Posts Tagged ‘resources’

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Addressing Mobile-Accessible Discipleship Resources with Door43

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Door43 logoSo, we do a lot of talking about mobile ministry (#mobmin) with various people, ministries, and organizations, and much of this conversation is great. Yet, there’s always this point in the conversation about resources comes up. The questions range from “how to create mobile-formatted resources” to “what are some of the best mobile resources for [insert your topic area].”

The initial answer for this is that most documents and media is already mobile-friendly – just make it available. On-board email applications and office productivity suites (QuickOffice, Documents-To-Go,etc.) have the ability to read items created in Word and Excel – some can even do PDF and PowerPoint documents (with layout being the chief issue on the smaller mobile screen). Office suites have both read and editing abilities, and so that at least makes the “how to create” question easily addressed.

Beyond that, we get into a harder to address question, “what are the best resources?”. Unfortunately, when asked “what are some of the best,” we get into what doesn’t exist or simply hasn’t been made available in the mobile context such that it could offer some sense of comparison (though things are improving all the time). Thankfully, there’s some good work happening in this area. One group is addressing discipleship resources using a open and collaborative  approach. That organization is called Door43.

From their website:

Door43 is a self-selected, online community that believes in the vision of working together to equip the global church with unrestricted discipleship resources, using the technology God has given us… The Door43 project is open and free for anyone or any ministry to use. The project is managed by Distant Shores Media

With Door43, you have a resource creation, engagement, and sharing space where items specifically related to discipleship is being developed and implemented. The primary project being undertaken right now is the Open Bible Stories project. Open Bible Stories is a collection of 30 stories of the Bible in text and mobile-ready audio and video formats. The project is released from copyright restrictions under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license (seeDoor43:Copyrights), so that the stories can be legally adapted, translated and used by anyone, in any language and culture. To see the progress of this project, check out Open Bible Stories project page at Door43.

Other pending projects at Door43 include:

  • Open Bible Translation – Help draft and/or check the Open Bible Translation, a version of the Bible in modern English, based on the same texts as most other versions, for unrestricted use anywhere, by anyone.
  • Open Study Notes – Help research the Open Study Notes, a project to create free and open study notes that clarify the historical, cultural and linguistic context of every passage in the Bible.
  • Open Bible School – Write a teaching unit for the Open Bible School, a modular Bible training course in three tracks: Book Studies, History, Doctrine.
  • Open Bible Handbook – Create entries in the Open Bible Handbook, an up-to-date handbook of key Bible terms, topics and maps to help anyone better understand the Word of God.
  • Open Christian Library – Do you have a discipleship resource (like a Bible study, book, training course, etc.) that you want to give to the global church? Put it in the Open Christian Library where it can be translated and distributed to mobile phones anywhere in the world.
  • Open Worship Project – Write a song and give it to the global church in the Open Worship Project.

Of the initiatives that I’ve seen which are pulling together some specific aspect of mobile ministry and addressing it, Door43 is one of the more open efforts. If you are looking for discipleship resources, or can lend your hand to Open Bible Stories or any other project, get in contact with Door43 (@door43) and add to the wealth of necessary resources.

Because, like I said earlier, making resources is easy. But, making relevant resources takes a community effort.

 

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Posted in Communication | 1 Comment »

Realistically Estimating Impacts of Mobile Ministry Initiatives

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Bar graph of Estimated Mobile Cellular Subscriptions per 100 Inhabitants by World Region, via ITUWhile working on some admin needs for MMM, I came across a question that has had me on a bit of a rabbit trail and a genuine assessment of mobile ministry. The question simply asked, “what is the addressable market?” Included in this answer is understanding who and how many of that “who” can be met by your solution(s).

As with most things involving Christianity, we speak in terms of biggness – the entire world (all 6-7 billion of us is always the addressable market). The problem is that such a target isn’t just impossible, but its unrealistic. There are very few endeavors which can have an impact across such a large swath of people and regions. Yes, its possible to be a solution that hits a large segment of these (own a cellular carrier or popular social network for example), but that’s far more the exception than the norm. So, the question then becomes, what is the realistic impact (the who and how many of that who) of mobile ministry?

There are roughly 6.9 billion people in the world (at the time of this writing). In respect to the technolgies which fall under the term mobile that 6.9 billion number looks more like 4.2-4.4 billion reachable people. In respect to religious populations, the four major religions have an estimated 4.65-6.17 billion adherants. If you will, just from looking at the numbers, there are more people of faith in four major world religious groups than there are who use mobile. This immediately casts the “entire world is the addressable market” argument out of the range of realism, but does show at a cursory glance that there’s some overlap that should be explored, and some unaddressed persons that might never merit consideration.

How should that be explored is a good question. The good thing about data these days is that its all out there, you’ve just got to do the work towards putting it together. For example, the ITU gives us regional information in reference to mobile subscriptions (estimated, 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom. And that’s truly a large amount of work. Given the task that took me down this rabbit hole, I can truly say that you’ve got to be a bit crazy to push this information together and make some general sense of it. But, its possible to come up with some nuggets that point towards the initial question of “whom the addressable market” actually is.

For example, let’s take a country that we’ve recently posted a few news notes about: Tanzania. According to that 2007 report, there are roughly 30-40 of the people there whom are Christians out of a total population of 37 million. Their current population is abuot 43.2 million, which means that they’ve increased at a rate of roughly 8%. Let’s say that the number of Christians in that country have held at 40% and that would give us 17.3 million Christians and 25.9 million people of other faith traditions. About 1.6% of the population (roughly 670,000) use the Internet. We know from the 2009 East and Southern Africa Telecommunications Report that Tanzania is one of several countries whom are expected to see a mobile penetration rate of 100% by 2013 (most probably sooner). However, that current use of mobile is still below 50% of the total population. Mapping the religious population on top of this mobile enabled population could mean that no more than 20% of the population would be addressible for mobile ministry (doing very bad and extrapolated guesimation for the sake of the discussion). And that ignores that we’ve not yet looked at the economic, literacy, or other factors which may influence the use, impact, further mobile and the potential addressable population just in that area.

That 4.2-4.4 billion number for mobile only speaks in terms of the fact that there is some measurable unit of use. It doesn’t (and cannot) speak towards consistent nor a specific type of use. It doesn’t even identify what the best targets are. All of this needs to be broken down into reachable gains. Its as we’ve said at many points, contextulization and cross-functional knowledge plays a bigger part in understanding the role of mobile and the impacts to digitial faith behaviors than just casting a net out and hoping to catch an entire world of people.

Some have prescribed taking your addressable market in the filter of what technology window is best to meet them. Is it Facebook, a mobile application, an SMS service? You’ve got to do the math and figure out if your realistic addressable market is attainable. And if so, then that’s the part of the global body of faith that you run towards. Whatever it is that is realistic for you to run for, that’s where you become one of many voices in mobile speaking to the need for digital faith endeavors to direct direct people whose lives have intersected at faith and mobile/web technologies. No, this doesn’t get all 6.9 billion people, but it does keep over-zealousness from making you discouraged, or worse, misdirected to the conditions of spiritual and technological needs to those in your immediate, and not so immediate, vicinity.

 

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MMM Top 10 Topics of 2010

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

Mobile Ministry Forum - Share on OviYesterday, we hit on the top posts of 2010. Today, we look at the top 10 topics based on frequency of use here at MMM. In one respect, this gives you an idea of how we focus on various areas, and in another respect points to areas of interest and notable subject areas throughout 2010.

#10: SMS
Makes a lot of sense that SMS would be a popular topic. Its how it was a popular topic that becomes interesting as you see the various types of posts on the topic.

#9: Software
The software industry is constantly changing, and this year in mobile has been no exception. Lots of viewpoints here from applicaitons to developer relations.

#8: Social Networking
What comes first, going social or going mobile? Hard to tell sometimes with the amount of conversations around both.

#7: Bible
It strikes me as amazing how the Bible stays in the conversation no matter if we are talking reading, communities, software, or successes in this space.

#6: Communication
As with social networking, simply communicating tends to be a common meme within mobile. Lots of potential here for more work.

#5: Education
We’ve been intentional at look at education as a part of the fabric of being mobile, and this year’s posts have fought hard towards that fact. Look for much more in this space in 2011.

#4: Tech
Technology is a term that be be denoted to any tool. Effective technology – especially in this space – is another conversation. We’ve had several of these.

#3: Resources
MMM also serves as a springboard towards research and reosurces in the mobile ministry space. As with education, this is a topic that’s bound to rise higher in 2011.

#2: Community
How does the tech and resources filter into the local community of believers? Plenty of coverage around community engagements such as Lausanne, discipliship, and more.

#1: Mobility
It would almost be obvious to say that mobile would be at the top of the list. Mobility is not just the tools, but the processes, the policies, and the implications. Next year, we might default this one out of the list.

Those areas accounted for lots of coverage here. We are expecting this list to shift a good bit in 2011. What do you think might be some of the topics that would make this list next year here at MMM? Speak up in the comments or on Twitter (@mobileminmag).

 

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5 Further Ways to Define Mobile Ministry

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Photo of a Dictionary showing the word 'dictionary' via Kingdom of StyleAfter a number of conversations, further readings, and a excellent mobile ministry forum (report coming as soon as I slow down), there’s still this lingering feeling that the definition port forth here towards what is mobile ministry while not bad, just might not have gone far enough.

So, in the spirit of how this initiative is run, I want to put out a refreshed subset of that definition that I’ve been sitting on. It is one part just trying to get into a place of better understanding how to best apply a definition, but also lead towards developing and finding the research/case studies that support mobile ministry as an effective tool.

For a refresher, here’s the definition:

Mobile ministry is the skillful use and application of computer technology classified as mobile for the context of fulfilling the Christian (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.

And here’s what I’ve been sitting on:

  • Mobile in missions: contextualizing Gospel messages; business as mission opportunities; technology in politics/global conversations
  • Mobile in Media: specifications around video/audio/text engagements; mobile applications alongside broadcast channels; mobile service development/infrastructure concerns
  • Mobile in discipleship/education: curriculum development; special education; educational explorations (OLPC-like initiatives)
  • Mobile Marketing/Analytics: SEO; security and access; local media channel development; mobile applications alongside and independent of broadcast channels
  • Spiritual implications of connected spaces: theological constraints/precedents; directions for educators/parents/local communities; psychological/cultural effects of mobile vs other personal/connected technology media elements
  • Mobile in Moment: use of connected services and applications; SMS/MMS; effects of and effects towards social and linear networks; personal use; theological constraints/precedents

So, in looking at mobile ministry as a tool, practice, or context, its becoming clear that how mobile is being defined determines its best application.

With that said, do you see any areas here where the Body is already equipped to move quickly into mobile? Or, do you see gaps that need to be addressed, before mobile ministry is regarded as wholly beneficial?

 

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Preview of 2010 Mobile Stats from Tomi Ahonen

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Always worth a read for his opinions and analyses of the mobile industry, Tomi Ahonen (Communities Dominate Brands, Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media, etc.) has given a preview of an upcoming publication of mobile statistics for 2010. Here’s a preview of some of the information contained in that post:

  • 5.2 Billion mobile phone subscriptions (across just under 7 billion of the total world population)
  • 3.75 unique mobile phone subscriptions
  • 1.3 Billion new phones sold
  • 12% of phones owned are second-hand; 17% of phones are smartphones
  • 4.1 Billion active users of SMS; 1.35 billion active users of MMS; 1.5 billion active users of the mobile internet

Tomi’s data is one of the few places one can get an entire picture of what’s happening globally and his next almanac will be chock full of these and other very notable stats about mobile, mobile use, and upcoming trends.

Take a gander at the noted stats in detail at his preview post. And contemplate just how much more attention to mobile you’ll need to pay in the year to come as mobile is more than even something global and personal at the same time.

 

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What is Mobile Ministry

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

In one of the recent conversations that I was around (about the kiosk), we talked about how ventures like MMM would do well to be certified – it would add validity to the effort around this site and the perceptions towards mobility and mobile ministry. Thing is, mobile ministry isn’t something that you can be certified in (yet) – frankly speaking, it isn’t old enough for there to be sufficient best practices and/or innovations above those.

And yet, I (and some others) sense this need and therefore, we’ve got to define what mobile ministry is, what are the key applications, and what are its clear implications. This post will sit as MMM‘s re-introduction to the public conversations on this topic.

A Working Definition
Mobile ministry is the skillful use and application of computer technology classified as mobile for the context of fulfilling the Christian (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.

Mobile [technology] can defined as:

personal computing use that is defined by time, task, and spatial relationships, and is not limited to a device which maintains a wired connection; behavior of use is not limited to non-moving contexts; viewport of use is established by a 1:1 ratio of device/service and user.

Another way to look at this definition is to look at these specific mobile characteristics of mobile technology as identified here:

  1. Mobile is the first personal mass media
  2. Mobile is permanently carried
  3. Mobile is always-on
  4. Mobile has a built-in payment mechanism
  5. Mobile is available at the point of creative inspiration
  6. Mobile has the most accurate audience measurement
  7. Mobile captures the social context of media consumption
  8. Mobile allows augmented reality to be used in media

via Tomi Ahonen, Communities Dominate Brands

This differs from what we commonly hear about mobile. The market definition of mobile is any device that contains wireless communication capabilities (cellular or IP) and is designed around a viewport (screen) of less than 5in. This cosigns mobile into a personal computing context that both magnifies the characteristics, and presents the framework in which to approach mobile for service/life application.

Working Applications of this Definition
With this definition in mind, we can start looking at contexts in which this action of ministry (sharing and multiplying faith experiences) happens. Here are some of these contexts (as defined by MMM‘s case report categories):

  • Short Messages: SMS (text messaging) and MMS (multimedia messaging)
  • Long Messages: email, mobile web, mobile applications
  • Social Networking
  • Multimedia
  • Evangelism
  • Analysis and Metrics
  • Language Development
  • Communication Strategies/Implementations

Indeed, within these constructs, the definition and application of mobile can get very wide and deep. The challenge therefore, is to identify the characteristics of mobile, with the applicable technologies which are mobile in context, to create opportunities for ministry-type engagements.

Missions, Media, and Moments
There are currently, three focuses that I’ve seen in the area of mobile ministry which have come to light over the past 6-10 years: mobile in missions, mobile in media, and mobile capturing/definiting moments.

Mobile in missions looks at the application and use of the technology and characteristics of mobile primarily within the context of fulfilling missional engagements. This includes SMS/MMS campaigns, multimedia sharing/engagement, web media development, educational facilitation and mobile health/wellness campaigns.

Mobile in media ascribes the characteristics of mobile to existing media domains (TV, radio, Internet) to bolster activities and engagement to fringe audiences, and to bolster connections to existing audiences. Here we see SMS/MMS campaigns as a subset of a larger media campaign. There is more of a focus on creating experiences through dedicated applications. And we commonly find those persons whom are missional in business contexts creating Gospel-led moments through these activities.

Mobile as a moment is largely the space where personal use and experimentation of the technology becomes the driver of Gospel engagements. Here, we have the use of religious applications such as bible readers, reading plans, and messaging alerts. Many missional and media engagements start also at this level – where a single person, directly with a mobile or with the assistance of a messaging/social networking service, reaches out to friends and loose associates with messages of encouragement, reproof, instruction, etc. In the marketing space, this would be akin to grassroots and viral methodologies at their most basic levels.

Where Do You Stand
Given this short look at defining mobile ministry, I’d hope that you’d be able to better see where you or your organization might stand in respect to how you choose to engage mobile contexts.

At this still early stage of making this field a viable option for ministries and individuals, such definitions are not just helpful, but frame and understanding towards what can and should be the aims of the tools and behaviors that we shape as mobile ministry becomes yet another avenue to share the wealth and depth of the Christian faith to others.

Stay tuned to the Mobile Case Studies/Research page as items there will also continue to contribute to this (working) definition and the means to identify trends in this space.

 

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Posted in Commentary, Future Trends | 8 Comments »

Technical Issues and Practices in Mobile Ministry

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Each conversation about mobile ministry brings it’s own insights and challenges. Some of those challenges are of a technical nature and require the understanding of items related to content product and design. Here are a few resource links to address some of the technical items I have recently encountered:

What are some of the resources that you use in creating those mobile innovations that bolster your mobile ministry efforts? Or, what kinds of resources would you like to see more of?

 

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Announcing: New MMM Mobile App*

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Download MMM Mobile App from Nokia's Ovi StoreWe talked last week about how in making an application that goes alongside MMM that it would have to be something that adds value to how you interact with the vision and content of this site, and we’ve got a new application that will help you do just that.

The new MMM Mobile App was created with Nokia’s Ovi App Wizard and includes the RSS feed of the site, in addition to linking to our social streams on Google Buzz and Twitter.

This is a free application and a great way to get a piece of MMM on the road with you if you are using a Nokia Symbian device.

*Our other contributor, Brett, is actually looking into doing a similar (but better) app for other mobile platforms. Look forward to those posts and how that will unfold from this endeavor.

Download the free MMM Mobile App and tell your friends about it. The story of what happens in this mobile lens is also crafted by you now :)

 

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Proposal: A Bible App That Starts from the Commentary Out

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Last night, I attended a Bible study where the pastor/teacher had his congregation study the text beforehand, and then come to the study being able to respond with cross-referenced verses to the primary passage. Really excellent seeing the engagement of the entire community to study the text and be able to respond intelligently to some of the questions.

However, there was some issue with cross-referencing while respecting cultural or literal context with some of the additional Scriptures. And while that’s certainly something worth finding out if it is something addressed for that kind of study, it got me thinking about the structure of Bible applications and how switching the primary interaction.

Since the dawn of digital Bibles, the emphasis has been on reading and seeking. We have a library of Bibles and commentaries, but the start of anything that we do is with the text. This works out for many types of interactions, as in many cases, the place of a mobile device is usually within a context where you are looking up a passage or a bookmarked entry.

But, what if we turned that model around a bit. What if the Bible application only stored our notes, dictionaries, and commentaries? What if that same application was intelligent enough to stitch our notes and the Scripture references that we used to online Bible services such as a YouVersion or Biblia? And it would also be able to – by a metadata driven index – be able to link our notes to similar phrases and indices within those dictionaries and commentaries? What would that do for a study like the one that I described able, where the point is to make the connections within Scripture to common concepts, while forcing the reader to literally meditate on the Scripture to know that those threads exist?

Example and Description

Proverbs 28:9
- Note(s): is the position of your life and heart in right relation to God and His instructions
- (XR) Isaiah 1:15 (hands full of blood) – JH Commentary, MH Commentary – 50% Relevant to Source Scripture (History of Isaiah book, book #2…)
- (XR) John 9:31 (God doesn’t hear sinners) – MH Commentary, JMA Commentary – debatable relevance because of context of the speaker and the lesson that was being taught
- Search for more (XR)

So, here we have a person that’s got a source piece of text, and a note attached to it. The note is scanned for all possible search matches (word, phrase, etc.) and the next button asks if the user wants to search all available library material (local and connected dictionaries, commentaries, Wikipedia, etc.) for cross-references (XR). After the search is completed, the user taps on the verse and gets what was cross-referenced (the word or phrase) and those associated resources which speak more on that specific XR. It then gives a percentage of the relevance of that XR to the note and primary Scripture based on some algorithm that weighs the primary Scripture, then the associated resource, then the user’s note content.

Thinking about it like this, the person is essentially having a near-real-time query of every statement they make in their notes run up against all available materials, without storing the Biblical text itself on the device. Ideally, one would use a API call in this app to link the Scripture to whatever Bible of choice the user wants – but this app keeps the focus on the notes and the ability of the user to constantly make connections which have higher relevance ratings.

Potential Benefits
There are several good things which would then come from this: we’d have people who become used to search as a means to relate applicable concepts to literal Scripture and already existing commentary (filling a gap where education might not be attainable); we’d have people who are made more aware (or at least more quickly aware) of their inconsistencies in reading or understanding Scripture against already established memes; it will expose people to the wealth of content that folks like Logos have turned digital in an amazing amount of time; and it would further push this idea of getting content in the open where publishers can better see who digests it, possibly making for them another means to make good where print/legacy study interactions might be failing because of the switch to digital content streams.

I will admit, this is about as rough as ideas get here; but something that would be worth exploring by a developer/publisher who is looking to sow some kind of application into the digital ether, but wants to do something that’s not as “me-too” as the hundreds of Bible apps and reading plans already available.

Your Comments
So let’s hear from you. If you are a pastor/teacher, would this kind of application be a help to you personally or for a Bible study such as what’s described above? If you are a developer, what are some of the good points of this idea? What are some of the issues you can see? Is anything in this idea impossible, or improbable? Let’s discuss :)

 

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Posted in Devices and Software | 3 Comments »

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