A Mobile Lens for 2011
Mobile will continue to push towards the front of technology, health, educational, and policy conversations in 2011. What will be most interesting is the overlap. As we talked about some last year, contextualization and cross-functional knowledge will play a bigger part in understanding the role of mobile and the impacts to digital faith behaviors. Those individuals and groups that pollinate their mobile perspectives with multiple arenas will remain ahead of trends and applications.
In hardware, we are still looking at more of the same from basic devices (slates, candybar, tablet, some clamshells). Storage and processor technology is again on the verge of stepping up a generation, but battery power isn’t. We should see a few more attempts with device and network intelligence on devices, but only at the highest model ranges. Look at what you see as high-end right now, it will be low/mid-range by the fall.
Price points for devices will come down to orughly $100USD for a smartphone sans contract (currently $130-150). This will continue the transformation of some (mobile savvy) developed markets towards being largely populated with new smartphones. That said, feature phones will continue to sell huge in most markets – and the 2nd owner market should also grow. Service prices will hold steady for a bit longer before we start seeing more tiers in data service offerings with larger carriers. Keep an eye on SIM cards, these might be changing – and not just in size.
Software will continue to go the route of paying attention to user experience and smoother user interface design, though we will get some attention paid to optimization and information security. I wish I could say that users will care about security, but situations such as WikiLeaks shows us that this will remain governmental and enterprise conversations.
Looks like we are on the verge of some jumps in the amount and attention paid to audio and multi-lingual approaches. However, the easiest paths for developing these solutions will continue to be with web-dependent data and transaction services.
Open source will continue as an area of opportunity and frequent barrier in software and business development. Religious content is one of the heaviest areas where DRM and antiquated processes remain, and so the change here to more fluid models is still some time off. We will see more attempts like the Kiosk Evangelism Project and The Evangelical Exegetical Commentary that will push some open source behaviors forward – the catch being with regional and legal issues which don’t change so quickly.
Mobile applications will continue to dominate the conversation in smartphone-heavy markets. Mobile web will pick up steam after Q1 and newer devices will further blurr the line between web and native applications. Would be nice to see a bible software company lead in this area – Logos’s Biblia was a great stepping stone to this.
We will see people more empowered with mobile to create their own solutions through more app-wizard-like programs and processes. I’m not sure if it will come from the faith-based space or outside, but I can see a few groups doing more with mashup-technologies that empower individuals to create solutions, instead of waiting for a larger network to be the solution.
MMM in 2011
With 3/4 a year under the belt as MMM as Antoine’s primary focus – and the addition of two voices for regional and development interests, there’s been a lot of learning and pushing taking place. Here’s some of what you can expect from in 2011.
- Reorganizing the Mobile Bibles page
- More development of the mobile ministry definition and its applicable areas
- Adding additional contributors, with a goal of 1-2 primary contributors from outside our majority US/UK audience*
- Creating more opportunities for speaking/consulting engagements for our primary contributors
- Structuring a mobile ministry course offering around the Digital Disciples effort
- Redesigning the site
If you will, all of this is simply building on the core so that the depth of content hits on as many applications of mobile and digital faith explorations as possible.
2011 aims to be filled with a lot more sending and receiving of Christ in mobile and we invite you to be a part of the signal. Connect with MMM and let’s continue to enable the Body to see the intersection of faith and mobile technology.
*If you are interested in being a contributor to MMM, make your request known via the Contact Form. Include links to sample writing pieces, up to three (3) areas of focus/interest, and how often you’d be contributing by writing. Those who can write in a language besides English are heavily preferred, though all applicants are equally considered.
9(unknown*no*no*1)&guid=ON&x_utmac=MO-16595840-1){kind=small}
Good Friday, Narrated Through a Mobile Lens
Friday, April 22nd, 2011The plans were in my head already, but here I needed to act. I told my wife of the situation for as much as I had known. Then asked her to take my mobile and destroy it. I’d keep the SIM card, and would be very brief and random when I’d use it to let her know where I am. I pulled the emergency mobile from the drawer, kissed her and the kids, then left under the cover of the rising sun. I was still excited about last night, and here I’m already running for my life.
Making my way through some of the early crowd, I made sure to keep the SIM in one pocket and the new(ish) mobile in the other. If at any point there was another announcement made about registering mobiles, I was fine with the mobile being taken or destroyed. Not the SIM, I needed that until I could get to one of the brothers and have it duplicated. Time was of the essence, I’d already been tipped off that one of the brothers was seen near where they held him for the night. Not sure if that image was posted, but it sure did make the rounds through a few text social circles.
By this point, I’d not eaten in nearly half a day. The news was now everywhere you could turn. Weirdly enough, there was very little about the officials looking for his associates. They seemed to be more concerned with him, the multiple trials, and later the show of blatant disregard for his lineage. In some of the video coverage, I could see mobiles being used to record, then Roman soldiers as well as religous officials snatching the devices out of the hands of people. They didn’t want this to get out, but they wanted it to be seen. This can’t end well.
Finally making it to the safe house, I pop my duped SIM into the emergency mobile and shoot some MMS messages to my wife and kids. I wanted them to see that I was ok. Hopefully, their devices aren’t being traced, but I have little time to care. I just need them to know that I’m ok. And then, almost like a symphony, all of us in the room hear all of our mobiles go off at the same time – all of us received the same MMS message. Was it them? Did they know where we were at after all? No one dared to even open the message, let along click off the prompt that a message was received. One of the guys who ran out of the house when the messages initially came in reentered the room saying that everyone has received the message. “Open it, look what they are doing to him!”
It was only a 30 second clip. But that was all that we needed to see. There he was, I think. In the face it looked like him, but the body was badily bruised. He had something on his head, but I couldn’t tell – I’ve got a simple mobile without a good screen. It looked like he nearly fell with some beam on his back, but then some other guy grabs the beam from him and then the scene cuts. We all looked at one another terrified. We knew what was next. This kind of message only comes out for certain kinds of capital punishments.
My mobile had been off for a few hours. I needed to relocate and didn’t need any cell towers tracking my movements. Better that my IMEI simply shows up in a different region with a different SIM than traveling across regions. It was around noon when mine and all the mobile around me beeped again. There was another MMS. This one felt different. The sky had darkened before it came in. I had this feeling in my stomach that I lost something very important.
I clicked to look at the message. There he was. Just… hanging there. The recording wasn’t clear, but he said something (John 19:30, Luke 23:46). Then he just hung his head. It was over. Right before this clip cut, a Roman soldier entered the scene. He didn’t look so strong, he looked convinced (Luke 23:47-49) - as I did that day on the Sea of Galilee – he wasn’t a normal man at all. Jesus was a lot more than that. But here, as plain as every recorded message of his that I had and had received from others, is gone.
People who’ve attended those crucifixions say that its different when you are there. I knew Jesus personally. I don’t think that I could have been there at all. The pain would have been too great, I’d try and pull him down or… something. I can’t think about that now. I shoot a message out to the brothers and some of the sisters, we need to figure out what’s next. Surely, in a few days when the Passover is done, we’ll be targeted. We’ve got to have a plan. That’s what he would have wanted, right?
Part two, what happens on Easter Sunday, continues the story.
Tags: communication strategies, crucifixion, Good Friday, IMEI, Jesus, MMS, SIM, swapping mobiles
Posted in Commentary, Communication, Devices and Software | 1 Comment »