Whoever said that a picture speaks a thousand words is absolutely right, but I’ll bet they had never heard of youtube. Youtube has changed the way the students of today communicate. Students can now express themselves in a 10 minute or less video and their video can be viewed by millions of people all over the world. I use youtube cross culturally as a video can communicate a concept or tell a story much better than I can tell a story or explain something. A lot of people ask me what I do and sometimes it is a bit confusing to communicate. This video might explain it better than a long winded explanation of what I do. Watch this and then I’ll explain:
When it comes to virtual movement building (or “internet ministry”) many people wait for the finished product. I love this video, because there really is no finished product. As soon as we were to provide some sort of finished product (a website or groups of sites that seem to do all of our ministry for us), then the technology becomes obsolete. It is like we have to continue to build an airplane while flying (as ridiculous as this video demonstrates). Once we develop some sort of strategy it is time to get it out there and go on to the next part instead of waiting until every part works perfectly.
My point? Don’t wait for the vista version of “Christian internet ministry” 2.0. It doesn’t exist and will (hopefully) never exist. It is about students having spiritual conversations with their friends on the internet, on their cell phone, via their blog or facebook profile..or even face to face. We already train students how to share their faith face to face, but can us old dogs (those of us over 30) get out of the way and allow this new generation to approach ministry in a little different way?
In the meantime, pray for me as I help develop this constantly changing airplane…while flying at 35,000 feet!
I believe the formula is 1000 * 30 (frames per second) * the number of seconds long the video is. so, a 10 second video is worth 300,000 words.
I think you are spot on, Rich. Your best bet is to keep your finger on the pulse of the internet, understand the trends and the viral things going on (which could change tomorrow), and be as agile as possible to get your message on that trend as soon as possible, even if the ride is a little bumpy.
Have you looked at the growth of twitter recently? If you are not doing this kind of micro-blogging, you might want to consider it. I love it. Flickr, Delicious, there are lots of message channels out there.
HA! That’s great Dan! Only someone with your brains could actually put together a formula for figuring this out. I agree that tons of folks are twittering. Of course, I’m an old guy and it is hard for me to update my facebook status one time a week! My guess is that with something like twitter that it just becomes our kids who figure out how to use it to reach this next generation. I don’t think it is going to be a corporate solution, but more on the grassroots level. Basically, one of the ways that students can proclaim their faith every 15 minutes or so. Thanks for being a loyal reader!
you should give twitter a go. it’s really not hard, does not need to be profound, just keeps the buzz going on what you are doing. sometimes, it is just random thoughts, sometimes it is a conversation with people who follow you.
you can get twitter apps on your phone, and you can set up your twitter status to automatically feed your facebook status. check out my twitter feed
http://twitter.com/djducat
just curious, what do your blog stats look like? you getting hits?