Of the items that come across the window that are pretty neat and worth talking about, this eInk Bible App for Kindle devices is a pretty decent one. Here’s a description from the website:

…The e-ink Bible app looks and functions just like an e-book, but it has improved navigation and searching capabilities. Like an e-book, you can:

• read continuous stretches of text
• bookmark verses of interest
• add notes

In contrast to an e-book, the e-ink Bible app:

• always displays the current reference
• allows quick navigation
• supports complex searches…

For those of you with a Kindle, or with folks who have black and white (eInk) Kindle devices, this seems to be a pretty neat solution that’s just a little bit better designed for the context than simply having an ebook Bible.

In the past month, there has been several new mobile devices made available. From tablets to phones to audio players to gaming systems, there’s a bit of that pre-holiday press to make sure that you not just have the latest thing, but that you are so unique and qualified to have that latest thing that there are companies who will accessorize that latest thing for you just the same.

…Watching people choose a Bible in a bookstore can also be creative to watch as well.  They ask questions like, what is the most popular translation, what colors do they come in, how long will the cover last, and what kind of type and fonts are used, well, you get the picture.

What’s the connection? Many people buy both for looks, not content. They buy for durability, not actual use. They carry them on trips having never used much of what’s inside. People in places of travel look cool with the latest trend in travel ware…

Read the rest of “For Looks, Not Content” at Chip Furr’s website

This is part of what’s been gonig through my thoughts in the past days as I’ve purchased a Kindle Fire HD (the 7in model) to replace my 1st generation iPad. My motivations were mostly functional – I’m dealing with a device that’s 2 years old, and while very much the canvas that I’ve made work for me, is also a series of compromises and potentially missed opportunities because of how I do mobility. The Kindle Fire HD might not even be the best solution for me. However, I’m motivated to play a bit and see what it looks like having a new device and motivations that are beyond just having something shiny or that will make me noticable to some group. Because the real question is, is my use of this new device making me more noticable to the Father?

Earlier this week, Tomi Ahonen announced the 2012 version of his comprehensive Phone Book Almanac. The Phone Book is a compliation of stats, fugures, and forecasts of the mobile industry and is wel regarded as one of the better public sources for this kind of content (you can find it elsewhere, but its in a lot of places or behind paywalls).

On the day Phone Book 2012 was announced, Ahonen took to Twitter (@TomiAhonen) and asked his followers to ask him one question of any stat that appears within the almanac. Here are a few that he tweeted:

• what is total number of sales of pure-touchscreen phones world wide – answer on page 53: 650M this year
• what is average percentage smartphone penetration in Middle East region? – answer on page 76: 45% migration
• I don’t have it broken down smartphone/dumbphone, but for all phones its on page 60, average replacement cycle now 21 months
• The Phone Book does tell us on page 99 that for the Advanced APAC region (includes Japan) most popular OS is Android
• what is average LatAm smartphone price – answer on page 36, is 276 US dollars
• whats the number of android handests in latam – answer on page 100: Android 35% of all smartphones LatAm
• page 159 tells us that Spanish mobile penetration rate currently is 122%
• what is global rate of 2nd-hand handsets in use – answer on page 42: 12% of all phones second hand

To purchase Phone Book 2012, visit the ebook’s website and follow the instructions.

The Phones Show 182 is a (nearly) weekly look at mobiles, usually including news and a review of a recently released handset (not always a top-of-the-line-smartphone either). See the latest show and previous ones at Steve Litchfield’s Phones Show website. There’s also an RSS feed, iTunes feed, Low-resolution video version, and audio-only version of the show available for your weekend listening.

Another podcast that should get some attention from you is the 361 Degrees podcast. Ewan, Rafe, and Ben put on an excellent show, and you are not likely to hear as sound mobile commentary anywhere else (unless you conference hop). The last season just ended and the new one is slated to start any moment now.

This is a republished posting. However, its being republished today as family and friends of WS Keel are celebrating his going to be with the Lord earlier this week. Stephen is a pioneer of mobile ministry and a veteran of radio and interpersonal evangelism. This reposting is one part of my appreciation and adoration of his hands directly onto my life.

I’ve not been asleep yet tonite. Its just after 4am when I’m writing this. I’m sort of not tired. Been spending the past days with Renew Outreach learning about how they enable missionaries to go to some of the most remote parts of the earth with media such as The Jesus Film. I found out about these folks from W Stephen Keel. Stephen, the founder and literal engine behind Kiosk Evangelism, made it a point not long after moving into his home to have me connect with Renew Outreach. I’m here, on their grounds, getting no sleep after an exhausing day connecting moblile minsitry to their goals and operations, because of Stephen.

About 3 hours ago, I received an email from Stephen that the lung that he received via transplant just about a week ago is being rejected by his body. In the email, he spoke of accepting Christ and the connections to each of his friends (copied on that email) that accepting Christ has afforded him.

I don’t know if he’s still awake.

I hope he is enough to read or hear this being read to him. There’s been a boatload of lessons that Stephen, through Kiosk Evangelism, his marriage, and his faith, I’ve learned over the past year.

Stephen connected with MMM and myself through the Visual Story Network and the mobile media minsitry working group. During a call, we realized that we were only a few hours from one another, and made plans to connect. He visited me in the summer – and using what little funds I had left at the time, I visited him in the fall. That visit turned into an invitation to stay at his home, work on the Kiosk Evangelism Project, and learn from him, his wife and family, and their connections as to how this life is lived best by accepting the connections that Christ leads us towards by faith and faith in Him alone.

Stephen isn’t the easiest person to work with, he is one of the most beneficial people to work with. His vision and passion towards reaching those goals God puts in him is incredible. With the Kiosk Evangelism Project, we went back and forth on everything from content acquisition strategies, to which mobile phones to select to target, to the design of his website, to tracking progress on the project. We were two bulls yolked together, and for the most part we had no head-butting moments. We had a few, and they were powerful. And I was always compelled to come back and just finish the work. We were connected in Christ for this endeavor, and we both knew that if we couldn’t work together for the time God gave us, then we’d miss a considerable opportunity to empower a spreading of the Gospel that’s not been seen before.

Faith and connections are powerful lessons. I learned from Stephen and his wife about the benefit of having support, having a team. There are times to be bold (speaking) and bolder (praying). There are moments when he was so honest about his physical state that I wondered where his faith went, only to see the level of oxygen increase such that it was like he really was breathing and therefore living on faith alone. The man had a very large vision. Kiosk evangelism, mobile evangelists, SD card evangelism… these were pieces of that connection he kept seeing.

His passion and faith were such that he provoked several ministries to work with him and one another for the cause of the Gospel. And he pissed off a few folks because that passion and faith compelled him to push and want to move faster than items could get done. When we finally got to an accessible project, that passion and faith turned into a diligence to the task that made me smile. I didn’t get to see my father in those moments so often, and so to see Stephen putting his hands to the digital ground taught me a ton. I am up working on that All Books Project of mine in part for that reason (and I can’t sleep).

I’m rambling… this is longer than it needs to be. I’ll end this with something he said in that last email, which I think will be another one of those quotables that finds itself embedded within MMM’s DNA:

A life of anonymous giving is the highest form of living

There were many moments in his life where provision came out of no where, and he and his family could only attribute it to God. He took the tasks of the Kiosk Evangelism Project in the same light. It wasn’t about getting his name out there, nor making him famous in the minds of ministries who could have definitely used his wisdom and experience. It was only about getting Jesus into the hearts and minds of people who themselves would only have God to thank for the faithfulness of someone they never met.

I receive some of the reports from the field from the Kiosk Evangelism Project’s launch in India. The men of peace who heard messages from Stephen, and later received teachings and trainings over Skype from him on how to share the Gospel on mobile phones write some impressive reports on what’s happeing there. I’ll have time to edit these soon to get them up here. Because of Stephen, the legacy of the faithfulness of God will be heard by people to whom the ubuquity of mobile phones has reached.

I’m not sure that he’s awake to read this. I’ll miss him. Our chats, and I’d hoped for another coffee shop run or moment shooting hoops. But, of that which of his I can take, its that a lot of what we do in this space of mobile minsitry might never get accolades from man, but it will add to the faith and connection we have with God. That’s a kind of legacy that’s worth leaving no matter how much breath one has left. He praised the Lord with his… I’m honored to have served beside such a man.

View more information about the Kiosk Evangelism Project and his other ministry activities at VSN.

Airplanes are interesting places. Recently, I found myself sitting directly behind Brian Russell from YouVersion on a trip and had the chance to catch up with him regarding happenings at YouVersion and life. While the chat was informal, I was able to ask a few questions which he allowed to be shared here:

MMM: What has been your watershed/best moment to date with YouVersion?

BR: God continues to show us that the best is yet to come. As exciting as it is to see more than 65 million people using YouVersion to spend time in God’s Word, we believe that we could see half a billion or even a billion people someday engaging with Scripture. Instead of accepting predictions that Bible engagement will follow a downward trend, we believe our generation could become the most Bible-engaged generation in history.

MMM: Being that we are on an airplane, and YouVersion travels well (languages, etc); how do you see YouVersion being a part of brokering moments where people are in close proximity with mobile devices want to share the Bible with one another?

BR: People frequently let us know that they are able to share the Bible App with someone right when they need it or during the moment an opportunity presents itself. Here’s a recent example. But proximity is helpful not only in the sharing of the app, but in spending more time in God’s Word. When the Bible is on your mobile device, there are more opportunities for it to intersect your daily life. Many people tell us they read the Bible more than they ever have in the past for the simple reason that they always have it with them.

MMM: I see you have an a few Apple devices going. As a team, what device(s) is/are in your pocket?

BR: Our team uses a wide range of mobile devices to make sure we are well versed on multiple platforms. We’re committed to using today’s and tomorrow’s technology to help people engage in Scripture.

Brian is the Global Partnership & Community Pastor with YouVersion’s community (@brianjrussell). YouVersion is the leading Bible application for just about every mobile device platform available today. For more information about YouVersion, visit their blog or freely download the YouVersion app onto your mobile device/PC and be a part of the “most Bible-engaged generation in history.”

As I read this post at The Guardian, I became enamored (again) with some of the comments that I hear from people who resist or whom are adverse to digital accessories to activities and behaviors they count as necessary (writing notes in the margin of a print Bible, Post-It notes on the desk monitor/cork board/desk/anywhere they’d stick, etc.). This alluding that to lose handwriting these aspects of their threads of life means that they lose their attachment to themselves or their thoughts:

…These attempts to modify ourselves through our handwriting become a part of who we are. So too do the rituals and pleasurable pieces of small behaviour attached to writing with a pen. On a finger of my right hand, just on the joint, there is a callus which has been there for 40 years, where my pen rests. I used to call it “my carbuncle”. “Turn right” someone would say, and I would feel the hard little lump, like a leather pad, ink-stained, which showed what side that was on. And between words or sentences, to encourage thought, I might give it a small, comforting rub with my thumb.

In the same way, you could call up exactly the right word by pen-chewing, an entertainment which every different pen contributed to in its own way. The clear-cased plastic ballpoint, the Bic Cristal, had a plug you could work free with your teeth and discard, or spit competitive distances. The casing was the perfect shape to turn into an Amazonian blowpipe for spitting wet paper at your enemies.

Our rituals and sensory engagement with the pen bind us to it. The other ways in which we write nowadays don’t bind us in the same way. Like everyone else, I write a lot on a computer, and have done for more than 20 years…

When I started schooling, penmanship was a primary portion of the day. And like many, getting into 4th grade meant that I no longer was held to print and wide-ruled paper, but could do college rule paper and cursive. By 6th grade, we were swapping Bic and other pens for the best writing quality – with the popular folks knowing that only the cool kids wrote with black ink all the time. However, by the time I got to my 1st semester of college, I wondered why we stuck onto handwriting for so long. I could type faster, and my teachers were more interested in my writing style than in my style of handwriting. No longer was it penmanship, but it was authorship that reigned important (amazing the things we were passed down).

Fast forward to these days where I do handwriting because its one part a relic of a generation of life past, and because it can fit the context just a little bit better. There’s nothing special about my handwriting, I just kind of make sure that its solid enough that if I put it into Evernote, that its OCR algorithms can read it well enough to search. Occasionally, I’d get comments from others talking about the quality of my handwriting, or the fact that I even do it in this age. For them, its a bit of a wonderment because there is a truth to handwriting being a lost art. I don’t have the same wonder until I look at Mandarin or Arabic script. Handwriting there seems to be as much an exercise of the identity as it is one of the mind (there are just so many characters, for everything). There’s a difference in this context now for me than it was then – and I think that this age makes us ask questions of what makes one’s identity moreso than others had before.

When I sit with my mobile, I can usually get away with typing with one hand. My device is thin enough that a QWERTY on-screen keyboard makes no sense. I use T9 on my Nokia N8 and it works great – right until there’s a word that it doesn’t recognize. But there are moments that I wonder what it would be like to take that space where those numbers and letters are and do something like handwriting, but perhaps with my thumb. I wasn’t taught to do script with my thumb (so to that fine motor action, I am not showing much intelligence). It would be something though to get a text message, scribbled with one’s thumb or index finger, which is able to be read easily (or at least translated to type/speech by on-board software). That would take things back to grade school for sure… especially when a parent or someone older tells me that I need to write something 1000 times as some type of disciplinary action.

The story at the end of that Guardian piece is a good one. If for no other reason that it should have us think a bit more about this digital exhaust, and what exactly people will be able to know of us once we stop spewing it.

When I walked off the stage, I was greeted by similar looks to when I was speaking. There was the adulation from a few, but also that puzzled look – you know, the one that’s similar to the one that kids and other 1st timers at the beach get when they are in the water and realize that the sand under their feet moved, along with their relative positioning to their towel and other belongings. Yea, it was like that, only this time I was also the one feeling moved, as if I finally said things the way I wanted to and at the same time lost some of the sanity that made these presentations useful.

Granted, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. At least, this isn’t the way that I picture the end of these talks. I usually get up, throw out a few facts that make eyes widen, and then wrap that around a story and the main points in order to unveil plainly the level at which mobile is a part of the way things are done. This was a bit different, in this one I was prompted to swing for the fences a bit more, to talk with less of the restraint and more of the “here, this is what its been looking like for a long time now” filter. I knew better. But, I was prompted to go this direction. And in doing so, it seemed like I finally ignited the kind of viewpoint towards mobile that had been wanting for a long time.

With regard to mobile computing, what will replace the dominant “black slab” touchscreen uniformity of smartphones and tablets?

Certainly if you look back at the history of feature phones, you can trace a similar path from simple, black/grey hardware to more colorful, decorative, jewel-like designs. That’s likely to happen again. However, this time around, there’s something very different going on. The hardware is no longer really the story. The hardware is really just a minimalist frame for that touchscreen. It’s where the action is and we’re finding what really works is to get the hardware out of the way. That tends to drive a lot of similar designs, in terms of very simple and very similar devices. The focus is simply shifting away from the physical object. But I still believe we’re going to see a lot of variation.

The bigger story is that we’re going to eventually start to see devices, essentially computers, in new shapes. Some designed for our bodies, and others designed to be part of the rooms we live in. I’m looking forward to this future. I think we all love what computing does for us, but we don’t like computers. We’re babysitting them way too much.

If you would have heard me, you’d think that Frog’s Mark Rolston and I were drinking from the same pint. So much of the conversation before that talk was about “what mobile can I do ‘X’ with” and “I’m not sure that I can purchase a smartphone, will I stay on the outside of the future.” Yet, in that talk, I was finally able to make these kinds of points. That it wasn’t so much about the quality of the slab – they are all slabs. There’s more than just a broadcast-to-me-your-Gospel window present, there’s a literal canvas that can be taken advantage of like no other. And folks are missing the forest for the brush – usually ignoring the trees too.

And then there was that component of going beyond and what that looked like in practice. I don’t know, perhaps I’d been in this bubble a bit too much. I’m used to taking a stab at living differently – whether personally or as a media entity – and then living with the results of those lessons. There are some that say entrepreneurs are risk takers by nature and so this kind of approach to learning about how to live with these mobiles comes natural. I’d argue that you’d be living too cautiously if you didn’t take risks, break something, create something, or at least get to that point of being so stumped that you had no choice but to take another route. I’m used to that (at least that’s what the compliments after this presentation were framed into). I’m not living as my generation does, or at least not how they are advertised to. And certainly not living how my immediate culture does. Perhaps there’s another perspective to be mined here.

From a device point of view there is a constant tension between accurate data and a commercially viable product cheap enough to use. Data-wise there the integration challenges and access to data sets that could improve the quality of the information available.

As a society, we don’t understand the power and the consequences of the data that we would be unleashing. From a legal point-of-view, we get the politicians that we pay for, so we shouldn’t be surprised when we get laws that favour commercial special interest groups that spend money on party contributions and lobbying programmes.

It wouldn’t have seemed like a discussion that could have went down these lines until it did. This idea or perspective of using tools to augment and later live outside of yourself – the quantified self. Very much making the mobile device like an appendage (to quote a good friend). Yet, if I were joining in the voices in the audience about these devices’/this medium’s ability to be another mouthpiece for the Gospel, then certainly I had to go down this route. You can’t ignite something that you are totally invested in… right?

A few pulled me aside to ask me the perils of so much mobility, so much digital/virtual interaction. We are at this place where its as scary as its exciting. And I responded the same way that I normally do, with some nod to history and the decisions that were made long before our time that we now don’t even think about, but are willing to consider as always part of the way that we did things.

At our core, we create stuff. God’s given us this ability, as much as it is something that beats within him. And alongside that ability to create, we also want to connect. Nothing about anything we’ve built wants to change that outside of the weapons that we’ve made to dominate one another. With mobile, the challenge becomes living with it such that our ministry opportunities don’t become contrived or scripted. That we don’t do mobile ministry because we can, but that we do it because this is in our DNA of how we connect and create life with one another. And if it is an additive to our lifestyle experiences – as it is with many who were in that audience and well beyond that conversation – then we either need to become cyborgs and implant this into ourselves so that it is mostly natural, or we get back to teaching the core concepts of faith and life so that to those it is natural (there was no such thing as a world without it) it becomes strange when we aren’t using this magic wand in order to display and share this faith we cherish.

Mobile ministry is the skillful use and application of computer technology classified as mobile for the context of fulfilling the religious designation of forwarding the proclamation of the key ideals and history of the faith, following form to and innovating on top of cultural and faith traditions within applied contexts [source]

When I left the room, I could breathe. Some would get it and know what to do. Others would come across it later and remember. I just needed to be in the mix with them to ignite mobility to a degree that wasn’t previously before understood.

The latest numbers for mobile show that there are something like 5.5 billion mobile devices out there. That’s a whole lot of opportunity, but its only a statement of having a tool. What does it mean for you to take that tool and have access to improve your or your communitiy’s lifestyle:

…Everybody loves memes and those who work in or care about international development are no exception. One meme that popped up early 2010, is the oft-quoted “there are more mobile phones than toilets.” Apparently, the origin of the phrase was the India census. Subsequently, the statistic was used to raise a point about water and sanitation in India by a UN institute. It was picked up in a New York Times article and became generalized to “more people have [access to] mobile phones than toilets” and “there are more mobile phones than toilets” and other variations.

This simple idea has captured the hearts and minds of many development and technology practitioners and theorists the world over. The phrase has become a staple illustration for those who are looking at the potential of mobiles to change the world. But there is more to it than simple ‘access.’ We need to think beyond access…

Read the rest of Mobile Phones, Toilents and Libraries – Beyond Access at Wait… What?

Personally, I like using that statistic for illustation, but it doesn’t always come within that context of doing a bit more than just having a mobile. All of us doing mobile ministry would be wise to keep this in mind. And then those of us looking to put the Gospel in a mobile context should also pay attention to life beyond the proclaimation – what does the Gospel (reading, listening, sharing, etc.) on a mobile device enable for someone besides the [necessary] eternal reward of fellowship with God? The paradox of mobile ministry is just that – its not just having a magic wand, but access to something specific that enables life to be given to another.

There are lots of moments where we can consider that having a mobile is a good thing, but might not be the preferred thing. For example, there are moments like when families come together where having our mobiles handy to take photos is good. But, when that reason is for a funeral, then we might want to reconsider such things.

Now, being out in the desert, one had to consider a mobile as a pretty necessary thing. And if you can grab a signal then you are doing even better. So, what if you were in the desert, or knew that you were going there, how would you go about building a network? What kinds of concerns would you be able to address, or need to leave behind?

The Burning Man event is an exercise is living on another edge. On that edge, some, interesting things happen. Over the past few years, I’ve been following how mobiles have changed the landscape of communicaitons at Burning Man, and what that has meant for some of he participants. In this snippet from Tech Crunch, we get a glimpse of what it is like to run a network at Burning Man:

…Every year we do this, we learn new lessons. Last year we learned that a cloud telephony API (Tropo in our case) works best if it is run inside the carrier’s network, a lesson we applied when we partnered with Deutsche Telekom who recently announced that they are offering the Tropo API on their network. This means that, for the first time ever, over 100k Tropo developers can now run their apps (with no changes) inside a carrier network.

This year’s lesson is about customisation, we used our position inside the network at Burning Man to change the user’s experience of the phone service, we created web-style metrics to see what worked and what doesn’t. You simply can’t do that stuff if you aren’t right in the centre of the network, being on the edges doesn’t cut it. We have already been busy applying that knowledge to the Tropo APIs we offer our customers and partners in the near future…

Read the rest of What We Learning Running A Mobile Netowrk at Burning Man at Tech Crunch

So, if it’s possible to build your own mobile network, and it’s also possible to own a mobile that can work on various types of networks, what can be done beyond simply communicating? And then further, in what spaces could mobiles be a good fit, or not fit so well, despite our best intentions towards being connected or not?