When I am at a coffeeshop, I usually have my mobile to the side of me and my iPad in front of me -occasionally with my wireless keyboard. At times, at least when I’m typing on the keyboard, I’m stopped to ask if I like my iPad, or how I get along with the keyboard. On one particular day, a woman asked me my opinions on the iPad as she was considering one. It just so happened that less than an hour before she asked me that, Amazon announced its new slate of Kindle reading devices (Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G, and the (color/Android) Kindle Fire). I mentioned to her that she might want to consider the Kindle – and it was apparent that she had. And then showed her the image seen on this post – her expression and the conversation that ensued afterwards got me thinking about how leaders, technologists, and then everyone else tends to consider technologies like what is exposed with Amazon Kindle.
For instance, the woman asked me what it is that I do with my iPad (reading, drawing, then everything else was my response). I showed her my artwork, and then the notes that I’d written at a recent church visit. The notes impressed not just because they were handwritten, but because she could see the point in not just having an electronic bible, but an ability to write notes, highlight, and then have those available on any computing device she owned. It sounds almost normal to many of us, but the perception that you can disconnect content from the devices you read it on is still a new idea to many.
She asked about saving the data on my iPad and how much space it takes. I explained to her how I don’t save a lot on the device itself as I use the entire Internet as my hard drive. We talked about how Amazon, Dropbox, Microsoft, and others essnentially give you their servers to use as the hard drive. In that case, its not always a limitation of the space that you worry about, but how you are able to control access, security, and what you are comfortable with storing on another company’s hard drives (servers). She noticed that on the pages for the new Kindles that there was no mention of the size of the internal storage and asked why that could be. I told her how Amazon is positioning their servers to be your hard drive – essentially making the Internet your hard drive. Her expression again amazed at not considering before that you could take what seems to be a normal computer function and turn it on its head.
So what becomes of how we talk and demonstrate Biblical texts? Could we have moments where instead of simply telling people to turn to such and such a passage that we could have shared that bookmark via YouVersion or another Biblical service. Or, maybe as a minister who is an aspiring author, do we learn and utilize services like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and Lulu to disseminate our locally-created materials instead of or in addition to the traditional publisher route? Obciously, there isn’t a need to do these kinds of things all the time, but devices like the Kindle will mean that we do have to consider that our use of the technologies available will endorse the purcahsees that many are already making.
Or, we can choose to not see efforts like the Kindle as being useful or beneficial for our respective audiences. Which is ok. But, if you are in the business of content creation or teaching, what kind of perspective will that lend to those whom you say you lead?
~ picture via Gizmodo
This past weekend, Matt Miller opined that the new HTC Flyer Tablet might make for the right approach to being a digital bible replacement because of it’s inking ability. During 
A Healthy Dose of Rambling
Friday, June 3rd, 2011Apps and Challenges
For example, in one aspect of the past week’s trips, Brett (one of the contributors here) and I got a chance to connect and talk about how we’d like learn better cross-platform development techniques for some of the content that we own or read. We got into talking a bit not just about apps, but things like QML, HTML5, and even the mobile web server. Being on an edge of mobile use, we’re finding that its not just a matter of having access, but there’s sometimes when ownership and accountability needs to also be a part of the pie.
That goes into the Kiosk Evangelism project that MMM has been a part of and some of the challenges there. As a project, its going through a leadership transition. Some of the questions though influence practices and understandings. For example, if creating a mobile-tuned service (such as the digital library component of Kiosk Evangelism), does it make sense to go native with an app, or use the browser and possibly something like Modernizr to create a UI that plugs into several systems an scales well. Does such a UI need to also be offline-context-sensitive, and if so how?
There’s also the challenge of owner rights. Church Mag recently opined about jail breaking and it caused me to go back into the archives a bit and relook at just how free we are to customize devices or interfaces. Certainly, there’s a challenge all around if you want to do something right.
Some are better than others with challenges. I’m always impressed at the energy and execution behind Logos and YouVersion and their latest projects serve as a solid measure of encouragement. Of the many support and feature updates for the application and service, I’m impressed the most with how YouVersion is paying attention to how we hear the Word. Audio and native language features ring most relevant for a lot of folks. Logos has released Vyrso which is basically a reader that goes beyond just Bibles. Through that system, I wonder how many budding authors will take up the challenge towards creating content that empowers and reveals the impact of the Gospel? Seems like as good a channel as any to do so.
Events and Movements
On the other side of happenings, there are several events and movements happening that all have something to do with how we approach (or at least view from our perspectives) mobile ministry.
The Uplinq Conference recently concluded. We attended this last year and had a great time as a part of the WIPJam Panel talking about opportunities and challenges for mobile developers. This year, the conversations started on mobile and there was a lot of innovations presented in mobile and blended reality computing.
Due to scheduling, we cannot attend this year’s Muther Hackathon, but we certainly want you (or your dev team) to get out there to it. If you would like passes, shoot us a message or tweet as we have a few free ones to give away.
MMM will be at the ICCM conference in Indiana in a few weeks. We’ll be speaking on a session about mobile ministry, actually breaking down that sketchnote that we’d posted here last week. We’d love to connect with you if you are going to be there.
And don’t forget about the Carnival of the Mobilists. Though its now on a once-per-month posting queue, the selection of articles that makes it to each Carnival seems to get better and better. This month No. 249 is being hosted over at Francisco Kattan’s site. Now that I’m not in my car or in front of folks for a few hours, its definitely something that will enter my rested reading time.
MMM Team and Role
Personally, I’m having fun with a new mobile (the Nokia N8) and some of the challenges around using it with my personal approach to mobile. That part has been fun, but its also led to finding some nuggets that would be valuable here.
Our team has taken some heavy shots personally and spiritually lately. Its been an honor to keep them lifted in prayer, but having been sick last week definitely showed me just how fragile all of us can be.
What is MMM’s role? We point to what’s happening. Unfortunately, we’re also finding that people sometimes need help with finishing what they started or just telling their message in a manner that’s able to be heard. To some extent, we are a media initiative, and to another, we’re just some hands and feet to some parts of the Body that want to move forward with a pure and honest depiction of the Gospel in their contexts.
That makes for a wide and deep role for us. And honestly, one that a single person has trouble with, let alone a small team. If you’ve been interested in getting involved with helping us share the stories of faith and technology, get in contact with us. If your heart is in other areas, and you’d just like to know how we can be supported, get in contact with us.
We’ve got some house-cleaning to do on some of the pages here we know – and we’ll get to those items in time. In the meantime, there’s a Body using this tech that’s asking for the road that isn’t techie or overly theological. We’re helping to cut a trail, rambling on about what we find as we do
Tags: Carnival of the Mobilists, HTML5, ICCM, jailbreaking, Logos, Modernizr, Muther Hackathon, nokia, open source, sketchnotes, UI, Uplinq, UX, Vyrso, WIP, YouVersion
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