Tag Archives: resources

How Do You Use Study Resources

screenshot of Olive Tree Bible Study App when using concordance resources
The other day while going through email, I noticed a newsletter from the good folks over at Olive Tree Bible Software. As I read, I saw a neat piece in there about how to use a concordance with their software. Here’s a snippet:

…As you can see, the Olive Tree Concordances are much more than a list of cross references for each word in the Bible. With dictionary information tied to the original language, these resources are valuable tools for Bible study. Each concordance comes with a copy of the Bible in the selected translation…

Read the rest of Using A Concordance in the Bible Study App at the Olive Tree Blog

That piece got me thinking back to how I used to use print resources, then print and web, and then later web and mobile resources in order to do my studies. A good deal of the work that went into feature suggestions and the design of Palm Bible+ app which accelerated my travels in this space. It was very important then to not just have access to the resource, but have it in such a way that it didn’t interrupt the reading flow, but was there when needed. Now then, we did things with the PalmOS Graffiti system, and even the keyboard on Treo devices to make that happen. These days with touch and more consistent connectivity, designing these resources into an app is a bigger challenge.

Even with that challenge, its still a suitable flow of use. So, let’s open question that titles this post (how do you use study resources) with a few qualifiers:

  • For those of you who might use commentaries, concordances, etc. in your private reading, how do you do it? What could be done better?
  • For those of you who use those resources while teaching, what kinds of challenges do you run into either from the side of teaching or the side of sharing the sources of that info with students?
  • For those wh might use these resources to teach, but don’t share them with your students/audiences, why?

There you have a few ways to frame an answer. Let’s hear what you have to say towards using study resources, especially with your mobile-enabled audiences.

[Book] Ministry in the Digital Age

Ministry in Digital Age cover

One of the folks that I really get exited about hearing from, talking to, or doing events with, Dave Bourgeios, is on the verge of introducing his book Ministry in the Digital Age. Here’s a snippet from his post on the announcement and subject:

Imagine a missionary training to go to Russia but not learning Russian. Imagine a pastor preparing a sermon about the Psalms and knowing nothing about King David. These examples are unthinkable; no one would do this. But yet we have many in ministry today who have not learned to understand the use of digital tools. To me, not knowing how to use the Internet or social media in today’s marketplace is just as unthinkable as any of the previous examples.

 

I understand that there are many ministry leaders out there who are intimidated by these new tools. Others have tried to use them, but have not had the level of success that made the attempt worth it and have become discouraged.  I wrote my book, Ministry in the Digital Age, to help those who know that they need to move forward with these tools but are looking for a roadmap to get there.

How critical are digital tools to ministry is what Dave asks. Are you taking the steps to understand it?

Preorder Dave’s book from InterVarsity Press

The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login

Pre Order - The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login (Book and PDF Ebook)

This year, I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Caston, the voice and energy behind iChurch (by Caston Digital):

…Our company exists to help ministries have a global presence online. To provide digital solutions that help ministries connect to people everyday around the world. The iChurch Method is the first book of many that will tell what Caston Digital can do to help advance your ministry online.

Yesterday, Jason introduced version 2.0 of his book, iChurch Method, and its one of those reads that we’d definitely recommend towards understanding and taking the best advantage of mobile, web, and social media for engaging your churches and their surrounding communities.

Volume 2 in the amazing iChurch Method series, the purpose of this book is to continue to help ministries and businesses advance online. Continuing with the five part approach to taking your ministry/business online and reaching the world:

  • Part 1: Website – Interactive websites
  • Part 2: Multimedia – Internet Church Campus
  • Part 3: Ecommerce – Online Stores/Online Donations – Part II
  • Part 4: Social Media – The Rise of Visual Social Media
  • Part 5: Mobile – Mobile Websites and Apps

With these five parts, a ministry can reach and change the world. The iChurch Method is a MUST READ for every ministry leader who desires to have a global presence online.

You can pre-order today and have by May 2013 both the paper and eBook editions.

Mobile Ministry Made Easy: A Simple Guide to Begin or Advance Your Use of Mobiles

Amazon Kindle Touch in hand
Previously posted at Mobile Advance

Several months back [Mobile Advance] was contacted by a friend in the Southern Baptist International Mission Board (IMB) and asked if [Mobile Advance] could collaborate with one of their workers who was developing a guide to mobile ministry.  I happily agreed and read through the first draft, providing feedback where I thought most helpful.  Last week, a number of months after receiving the initial draft and after working through several further drafts, I was blessed to be given the opportunity to make the first public introduction of the final edition of Mobile Ministry Made Easy: A Simple Guide to Begin or Advance Your Use of Mobiles at a missions conference I was speaking at in Europe.

I am exceedingly happy to be able to make this 40 page guide available to you today and trust that the advice and experience you find in this guide will help you in successfully implementing mobile ministries in your outreach.

Many thanks to the IMB and to “Stan” (not his real name) who put many many hours into not only getting the best information together but also putting it together and formatting it in a way that makes the guide a pleasure to read.

Digital Natives: 10 Years Later

Embryo holding phone in womb
Now these are the kinds of reads that I most enjoy for weekend reflection. Besides already agreeing with the premise that there is no such thing as a digital native/immigrant except in a very specifically defined social and economic class, there’s just the beauty of constantly having this discussion continue as we figure out what digital means whether we are in digital-accessory communities or digital-transformative ones.

Here is the introduction summary from a journal looking at this idea of being digital native or a digital immigrant, and what is right and wrong about such terms and resulting approaches:

A lot has been written about the digital native since the coining of the term about ten years ago. A lot of what has been originally written by the digital native has been taken as common sense and has been repeated many times in many educational contexts, but until recently the true nature of the digital native has not been explored. Because the myth of the digital native is still alive and well, this article aims to examine the findings that have come out of recent research with regard to digital natives and their true nature, as well as turn a critical gaze onto the assumptions, taken as common sense knowledge, of what the characteristics of digital natives are.

Read the rest of Digital Natives: Ten Years Later by Apostolos Koutropoulos and the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (PDF).

Truth, Statistics, & Pictures

Its been the rage for at least the better part of the past two years for companies to compile the information for and then produce an infographic. Originally, this served as a means for take what some companies were doing with larger, more complex datasets to make them more accessible to the “reading” public. These days, its almost normal fare for companies large and small, whether they did the work on collecting the data, or are making a product they want you to purchase from them because of the data they found and made into this information-graphic.

Well, we recently were presented with an infographic about mobile and social media trends and some numbers that need to be taken into account (which, if I am just being a bit Berean – Acts 17:11 – about it, means that its time to do some fact-checking, statistics rereading, methodology/approach investigating, and then further looking into the company that produced the infographic). Instead of just making it homework for MMM to do and publish, we thought it a good idea to put the infographic out there and since many of you are working in this space, to have you do the same investigation and let us know what you find that is a truth, stretched truth, or just a bit of something to draw your eye to something that might not matter much. Consider it homework of a different kind as you go into your weekend (click on the image to view it at full-size):

10 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile Site Infographic
10 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile Site Infographic by AD:60

Using some of the resources found on our Resources, Statistics, and other Metrics Listing, what can you pull out about this infographic that’s worth taking forward into your mobile ministry (#mobmin) activity? And what should be thrown away as its not good/valid/true info?

Where Are the Bible Database Sources App Developers Can Use?

screenshot of Katana, Maemo Linux open source bible reader
The other day, we received a question asking about the location of Bible databases which would be suitable for using for mobile apps. This is something of an undocumented search I’m afraid, as much of what ends up happening either doesn’t get talked about, or falls under the conversations about copyright, licensing, and digital use we hear about from time to time.

While I was able to give the respondant an answer, I thought it a good idea to also share that answer here and ask you where you might obtain your sources for the religious texts that you use within your mobile apps and services.

  • Logos has the Biblia API which is a set of APi libraries into their content database (20,000 items and growing). I do not remember there being any restrictions on using it for other applications, but you will want to check on that.
  • Crossway has the ESV available in both a packaged download (not necessarily a database) and API calls to their server. There is some restriction on usage
  • Bible.org/NET has the New English Translation (and notes) available as a packaged download. They are working on an API into their texts. Refer to their website for specifics, and you would probably end up crossing paths with many others attempting the same
  • CCEL has several Bibles (many past copyright) and Biblical content. Much of it is in semantic HTML4 documents, packaged as zipped archives. All of those are free to use as long as you keep the attribution in your source documents.
  • The WEB (World English Bible) is mostly an open licensed text, I am not sure of the state of their content [in respect to being usable for inclusion into web/mobile applications or services].
  • You might also want to look into Open Doors and Door 43, as they have been working on an open licensed text/audio biblical library. Their project is in process.
  • If you are looking for audio, your main/best resources are Faith Comes By Hearing and GRN. They do make content deals with [organizations and] developers to offer the content based on you providing to them metrics about use/downloads/etc.

Then there’s BibleDatabase.net, the e-SWORD modules library, and I’m sure a few others that I’ve simply forgotten.

Perhaps, in helping to answer the question of licensing and access, hearing about the challenges around discovery and implementation might lend towards some obvious solutions in this space.

If you have a listing of Biblical sources, definitely respond in the comments. If the list grows sufficiently, then perhaps this information becomes something else added to our page of resources for developers/organizations.

Copyright, Licesning, and Faith-Based Resources

screenshot of the World English Bible copyright and liscense agreement
The publicaion, use, and sharing of religious resources has been a rights issue for as far back as there has been a faith practice to transfer. One can make the call that God even enforced the first rights-management system when he declared that “I am ther Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2)” Weighty in the respect of reverence, but also in the respect of exclusivity – if there is to be a faith towards a deity, then let your faith towards this one be exculsive and binding.

To that end, the faith world has seen all kinds of challenges to doctrine, dogma, and behavior. Going digital has rekindled some old arguments and founded some new ones. In 2009, we tried to add some sense to the challenge and change that digital contexts makes in regards to copyright/licesning biblical resources. It was one part of an on-going discussion, and one where there just isn’t a clear answer. Its been an intention to add to that article some items of relevance – with a ground literally shifting often. But thankfully, others are picking up the discussion, and the mounting challenges not so much for just having access, but having access that fits the context of digital use and ownership paradigms.

The licenses that govern the use of modern versions of the Bible in English grant very limited, arbitrary permissions for the use of the content. For instance, a person may be permitted to use 250 verses of the Bible (or 500 or 1,000, depending on the publisher) but only if they do not include a complete book of the Bible in their content. The amount of Biblical text they use is usually not allowed to exceed a certain percentage (often 25%, sometimes 50%) of the complete work. The table below lists current (at the time of writing) license restrictions on some common versions of the Bible in modern English. Note that “Max. Verses” refers to the maximum number of verses that may be used, “% of Total” refers to the maximum percentage of the text in the resource that may be Biblical text, and “Complete Book?” refers to whether or not a complete book of the Bible may be used in the resource.2

Version Max. Verses % of Total Complete Book?
CEB3 500 <25% No
ESV4 1,000 <50% No
HCSB5 250 <25% No
NASB6 500 <25% No
NET7 not specified <50% No
NIV8 500 <25% No
NKJV9 1,000 <50% No

Most licenses (though I am not aware of any exceptions) do not explicitly allow freedom beyond these specific permissions, meaning the restriction preventing the translation of the Biblical text has not been lifted. For use of the text that requires more than this—like including the complete text of a book of the Bible—the user must enter into a specific licensing agreement with the copyright holder of the Bible translation. These licensing agreements typically include the negotiations of royalties from the sale of the content back to the owner of the Bible translation.

Read the rest of The Urgent Need for An Open Liscensed Bible in English at Distant Shores Media

Besides being an updated guide, towards the current challenges publishers, participants, and readers have towards digital faith-based resources, it also speaks to the problem of why there is even a greater challenge to create non-English faith resources. Simply put, law and process hasn’t kept pace with technology and behavior.

…Imagine a Christian pastor in Tehran who uses his mobile phone Bible application to search for what the Bible says about “suffering for Christ.” The pastor does not know that the free Bible he is reading on his app is only free in exchange for data about how he uses it. In fact, he cannot even do a search for “suffering” on his phone without a network connection, because his free app with the “free of charge” Bible he is reading phones home to the web service with every search he makes. And when his app phones home to an American website (a Bible website, no less), it may well trip a filter in the Great Iranian Firewall. And maybe around 2am, the pastor gets to find out firsthand what it means to suffer for Christ. Because his app phoned home. Because “free of charge” comes with a tradeoff, when it is not also accompanied by “legal freedom” at the level of content…

While I do think that in some revolutionary ways this will be addressed in my lifetime, I am also very aware that the nature of faith, data, and information lends itself to be something held close and valued towards exclusion rather than shared towards posterity. Hopefully, there can not only be a change that works for all here, but one that compensates rightly all the levels of engagement that it takes to make these resources possible to the global faith community.

Then again, is not part of the definition of religion that of a system that’s exclusive not just in application, but in information shared?

Guide to Producing Video on/for Mobile at Mobile Advance

Parlaying their learning of video production and mobile media, Mobile Advance has recently published a comprehensive guide to video production to and for mobile devices that should find its way onto your bookmarks if this is where your interests in mobile lie.

This is a researched and vetted pointer to existing resources, and so some of it might be deeper in some sections more than others. Nevertheless, if you are producing content for mobile, or looking trying to figure out why your media projects towards mobile and mobile ministry might have failed, this is probably one of the better resources you can grab.

The Firehose that is MMM

The other week, we were approached with shuttling some of our content to a mobilized service. That service would basically take the RSS feed and then do some optimizations in order to make it work best for its platform.Well, we’ve got a lot of content here, and one of the items that came back to us was that we’ve got a lot of content and it makes it hard for them to figure out the best way to present our content. That’s a problem, but also speaks to the nature of the content here at MMM, and some of what has been happening behind the scenes to make the experience of reading the most relevant content more possible.

Developing The Firehose

Back when MMM got started online (April 2005), we had a model that was basically a copy of many of the high-traffic websites of the time: publish, publish, publish. I can remember at one point putting up 5-6 pieces a day, and many times unique pieces. For those not knowing what MMM was (amazing how folks stumbled upon us via a simple search), this wasn’t a bad thing. But over time, that got to be a bit much. We went to a single-post-a-day schedule many years back, and for the most part have been able to keep a consistent and constant stream of content flowing.

With that change in frequency came a change in the type of writing. I noticed from the analytics that the longer posts that we made had people stick around a bit longer. And not just to read that post, but they were most likely to go visit someplace else on the site. I shifted into making long-form content, best suited for contemplative reading – rather than quick skimming (other tech sites went this route) – but not to the length of what would be found on many theological sites (dissertations I tell ya). That change was also good for consistency, but a pain in the butt for organization.

The Battle to Organize Content

The move to WordPress from Blogger presented a chance to address some issues in terms of how content was organized on the site. At the time of that move, there were almost 3000 posts published and not quite a half of them were tagged/categorized. Google moved Blogger to a tagging system in the midst of our writing, and – well, its a lot of work to go back and retag content. I did a retaxionomy of the content based around some tighter editorial needs in that move to WordPress, and for the most part, its served us well.

What you might not have noticed is that some of those old posts from Blogger (see, http://archived.mobileministrymagazine.com) have been slowly making their way into WordPress. Unfortunately, the amount of content and structure of content wouldn’t import into WordPress, so each post has to be individually added to WordPress, retagged, and then categorized. That’s just something that will continue to take a while. In the meantime, there’s new content being produced that meets the current organizational schemes, in that long-form method, that’s usually quite unique, and generally posted on a consistent basis.

See the fun?

Steps of Manage the Firehose

Now, you would think that with some background in content management and information architecture that we probably shouldn’t be in this situation – but the fact of the matter is that MMM has changed over the years, as has its audience, as has the content. There are some streams of content not as often posted here anymore (direct software and hardware reviews), and there are others which tend to get much more the light of day (processes and UX matters). Where the content here becomes usable for you is in two offerings – based on the detail of the types of categorizing that happens here:

  • Search
  • RSS

Search is probably the most important (and most used) functional feature of this resource. Mainly because it is able to not only deal with the content that we’ve organized, but also dig a bit more into what we haven’t organized (thanks Google and WordPress). One of the pieces that is (unfortunately) missing from our mobile website is a suitable search interface (this is present on the alternate mobile website however). Not sure how and when that could be addressed on the mobile site, but its clear – at least from those of you who come here via Internet Explorer/Firefox/Safari that its a needed feature in terms of getting around.

RSS is the quieter feature used to manage the amount of content here. The way its used is actually a crafty by-product of the tags and categorization system present within WordPress. Every category and every tag points to a page that has its own RSS feed. This means, if you are looking at a subject area (perhaps Mobile in Missions/Evangelism for example) and you want to just get the updates for that stream of content only as it is published here, then all you need to do is either click on the RSS (orange colored) button in your URL bar, or take the URL for that page (http://mobileministrymagazine.com/tag/mobile-in-missionsevangelism/) and just add “feed/” to the end of the address and you have just the data stream for that page. Nearly every page has that functionality built in – and I’ve just not done a great job in talking about it.

The Missteps in that Firehose

The problem with things comes on some of our static pages (Bible apps, Case Studies, etc.) of which there is a listing of content, but those items are merely just a listing. There wasn’t a design to that set of data other than just putting it out there, making sure it linked to the right places, and sat under the correct subheading. That’s now biting MMM in the butt. Especially with the Case Studies/Resources page, there’s just an increasingly deep listing of content, and outside of searching on the page (click F3 on your keyboard if you are on a laptop and you can search within any single webpage), you just will have a hard time of finding what you are looking for.

WordPress is a decent content management system. However, making it work for this application (a multi-contextual listing of resources) would be stretching it a bit – even with extensions. The goal for each page is to be available, but to also be easy to manage. Until recently, that’s not been a problem. The query from the mobile services provider poked at that crack in the wall and we’ve got to figure something to do around it.

One of the solutions is to republish every resource and link on those static pages as a posting with their own set of categories/tags, and then build a custom page that would be able to contain those items. For those reading the blog, that’s going to be a lot of content coming through – and while some might be good to see, there are a lot of links to republish there. Another solution is to use the Links feature within WordPress, and then create a series of custom pages that would display those links as organized. Some of the work to do that has been started (in the background), but I’m still not sure what the final result will look like – though it will be a breeze to manage.

How You Can Help

As you can see, we are indeed aware of the amount and level of content that’s published here. Contrary to some opinions, we are quite focused as to what gets published and how it stays relevant to the overall purpose of this magazine. What we don’t know is how you engage the content here? That kind of information would help us better address what comes out of this hose, and how to continue to make sure what comes out is valuable. With that said, a few questions:

  • Do you use a mobile app to view MMM? If so, which app(s) and why?
  • Do you use an RSS reader to view MMM (which, why)?
  • Do you use either the normal or alternate mobile websites?
  • Do you use the email subscription via Feedburner to read content? If so, how do you archive, organize, resource those emails?

Thanks for your feedback on this. And if you have other ideas on how we can better manage the amount of content that comes here, do feel free to chime in via an article comment, the contact form, or Twitter (@mobileminmag)