November 2007

Bridging the digital divide prices continue to rise here:

Starting November 12th you can finally fork over some cash for an XO and get one shipped to your door — as long as you're willing pay double for some kid in a developing nation to get one as well. It'll cost you $399, which is hardly a bargain given the other cheap-as-free laptops making the rounds these days, but the XO is undoubtedly novel, and we imagine not a few nerds will want to get their hands on one this holiday season, or at least bestow the little green machine upon one of their nerdling progeny. Apparently this offer, which has been rumored for quite awhile now, will only last for a limited time — OLPC News has it on good authority the promo will go for two weeks, and the machines will ship to your door in time for Christmas.

Quoted: Engadget 

Additional Links:

• Geeks and Kids ♥ One Laptop Per Child Technology

• Americans Want to Help One Laptop Per Child

Proost is a UK-based media resource option for alternative multi-media solutions to inspire faith.  Featuring indie resources not available elsewhere, it showcases the work of Jonny Baker (photographer extraordinare), Jon Birch and Aad Vermeyden (Studio Blueprint).  Yes, they also make music.

You can access the Proost content via annual subscription fee.  This gives you access to all Proost downloadable content including movies, books, music and new content is uploaded every month throughout the year.

Click here to subscribe.

As social media move to the forefront of our online experiences, news, especially regarding Facebook's popularity and it's advertising potential (yes, that includes churches), is increasing.  The Facebook Blog clarified earlier this month what's changing - and what's not - with regard to advertising.

Here's what you need to know regarding the advanced targeted ads that are coming:

First of all, what's not changing:

• Facebook will always stay clutter-free and clean.
• Facebook will never sell any of your information.
• You will always have control over your information and your Facebook experience.
• You will not see any more ads than you did before this.

Here's what is changing:

• You now have a way to connect with products, businesses, bands, celebrities and more on Facebook.
• Ads should be getting more relevant and more meaningful to you.
• You now have the option to share actions you take on other sites with your friends on Facebook.

In case you've feel you've landed at this site by accident, please know you are not alone.  It's quite possible your friends are here.  Because I present you with a monthly dose of Search Term Awards (yes, I know I missed a month), you should know, this is the company you keep:

 (Remember I never modify words, spellings or innuendo)

• loosing your spiritual gifts

• iPhone reception sucks

• "open source Christians"

• spiritual bad Américains

• InternetJesus

• "guy kawasaki" church 

• worship sfotware blogspot

• Gods of technology 

• emergent church beth moore! 

• Globalization depresses me

Yes, each one creates it's own separate chuckle.  From the Broward County Public Schools to Microsoft Corp, from AT&T WorldNet Services to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, from Niceville, Florida to Roachdale, Indiana  (see - how could I even make these up?).  From Berlin  to  Budapest, from Mumbai, India to Johannesburg, South Africa to Vanves, Ile-de-France everyone is interested in the Church and technology.

Head on over to comment or recommend suggestions about needed topics.

According to The Briefing Room, Electrosonic Systems Inc. (Electrosonic) has supplied an array of projectors and screens for the just-opened Billy Graham Library located in the headquarters of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Charlotte, North Carolina. Electrosonic was subcontracted by ITEC Productions of Orlando, Florida, which designed and produced all the facility’s multimedia and exhibits.

Visitors to the new library, which is housed in a 40,000-square foot complex in the form of a red dairy barn, follow “One Man’s Journey” from the pastures and gravel roads of North Carolina to the big tents and arenas of America’s largest cities to stadiums and broadcast media across the globe. Displays of historical backdrops alternate with multimedia theaters showing events and milestones of Billy Graham’s lifelong mission.

Big social networking news as Google makes good on rumors and launches OpenSocial with a live URL yesterday.

So far, the big draw is OpenSocial's rumored simplicity and inherent openness. Whereas Facebook keeps its data behind closed doors and requires developers to use its own markup language, OpenSocial is poised to challenge aspects of walled garden proprietary services by allowing developers to work with a simple set of tools consisting of HTML, javascript, and elements of Flash. Here's how it comes together:

According to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch:

OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:

• Profile Information (user data)
• Friends Information (social graph)
• Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)

Hosts (Hi5, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Orkut, Ning, Salesforce, Friendster, Viadeo, and Oracle - did I mention MySpace!) agree to accept the API calls and return appropriate data. Google won’t try to provide universal API coverage for special use cases, instead focusing on the most common uses. Specialized functions/data can be accessed from the hosts directly via their own APIs.

Unlike Facebook, OpenSocial does not have its own markup language (Facebook requires use of FBML for security reasons, but it also makes code unusable outside of Facebook). Instead, developers use normal javascript and html (and can embed Flash elements). The benefit of the Google approach is that developers can use much of their existing front end code and simply tailor it slightly for OpenSocial, so creating applications is even easier than on Facebook. 

The goal - streamlining the app development process across multiple networks for maximum reach with major synergy.  Open, open, open!