Over on Twitter, there’s a conversation that exists around mobile ministry which uses the #mobmin hashtag. Many times, items posted with that hashtag might not make it into stories here directly, even though they certainly do play a part into some of what is put into the stream. Here are some of those stories:

@wfryer: new post: Digital Storytelling with Pinnacle Studio for iPad http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2012/10/28/digital-storytelling-with-pinnacle-studio-for-ipad/ …”

@bdrhoa: Pocket Pad Studio configuration for the Android by MYHOT16 — Kickstarter http://kck.st/VwnIVe via @kickstarter

@KingdomGuy1: The times they are a changin’ – Samsung widens global smartphone lead, as Nokia drops from top 5: Report http://tnw.to/c6bH

@soonguy: Still not too late to book for the Mobile Ministry Forum Nov 28-30http://www.mobileministryforum.org/mmf-consultation-2012 … #missions

@davehackett: [Report} 126 million use Facebook on mobile only; India, Brazil, US key sources of mobile growth http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/126-million-use-facebook-mobile-only-1C6681668 …

@eDOTGeek: Rethinking what mobile web design usage really means (and what we assume could be wrong) –> http://ow.ly/eH8Hk

@Mobile_Advance: Heading to Africa. To find out why check out Training & Equipping in Africa [article] http://www.mobileadvance.org/blog/184-training-a-equipping-in-africa … #ieway

Now, there are more topics within mobile ministry which do get attention, keep an eye on #mobmin via Twitter and other social networks to see those stories as they arise.

When talking to a friend about a new computer for one of his kids, I stumbled upon an analogy that I think really fits how we need to consider the choices around computing that we need to take these days:

…which version of the Internet do you want your son to learn life from Google’s (we will index/organize everything, monetize your connection to it w/o necessarily giving you back the money) or MS’s (3 screens and a cloud, we make money when you purchase from us or our approved partners, your limits on creation is what you can build w/our tools/methods)

I mean these as blanket statements, but these are also the lenses at which we have in front of us. Let’s expand on that a bit more.

When I was coming up into computing, I had to learn DOS in order to wrangle Windows 3.1 into subjection; I had to learn what and how MacOS and Windows were and weren’t compatible with one another, and the tedious nature of making sure that I didn’t lose anything in the process; I had to learn how to design with tables, and then relearn how to design websites without them; and so on. Today, the question of learning life can start from the Internet. And if you do so, then there are many competing voices, and a few loud ones in which we need to consider if they are suitable teachers for whatever comes next:

• If your lens of the Internet is that you mostly interact with it through Facebook, then can you speak to what happens outside of that network, what happens if/when that point of connection is no longer available, the reliability of security controls, and the value of reading and understanding terms of service agreements?
• If your lens of the Internet is that you only use Google to search for content, can you speak to what other search engines can/do uncover that Google doesn’t (for whatever reason), what happens when Google’s results are limited to you because of regional, commercial, or governmental interests, the positives and negatives of a single-sign-on system across multiple devices and what kinds of data is collected, analyzed, and monetized through those connections?
• If your lens of the Internet comes first through Microsoft products such as SharePoint, Internet Explorer, Windows Phone, or XBox, then you can speak to other ecosystems that combine hardware, software, and subscription services; what does it mean to have an open programming environment; do you understand how past market and governmental systems shaped the current software or services’ functions, and what freedoms does your region or the terms of service allow in that?
• If your lens of the Internet comes through Apple, how do you convey design and aesthetics when it isn’t within Apple’s style-guide or an approved developer’s highlighted application; how do you discuss the impact of logistics and planning on the final product (do you recognize how much Apple does here), and there’s that terms of service again – what are your rights as prescribed by a document you can’t append?

There are other companies with which we’d have to consider their lens as well – Samsung, Amazon, Logos, LifeChurch.TV, etc. – all of whom have differing viewpoints as to how Internet, mobile and other media are best used to forward their aims, and to help enable (or disable) yours. Are you ready to learn from life this way, or is there another solution on tap?

Earlier this week, we contributed an article to Church Tech Today which spoke about some basics for determining directions for mobile ministry activities. Here’s a snippet:

Mobile is all about attention. Some would even go as far as to call what we see in mobile and other modern media elements as aspects to an attention economy. Meaning simply that value is determined, generated, and lost by the type of attention gained or lost, and the transaction between those moments of attention.

For example, Facebook wants to keep you on their site (within their properties), and so to get your attention, there is the allure of connecting to friends and people you might have lost touch with. To keep your attention, they use the information you have placed within their environment to create more streams of connections to those relationships and others. This can manifest itself in Likes, games, or other opportunities.

Read the rest of Mobile Ministry Strategy Basics at Church Tech Today

If you are interested in an MMM article appearing at your website, get in touch with us.

Before MMM was started, I can remember many of the statements that people would levy against the use of PDAs and mobiles within faith practices. One of those statements went something like, “I feel closer to God when I’m reading on paper than on a screen like that.” Another was similar to it: “I’d be too tempted to do something else rather than read the Bible on there.” The common thread of these and other statements though was in the comparison of print and computer technologies, but how we filtered that technology as an enabling tool to spiritual transformations. In a very real sense, the technologies that we didn’t grow up with would always be seen as those which can take us away from the truth of what we believe and practice.

Its possible though that such a comparison opens up another window, one that we don’t measure to speak about all that much because there are very many assumptions about faith practices. For example, when walk with our brothers and sisters who believe that only the King James Bible is the true translation of the Bible (2 even-handed books on this: In the Beginning and God’s Secretaries), or those that feel that non-Psalm-derived hymns should not be sung in the assembly, we color this faith with a perspective that takes something that should enhance our viewpoints and practices (sacrament) to something that hinders it (idol).

Its with that lens that I urge us to pay attention to a discussion happening within many rabbinic circles about the smartphone and its influence on faith and practice (liturgy). Here are snippets of two articles:

Have you seen the video in which a worshipper smashes a smartphone during the traditional singing and dancing with Torah scrolls at a yeshiva in Jerusalem? Wonderful. The worshipper, who is following his rabbi’s orders, breaks the abominable device as the holy crowd cheers him on. The rabbi then says the man can bless those present, indicating that he has reached a higher level of spirituality. The angry rabbis from the Union of Communities for Purity of the Camp, who organized last summer’s mega-rally in New York in which they warned against the “dangers” of the smartphone, can sit back and smile.

The phone-smashing ceremony at the yeshiva’s synagogue was idolatry, not Tikkun olam (repairing the world). In Judaism, when someone bows before a physical object, such as a cult image, he is an idol worshipper. Meaning, if someone attributes “divine” qualities, such the ability to work miracles, to inanimate objects, then he is considered to be on the same level as those whose idols were smashed by Abraham, the first patriarch of Israel. They thought their toys were gods, the idiots.

Read the rest of  Ultra-Orthodox Idolatry at YNet News

Rabbi Yitzhak was asked to comment on the issue on the website of his “Shofar” organization, after pictures of him using a smartphone were posted on social networks and other websites.

The rabbi, famous for his involvement in activities which are centered on helping Jews to become more religious or observant, referred to those who criticized him as “fools”, likening them to people committing offenses against God.

Read the rest of Rabbi: I have special permit for iPhone at YNet News

With both articles, the question of spiritual authority comes into play, as well as the significance that we place upon any technologies that ascribe to making us grow closer to God, or run away from Him. How do your actions define the place of various technologies in your faith-life? Do you collect print Bibles not because of their additional commentary, but because of cover styles, fonts, and holidays? Does your mobile device rise and fall with the media’s proclamation of what’s best for the season, regardless of how much you are or aren’t getting out of the device?

Look, I don’t think we need to esteem these mobile devices as the next great sacrament. Nor, do we need to deride them as some great idol of a long ago prophecy. I do think that our viewpoint needs to begin and end with whether we have these tools in hand because we are growing mentally, socially, and spiritually in the kind of direction that speaks to the unity of the faith. From there, let’s keep the faith a product of our relationship with God and one another, not of one determined by what technologies we choose.

Some time back, we announced the MobMin.Info portal – a simple resource portal to much of what’s happening within this space we call mobile ministry. Since its unveiling, there have been a few updates to it, and we want to highlight those items, as well as the updates that have happened most recently:

• The addition of a Videos section – pointing to several videos which speak directly to mobile ministry (definition, activities, and trends)
• The addition and refinement to the Bible Apps and Dev & Services sections for more platform-specific content – so if you are trying to build or deploy something, this is a one-stop-shop for those resource links
• An updating to the Articles, News & Discussions sections links – adding a bit more of what’s happening in social networking spaces (if anyone has a mobile ministry specific link for Facebook, please send that and we’ll get that there too
• Setting up the page to act like a mobile app – so that you can access this when offline, and if needed, you can utilize your mobile device’s ability to send links to others (via SMS, Email, or Bluetooth) for those items which might be applicable to them; this feature uses the HTML 5 Application Cache feature, and has been implemented as a beta/experiment play (this might not work on your device)

Hopefully, this is something that can serve to help you better understand what mobile ministry is about. And if you are looking to develop, this kind of page can potentially serve as a template to guide you towards how to translate content into a mobile-friendly view (for example, this portal page uses elements from Modernizr, jQuery, and Google Analytics in concert with a UI custom design).

If you have any additional items that should be added here, please get in contact with us so that we can update accordingly. To view this portal, simply point your browser to http://mobmin.info

The image on this post comes via Horace Dediu (‏@asymco) via Twitter/TwitPic. It speaks to both the unique numbers that have characterized mobile for sometime in terms of its relationship of subscribers to the global population and to what’s addressable within those constraints.

In a previous post, we threw some numbers against the wall to explain in a similar fashion that while mobile is indeed an opportunity, what it can address directly isn’t limitless. Look at that graphic – as of 2012, the GSMA is saying that of the 4.7 billion people who could be addressable with mobile, 1.5 million (a tick less than 33%) of them are not connected due to network coverage issues. That’s a pretty large pocket of folks that you can’t rely on to download your app, receive your SMS/MMS, or scan your QR code/AR dimensional plane. For mobile to have effectiveness there, you’ve got to think more off the grid, and more to the point if mobile is the most relevant delivery or translation mechanism (for example, what we saw with AirStash on an airplane).

When you do adjust for that, then the possibilities of using mobile become unique enough that it seems as if it truly will reach the ends of the earth.

Though we’ve talked about this a few times, the question of where to start with mobile, once you’ve decided to go that direction for some aspect of communication or engagement is a difficult one. What’s great though is that there are several of us in this faith-tech space that have tackled this. Here’s a piece from Symbiota’s answer to this:

A mobile app is software designed for such mobile operating systems (and their corresponding distribution programs) as Apple iOS (the App Store) and Google Android (Google Play); an app is generally useful for executing specific actions, such as listening to a podcast, playing an interactive game, or making a purchase. A mobile website is essentially a sleek, stripped down version of your native (desktop-friendly) site; with a mobile website, the content may be stacked vertically for easy scrolling, and much of the graphics from the native site may be streamlined or removed.

Read the rest of Help! My church wants to go mobile; where do we start? at Symbiota. And take note of the chart after the infographic – those six (6) points are about as clear as it gets towards understanding your direction in mobile and ministry.

Another Symbiota plug: We’ve started adding Symbiota’s webinars to the #mobmin calendar as many of these are quite relevant connection points to what’s happening in faith and tech from a resource/learning perspective. Subscribe to the #mobmin Calendar to get updates about these and other events.

After a small pause, the Carnival of the Mobilists (@themobilists) has returned with a slew of posts and topics that can certainly keep you engaged into a nice day of reading and consideration onto those things mobile. Here’s a sampling of the articles Gadgets & All Things Digital has included in this double-numbered edition:

• MobileGroove on SMS for engagement
• Tomi Ahonen on the top features used in mobiles
• Presentation on Android battery consumption
• Which platforms are easiest to develop for
• And more

Per the usual instructions, grab a cup of coffee/tea and a good sitting spot, then read and enjoy this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists.

For those of you writing about the intersection of faith and mobile tech, do consider submitting your post to the Carnival of the Mobilists. In addition to gathering some extra visibility to your insights, it will also connect you to a wide and deep pool of others in mobile and faith spaces for other opportunities.

Am a bit late in getting this up here, but wanted to keep with the trend of the past few weeks of getting some kind of personal story on the site to close out the editioral week. In this instance, Antoine (the Founder and Primary Voice behind MMM) was interviewed by Charlotte Viewpoint Magazine’s Shannise Jackson-Ndiaye. Here’s a snippet of the interview:

SJN:Is it possible for believers to be authentic and convey a transparent message using digital technology?

ARJW: I went from a purely analog to a digital existence in the span of twenty years. Young People’s behavioral context today is different than someone born thirty years ago. So we have all these contexts that say I can move my faith from these digital means as long as I am transmitting something that the Apostles can smell, and say “yeah that looks like the faith Jesus taught us.”

SJN: What are some of the pitfalls?

ARJW: Boundaries! We teach don’t watch no more than one hour of television but we don’t teach boundaries for digital technology because it is still a fairly new behavior. We need to have boundaries for our digital lifestyle, like read the terms of service for the technology we use.

Creativity! Creation, creativity, and production; 10% of the people online are the only ones producing and 90% of us are consuming.

Accountability! That I am not tweeting just because I want to be heard but I am adding value to the lives of those people who are passing through my life through this media stream. So there are implications to us walking through those streams and as ministers we need to make sure that I am utilizing not just for my best use but for those who are plucking from my tree of life. For congregants, I am also in this space and I have just as much of a voice as my pastor does. Publishing says that everyone has the same voice. If it is a video, Instagram, or Youtube let it minister grace unto the listeners and viewers.

Read the rest of The 21st Century Church and the Digital Testimony at Charlotte Viewpoint

Other interviews have been noted here. For speaking or interview requests, please use this form to note your inquiry.

There are just so many new gadgets out there, and for the most part, its a crazier world when it comes to tablets. For those who might have been coming from a PDA or eReader background, the idea of a 10in tablet is wrought with some significant risks (weight, platform lock-in, etc.) alongside the obvious gains. And so the 7in tablet begins to take some root as a potential alternative. From a physical standpoint, we’re talking about something with a bent towards reading (unless you’ve got a Samsung or HTC model with a stylus and those neat styli tricks). From a software perspective, we are mostly talking about Android (I’m still wishing for something solid to come from the Mer/MeeGo camp). And then from a usability and faith end, we get that really interesting ask of how this shape of device fosters a maturing faith perspective and a life lived in light of such perspectives.

I’ve recently purchased a Kindle Fire HD to potentially replace my 1st gen iPad. And while I’ve begun to note some of my impressions about it, I’m not yet completely comfortable giving the KF-HD all the work that I gave my iPad. These are different devices, and not everything that one tablet can do should be done on all others. At least how they have come across so far, the iPad is more of a canvas (you can’t do much until you add the paint of various applications), and the KF-HD is a catalog (the 21st century Sears/JC Penny catalog) – I dig into that distinction some on my personal blog.

Still, I can’t help but thinking that there’s a legitimate space for this size of device, and what we can continue to refine about our understandings about mobile as it relates to faith. For example, a few days ago Mobile Advance asked (via Twitter) something specific towards the Google Nexus 7 tablet for an upcoming African trip. Of note to his question was this ability to utilize a device in a mostly offline context. Here were some of the apps recommended in that conversation stream:

• Digital Bible Society’s Browser Bible
• YouVerion (though there will be some limitations when offline)
• NET Bible (HTML zipped version is what I have, but that seems no longer available)
• Evernote
• Skitch
• TiddlyWiki

Essentially, these are apps which enable taking a 7in tablet and treating it more like a Moleskine notebook and not just a browser/ebook device. I don’t know that anyone can disagree with that perspective. But, its neat that in a device that is this size, that such a use-case isn’t so far away from normalcy. (And in rethinking about it, I forgot to mention a multi-language dictionary; too many years going online for those moments, whoops)

And besides that, you’ve got to think about how that shifts how you use your mobile device. In my case, having the KF-HD makes me use my smartphone more. I don’t know if its because I haven’t adapted to using it as easily as I have my iPad, or that its just faster to continue on this current workflow by using my N8 (and a recently acquired Lumia 900). I can see how someone who has a laptop and doesn’t want to remove that from their lifestyle will use a 7in tablet alongside a low or mid-range smartphone and be just fine in some of their computing pursuits. At least with the Kindle Fire/FireHD, I’m not sure that this is a perfect size to be a netbook/laptop replacement – even though the range of solid 7in tablets and their attending software points in that direction. I do think that its a near-perfect size though to replace a high-end smartphone and larger tablet. Which might make for some interesting decisions for many when it comes to costs of computing over time.

As with the iPad, I expect use and perspectives to mature over time with this new tablet. And to be honest, I’m not totally sold on it just yet either. Its nearly perfect, but as I’ve said in some other ramblings, my usage could be better done with a phablet (phone+tablet) like the Galaxy Note II, or a solution like the Asus Padfone 2. I’m a weird one though. My device choice here is honed for a question to be answered much later. For you, the 7in (or even 8.9in and 10in) tablets might fit your usage needs a bit better. Much like we’ve talked about building a Bible app from the perspective of a layman, not a pastor, there’s something to be said for a smaller screen that might fit the usage and mental models of a different type of person that just isn’t as widely heard. We’re listening for that here now, and whatsoever the results of adding this to the #mobmin utility belt might bring.