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You can Log Off But Not Opt Out

Monday, May 21st, 2012

A few weeks ago I came across this article, Social Media: You Can Log Off But You Can’t Opt Out, which has put forth some interesting viewpoints, and to a large degree puts the right perspective on social media tech and the constraints they impose socially. Here’s a snippet:

…So technology is political in the sense that it is a site of struggle (perhaps, one could say, communication technologies are “places where revolutionaries go“) but it is not political in the naive sense that it determines the outcomes of social action (i.e., there are no Facebook or Twitter revolutions). Most relevant for the present conversation is this concept of non-optionality—that we can neither opt-in or opt-out of the socio-technical system. We are all touched by the emergence of new technology, even those who are most marginalized within the system. Because, at any given historical moment, technology and social organization are always linked, we all inevitably feel the ripple effects when new technologies are introduced. This very point was the premise of the South African slapstick film The Gods Must Be Crazy, where a single Coke bottle tossed from a plane is imagined to upset the entire social order of a remote Bushmen tribe (caveat emptor: racist and inaccurate portrayals abound)…

Read the rest of Social Media: You Can Log Off But You Can’t Opt Out at The Society Pages

So, going back to a question we posed a few times already, if you are gong to tell people to use mobile or social networking (an app, for announcements/broadcasts, etc.), are you going to spend the same energies talking to the, about it’s downsides?

 

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Goodbye Analog, Hello Digital

Sunday, May 20th, 2012

This article was originally posted as a blog post at Urban Scholar:

Earlier today I was contemplating the thought of purchasing a new print Bible. One of the first posts I made on this site was about my switching to the ESV. Well, the only print ESV I own is a 2001 text edition, and there have been a number of changes since then with the 2007 & now 2011 update. So, I started to think that I should purchase a new ESV to have on me, especially for when the opportunity presents itself to teach again. I thought about it to the point that I even tweeted about the kind of Bible I wanted, saying the following:

considering buying a new print Bible… yes, a print Bible… thinking it’ll likely be a new thinline ESV w/2011 text updates

As the day went on, with the thought still on my mind, I wondered if the local Lifeway store had any 2011 ESV Bibles in stock. Then, as I thought about it some more, I was thinking, “Oh, I need a nice ‘preaching’ Bible too, to go with the thinline as my everyday ‘handy’ Bible!” After a while, I finally paused and asked myself a question. If I do all of my studying of the Bible digitally, why should I have a Bible that I only use for teaching? Shouldn’t the same Bible I study with be the same Bible I teach from? The answer was: why not?!

As I thought through this some more, I wondered what this would look like for me. Preaching from a tablet is nothing new and has become more popular in the last couple of years, so it’s not like I’d be breaking new ground or anything; yet, there could be something that better suits how I do things. In my thought process, I quickly realized that the way I teach requires lots of “page flipping” because I typically cross reference a lot of Scriptures. How could I leverage a tablet to my advantage? Right now Logos is my primary tool for study, but their mobile app doesn’t support a split screen of Bible & notes; so, that wouldn’t work. Then, I remembered that I have Olive Tree, which does & can also sync with Evernote. Having Evernote means that I can simply copy/paste or dump my passages or notes into an Evernote note and sync it with Olive Tree quite easily. Then, I can have my notes split with my Bible, and tap to open a reference. Now that could work! That would completely eliminate the need for a print Bible & printed notes.

So, let’s take this further because now I’m thinking about completely getting rid of my laptop from the pulpit. This proves tricky because that’s how I run my PowerPoint slideshow for the congregation to follow along. If you’re asking, yes, I usually run my own PowerPoint. Then I started thinking that this is somewhere that Logos could come back into play. They recently released Proclaim Church Presentation Software and it is built for this kind of thing. So, I just get a computer, any computer, connected to the overhead projector (whether it be my own or the one in the sound booth) and load it up; then, I can use my phone (or the tablet) as a remote to progress the slides as needed. Now that would be cool!

I could really see myself teaching in that fashion, and it’s right up my alley. I’m a digital guy, so working in this fashion keeps all of my notes accessible to me from multiple devices and I’m not in a jam if I ever forget or lose my print Bible. Plus, there’s always the freedom of being able to switch translations on the fly, which is nice. I also feel that technology is at a point now that it is fairly reliable, especially in terms of battery life, where no real red flags are raised for me anymore. I truly think that this is the route that I’m going to go in the future, however the Lord sees fit for that to happen.

 

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When Does Innovation Matter to Mobile Ministry

Friday, May 4th, 2012

Sitting on this side of the mobile ministry discussion, it can at times look as of there is little to no progress happening (mind you, this has been an endeavor since 2004; it’s a distinct perspective). And yet, that really isn’t the case if one were to take into account how change has happened when other behaviorial and technological paradigm shifts have happened:

…The most common response to such griping has been, just wait. Many techno-optimists base their thinking on a famous 1990 paper by economic historian Paul David, which described how, for decades, electricity had little effect on industrial productivity as manufacturers simply swapped out older energy sources for electric power but changed nothing about how they made things. It was only as new factories were built that took advantage of the unique properties of electric motors that a productivity boom ensued. Just give the digital age a bit more time, and you’ll see huge changes (and, one hopes, improvements) in how we work and live…

Read the rest of When Will This Low-Innovation Internet Era End at Wired Mgazine.

The self-speak goes more like, “don’t be discouraged. They will see what you see, and then change will happen quickly.” Be encouraged fellow laborers.

 

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End of April Resolutions Checkup

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

2012 calendar from Just CalendarDuring the month of January, we posted six articles which corresponded to five resolutions suitable for those working in and around mobile ministry. Having moved through April and are now in May, how are you doing in terms of these or your personal/organizational resolutions?

Here are the items we posted:

  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
 

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7 Years Online, 2 Years Full-Time, What It Looks Like Today

Friday, April 27th, 2012

One of the questions that comes not long after giving a description about MMM and its activities is, “how does it enable you to make a living?” I’m not married, and so that’s an easy question (some months are much harder than others). But, seeing that today is one of those days where I’m engaged with a client -this post, as with many others, has been written at least a week in advance of it posting – I thought it good to talk a bit about how MMM exists beyond the articles published, and what could be coming down the pipe to help things further for all interested parties.

Training and Consulting

MMM is a very low-overhead operation. Much of the output that comes from this endeavor comes as a result of using the mental capacities of me (Antoine, the founder). One of the ways this capacity is leveraged is in training and consulting opportunities.

Training usually happens with small and medium-sized businesses whom are looking to implement a technology or series of technologies to a team or several teams. To that end, I work with a few companies and groups local to NC and PA to be an available trainer for software and the occasional mobile implementation. That has been as simple as BlackBerry training, and as complicated as training project managers to use MS Project for their specific brand of project management processes/workflows.

Consulting is another area that’s used (not as often as I’d like, but hey, that’s the economy for you) to fund things here. Consulting takes place around two core communication technologies – web design/development and Microsoft’s SharePoint product. That’s my background, and given the scope of work that I’ve done in development, administration, and analysis around web and projects, it makes for a suitable engagement point for fundable activities. What that can look like for you can be any number of things – minus building your mobile app for you – as it is a wide and deep set of skills.

At any given point, there may be zero to four companies that I’m engaged with at a time (not including those just talking to to develop the relationship). The bulk of that work is developing the relationships, and (the slow process of) turning that into compensated work. Much of this work is short term (hours to days), and so there’s no need to be present in a cubicle for months on end – the flexibility allows for the consistency of content that you see on the magazine, and the constant pressing forward of skills and knowledge. It does allow for an office that can be nearly anywhere (#todaysoffice), which is its own source of market visibility.

Presenting and Speaking

Another means of bringing in income to fund living comes from presenting and speaking. I will admit that this has probably been the hardest aspect of things because to be recognized as a speaker you have to (a) be seen speaking and (b) have something unique enough to talk about that people will pay you to do it. There aren’t as many opportunities to do this as I’d like – some say its because there’s been no formal book published (!!) – but as things move forward with not only the magazine, but the subject of mobile ministry, there are those opportunities which present themselves.

Unfortunately, some of the hindrances with the presenting and speaking comes of the very wide geographical, theological, and political applications of mobile ministry. I just can’t afford to travel as much as some do, and working on grants and sponsorship takes as much time as living. Don’t get me wrong, there’s opportunities to leverage the technologies of the moment to get to some places (as done with BibleTech in 2011), but that’s not always the case and you miss those connections that should turn into those training, consulting, and speaking engagements when you do. For a recent example, I missed being in on the Mobile Ministry Forum webinar that happened yesterday, because of ork scheduled that was needed to put food on the table. The folks whom are missionaries and constantly going between raising support and not fainting from their ministry work have taught me a ton because of this.

Other Stuff

Beyond these activities, there are actually some friends and family who have been quite generous for some of the living needs. I know that some have gotten tired of my monthly calls for prayer to make sure that I make the budget for the next month (its honestly hard for some of them to understand why I’d ocntinue with MMM rather than get a “regular” job – that whole “calling” thing is not normal language to some). Perhaps things will improve on over time as mobile and ministry are seen to have a more implicit intersection beyond “let’s get that app done.”. I’m not sure. But, that’s just to say that I’m not resting on just getting the four activites described above as the main pieces of the puzzle. I’m always looking for additional avenues where the knowledge and understanding gained from MMM pushes the Body forward, and keeps compensated work flowing.

Truth is, I never wanted to do this with the intention of making a dollar, I just needed an answer to a question that no one was looking to answer… in 2004. Perhaps the value in that is all that should be gained from this for me… What you and those who have written or visited here over the past have gained is another thing – of which I hope has been very valuable to forwarding your understanding of the faith and the technology lens of mobile alongside it.

There is some rumbling towards partnerships with other ministries and companies with whom this venue is a suitable launching pad towards their audiences. Stay tuned for that, or get in touch if that’s something you/your organization might find suitable.

That’s pretty much it. I’ll continue to push along here until something else happens that means that this shift is no longer needed to be pushed from this person/angle. This magazine has been online 7 years (as of a few days ago), with about 3000 articles/posts published, a methodology finalized, and a number of experiments. If this it continues, that means that these and other avenues will present themselves. If not, and this is how it ends, well, I can’t say that I didn’t do my part in seeing search engines as intended. I just hope that when you leave this site, whether you’ve read one or several pieces, that you’ve come away with a perspective to understanding the implications of mobile and technology that puts your best faith forward.

 

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Mobile, Palm Addict, and 7Yrs

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

Mobile Ministry Magazine (logo)Today is e 7 year anniversary of Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM) being online. That’s something that almost didn’t happen. At the Lord’s suggestion of going online with it, I didn’t think that it would be something usable, let alone sustainable. And yet here things are, 7 years later. It wouldn’t have probably jumped online if not for Palm Addict:

…
I’m getting a chance to look back at 7 years of doing MMM and its been interesting. I’ve had all kinds of trouble with posting images and video until I figured out how to easily do the YouTube embed code on a mobile. Archiving has also been interesting – and its been there that Dropbox has probably been better than most. Each device, each service that I’ve used has been infused with some sense of “if its going to be mobile, then it better add some time to my life.” That’s been one of the lessons that seems to resonate throughout Palm Addict, and clearly has done the same with me as I’ve evolved with MMM…

Read the rest of Mobile, PA, and 7Yrs at Palm Addict

Palm Addict has a lot to do with MMM. Am very grateful for Sammy’s support and the posts there that have tuned my thinking on mobile in ways that I am still only beginning to understand.

 

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What Do You Understand About This Space

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

I asked at a meeting with several internet ministries last year if there was a methodology to their behaviors/intentions to use the web as a connection point for evangelism and discipleship. I was concerned in many respects, because while I was listening to a group of people passionate about sharing the fruits of their faith, I heard very little about understanding the implications of being in this space. This magazine takes the posture of bearing to understand the implications of mobile before and during sharing the passions that make mobile a suitable addition to the toolkit of ministers and developers alike. To that end, we poke a ton – its unique and then some. And then… its not all that unique at all:

…Corman believes that the spread of “hacktivism,” which first made mainstream headlines when Anonymous attacked the Church of Scientology in 2008, demonstrates that “those who can best wield this new magic are not nations. They’re not politicians. The youngest citizens of the Net don’t even recognize allegiance to a country or to a political party. Their allegiance is to a hive. In some ways this is very exciting. In other ways this is terrifying.” The terrifying part, for Corman, is that the Web gives individuals immense power without instilling the “compassion, humility, wisdom, or restraint to wield that power responsibly.”…

Read the rest of In the Battles of SOPA and PIPA, Who Should Control the Internet at Vanity Fair

What do you get about this level of access, security, connectivity, and affordance? Do you understand that content isn’t king, the person who designs the user experience is king – and you are simply a steward of one part of the field? Are you concerned about DNS activities? Or, does your mobile lifestyle begin and end with those communications which happen without the facilitation of global cables, interested governments, and occasional support of standards bodies?

Nothing about tweeting a post embeds compassion, justice, or even the hope of the Gospel into the Internet. That only comes when that tweet intersects with the personal reality of the person reading it. Its relevant (and therefore points to salvation) when its personal. Nothing more, nothing less. This isn’t a magic hat. Nor is it the best thing since sliced bread (though, you can argue that there are probably more mobiles than sliced bread in the hands of folks and that might be near-correct). What do you understand about the implications of telling people to go see announcements on Facebook – when you are also not teaching them about Facebook (or Internet) addiction? The two go hand in hand in terms of lessons – as well as hand in hand in terms of how you lean on these communication technologies for the prosperity of those reading/listening/watching.

Do you need to understand everything about how the Internet and mobile works in order to do ministry? No. Should you know as much as possible about the implications of it not working for whatever reason – whether you can solve it or not? Yes. And its to that end we exist in this space… its not that unique at all, just an acknowledgement of something different amongst the hype of the moment.

 

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Mobile Ministry Methodology (v1)

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

For the years that I’ve been looking at this intersection of faith and mobile technology through the lens of MMM, one thing has honestly escaped much of the conversation around the topic: if this intersection is valid, then what do people do to get past that intersection and into some relevant demonstration of their faith. In effect, what’s the method to the madness?

Being able to devote much more time to MMM in the past two (2) years has granted my thinking and action spaces to do just that – figure out the methods and some streams of activity within them. You’ve seen this in part if you’ve followed this site for sometime and watched its evolution. In this post, I kind of want to pull all of that together into what amounts into a mobile ministry methodology. The goal of this methodology is to literally demonstrate the definition of mobile ministry in the midst of practice and application.

Mobile Ministry Sketchnote Mindmap - Share on Ovi

What is A Mobile Ministry Methodology

The Mobile Ministry Methodology is a framework designed to assist individuals, ministries, and organizations determine the value, prospects, process, and successes of mobile ministry projects. Derived from SDLC methodologies, this framework is designed to keep the a singular goal in perspective despite tendencies for scope creep.

Please note, this is a framework. Therefore, activities within each phase might differ depending on the project. That said, the phases are quite rigid in keeping the focus of the project on both ministry and mobile applications.


Phase One: Determine if you are working on a mobile ministry project

The first step of this methodology is to determine if you are indeed working on a mobile ministry project. While it might seem that any project utilizing mobile devices and services is a suitable ministry project, the determining of whether it is a mobile ministry project falls towards whether the goals and activities within the project affirm the definition of mobile ministry:

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]

(short version of definition)

The skillful use and application of mobile computer technologies for the fulfilling religious practices [source]

If your answer to this question is that you are not working on a mobile ministry project, this methodology and process will not be helpful to you. If the goals of your project would like to line up with ministry, as well as keeping that technical component of being mobile, a good place to check the motives and goals of the project can be found using the following Biblical references:

  • Deut 6:1-9
  • Matthew 28:18-20
  • James 1:22-27
  • John 17:20-26


Phase Two: Identifying the Frame for Mobile Ministry

There are several contexts in which mobile technologies have been used, or mobile behaviors tracked and observed. However, all of these are not specific illustrations of ministry (faith-building, faith-tradition extending, faith transformations can all be used as terms here). When mobile intersects with ministry, and the resulting actions are a change in behavior towards both technology and faith, then we can say that mobile ministry has occurred. MMM’s  investigation and logging of activity in this space has identified these contexts (displayed here in their primary and secondary frames, linked to articles published here which correlate):

* These topics had their primary tag changed in the course of developing these articles; process is underway to normalize these.


Phase Three: Identifying the Primary Focus for Mobile Ministry Activity

Activities within the previously mentioned frames of mobile ministry have engaged in one or a combination of three focus areas:

  • Devices
  • Services
  • Experiences

Previous discussion on these.

The focus is determined by the core and learned competencies which area needed in order to direct the mobile ministry effort. Many mobile ministry projects will involve two or all three of these at some junction, but the primary focus clarifies how in the later steps you can better identify gaps, resources, and implementation items.

Whether you are using one or all three of these layers, it is helpful to have within your project person(s) which have specific knowledge of the devices and their capabilities, the programmable and political natures of the services to be implemented, and/.or then a definition of the experience for users, administrators, operators, developers, and any other stakeholders. Within these layers of mobility are a wealth of forks which will determine the success or failure of your project if they are not accounted for at this junction.

Engaging the Project Activities

Once you have identified the framing and focus, the methodology begins to take place. While this might look different for specific outfits, the software development lifecycle (SDLC) methodology actually grounds the following phases of the methodology/process:

  • Establish the Three Pillars
  • Design and Test
  • Implement
  • Support, Report, and Reinitialize


Phase Four: Establish the Three Pillars

The first phase for the mobile ministry methodology involves what we call the three pillars: goals, issues, and resources.

  • Goals: setting a specific project goal for the project (multiple goals introduce variables harder to solve down the line); the goal should fit within a single mobile ministry frame, and have its mobile ministry focus clear upon statement
  • Issues: assessing the gaps (problem statements) of which if not solved, will cause the project (not simply expectations of the stakeholders) to fail. Issues might include the expectations of stakeholders, however, I would caution to making sure issues relate to the goal, and why implementation of the project will not perform as expected.
  • Resources: your people, processes, and tools which are readily available, or available with little extra effort or expense, that will assist you in completing your project. If you lack the resources (people, processes, or tools), then your primary issue is that of a lack of resources, not costs, time, or reach.

This would be similar to the project initialization and analysis phases of an SDLC/Agile methodology. It is within your dissection of the issues and and resources in which an analysis of the feasibility of your project will come to light.


Phase Five: Design and Test

Design and Testing should happen in concert with one another. It will be clear after the identification of the goals and issues what exactly needs to be focused on. Design should therefore take place in two phases – staging prototypes/examples and test-ready prototypes/examples. I am personally of the opinion that you spend more time refining the design than testing multiple iterations, but I know of many people having different philosophies here. I’d also recommend that any design and testing (especially if we are talking applications, software, and workflows) should take place with live data, and not dummy data.

Testing is about whether you are making realistic steps towards your goal, and have you developed an experience with your product to match the expectations after that goal is met. Anything that you are testing that does not have direct correlation to solving the issues which prevent your goals from happening should be dismissed (or in some cases, lowered in priority). Testing should also be designed to correspond to the availability of your resources in concert with how the results of the testing knock off all or some of the issues raised in the previous phase. There is potential for projects to spoke into additional requirements or opportunities as a result of the testing/testing data, so I would recommend that anything learned that does not positively effect your specific goals, be dropped for another project or future iteration of the current project.

The testing scripts should be designed so that they can be used in the Post-Implementation phase for reporting and support needs.


Phase Six: Implement

Implementing a mobile ministry project can be a difficult proposition. If this is an application, implementation might look like a slow-beta period, or a larger “let’s see what happens” kind of release. When it is a business process, implementation cannot afford such slow releases, and usually includes additional time and resources towards addressing items that could not show up in testing, implementing training, and finishing the reporting queue.

Your public feedback queue and media channels should be established and utilized at this point. Mechanisms such as Twitter, Facebook, Get Satisfaction, etc. are excellent for acquiring and monitoring specific feedback, while also lending a (hopefully) positive light on your ability to manage the roll-out of your product.


Phase Seven: Support, Report, and Reinitialize

Supporting your product includes having the appropriate documentation (text, video, etc.), publicity support, and consistent presence (support forums, email channels, etc.) which allow you to take in and categorize compliments and issues related to the implemented iteration of your project. Support does not necessarily include fixing all of those items which are brought to your attention – some items need to be input into the queue for re-initialization into another project.

As with your testing queue, the reporting structure that you use to watch usage, trends, and spot potential problems down the line should be in place here. Your report data might come from server logs, emails, or a combination of several streams of data, to which are collected in a regular report by which project managers an stakeholders can have a concise view of the project as it related to the specific goal.

Reinitialize means that you’ve met enough the goals of your project, and due to the data gained within the design, testing, implementation, or support/report streams, that you have an update to the project that you can do. Again here, the goal needs to be specific, but also not deviate greatly from the original product’s goal. It is not uncommon to go back to the drawing board and rebuild at this point.

Review of the Mobile Ministry Methodology Phases
Mobile Ministry Methodology Process Map

  1. Is this a mobile ministry project?
  2. Frame the mobile ministry project (six areas)
  3. Identify the primary mobile ministry activity’s focus
  4. Establish the Three Pillars (Goals, Issues, Resources)
  5. Design and Test
  6. Implement
  7. Support, Report, Reinitialize

View these phases in a graphical process map:

This process map was created in Google Docs for collaborative purposes. The Google Docs version will always be the latest iteration of this.

Items Not Seen In this Methodology

This methodology has been designed to be very generic. How you or your team manages their tasks, template documents, or other assets is not the point of this methodology. It is a framework to assist you/your team to understand from the outset of the project how to focus your efforts without losing focus of the faith and technological implications of your product. If at the end of your project, you have clearly demonstrated that you have forwarded some/all of the key ideals or behaviors of your faith tradition, then you can successfully say that you have engaged within mobile ministry.

If you have any comments or questions towards this methodology, please do not hesitate to email or send a message via Twitter. Its my expectation that this methodology will enable groups, such as those involved within the Mobile Ministry Forum, better identify successes, challenges, best practices, and other aspects of mobile ministry that have been hard to define and implement.


Associated Resources

 

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