The Word of Our Testimony via Visual History

There's a company called Kronomy that will enable you to create a timeline of your life complete with descriptions, pictures and video.  Thus, you can share your story by making your life into a flowing visual slideshow via 3D browsing.  Kronomy also features social networking functionality including commenting, sharing, and friends.  Currently in beta, you will need a Kronomy invite to get the full effect.

Also, Guy Kawasaki (source of my beta invite) proposes other creative options for using Kronomy to document, for example, a product's lifecycle.  From initial sketches to prototypes to beta versions, almost any product could benefit from it's own archival history.  Guy proposes someone create a history of the Mac using Kronomy.  Good idea.  And I think there are lots of other possibilities.

As a fan you could document your history of relationship with a favorite band; as a CEO you could document the evolution of your company; as an adoptive parent you could write your adoption journey in pictures as an archive for your child's future.  As a runner, document your marathons.  As a couple, document your anniversaries.  As a pastor, you could create a rich visual history for your church. 

In fact, for Christians, nothing is more powerful than documenting how God has been present in our lives and how He has used us to touch the lives of others.  We often call this 'our testimony'.   Now, our stories can be told with words supported by visual media.

How would you use Kronomy's chronological memory abilities for the Kingdom?

Check out Guy's Kawasaki's life path in action.

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Yes, I've finally paid someone to translate The Digital Sanctuary into Spanish. 

Oh, no wait, Google does that for me.  Free, of course. 

Check your own blog out in your favorite translation.   One of 10 New Media values I covered at the Dynamic Church Conference '08 - free services.

Looks like our tech-savvy friends at YouVersion.com have hit a home run with the release of YouVersion for the iPhone.  Having an interactive online Bible in your hand seems almost hard to believe - only the LifeChurch.tv digerati team, headed up by Terry Storch, have made YouVersion.com a reality.  And just in time for the Apple 3G iPhone release.

At the time of this writing it was number 35 in popularity, beating out hundreds of other free apps in the new app store!  In the brief minutes it's taken me to post this, I've already downloaded it. You can too, free.

Now you can have the scriptures with you anywhere plus your journal notes, photos and other uploads to your Bible cache.  And - no more turning our phones off in church.

This is the final post in the Barton Damer Interviews, a brief series designed to spotlight the visual media of an artist serving the Church in an innovative way.  Barton's work, an artistic feast for those hungry for new and creative ways to express faith, is easy to access through the links found below and throughout this series.

In concluding the interview, I asked Barton what he sees as the future of faith-inspired media. 

The future of Christian media is going to happen outside of the church walls if things don't change.

Media is hot right now and a lot of churches are buying into it because that's what makes them "innovative."  I have to wonder if media will become the bus ministry of this era.  Everyone used to have a bus ministry, right?  We weren't reaching people if we didn't have a fleet of buses and a full-time staff person to service the buses.  And it's the same way these days.  It's common to have HD projectors and and a motion graphics guy on staff. 

If media is going to remain a valuable part of the way churches serve and share the gospel, we need to start seeing media as a ministry…  not as an accessory or simply a marketing tool for better announcements in church.

Part One: Motion Reel, Digital Art & Motion Graphics and Motion Graphics Reel

Part Two: The Creative Media of Barton Damer / Bio & Current Status

Part Three: BartonDamer,  In His Own Words

Part Four: The Future of Christian Visual Media

How important do you think visual media will be for the Church?

ECHO Live VJ clips from barton Damer on Vimeo.

Background and Training Yes, I know you've been waiting for it, in his own words…..

I began truly seeking the Lord around 16 years old…  but a very large movement in my life from the Lord was when I was 18.  I was taking Public Relations as a major and blew out my knee skateboarding. 

For over 2 months, I limped around on crutches while I waited to receive surgery over Christmas break back home.  While laid up, I was taking an entry level art class that was required as part of the major I was studying.  So, I poured all my free time into my art projects, having no idea I could draw anything other than skulls & bones off of skateboarding graphics from the 80s!  That injury really allowed me to pause and reflect on what God wanted for me rather than what I wanted for myself.  The rest… is History.  I changed my major to Commercial Art.

Even though I went to school, i would consider myself "self taught" when it comes to the computer. I had good training with traditional techniques but back then photoshop was on like version 2 or something like that and our teachers didn't even know much about it.

Today, I use illustrator, photoshop, after effects, cinema 4d, and final cut pro. I used to build websites using flash and dreamweaver about 6 years ago, but realized I hated it pretty quickly. I like developing the graphics for web, but making it function properly is not my gig.

I had done frame by frame animation for the speaker intros so I basically copied and pasted all the frames (8 frames/second) and put them onto a shirt. the video is here:

http://gallery.mac.com/bartondamer#100074/Tim-20stevens-20WEB&bgcolor=black

or here: The Whiteboard Session Speakers

Part One: Motion Reel, Digital Art & Motion Graphics and Motion Graphics Reel

Part Two: The Creative Media of Barton Damer / Bio & Current Status

Part Three: BartonDamer,  In His Own Words

Part Four: The Future of Christian Visual Media

                                                 image: socialmedia.biz

Kem Meyer, Communications Director at Granger Community Church has been having ongoing conversations with her team about improving the online experience their church delivers.  Recently, Kem posted What we like… a brief list of the things Granger's staff enjoy when visiting a website.

Kem, an insightful communicator and active user of new media, noted that when the staff stepped away from their own church website to discuss what they liked about the websites they visit on a regular basis, they came up with 5 things they like (aka - what they value):

  *  I get to choose what information comes to me and how. (personalization)

  *  I can interact if I WANT to, but I'm not forced to. (interactivity)

  *  I can access it from any computer; public or private. (mobility)

  *  I like the "insider scoop" on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. (user generated)

  *  It's instant. (instantaneous)

I was curious to see if their list paralleled the list I created late last year for the Dynamic Church Conference '08 - Social Media - 10 New Media Values Your Ministry Needs.  Sure enough, of my ten, they listed the five found above.  You can down my list here Download Presentation (PDF).

Although your church website should be well-designed and easy to use, what's as important is that the values it reflects embrace a new communication mindset.  

You can also comment, twitter, ichat or facebook me for more exploration of new media values.

Last December, The Pew Internet & American Life Project put out the results of a provocative survey entitled Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency. 

Compiled by Mary Madden, Susannah Fox, Aaron Smith, et. al., you can view a PDF of the Digital Footprint report here.  The survey spotlighted the question "Are internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprints."  Respondents revealed:

* 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago.

However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity.

* Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it.

* 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.

* Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available

   about them online.

* Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of

   information that can be found about them online.

I found the survey provocative not because we have digital footprints but more importantly, not many people are thinking about it. 

Indeed, most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit, govern or direct that information.

Active Digital footprints are one thing.  Your passive digital footprint, or digital shadow, however, is an even more obscure set of data and quite another thing altogether.  It may include things like:

* your high school or elementary school photo
* your prescription medicines - uploaded for storage by pharmacists
* your driver's license records
* zabasearch records
* your college transcripts
* your charitable organizations memberships
* races or competitions you have been registered in
* boats, trains and other forms of transportation you have used  
* tax records
* mortgage records
* voter records
* PTA and school newsletter mentions

and most importantly, for our discussion, your tweets and your @replies. 

Better search your exact Twitter user name right now and every twitpic that has your @name attached to it, like this one of me I found on page 1 of a google search.  Fortunately, it was put up by a friend and basically with permission but in the Age of Transparency there will be great loss of privacy.  I know of quite a handful of online photos that are up on Twitter and the person in the photo is unaware of their existence, much less their searchablity.

We should also likely check out our accounts at Dodgeball, Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk, Spoink and a list of others.

The Age of Transparency is upon us.  Accountablity vs. loss of privacy?  What are the pros and cons for you?  

Clover - websites for growing churches and ministries. 

What can I say?  They're local So Cal.  Gotta support your neighbors right?  

image: GodTube

21 years ago, I visited Jerusalem for the first time.  One of the many stops on our trip was the Western Wall (aka - Wailing Wall).  Seeing the particular physical place where people poured out their requests to God really made an impression on me. 

Several years ago I got a picture in my mind of a similar wall, only this one was online, a place where people from all over the world could leave their "Dear Heavenly Father"…..electronically. Recently, I was reminded of this picture because today, electronic prayer sites are increasingly easy to find.  As we see more specialization on the web, 24/7 prayer pages like this one will likely become commonplace. 

Electronic prayer examples are easily searchable.  GodTube provides it's subscribers their own prayer wall.   Third party developers are creating Facebook prayer applications so Facebook members can notify one another of their need for prayer. 

Kindle is a free worldwide social prayer network that helps people form prayer groups to share their prayer requests with each other.  Kindle, in particular, displays huge potential, as the developers anticipate the forming of specialized groups within Kindle where intecessors are matched with individuals who need prayer for specific issues.

I've personally struggled with the "disconnect" associated with technologically mediated prayer.  And yet, at the same time, I've experienced incredible personal benefit from electronic prayers, specifically, in times of crisis as well as during seasons of elongated suffering. 

So, here are a handful of questions surrounding online prayer in the metaverse:

Would you use an online prayer service?

Do you see drawbacks of online prayer?

Do you see benefits of online prayer?

Do you think online prayer will grow in popularity?

I rarely post on Sundays but…. this weekend marks the launch of LifeChurch.tv's One Prayer month and it's significant enough that it's worth breaking a few routines.

If you're reading from outside the U.S. you might not be well-versed in all things LifeChurch.tv.  Let's just say their online reach is substantial.  When they recently featured my blog…. well, it's a good thing I'm hosted on Media Temple or I could have crashed.

Pastored by Criag Groeschel and a team of tech-savvy leadership, this church is so innovative it has basically invented "the bar" when it comes to web-driven ministry endeavors.  They have a global campus (read internet) so you can visit their church from anywhere in the world.

There's so much available information online about the One Prayer project, I won't fill a post with details.  I do recommend that you check out the links included here.

Suffice it to say, One Prayer is considered by many United States pastors, clergy, denominations, and Christian layleaders to be the most innovative and unique project of it's kind anywhere.  Using technological tools to knit diverse churches into an orchestrated, global month of prayer requires a mammoth vision and the digerati resources to pull it off.  Good thing LifeChurch.tv has both!

LifeChurch.tv we celebrate the launch of One Prayer with you.