Keeping with yesterday’s thing of sharing some thoughts, there were some parallel thoughts about social media. Both of these were actually brought on by a conversation with Street Corner Prophet about a social media program we are looking to put together soon. For the purpose of this piece though, I want to just concentrate on some of the things said around social media that would play out well with many of you as you are looking at how to leverage social media best:

• What are the challenges with social media that go beyond the tech? How do you teach tools in a way that keeps the message relevant?
• What are the core problems we hope to address with social media (to be informed, to be engaged, and to have an opportunity for expression)
• Time is our most important commodity; its not just about access and opportunity, its about value
• Moving from solving the problem of media having the priority to the person who is listening having the priority
• Where does recording/reposting/sharing the media have value (internally, externally)

I won’t get into how this factors into the specifics of the conversation, but these were just some insights that I had in my notes that I thought quite relevant to share here as many of you whom look at mobile are also looking at how social media opportunities/challenges intersect with that.

We say from time to time here, technology is only relevant when its is personal. Social media is good, but we really have to do a job of assessing if its a good means to an end, or just additional noise in the tube.

Image via Thought Pick

As I write this, I’m taking advantage of the NBA’s League Pass free preview at the beginning of this NBA season over my friend’s Roku and its got me thinking about how we use and discuss the best uses for streaming media. Sure, there’s this practice that when in a home/sitting setting that one can use a stationary media device to get multimedia content, but how would such a connection point fit within what we understand about mobile? Or better yet, where are some of the opportunities for mobile ministry engagement?

One of the things that I do when not exposed to media via some kinds of station like the Roku or Amazon (Instant Video and Cloud Player have become used a bit more since getting my Kindle Fire HD), is looking into the websites of some of the brands or industries I’m interested in and looking for/at short video clips. This works great for sports and with some of the indie music that I listen for, and its pretty decent as well. I’m simple in searching for these though, I just use a search engine or my existing social media accounts, and search from there.

On the Roku, there’s this idea of subscribing to different channels. And to be open, there’s a number of larger ministries that have gone the route of having Roku stations for their ministries. LifeChurch.TV is a good example here as you can pretty much tune in anytime to a church online session. This isn’t different from saving a favorite in my browser then going to it, or subscribing to an RSS channel. Again though, I’m doing this in a stationary moment. When mobile, its a bit different.

I can see a situation where I visit an organization’s mobile website, and one of the options is to view some video clips. After clicking on a clip, I’d be asked if I want to either download an application that preloads these video clips and offers some other kinds of functionality, or asked if I would like to subscribe to updates of new videos and then given options of doing so (RSS, email, social media, etc.).

Because as I think about it, video on my mobile makes sense. But only in the case where I’m able to sit and give attention to it. Music on the other hand, I like to use streaming music as kind of a background filler.

My primary streaming service is last.fm. I have had a paid and free account there for sometime, and so there’s a decent library of music and music recommendations that I can choose from. On any of my mobile devices, streaming from there is just a matter of launching the app and choosing the station/artist. Should churches also have a presence on something like last.fm? You know, where you can choose to listen to either their own mix of commercial and indie artists? Or, where if they are a ministry that produces their own music, that you can choose to listen to that instead (would definitely make visiting those churches easier, in the respect of knowing some of the songs before you get there).

And here’s the core of these thoughts: how does a ministry that creates stuff allow me (the prospective audience) to plug in and get a taste of what they do to glorify God? Sure, making me read a website, sign up for an email newsletter, etc. might be great and works well for those folks that want to learn about you that way. But, what about those folks who would rather be engaged with other senses or don’t have the value proposition that reading about you is a good use of their time? Shouldn’t we be looking at this a bit more from context of how do people wish to receive us not just what can we offer them?

Am up for your thoughts here…

We are always careful here to post about stats looking at usages of smartphones vs tablets. Part of this is because of the entry point for much that information that can sometimes be skewed by access (for example, if you are a web service, then your stats only include those subscribing to your web service, not those who don’t subscribe to yours, or to one at all). That said, there’s always something to be gained from these notes, and Flurry’s latest leaves us a few things to consider.

That’s all for the pictures, visit Flurry’s post, The Truth About Cats and Dogs: Smartphone vs Tablet Usage Differences on their blog.

Interested in having Antoine/Mobile Ministry Magazine speak for your organization or at your event? Fill out this form and you are halfway there.

Was pointed to this by Mobile Advance on Twitter. Been a rare thing to see SIM apps, and the way that Media Mobile has put this together definitely merits some additional viewing and learning:

Read more about Mvuku at Medic Mobile

Recently, we got a question asking about the availability of a mobile prayer journal. Here’s the question as it was sent into us:

Could you recommend an easy to use prayer app that I cold use on my computer and iPhone

Now, a search in the Apple App Store (using the word “prayer”) would show that there are a lot of applications designed to help you pray, however this listing has several limitations (and interestingly enough, we don’t list any either):

• You don’t get Christian prayer apps, but also those for other faiths
• You get apps compatible with the iPhone/iPad, however there’s no indication that any of these would also work on a PC/Mac/Linux computer, and…
• You get nothing but screenshots displaying the interface and aspects of use

The person writing in really did have a simple question in mind, but there doesn’t seem to be a decent answer that can come from this.

In our reply, we mentioned that instead of a prayer app (since the desire is to also use this on a PC/Mac computer), that perhaps using an existing cross-platform Bible reader such as OliveTree would be useful. Within the OliveTree domain, there are plenty of prayer-led devotionals, that work alongside the Bible content. In addition, OliveTree’s applications also offer an ability to save notes and follow a reading plan – making it quite useful as a prayer journal. Its a bit of a cobbled solution, but one way that this could work.

Other apps such as Logos, YouVersion, etc. could probably also work in this manner. However, none of these are designed as a journal first, then something that facilitates this aspect of making notes about or for prayer needs. You could go the route of using a notepad application – perhaps something that was designed more like a wiki that can connect to people in your address book, or to text messages that came in. But, I’ve not seen much in terms of that direction, aside from the mountains of developers who keep writing notepad apps.

So, instead of putting together an idea for such an app (can you tell we already have), we’d like to pitch that question out to you and ask you what might be your recommendations for a prayer journal that works both on a mobile device and a conventional computer. Leave your answers in the comments and let’s see if we can figure something out for our prayerful contributor.

Earlier this week, we asked the question of where you might be framing what you learn life from. And here at the end of the week, we find that given enough time and curiosity, that what you learn doesn’t just have to be about what surprises yourself, but also those around you who might have felt they should be your teachers as well:

…We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off switch. He’d never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android…

Read the rest of Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves at MIT Technology Review (via Dvice and Gizmodo)

Personally speaking, I like to experiment on my own. I know how that comes across in groups where credentials and such merit the starting point for discussions. But when we consider the reach and opportunity not only of the technology, but also of people who might be more entranced with their thoughts of social/spiritual good, than any other kinds of implications, there’s a lot that’s possible that we rarely scratch the surface of. We know that experiments like this have been done before (similar results), and even that parents can attest to just leaving a kid in the room, and magically learning of a tool, and later of context, happens.

That’s one of those paradigms that we are not usually wanting to consider, especially here in this faith space. Can a person, if just exposed to the Bible, learn all that is needed for them to live well? If I were to listen to one of the many stories from an old friend, I’d hear again how daily exposure to the Scriptures related complex ideas such as salvation, hell, and restoration. We have Paul’s words which demonstrate that there’s a purpose and office for the teacher (Romans 10:15), and also John’s which indicates that the best teacher is already with us (1 John 2:20-27). Such an experiment can affirm the ability to learn, but deny the (ego) attitude of the teacher.

We are left then with several questions, none of which have easy answers. Can a group of people, given only the utensils to learn and share with one another, teach themselves not only how to use the tools, but also maintain it and turn it into an indispensable aspect of their culture? Or, does the introduction and use of this tech just make as another control point for the learning and culture models that we already have in place?

If we can hack a tool, can learning also be hacked? And if so, what could its aims be if learning happened without the help of a teacher?

One of the things that we can all say that we do to our mobiles is that we go about customizing it. Usually, that starts with something simple such as adding a wallpaper that has someone/something significant on it. Others go the route of adding cases to their devices – first because of protection needs – because of the ease at finding something unique for both a personal statement and visual message. Or, we might go the extra step with ring-tones/ring-back tones so that people who hear our mobiles know that its ours. This is part of a route that I tend to take, and delight very much in doing what I can with applications such as Situations (Google Now, Tasker and Locale are similar apps for Android devices) to customize how my device acts in a particular moment.

Some people go a bit further, we learn how others might have reprogrammed their mobiles and go about building custom applications and services to plug into our mobiles.  And even further more are those people whom hack, jailbreak or root, or just use it (ah the fun of those folks using Maemo and MeeGo mobile devices; which come out of the box ready to be tinkered with) and find opportunities to personalize the mobile experience such that they are able to gain the most out of the device, while learning or exercising in the process. One could make the statement, the process of making the device “yours” goes a long way into ensuring that the experience of a mobile device or service stays relevant.

I wonder then about the parallels to when we start using these devices and services in our faith experiences. True, there are only so many routes that one can go with this kind of intersection, but I wonder if our experiences with mobile devices also opens us up to the potential of having faith experiences that are more personal than communal or liturgical?

When we meet God speaking and engaging with others in the Bible and religious history, we see first a personalized experience that later becomes something that a community of people are able to take part in. Moses engaged God first at a burning bush, and it was after many moments of fellowship and conversation that the burning bush moment became something that was (asked by God) to be an event shared with all of Israel (Moses telling them to prepare themselves for the Lord will come off the mountain… then to “Moses, you speak to God for us” – an unpersonalized faith interaction). Its interesting, because we have these devices that in some respects acts like this moment of the person or item being right there with us, and we can customize the channel to do so. And at the same time, we can customize it such that we also isolate ourselves from one another, or even from sharing the faith with one another.

YouVersion and many other Bible apps offer reading plans. These reading plans are usually designed (or authorized) by another party, and then you engage with them. Depending on the Bible application, you can either keep your progress personal, or share your successes and challenges with a community built around that application or service. Should our faith be so easy to personalize then? Or, should the items that we use to bolster or mature in the faith, keep us mindful of the fact that some aspects of this walk do need to happen in the closet, while others would be better walked out with others?

Image via To Live is Christ

Somewhere during October, we realized that we had not checked in with the resolutions in September as we had been doing in the previous months. Let’s go ahead and correct that by first taking a look at the resolutions we’ve made:

1. An App is Not A Strategy
2. Specifically Define Mobile in Education
3. Get Connected to Tech, Mobile, and Mobile Ministry Events
4. All Books Project and Mobile UX Standards and Raising the Bar on Mobile UX Standards
5. Become a Digital Faith Advocate

Back in August, we talked about some pretty good successes. Seems like the momentum has been going pretty well here and it looks like in terms of progress towards answering what happens at this intersection of faith and mobility, that we are seeing that strategy, conversation, and collaboration tend to go a long way. Hopefully, your resolutions have also been able to stand up to the year’s events and intrusions and you’ve been able to also see some steps forward.

Just a few more months left in the year and then we can summarize the impact of all of these.

Its not often that we talk about what’s been popular here, but perhaps its right to bring some of these back into the limelight some. Here are some of the articles that have seen the most hits and shares over the past month:

Articles

• How to Build an App for Your Ministry
• 2012 Resolution #3: Get Connected to Tech, Mobile, and Mobile Ministry Events
• Some More Examples of Mobile Advertising/Marketing
• AirStash
• A Primer on Differences Between Mobile Web Apps and Native Apps
• eInk Bible App for Kindle
• On the Scene w/Brian Russell of @YouVersion
• Just A Carry On
• Mobile Ministry Made Easy: A Simple Guide to Begin or Advance Your Use of Mobiles
• Where Are the Bible Database Sources App Developers Can Use?
• Beyond Access

As you can see, some of these items were published in October, but some were published earlier and still get some reasonable traction. In terms of how content is developed, these are some of the trends that we pay attention to in order to make sure that you’ve got a bearing on some of what’s happening in this space.

Pages*

• Bible Apps
• Services
• About

*We did some tweaking to the page titles and that effected how these have been showing up in searches and on our metrics. It seems that folks prefer the shorter names and better organized page listing (neat).