Earlier today I co-hosted an online webinar with Drew Goodmanson of Monk Development entitled Beyond the Web 2.0 Noise: How to use the Internet to Disciple & Create Real Community.  We had so much to cover that we didn’t exactly get as specific as we will need to in order to provide the best resources for churches to actually use the internet to disciple individuals and create & nourish online communities.

But, we got a good start, particularly for surveying the landscape and for setting the stage to interpret the additional data that will be compiled.  I remember having a conversation with WP Developer Cory Miller a couple of years ago and we pondered together “who is compiling the data” besides Pew, Annenberg, etc.?  Now I know.

Here’s how it was billed:

Are we tired of hearing about Web 2.0?  The noise of social networking and private virtual communities continues to grow. Yet, we are still very early on in understanding what churches are doing effectively online in these areas.  Are churches really able to gather people, create community and foster discipleship?  Do you want to know what is working and what is a waste of time?  Come learn from a 2009 study on “The State of the Church Online: Social & Community Networks” involving over 500-hundred respondents and numerous church-focused products and social network sites.  Learn what churches are doing effectively and what they are doing that may actually be counter-productive to being the church.  This session will equip you with practical strategies in the social & community network space.

I made opening remarks about internet values and Drew presented the earliest data being compiled about internet usage patterns among those who participated in the recent survey The State of the Church Online: Social & Community Networks.

Some key findings include:

* Facebook was the most used Church Web Media strategy.
* Of the Christian Social Networking sites reviewed 82% of respondents had no awareness that they existed.

Top 5 Requested Features/Functionality sought:

1. Ability to find, register, and/or get details for events.
2. Ability to post prayer requests or needs.
3. Ability to find serving opportunities at the church based on interest or gifts.
4. Ability to join and interact with home/bible study groups.
5. Integration with existing church website.

If you were part of the webinar and want to weigh in, please do.  The questions we are getting will shape the presentation of the next webinar.

Here is a link to the site where the pdf/results are accessible:
http://www.churchtechreview.com/christian-social-network/churches-christian-social-networking-study/

Friday is the day I often point to scholars who specialize in the study of media & the church.  This series of Friday posts entitled, Blog of the Weekend, is designed to cover a broad spectrum of world class teachers, researchers & scholars who assess the impact and influence of technology/media on Christianity.

This week is no different.  Today I feature Anthony Coppedge, someone I respect as a friend, colleague and resource for all things media-related involving the Church.  I have used Anthony’s expertise as a church consultant and on complicated issues he has registered his professional opinion (See his comments on my post: Viva La Vida – Did Secular Music Get Saved?).  Additionally, following meeting him last year at the Echo Conference, I’ve more closely followed his blog and work.  However, I completely missed a key project Anthony has been developing and thankfully he’s brought it to my attention.

The Reason Your Church Must Twitter, first draft e-book is currently available online.  When Anthony sent me an advance copy for review, I was amazed at it’s depth, detail and exhaustive all around thoroughness.  E-books are fantastic, instant, cheap resources that can’t be beat (I’ve written for several) and The Reason Your Church Must Twitter is highly recommended for those interested in harnessing participatory media’s value in ministry.  Two of my personal friends have already reviewed it…. see Jim Walton’s blog review and also Mary Beth Stockdale’s blog review.

Also, later today is the launch of a new website called Twitter for Churches. com.  Anthony will spearhead the site and some of us who use microblogging regularly have been asked to guest author.  There’s a progression of adoption  that most most people go through (whether you’re a maven or a luddite!) when it comes to new media.  Anthony quotes Rohit Bhargava, Senior Vice President at Ogilvy, in describing this progression.

Denial
“I think Twitter sounds stupid. Why would anyone care what other people are doing right now?”

Presence
“OK, I don’t really get why people love it, but I guess I should at least create an account.”

Dumping
“I’m on Twitter and use it for pasting links to my blog posts and pointing people to my press releases (or stuff about me).”

Conversing
“I don’t always post useful stuff, but I do use Twitter to have authentic 1-on-1 conversations.”

Microblogging
“I’m using Twitter to publish useful information that people read AND I converse 1-on-1 authentically.”

Collaboration
“Actual, meaningful relationships and collaborations have occurred out of my usage of Twitter.”

I’m intrigued by the data and information from Forrester Research so I love reading the blog of Jeremiah Owyang.  So many of the concepts explored in the world of social media seem to me, (am I the only one?)  to be directly tied to all the changes in business models, political strategies, economic developments (vis-a-vis digital divisions), and communication/mass media practices.

Over the summer, Jeremiah posted this:  Trends, Corporate Adoption of Social Media: Tire, Tower and the Hub and Spoke.  It’s come up in so many discussions, at conferences, etc. I thought readers might be interested in the details.

Using three basic metaphors, a tire, a tower and a hub and spoke, Jeremiah identifies three social media adoption styles.  Here’s an excerpt:

The Tire
Common to grassroots movements within corporations, adoption happens at the lowest levels at the company, rather than from a centralized group. You’ll see individual business units define their own strategy, pick their own tools, engage their own vendors, and communicate with the market on their own terms.

Common to companies that haven’t put a strategy in place, depending on culture, this could be detrimental as resources are not used efficiently, data is spread on multiple systems, and the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.

The Tower
Common in organizations where power is centralized, we may see a central team formed to organize social media. This team defines the policy, best practices, vendors, and tools. This team which will commonly found in corporate communications and supported by PR will often dictate the direction of social media. Expect a dedicated role or sub-group to appear either experiential marketing, new media, or interactive media to eventually be born out of the group, where social media is centralized.

Social media is a grassroots movement, so common dangers can be gagging the natural voice of conversations of product experts with customers using these tools, so a centralized team needs to be more of a support organization to the enterprise, not a controller.

The Hub and Spoke
This coordinated model has a central organizational unit that provides best practices, sets policy, supports infrastructure but encourages conversations at the edges of the company. More about empowering business groups to partake in natural social media discussions without hindering, this group will be more of a coordinator, and less of a controller. Expect to see this model to occur as social media infiltrates every nook and cranny of a business, and at a certain point, a company as an enterprise can’t ignore the raging groundswell.

Cautions to this model, as overly coordinated programs will be difficult to achieve, and may be ineffective to different unique markets that a large company may have. Like the tower, having a centralized group at a large enterprise is always going to slow down natural conversations so focus on empowerment, rather than control.

Can you identify your church’s leadership style?  If so, you’ll be able to determine it’s strengths, weaknesses and the value social media may play within your staff and congregation.

TechCrunch reports today:

“Facebook blew past MySpace in visitors from across the world back in April, but the global gap continues to widen.  According to the latest figures from comScore, Facebook attracted 161.1 million unique visitors worldwide in September, compared 117.9 million for MySpace. For Facebook, that number was up from 4.7 percent from the 153.9 million people who visited the social network in August.  Visitors to MySpace declined 1.6 percent globally from 119.8 million.

The global gap between the two is now 43.2 million visitors.  To put that in perspective that is a tad more than the number of people who visit Facebook in the U.S. alone, which in September was 41.4 million. Facebook still dominates in the U.S., with 73.0 million visitors in September.”

Besides these two golliaths, I can’t pass up an opportunity to mention LinkedIn (used primarily by business professionals) which has a reported user base of 29 million and the microblogging darling, Twitter, which has, according to a brand new Wikipedia update, has a mere 3.2 million.

Oh yeah and all the rest, Plaxo, ROOV, Friendfeed,  Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, Hi5, Tagged & Skyrock in parts of Europe; Orkut in Central & South America & Friendster, Orkut, Xiaonei and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

There’s so much exciting news in the world of the socially networked church right now, it’s hard to keep it all straight.  One of the most important pieces of information I got this week is the one above.

Check out the wording “not a ROOV Facebook app”.  Sounds more significant than just another app, huh?  Maybe like a marriage proposal.  Or at least an engagement…

Pay attention to ROOV; this is the beginning of something big as social media allow the global Church to network itself in new ways based on connections between individuals with shared passions…..

1. Accept the Virtual World’s significance (MySpace is the most visited site on the Internet)
2. View online expressions of Christianity as valuable extensions of real world faith
3. Embrace the opportunity for Church without borders (time, geography, etc.)
4. Welcome the presentation of God’s Word in the vernacular of current culture
5. Respond to the globalization of the planet with hope not cynicism
6. Develop and maintain an online presence purposefully populating cyberspace
7. Establish virtual outposts for evangelizing, preaching, equipping & training
8. Create interactive portals for experiencing Church (streaming media)
9. Practice spiritual disciplines in the global online conversation
10. Encourage strategic investment in the iGeneration
    

Why?    Because there are “multitudes in the valley of decision” online.

If you’re a regular reader you might recognize this post from May of last year.  MySpace has given way to Facebook in terms of popularity but other than that, not much has changed.  It’s funny how some observations seem outdated so quickly (when it comes to online technology) and others have a longer shelf life.

Although it’s been well over a year, the point of this post still seems to work.  What would you add?

You can also read the original comments for Ten Challenges facing the Church in Cyberspace.

The recent Southern California minor earthquake caused a flurry of tweets in the twitterverse.  This is what it looks like on a Twitter-graph.

Twitter, the micro-blogging or social messaging service (SMS) has been embraced by communication's early adopters but hasn't spread in terms of mainstream acceptability yet.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, Twitter has only 2,200,000 users.

Furthermore, it's proven somewhat (how's that for diplomatic?) unreliable by users.  Thus 'serious updaters' have remained uneasy and investigate other services and options for universal status updates.  (See – Read Write Web's Six Ways to Update Your Status.)

Although Twitter has been talked about frequently at Digital, many unconverted still think of it as a narcissistic, time-wasting, pointless, squandering of words.  They are of the "who cares what I'm doing right now?" camp.  Prudent Christians think carefully about stewardship issues and where we invest our time is important. 

But bear with us over at Digital.  Twitter can be a bit of a surprise.  It has an unexpected way of creating links, forging bonds, developing certain degrees of intimacy and spawning mini-communities.  And when it comes to the Church, that may make micro-messaging hugely important.

Micro-blogging has hidden attributes that we are just now discovering.  Take, for example, the recent Los Angeles' shaker.  When the earthquake hit, I was sitting at my desk with 2 computers up – one on a twitter page. 

I saw a trusted friend in my area of SoCal say in a tweet – earthquake.

I shifted everything I was doing to pay attention and look for a confirming tweet.

I received one within 5 seconds from another friend – about 60 miles away.

I observed multiple confirmations within 10 seconds, all from SoCal locals.

I, myself, began reporting from my location via tweets.

I began checking in with my network of twittering friends since my phone lines were down.

I began answering tweets from worried twitter friends across country.

I realized my network of locals was the most immediate & accessible source of info.

I had 10 people add me as a twitter connection within hours.

I predicted that twitter might be as news-worthy as the earthquake.  

LA Times next day twitter coverage.

You can follow my journey by simply going to my account (http://twitter.com/cynthiaware) and scrolling backwards. 

This incident galvanized my feelings about Twitter – it's not about the news; it's about people.  It's about relationships; it's about who connects to who.  When do those connections happen and when are they the most meaningful.  It seems that in little episodes of micro-connecting, relationships are created. 

Increasingly, as the relationship economy emerges, our networks of trusted "friends" will grow more vital.  The communication tools we use to support them, whether email, cell calls or tweets, have inherent value.  Maybe, as prudent Christians, we will change our view from time spent online to time invested.

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

Barton Damer Interview, Part 2

In this ongoing series of posts, I explore the creative genius of Barton Damer, a leader in innovative graphic arts, design and media.

Barton began his career at a secular design firm in the Washington, D.C. area.  (The story of his conversion to Christianity will be in the next post.)  After a couple years he felt called to use his gifts within the church setting.  Over the course of more than 7 years, Barton honed his artistic skills for print, web, video and motion graphics.

The latter part of those years, he spent working within a local Washington, D.C. congregation, Mclean Bible Church, where he was involved in creating media content as well as live production.   Mclean, located just outside D.C., is a church that serves about 12,000 weekend attenders.  You know it's near and dear to my heart since some of my closest friends are members there and when visiting them I've blogged my trips.   I now have the explanation for why some of Barton's artistic style has seemed vaguely familiar.

While at Mclean, Damer was able to create content for main services, youth events, and the young adult services, better known as Frontline.  He was also part of a team that launched the very first offsite McLean location. 

Today, Barton Damer is a Creative Director at RT Media Group.  RT Media maintains four points-of-presence on the web: Igniter Media, Collide Magazine, Worship House Media, and Echo Conference.

Additionally, Barton works with various agencies and freelance clients.  He is also a creative contributor for tutorials written at Gomediazine.com – real world advice from working artists and designers. 

Remember, you can view more of Barton's work at Barton Damer.  And here's a handful of his video clips (Truveo Clips tag: Barton Damer).  But of course, enough of the facts; let's get on with the interview…..  next post.

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