One of the ways that MMM has been able to help organizations is in respect to breaking down and rebuilding points that influence mobile and other parts of communication events. We do this in part by working every communication issues thru a methodology born out of how we look at the layers of mobile: devices, services, and experiences.
Devices
Devices are agents and windows. What is most important to them is that ability for anyone to use devices for their most efficient and effective communicative purpose. That means that handheld mobiles (PDAs, phones, media players, etc.) speak towards a context of communication events that other mobiles (tablets, laptops, etc.) might not. Knowing the built in abilities and the perceived biases people have towards these gives one layer towards efficien communication. In a very real sense, if you don’t know the device’s abilities, then not much else matters for mobile ministry initiatives.
Services
Services are enablers. Look at services as a channel towards that expected end. They can exist in and of themselves, but the devices and experience design constrains their relevance and effectiveness. What’s usually the challenge here is knowing the bounds of the service inside of your communications needs, and then if it scales with the organic nature of communication behaviors. If it scales, or constrains, favorably, then the chance of a service becominng an integral part of your effort grows. However, service relevance is important here; what’s relevant to the IT administrator is not relevant to the stakeholder (except for cost and time to implementation). Don’t get trapped into making the more important than the other layers, don’t miss that it needs to be working for the Experience layer to be met positively.
Experiences
The Experience layer can be summarized by simply stating, “what are your goals?” Why is this technology, behavior, initiative, or function important to the overall mission of the organization? Is it an experience that is going to govern how others perceive your mission, Christ, etc.? What is the goal of the media transferred to the device? Can that media meet that goal, or is this a matter of planting and watering so that something later can manifest? Are you reaching too far trying to drive the experience? Or, are you not reaching far enough? Once that experience happens, are the persons or their devices evangelists for you, Christ, or something else?
Answering these three layers allows you to chart a path to a solution that’s more efficient than it is amazing. Sure, mobile ministry endeavors want to always “reach the world for Christ.” But, the reality is that the reach of any effort has constraints that you have to identify and then play within. If you will, the path is more narrow than wide, and your efforts have to respect those constraints to see the nets filled.
We keep pushing the fact that to best understand technology’s usefulness, you have to understand the context that it has been introduced into. And beyond that, adapting our perspectives as contexts change and adapt allows that technology to not just be a tool/agent, but a conduit for furthering our application of faith in a consistent and historically respective manner.
