Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM)

Depending on your choice of news, there’s a sense that we are innovative and not innovative enough when it comes to various computer technology applications. And that’s to be expected since there’s been such a boon in the abilities of devices, software, and the people and process around them.

Since obtaining an iPad, one of the areas that has been sparked again towards interest is this aspect of interfacing with content. Check out this TED video via AR Ideas.

Now, when we think about interfaces that take advantaged of connected spaces, this is a good example of what’s possible. How then do we look at the lens of biblical software, and how such an interface could be extended around it?

• First we need some kind of open API (like Logos’ Biblia API)
• Then we’d need to have it work with as many devices as possible (web frameworks, a browser like Layar perhaps)
• An ease at keeping track of all of this (iTunes and Google Dashboard offer takes on that solution)
• The hardware needs to be inexpensive (have you seen the prices of Nokia’s mobile’s lately, sheesh)

After that, it would be a matter of grabbing imagination and running forward.

Maybe its something like Minority Report where a special glove or set of glasses opens up the connectivity to the text that you are looking at at YouVersion. Or, possibility its a who/where search for associated content – kind of like your personal or community version of Amazon’s Recommendations – that allows you to not just collaborate, but purchase in an authenticated manner the license to read and use that content.

As I type this, my mobile is on the other side of the room, playing music. I’m using a Bluetooth remote to control the music, and to note when emails and text messages are coming in. I have in front of me a Strong Concordance and a print Bible – if those two printed pieces of work could integrate with what my mobile is doing, it wouldn’t just open up the world for me to learn, but also for those who’d benefit from what they share to me and what I share with them.

In thinking about user interfaces and the experiences that we want to foster, these are some of the possibilities. And some of this will come to pass soon (see the video). What we do with the level of interaction and power will be really interesting.