Last week on Twitter, I posed a question that was grounded in something of an experiment done last year at the Mobile Ministry Forum Conference:

If most persons in your community has a personal screen in fellowship activities, would u consider ditching the projector?

In that talk at the MMF Conference (Tablets in Mobile Ministry – Post | Slides | Sketchnote: PDF, JPG), I went with the option of simply putting on a whiteboard a short URL to the presentation, and then encouraged the audience to take their personal mobile devices (smartphone, tablets, and laptops) and view the presentation as I talked. On my end, I had my tablet with the same presentation on there. This is something that I’d thought about doing a few times, and having a few failed experiments with Idea Flight (my issue, not the app). Besides getting a funny look from the participants, I noticed that I was a lot freer to talk to the eyes of the audience, as there was almost this sense that “if we keep our eyes down too long, we’ll miss connecting with the speaker.” It was one of those things that kind of stuck with me, and therefore this kind of bubbling up of the question in the tweet.

So I think… if we are in small(ish) groups where almost every person has their own screen. By screen, I mean everything from feature phone, to smartphone, to tablets, to wireless-enabled MP3 players, to laptops. Each with a screen, and a means (somehow, either by a narrowcast Bluetooth/WiFi signal, or a session where folks who might be “plants” were to share the content with others around them, showing them how to share with more people. And after that, a call to order, and then the person who is speaking literally leads by saying “open that file/document/link you were just sent, as I’ll be talking from the points on your screen there.”

To me, it sounds in part like going back to the time before projectors were a common occurrence in fellowship halls. It also sounds like Slient Frisco but magnified beyond just the audio experience. What does such a change to this idea of a podium or even lead-speaker do to these kind of community engagements? Could it foster something different and longer lasting than simply “well, he preached good?”

One of the responses to the Twitter question asked if this is something I could see in a large (think TED) setting. I had to answer honestly, I could. I don’t see any reason why everyone needs to be fixated on a large screen when there is someone in front of you passionately detailing whatever it is that moves them/moves you. I do think that the large screen community experience works great when we are talking of movies and performances – it makes no sense to go to a shared-viewing event only to stick your head in your own screen. But, presentations (sermons even) are different. The projected content (can, not always does) accents the speaker. And if the speaker is worth their passion in being heard, the slides don’t matter as much as their believe-ability does.

Could you see a future where the projector leaves your fellowships for the direct contact of seeing the person speaking? Could you stand to be that presenter not relying on a projector for context? I did it, and frankly, I’d like to continue the practice.

In the web design/development community, there’s been a lot of energy, excitement, and critique around responsive design. Responsive design is essentially the pracice of building a website from the perspective that it will be viewed across mobile, tablet, and desktop/laptop screens, with the (usual) approach of targeting the leveraging of CSS’s media queries. There are positives and negatives to this approach, and indeed, its something that can add some considerable time to the building and testing phases of a project. However, the results – having one website that adapts its content display on the basis of what the device, device’s screen/resolution, and browser capabilities – is an attractive proposition to other routes (building/managing multiple websites, dealing with User Agent scripting, etc.) for many.

Going down this route of responsive design, there’s a fork in the trend when discussing responsive design. Specifically, how does a developer manage responsive design when pieces of the the website are driven by scripting and dynamic generation from a server (responsive design leans heavily towards the browser/client making the decisions towards the display). I saw this linked on Twitter last week, and its probably one of the better tutorials on the subject of RESS (Responsive Design w/Server-Side Components). Here’s a snippet:

…With this setup we have two sources of information about the browser. Modernizr is a feature detection framework that makes it easy to detect browser features. It simply runs a test in the browser to get a boolean answer as output: “does X work?” and the answer is mostly “true” or “false”. The beauty of this is that it works on all browsers, also those that are not released yet. But it does not have much granularity, and the capabilities that are available is limited to what is possible to feature test. Examples of features that are possible to test include boxshadow, csstransitions, touch, rgba, geolocations and so on.

Device detection on the other hand, is something different. It all happens on the server and it’s a framework that analyses the HTTP header of the device. It then looks up in a database of known devices and return a set of capabilities for that device. The beauty of this is that it’s a database of information that is collected and maintained by humans and it can hold incredibly detailed information about capabilities that is currently impossible to feature test. Examples include device type (desktop, TV, mobile, tablet), device marketing name, video codec support and so on.

The downside is that User Agent analysis can go wrong some times and many devices tend to have a non unique UA string or to fake the UA string, but using a framework will minimise the rist of false detection. Device detection and feature detection cannot really be set up against each other as they are not two sides of the same coin…

Read (and bookmark) the rest of the RESS Tutorial. Some of the tools, APIs, and templates noted in this tutorial are listed here.

The original article on RESS was penned by LukeW – much of what’s covered in the tutorial leans on what he’s written. There’s also a SlideShare Presentation on the topic worth taking a look at.

Responsive design is something that’s been considered for MMM (given our content focus). As of now, we aren’t leaning towards that direction. There are things we have been learning from responsive design, and especially this tutorial given its server-side focus, that allows us to consider tweaking potential new routes for creating device and context-respecting content.

If you’ve gone the route of starting or implementing a responsive website, what are some of the challenges you’ve run into? Or, if you’ve visited a website that says it has employed responsive web design principles, has the context of how you wanted to use the site been lost or accented in that approach?

When preparing for this week’s articles and activities, a term kept coming to mind, then it started popping up in various articles and comments. The term is simple, JIT (just in time), and it refers to a context of information and the media channels supporting it. But when we drive into mobile, JIT takes on another, more personal implication – I’m using this device for this channel because at the moment of need, its just in time to reply.

When was the last time that you went to your mobile for something you needed right now? Was it directions? A movie time? A contact you needed to message? How did it make you feel when you got that desired information? Were you relieved? Or, did you decide that you’d not go that route anymore – hoping that you never were stuck in that same place with that “only known to you” avenue of finding it?

In designing for a mobile context, this concept of JIT has to be taken probably a bit more seriously than everything else. We can see that there’s at least one signifiant set of mobile consumers who can be strictly judged by this JIT approach (see Pew Internet report).

So, when you are designing your application or service – does it matter to a JIT context? Yes, some content doesn’t. Let’s strike that off the board now. Now, to the content that does matter – can it be accessed just as its needed? Does someone have to remember a login code to get there? Do they have to compromise privacy in identity, location, or relationships to get whatever is needed just at that time? Is the value of that extra step worth what’s at the end of the rainbow?

At least from my perspective, many of the apps – and I can argue even down to the mobile platforms themselves – do very little these days to repsect that some information needs to be gleaned as easily as God makes Himself available to us – think it, nav to it, got it. When its not, what breaks in the experience? There are less than 20 app slots on that homescreen – is what you offering as necessary to someone’s life also valuable enough to be put on that screen that’s accessible at the immediate moment of need? If not, did you have the right focus/perspective in building that channel?

Just in time… we get dingged about that towards MMM all the time (hence the design approach taken with the alternate mobile site). If its not available when its needed, then its value diminishes faster than the time it takes to finally get there – if you do get there. Tech is relevant when its personal – but personal matters in the context of being right on time.

One of the more significant challenges that comes to the mobile ministry (#mobmin) world is the search for any non-English Christian content. And depending on the conversation – that hunt for Christian content comes with that preface of good, quality Christian content. Its been said to us directly that of the Christian content that is available – more than 80% is English only – which leaves thousands of languages to be served by a meager rest of what’s left. That leaves ministries and organizations with a dual purpose of not just being there for a spiritual gain, but also an educational one – trying to bridge a gap that literally could have been taken care of if we thought of our neighbor during this information explosion.

What’s even being asked for when we use a phrase like “non-English Christian content?” Are we talking bibles? Are we talking music? Are we talking pastorial helps? Are we talking health, marketplace, and legal information? Well, we’re actually talking about all of these – hence the challenge. Its not just making content available (translation/transliteration of existing resources), but its also the creating of services and processes which enable language groups to make their own (regardless of the English-speaker’s view on what’s quality and what isn’t).

Bibles/Biblical

This might be the easier one to tackle. Groups such as SIL, Wycliffe, Faith Comes By Hearing, TWR and others have been at this for a long time. While working with the Kiosk Evangelism Project, I was exposed to the fact that there are over 4000 languages and dialects worldwide. The persons working in these and similar ministries are literally tasked with doing that work of text, video, and audio translation – and building the systems which support this (information technology, discipleship/education practices, etc.). Amazing stuff, and this is just that which is biblical.

Music

Music is regarded as a universal thread for all people groups, hence the challenge here. You can’t make music that speaks to a culture without having some inside knowledge of that culture. Again with the Kiosk Evangelsim Project, I was exposed to many people who have been working in the spaces of worship music, trans-culture production, and academia who’s mission it is to find and build that bridge. Some of the challenge here comes down to a disconnect between the music and the technology (you’d be surprised how many people don’t know about the simple recorder app in their mobiles).  Some of that is because of the need (want?) for some more high quality that what can be done at the time. Its a challenging space to say the least – but when you do hear the outcome, that praise/worship/adoration of God through that culture’s musical capacities – wow… the idea of new heaven/new earth takes on a powerful perspective.

Pastoral Helps

Its one thing to have content which leads the individual believer to mature, its another thing to have a suite of content built to enable/empower the shepards over those groups. I’ve been really impressed at how this aspect of non-English content has been addressed by Door 43 and Cybermissions. As with music, there’s that aspect of making things available, but then you’ve also got the component of teaching people how to use it – in their language! That said, its not enough – more partnerships need to happen between those on the ground w/non-English communities who leave leaders in place when their missions time is done, and those persons who are able to catalyze lesson delivery systems for continued growth of those leaders.

Health, Marketplace, Legal

If you look at the common thread to every miracle Jesus did, they all had a very simple and profound thread: every one of them (including the resurrection) served to add time to the life of the recipient, literally adding to their ability to be reconciled to the Father. When we look at avenues to expand the impact of the Gospel, this is the thread in which we need to live. Non-English content that’s able to address matters of immediate health, economic opportunity, or even just legal processes do like Jesus’ miracles in respect to adding time to the lives of those who (rightly so) should be aimed with a clear message of the Gospel. The problem here is that to make these kinds of efforts to extend time means that a lot of time has to be used (many times without short-term, positive ROI).

These avenues are being looked at, but not usually from a primarily Christian perspective (not a bad thing IMO). Where the disconnect happens is when no attempt is made to take a wealth of opportunity (for example, don’t just build a well, but how do you train locals to become their community’s engineers) and make it contextually relevant to all. Its in this suite of content that “Christian” content is most missed, and could be for sometime – the wall is on our side, not the side of non-English persons.

We’ve said a few times before that an app isn’t a strategy, and that in this space that you’d be well to think about opportunities outside of “how to read the bible.” Here are some areas that need the most attention. Specifically if you are doing non-English content. If you are working in this space and have some openly available content – do let us know. We’d like to get up a listing of those content streams as well. Perhaps with a focus on every nation and tongue, we add to the works of those groups already trying to close that gap in hunting for non-English content that serves the global Body.

Memory is a weird thing. There are some who say you can hack it (and other aspects of your mental/physical capacities), there are others who believe that you are given a brain with only so much capacity, but few who ever make it to the breaking point of using it all. I’ve been asked if I do mental exercises to train my brain (nope), or what it is I do to read, retain, and restate so much (rest/Sabbath is key). And its amazing. We can think that we forget so much, but in a flash – whether its a smell, touch, sound, or sight – we are triggered to memories. I remarked to a friend how one of the stars of The Avengers movie looked so much like someone from the past that it was actually disruptive to enjoying it without employing a memory filter of sorts. Memory… its got a few sides worth considering in our techie age for sure.

One of these hemispheres of memory is just the facility of managing it. As stated so nicely on the post at BigBible that sparked this one:

…Culture and context

How do we learn from this now, in a culture that relies more and more on other mediums to do our remembering for us?  Do we bother re-visiting our memories, or do we just assume they’re stored somewhere?  What happens when we have a dramatic encounter with God?  Do we remember it – consciously recall it – in a way that influences our lives?  How can we harness the power of technology to help us remember, without putting it in the place of memory itself…

This reminded me of one of the ways in which I use Evernote – I use it to store blog posts (archives) and tweets that I which to remember or probably look back at later for reference. And usually I’m just saving a snippet, not the entire article – even though it might be something specific in the article that’s not clipped that I might need later. In a real sense, I’m using Evernote (a storage system with algorthm for search) as an appendage to the brain I already have, sometimes to a deterement of knowing/undestanding/wisly applying whatever was saved there.

The other hemisphere comes from the side of my devices. Over time I’ve steadly acquired more and more portable storage space. These days, my mobile has 48GB inside (16GB internal memory + 32GB microSD card). My iPad has 16GB, but I rarely save anything on it that I’m not concerned with deleting, I use Dropbox and ad-hoc WLAN connections to my mobile to be its backup/appendage. Then there’s also that 1GB USB memory key bracelt that’s an ICE mechanism. But is that steady acquisition of more and more space healthy? I’m already dealing with several layers of backup/redundancy because of it – but why is it even needed (besides my admiditly large photo and music collection)? Is this a silo just waiting for me to be taken out before it can be cashed in (Luke 12:13-21)?

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Memory. Its a tough subject from both ends. A lot that we do with language is simply the translation of memory to activity and back to memory. Perhaps its ok to have some of this external to our physical facilities (remember how God instructed Israel towards the level of remembering the law, “write it on the tablet of your hearts,” “write it on your foreheads and eyelids,” “inscribe it on the doorposts of your home,” “when you get to that place, build me an altar…”). But, if we spend more time building the case for these external places and channels for memory, do we also miss the point of the life we were meant to live (John 4:21, 23)?

…a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem… But a time is coming- and now is here – when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshippers.

When memory in both of its spheres incites us to live to Him, then is it most valuable?

A few updates from the Mobile Ministry Forum (@mobmin):

Regarding the Mobile Ministry Webinar (April 26th):  21 participants discussed a dozen collaborative mobile projects in the Mobile Ministry webinar on April 26.  The recorded webinar and notes, along with extensive links, are available (this is a Google doc and may require a log-in).

Learn how your mobile device can be transformed into a spy in your pocket. In addition to learning the risks, we will discuss safety precautions that field workers and ministries can take to protect themselves from this emerging threat. Anyone interested in learning more about digital and mobile security is welcome. Spots are limited, secure your spot by registering . The webinar will occur on Thursday, May 17, 10:00 am, Pacific (GMT -07:00).

The next Mobile Ministry Consultation will take place November 28-30, 2012 in Orlando, Florida at the Wycliffe headquarters. View this and other upcoming events on the #mobmin Event Calendar.

Per our usual activities here, we occasionally check out processes and software which would be relevant to the #mobmin (mobile ministry) world. A question for many groups is the process of making a mobile application, and so we definitely like to take a look at the various application creation platforms that are out there to get an idea of what’s needed in terms of graphical, technological, and marketing knowledge to get things up and running. The latest of these development platforms we are looking at is the biNu platform.

biNu is a software delivery platform. Think, something like an app store – but optimized for feature phones (non-smartphones). When there is an opportunity for an engagement to be accented with a mobile app on a (most likely) Java-based mobile, biNu is positioned through its delivery platform to refactor your RSS feeds or any other custom (mobile-lite) page content into a downloadable application for these mobiles.

We took a look at it from the perspective of  a content owner who’s looking to gain a presence on feature phones (its a good idea to read Should Our Church Have an App or Mobile Website prior to this). Therefore, our most important places of entry happen through the biNu Dev portal (still in beta – this comes up again).

Note: the screenshots and activity here were performed on a Windows 7 laptop using the Google Chrome browser. For the benefit of the impression, this is an imposed boundary to using the product.

Step 1: Registering for at the biNU Developer Portal

As with similar services, you have to go through a short process to register for the biNU developer portal (http://developer.binu.com/). After filling out the form, you get a confirmation screen noting that you need to complete a step in your email in order to complete the process. Nice and simple in this respect.

Step 2: Navigating

Once you login, you are presented a straight-forward list of what you’d want to do: List Apps (see all the apps you’ve built), or create a new Basic or regular app. First up on my listing was to do the Basic App (this would most likely be the used option for 1st time users of this service).

Step 3: The Basic App Wizard

Once you get into the Basic App creation wizard, you simply just add the title and description to your app. You do need three graphic files here. Though the sizes were specified, I noticed in the test view that all of them seemed to be resized fine. I’d recommend here not using anything smaller than the recommendation, and you will need to ensure that its a PNG graphic w/o transparency for best effect.

You will also need the URL for the RSS feeds that you would use to populate the app. I took our raw feed, in addition to our Twitter feed and the Twitter feed for the #mobmin hashtag (we’ve done this previously with other apps) and there seemed to be no issue with either of those kinds of sources.

Step 4: Testing/Further Edits

biNu offers a Java-based emulator that gives you an impression of how your content will flow to the smaller screen and different input controls of a feature phone. On the PC that I used, I didn’t update the Java client in order for this to work properly (but you would probably want to do this).

Step 5: Publishing

Once you have created and tested your app in the emulator, next is to publish it. There are two avenues for publishing – the first puts the app on the biNu platform “store” where those who’ve downloaded biNu would be able to search and download it among other similar apps/services. The second avenue is for you to generate the app yourself using biNU, and then use publish that app on your website or wider-serving app stores such as GetJar.

When you choose the option to generate an app, you are taken to a screen that’s similar to the app wizard where you refine the details about your app. What’s most interesting here is that you see the option to generate either a “regular” Java app (ideally, compatible with most Java mobiles) or an Android java app (an apk, compatible with Android devices). Apps can be unsigned or signed using Verisign or Thawte. Again, good options for an app which could be distributed in an open market environment.

Generating the app was the only point in the process where I entered an issue that I had to escalate to biNu directly. As of this writing, this is something being looked at.

Step 6: All Done, Go Build Some More

Once you’ve finished making your app (testing, publishing, and generating Java versions), you are pretty much done. As seen in the publishing step, you’ve been given a URL with which to publicize the app (I’d recommend using a URL shortening service like TinyURL or Bit.ly to make it smaller, more share-friendly, and easier to add to marketing materials). View/Download the 1st MMM biNu app.

Conclusions:

Overall, using the biNu app wizard enabled me to build an app in less than 30min. When I went back through the process to build an app from scratch (see Step 2: Navigating), the process took even less time because the source for the app was an existing mobile website (in this case, our alternate mobile site which is written using HTML5 and jQuery). Given the speed and costs (free) to just get on their platform, this isn’t a bad idea for many sites. I’d like to know how some of the more interactive content offerings would fare here – for example, those doing church online might want this for a presence, but the experience of viewing media on a 2.2in screen that’s not optimized for such “snack time” viewing might be a turn off in some respects. Still, there’s some sense that could be made from doing this and perhaps pointing to your YouTube feed of content.

For more information about biNU, do check out their website. Again, the developer section of the site is in beta right now, so if you enter into any issues with it, do chalk it up to that aspect of things. Still, there aren’t too many mobile services specifically targeting feature phones (more people use these than smartphones by a very wide margin). If your content is ready to go, then biNu should be ready for you.

On Monday (5/7), we greived with many others in the Bible software/mobile ministry community when the post went up at the Laridian blog noted that Jeff Wheeler lost his fight with cancer.

As with many who are enjoying Bibles on their mobile devices, we owe a whole lot to the activities of Jeff and Craig – who are literally a few of the real pioneers of Bible software. Pocket Bible, in its many platform iterations (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, PalmOS, Windows Mobile, Java), was likely one of the first Bible apps you tried out until recently. And even though there are others who have taken the stick in terms of leading the charge in this space, Pocket Bible has instigated many core features around library management, navigation, and spiritual focus that remain core characteristics of the electronic Bible reading experience. Jeff Wheeler was a big gear to many of those innovations, and his passion and heart for this space will be greatly missed.

Our condolences and prayers to the Wheeler family and Laridian Bible software for their loss.

Looking back over the past years, I came across this posting and sketchnote from the 2011 GCIA Conference. There really was a lot of information passed during that time – much, much more than could be gathered by one person or a drawing. But, I can see in that drawing some of the things I thought about throughout. Of some of those points that I can remember clearly in seeing this again:

• There was a urgency to not miss the boat any more than sensed when it came to digital ministry efforts
• There was an openness to conversing across denominational and organizational lines
• While it was opined, there was little anyone could really solve in that space towards non-English content (almost like English stunted the activity we could do outside that context)
• Folks loved their mobile apps
• Creativity is seen as a smaller activity than production (organizationally)
• Mobile can be understood by talking, but better known by living

Just things that came to mind. I enjoyed that time, and perhaps will get to connect with those from that GCIA meeting in a conference this year.

If you’ve been paying attention to the wealth of events noted on the #mobmin (mobile ministry) calendar, you’d know that its been a pretty rocking time in terms of conferences as the spring as worn on. With summer meetings just around the corner, we wanted to let you know of two upcoming conferences we’ll be attending – with the hope that you’ll come out to one or both and join for conversation, networking, and knowledge sharing.

Biola Digital Ministry Conference (June 5-7)

The Biola Digital Ministry Conference is designed to empower individuals with the vision, knowledge, and relationships necessary to be thoughtful designers, developers, and practitioners of digital technologies for the cause of Christ.

This conference features 14 speakers, a Digital Ministry Hack-a-thon, and sessions grouped around technology and practical applications. Besides the weather, I’d recommend attending this conference if you are looking to hear not just what’s happening in the digital ministry space, but also how to position you/your ministry/your organizations for future trends and disruptions. There’s the Biola Digital Blog featuring some of this year’s speakers to give you a taste of what to expect in this year’s conference.

For more information and to register, visit the Biola Digital Ministry Conference website.

International Conference on Computing and Mission – aka ICCM (July 16-20)

The International Conference on Computing and Mission (ICCM) is an annual informal (NO ties allowed) gathering of women and men who have a common interest in computers and mission. We share a vision of cooperation for effective use of technology, bringing the Gospel to every nation.

If there was a geek fest specifically for ministry, ICCM would totally fit as a great sounding call. Feeling one part like an IT retreat and another like an IT refresh station, ICCM is very unique from other conference formats in that it (a) happens over the course of the middle of the week, (b) emphasizes spiritual fellowship and accountability as much as IT and (c) offers a unique opportunity to hear from those persons working in ministry support areas as easily as you hear from those who do more strategy-focused activities. Moving to Colorado Springs, CO this year (from its usual location at Taylor University in Indiana), there seems to be a neat energy about the connections and sessions happening.

From poke that I got via Twitter yesterday, there may still be some time to take advantage of early-bird registration. For more information, including learning more about the other ICCM events happening (Europe and Australia), visit the ICCM website.

Other Events this Month to Take Note Of:

• CTIA (mid-week conference sponsored largely by mobile ) began today; news and press releases will be trickling out throughout the day (check out relevant highlights using Twitter and the #ctia, #ctia12, and #mobmin hashtags)
• The Christian Media Conference starts tomorrow (5/9) in Australia (Gold Coast)
• Mobilism starts 5/10 in Amsterdam
• eLearning Africa and the Open Mobile Summit happen in the 2nd half of this month.

For more information about these and other events, add the #mobmin (mobile ministry) calendar to your bookmarks, favorites, or RSS reader.