #mobminhashtag if its directly related to mobile ministry efforts.

What’s Ahead for 2011

View of Camera UI for Moto Citrus - Share on Ovi2010 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.

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.

Challenges in Measuring Mobile

Hybrd mobile measurement flowchart, via Monday NoteIn some recent conversations around mobile ministry, one of the more pressing concerns was how to measure the impact of mobile. Frankly speaking, metrics/analytics for mobile aren’t as mature and usually content providers need to be more creative in collecting and more descriptive in interpreting mobile data. Monday Note goes into some great detail towards the challenges here:

…One example of the measurement challenge: a news related application. The first measure of an app’s success is its downloads count. In theory, pretty simple. Each time an app is downloaded, the store (Apple’s or any other) records the transaction. Then, things gets fuzzier as the application lives on and gets regular updates. Sometimes, updates are upgrades, with new features. At which point should the app be considered new — especially when it’s free, like most of the news-related ones? Second difficulty: a growing number of apps will be preloaded into smartphones and tablets. Rightly or wrongly, Apple nixes such meddling with its devices. But, outside of the iOS world, cellphone carriers do strike deals with content providers and preload apps on Android devices. That’s another hard to get number…

Read the rest of Measuing the Nomads at Monday Note.

In those conversations about mobile data and analytics, it has been made very clear to me that this is a major hurdle for some of the larger groups which use these measurements in order to determine how to better support – or even adjust how they are supporting mobile ministry activities. What have been some of the methods that you are finding successful?

Or, if you’ve got a case study towards a mobile ministry initiative and have described some of these measures of success, would you consider submitting that to be posted on our Mobile Case Studies/Research page? There’s still much to be learned from one another and grounds to be plowed in this space. And until we can start seeing consistency in actions/successes/failures, the challenge to collecting and understanding mobile data in the ministry context will go unanswered.