This is Part 3 of a series proposing a methodology towards implementing and understanding the implications of mobile tool-sets within ministries. It is deliberately shortened, and at the same time, should assist the understanding behind MMM’s specific expertise offerings.
Defining Mobile Strategies
While it is many times helpful to look to other industries to define and implement strategies around new technologies, mobile is one of those clear areas where everyone is still trying to develop a sense of what works and how. MMM is one of many groups at the front of this intersection between faith and mobile, and proposes a framework which might assist many of you towards not just seeing the value of mobile (devices, services, etc.) and discerning the impacts personally, locally, and globally.
Cross-Referencing a Mobile Strategy
It is indeed difficult to look outside of your strategy as something that might have been done before. But, proving that your context is correct towards implementing any mobile strategy requires that such research is done.
By definition, cross-referencing is a task by which we determine the meaning or context of an item by analyizing it against an index or an accompanying passage/document.
Being that every mobile strategy is an intersection of faith and technological practices, two indexes should be selected: the Bible (or religious group’s primary document of faith, but not a creed) and reputable technology researchers/sources (Pew Internet, ITU, etc.).
The Bible gives the spiritual baseline by which any mobile-faith engagement would be measured against. This is not to say that it will speak directly to your mobile initiative, but like the fathers of the faith disputing their daily concerns with what they could understand by the Spirit and text, so we also measure our engagements in the same way. Be very careful here not to pull Scripture outside of its context in order to fit your context, this amounts to blasphemy.
Standards bodies such as the ITU keep a (mostly) up-to-date and unbiased series of data sets related to everything mobile that’s happening regionally and internationally. Your mobile strategy should be checked against these standards bodies, in addition to any software developer kits (SDKs) which might be a part of a specific platform. Understanding the trends, and then the capabilities already exposed within existing data, merits a refining of your strategy to something better able to be implemented and succeed.
With such a bearing on existing data, you can being implementing your product/service (part 4)