Big Gulp

Watch the video above and then watch the one below that tells how it was made. Quite amazing! It's the world's largest stop-motion animation ever shot. All shot with a Nokia N8 phone.

Are You Listening?

Last Sunday President Barack Obama gave a commencement speech at Hampton University and took a swipe at iPods, iPads and Play Stations. I applaud the president for taking on our entertainment-saturated culture.

However he didn't stop there. He also took on the 24/7 news cycle and social media.

"And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads, and Xboxes and Play Stations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."

I find it ironic that our president is complaining about the 24/7 media environment that exposes us to all kinds of content. And worse yet, our president says that information becomes a distraction and diversion rather than a tool of empowerment.

It appears that our president has changed his view of social media since being elected. Here are the facts according to the "truth meter."

Here is what Fast Company has to say about Barack Obama and his social media strategy during the campaign.

I'm obviously not the only one aware of Obama's comfort-level with technology: he had 3 million online donors during the election and 2 million people were passionate enough to create profiles on my.barackobama.com. Barack Obama gets the Internet and social media the way that Kennedy got TV. You've heard the story of how radio listeners thought Nixon won the debates but televsion viewers saw it the other way around? Kennedy was built for TV and Obama is built for the Internet age.

Here is what the New York Times has to say about how Obama tapped into the power of social networks.

In February 2007, a friend called Marc Andreessen, a founder of Netscape and a board member of Facebook, and asked if he wanted to meet with a man with an idea that sounded preposterous on its face.

Always game for something new, Mr. Andreessen headed to the San Francisco airport late one night to hear the guy out. He wondered if social networking, with its tremendous communication capabilities and aggressive database development, might help him beat the overwhelming odds facing him.

“It was like a guy in a garage who was thinking of taking on the biggest names in the business,” Mr. Andreessen recalled. “What he was doing shouldn’t have been possible, but we see a lot of that out here and then something clicks. He was clearly supersmart and very entrepreneurial, a person who saw the world and the status quo as malleable.”

And as it turned out, President-elect Barack Obama was right.

Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans.

You can read this report called The Social Pulpit - Barack Obama's Social Media Toolkit.

And finally, you really need to read this article, How Chris Hughes Helped Launch Facebook and the Barack Obama Campaign. Chris Hughes was one of the co-founders of Facebook and he developed the MyBarackObama.com website that "allowed Obama supporters to create groups, plan events, raise funds, download tools, and connect with one another -- not unlike a more focused, activist Facebook. MyBO also let the campaign reach its most passionate supporters cheaply and effectively. By the time the campaign was over, volunteers had created more than 2 million profiles on the site, planned 200,000 offline events, formed 35,000 groups, posted 400,000 blogs, and raised $30 million on 70,000 personal fund-raising pages."

Here is what Chris Hughes did for Barack and his campaign.

He helped develop the most robust set of Web-based social-networking tools ever used in a political campaign, enabling energized citizens to turn themselves into activists, long before a single human field staffer arrived to show them how.

"Technology has always been used as a net to capture people in a campaign or cause, but not to organize," says Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. "Chris saw what was possible before anyone else." Hughes built something the candidate said he wanted but didn't yet know was possible: a virtual mechanism for scaling and supporting community action. Then that community turned around and elected his boss president. "I still can't quite wrap my mind around it," Hughes says.

Our president is learning that taking your message directly to the people works both ways. President Obama would like us to believe that information is a distraction and diversion, that content can confound and obscure the truth, and that media needs to be tuned out and turned off.

But I think what is really happening is that our president is learning that in this new age of social media, information flows two ways, that content can't be easily spun and that media is now 24/7.

And he's also learning that dialog requires a two-way conversation. The American people have learned that they have a voice. Mr. President, the people are speaking. You would do well to listen.

Office 2010: The Movie

I'm really enjoying Office 2010! Much faster. Improved user interface and menus.

Help Desk

As you know, I enjoy trying out new technology. I'm always looking for a new or better way of getting something done. I think I may have stumbled upon a new, cutting-edge device. I think it's destined to be a huge hit! Watch the video and let me know what you think!

Welcome to NewCovenantBible.org

We launched our new website on Sunday. A few kudos are in order!

• Austin Spooner - implementation team leader, code writer, training, site architect and a lot of other things that I don't fully understand!
• Sandra Fancher - site design, usability testing and consultant
• Brett Mason - IT deacon and project leader
• Jeff Westrom - graphic design and consultant
• Kris Paulson - copy writer
• Andrew Male - graphic design, staff photos, video (including the embedded promo video)
• Peggy Eichenberger - loading pages, graphic design
• Brenda Gadd - editing
• Erin Bird - design consultant
• Voracity Solutions - the company that we used to design our site and to integrate it with our Arena church management software

My apologies if I missed someone or didn't attribute you correctly. A special "thank you" to our entire team. Having an effective web presence is becoming increasingly important as it's the first place many people turn when wanting to know more about us. Our first-time guests have often already checked our website over, watched a message and formed opinions about us before ever walking into one of our services!

Several cool features of our new site that you will want to check out:

• Our Mobile Site - We have a special mobile site. Check us out on your smart phone!
• ABF Finder - Now you can check out our Adult Bible Fellowships and select one or two that you want to check out. An email is sent to the ABF Community Leader so that we can follow up.
• Volunteer - Check out the Volunteer opportunities available and select one or two that you want to explore further. An email is sent to the ministry leader so that we can follow up.
• Online Giving - Manage your giving online. No more need to call the office to set up or manage your electronic giving.
• Online Registration - Register for camps, membership weekend, and other events online.
• Ministry Index - Don't overlook the cool, expandable Ministry Index on the top right.

Pretty exciting stuff. And functional too! Future phases include an online prayer module, business/ministry directory, classified directory, membership directory, small group directory/finder and more!

Let me know what you are looking for and what would be useful to you. Our website is a ministry tool to help equip us to become a family of growing disciples! It has a new look with some nice innovative features. All the for purpose of helping us accomplish our timeless mission of making more and better disciples in our generation. Welcome to NewCovenantBible.org!

In The Beginning

What cost $10 billion, took 25 years to build, spans two countries and is 17 miles long? Give up? The Large Hadron Collider! Put the emphasis on "large." This is big boy science! It's reported that this will be the most expensive scientific experiment in human history.

 The collider was funded by and built in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.

And today scientists cheered the historic crash of two protons, which produced three times more energy than researchers had every created before. The protons were traveling at 99.999991% of the speed of light, speeding around the 17 mile course a whopping 11,000 times per second!

What does all this mean? I'm not sure. But here is what the scientific community believes this super collider will accomplish.

"This is a huge step toward unraveling Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 1 — what happened in the beginning."

"This is a Genesis machine. It'll help to recreate the most glorious event in the history of the universe."

"This is the Jurassic Park for particle physicists. Some of the particles they are making now or are about to make haven't been around for 14 billion years."

The consequences of finding those mysterious particles could "affect our conception of who we are in the universe."

A Genesis machine? Maybe. A colossal feat of human engineering? Absolutely. Will it help us learn how to live better and more meaningful lives in the universe? Doubtful.

So how should we respond to all of this? Where do we turn? Where do we go for answers? I think the scientists may be onto something. Let's go back to the beginning. In the beginning God ....

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17

Digital Collaborator

The Pew Internet and American Life Project just published their latest poll results titled The Mobil Difference. Nothing too shocking here, just a confirmation of what we're seeing regarding the rapid move to digital communication and networking.

I learned that I fall in the category of the Digital Collaborator. 8% of Americans are in this group.

Here is what the Pew report has to say about Digital Collaborators.

As much as this group consumes digital content, it is also very distinct in what it does with digitized information. They create and share it at rates much higher than members of other groups. More than half (54%) of Digital Collaborators have shared some sort of creation with the world using the internet and the same number have posted a comment to a blog or website. One-quarter (27%) have blogs and 24% have taken online material and remixed into some other form. Some 44% have their own web page, and nearly one-fifth (18%) have created an online avatar or graphic image of themselves.

On a typical day, 59% of those in this group with cell phones do at least one of ten non-voice data applications, such as texting or taking a picture (a full list of non-voice data activities asked about can be found in the Appendix). For Digital Collaborators, handheld applications are oriented toward traditional information consumption and exchange. Members of this group are most likely among all adults on the average day to use their cell phone for email (18%) and accessing the internet for information (21%). And members of this group are most likely to have ever used their handheld to get directions or a map (29% have ever done this).

The Digital Collaborator is me. I have a blog, I share my digital photographs online using flickr, I use my cell phone for email when I'm out of the office, I listen to podcasts on my iPod, I read using my Kindle, and I use the web to learn and connect with others.

But here's the funny part. The average age of the Digital Collaborator is 39! Whoops! Someone forgot to tell the Pew organization about old guys like me! I wrote about this in 2006 in a blog post called The Old Man and the Internet. I'm 2 1/2 years older and still digitally connected. In fact, more even more so. In 2006 I didn't have a Kindle and I didn't go online or receive email on my Palm Treo.

You can go here if you would like take a short survey to determine what kind of tech user you are. Me, I'm a Digital Collaborator!

Welcome To The Digital World

In case you haven't noticed, the newspaper business is undergoing a rapid transition. According to a survey published by the Pew Research Center in December 2008, 40 percent of respondents said the Internet was a prime source for national and international news. Only 35 percent said the same about newspapers. That’s a steep rise from 2007, when just 24 percent relied on the Internet more than newspapers.

So, for the first time in history, more people turned to online for their news instead of turning the pages to their favorite newspaper. And this is just the beginning. Newspapers are in a free fall.

As of today the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is a 100% online publication, with the final print run of its paper edition already complete. The Post-Intelligencer's revenues from both sales and advertising have fallen so much that the paper had a loss of $14 million last year. The Hearst Corporation was forced to close the paper's printed edition, making it the largest newspaper in the U.S. to go 100% online.

In addition to the Rocky Mountain News that folded in February, here is a list of others newspapers that 24/7 Wall St says is most likely to go out of business next. The Philadelphia Daily News, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Miami Herald, Detroit News, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Daily News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Our own Cedar Rapids Gazette is in the process of laying off 100 employees and has repackaged the print edition in an effort to reinvent itself. I hope they make it. This is not for the faint at heart.

For me, I enjoy sitting down to read my morning newspaper with a cup of coffee. But here's the problem. By the time the paper is printed and delivered to my door step the news is already old! I've already read much of the news the day before online.

I get major headlines as well as local news via RSS feeds on My.Yahoo.com homepage. The best of both worlds for me will be when The Gazette begins to publish a Kindle edition. Delivered right to my Kindle each morning, the news will be up to date. There's no reason why breaking stories couldn't even be delivered to me throughout the day! No more hunting around in my bushes by the door on a cold winter morning for the news. I will be able to enjoy it with a good cup of coffee while I sit in my favorite chair.

Steve Rubel is a guy that understands the digital domain. Here is what he has to say!

"By January 2014 I will wager that in the US almost all forms of tangible media will either be in sharp decline or completely extinct. I am not just talking about print, but all tangible forms of media - newspapers, magazines, books, DVDs, boxed software and video games."

Wow! Quite a statement. Here is what Steve has to say about the Kindle and the impact that it will have on print media.

"The Kindle, like the iPod, is an emerging critical mass device that actually encourages people to pay for content rather than get it for free. When Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, people were skeptical that people would shell out cash for music they could snag for free from file sharing networks. They did. The same was true when Apple, and later others, rolled out movies. However, today millions rent or buy movies online."

"The Kindle offers a similar experience in a much larger market - text. This one is tougher to monetize. In the digital age books have managed to remain premium content. However, beyond books, magazine and newspaper content is available in abundance online for free. Yet, I still believe that people will pay to receive some of their favorites on their Kindles or their Kindle-enabled phones. Meet them there now while you can."

"So, media companies, please jump in now. Embrace the Kindle. Subsidize it. Create value-added content for it, such as e-books. Or even partner with advertisers to offer advertorials. This could be your last shot at getting people to pay for your content. Don't miss the next iPod."

The news is not going away. It's here to stay. But the way it's delivered is undergoing a profound change. All of us will be impacted in one way or another. A new age is being ushered in. Printing press, welcome to the digital world.

It's A New World

I've now owned the Kindle 2 for one week and I thought I would post some of my impressions and thoughts on this Amazon electronic book reader.

• It looks bigger in the photos. In person, it's remarkably small and light weight. Measuring only 1/3 inch thick and 10 ounces, it's easy to hold and tote around. The actual reading screen is 4.75" by 3.5".
• It so easy and enjoyable to read! The electronic ink technology is incredible. I've read several hours at a time with no eye strain or fatigue! And the 16 shades of grey render fantastic graphic images.
• There are all kinds of free books online in the public domain. I've already read G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy and am currently working on The Man Who Was Thursday. I've downloaded The Prince, The Brothers Karamozov, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Divine Comedy, Tremendous Trifles, the ESV Bible and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - all for free! You can't beat that.
• I'm reading more and I'm reading a wider variety of literature. If I'm interested in a book or get a recommendation, I download a sample copy of book to my Kindle and try it out. And the large variety of good titles in public domain have opened up new reading options.
• I'm a person who marks and underlines when I read. The Notes and Highlight feature of the Kindle is nothing short of awesome. You really need to see it to believe it. Mark the text or passage you like, push the five-way button and it's saved in a My Clippings file. Add a note annotation if you like and it's saved too. Connect the Kindle to your computer via a USB cable and you can download all you notes and highlights in a text format document. No more retyping favorite passages to share with others! The Kindle does it all for you.
• I love the live dictionary look-up function. Chesterton uses several words a page that I've never heard of. No problem! Just put the cursor in front of the word in question and the definition pops up at the bottom of the screen. I've already looked up more words in a week than I have in the past ten years combined!
• Want more information on a word or topic? No need to get out of your chair to go to the computer. Just fire up the Kindle's browser and it takes you directly to Wikipedia. Or you can open up Google and surf the web! It works great in a pinch. The Sprint EVDO network is at your disposal for no additional fee or charge.
• Have you ever tried to find that favorite passage or note in a book? With the Kindle, you can search your entire library, a particular book or your notes and highlights! Very cool! Add key works or tags and you have a powerful search tool.
• I enjoy skimming through a book before I read it. The Kindle makes this a little harder to do this. You can always jump directly to the Table of Contents, a particular chapter, bookmark or the last place you read. But it's not quite the same. All things considered, this is a small price to pay for the additional features the Kindle gives me.
• Do I miss the experience of holding an analog, printed book in my hands? Not at all. I can set the Kindle down on my lap and not have to worry about trying to keep the pages open.
• I'm looking forward to being able to subscribe to the Kindle edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Steve Buttry, the former Gazette editor, wrote on a recent "live blog" that the Kindle edition is in development and they hope to release it in the near future. Kindle editions don't have coupons, ads, or crossword puzzles. But they usually contain the same content as the printed or online editions. And for around $5 a month, you can't beat it!
• I'm enjoying the ESPN - The Baseball Report blog. It's delivered to my Kindle each morning and then updated throughout the day. I can get the same thing at my computer, but it's fun reading the blog while sitting in my favorite chair! It's a great price at 99 cents a month!
• The price is right for Kindle books. I recently purchased and read The Survivors Club. It retails for $27. Amazon sells it for $14.81 online. I purchased the Kindle edition for $9.99. I'm hoping that over the course of the next few years that the Kindle editions will drop in price. Currently, 10% of Amazon's total book sales are for Kindle editions. This is just the beginning of the growth curve. In the not too distant future, a paper book will be as unusual to find as a music CD is today.
• I love being able to carry around a library of books in a device that weighs under one pound! I just throw it in my bag or carry it with me as I go to an appointment or meeting. In an instant, I have access to various Bible translations, Bible study reference materials, current books that I'm reading, books that I have enjoyed reading and want to share with others, and many other books that I hope to begin reading some day.

Well, there you have it! Is the Kindle right for everyone. Absolutely not. You must be a reader to justify the expense. At $360, the up-front cost price is steep. But for the person who reads thirty plus books a year, the Kindle is a very viable option.

A special "thank you" to the several friends who made surprise contributions to my Kindle fund! I'm having a blast reading, experimenting, and exploring on my new Kindle! It's a new world!

Kindle2

Jeff Bezos and Amazon unveiled the new Kindle 2 electronic book reading device today at a press conference. I wrote about the Kindle in 2007 in these two blog posts.

The updated Kindle has a slimmer design (just 1/3 of an inch thick), longer battery life, faster page turns, over seven times more storage, sharper images, and a new read-to-me feature. In case your not familiar with the Kindle, it utilizes electronic-ink display technology, which gives the same appearance and readability of printed paper. Reading on the Kindle is nothing like reading from a computer screen. The screen works using ink, just like books and newspapers, but displays the ink particles electronically.

Presently there there are 230,000 books published in the Kindle format. Bezos vision is "every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds!" Wow!!

So what's the big deal about a digital book reader?

• Efficiency - The Kindle is 10 ounces and holds 1500 books in memory! You can have your entire library at your finger tips! Have you ever tried to find a quote from a book you read but can't remember which book its from? No problem, just type in the key words and the search functionality will find what you're looking for.
• Cost - Kindle books cost less than their print counterparts. I usually read 20-25 books a year, meaning a Kindle would pay for itself in about two years. In years to come, the price of electronic books will continue to decrease while the cost of print books will continue to increase.
• Convenience - You don't understand the meaning of a word or phrase and you're too lazy to go find the dictionary? No problem. Just put your cursor over the word and the definition is displayed at the bottom of the page! A friend recommends a good book to you that you want to purchase. Just use the free whispernet wireless EVDO network and it will be downloaded ready for reading in 60 seconds! That's convenience!

The electronic book is here to stay. So dust off your print books and keep them for your grand kids. Some day you can tell them how you used to read print books curled up in a chair in your family room as you listened to music on your CD player. Your grand kids will laugh, and say, "Grandpa, tell me another story!"

Imagine That

OK all you engineers, you're going to love this! The above video is from TED which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED is an invitation-only event where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration. They then put their presentations online for the general public to watch. Most of the video presentations are 20 minutes or shorter in length. It's good stuff!

The TED video that I have selected is by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. Jansen has been working for 16 years to create sculptures, called Strandbeests, that move on their own in lifelike ways. His newest creatures walk without assistance on the beaches of Holland, powered by wind, captured by wings that flap and pump air into old lemonade bottles that in turn power the creatures' many plastic spindly legs. The walking sculptures look alive as they move, each leg articulating in such a way that the body is steady and level. They even incorporate primitive logic gates that are used to reverse the machine’s direction if it senses dangerous water or loose sand where it might get stuck.

Enjoy the short video! I find this kind of thing inspirational. The inquisitiveness, curiosity and power of the human mind to create. Now, I know some of you more sensible types are saying, "But why!" "What's the point?" "What can these Strandbeests do?"

Maybe nothing yet. Maybe nothing ever! Innovation comes as we push the limits of possibility and what has been done before. Just because something has no obvious immediate use, doesn't mean it's not worth exploring.

And why do I say that? Because I believe that being creative is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. To imagine, to dream, to explore, to think, to create - this is part of what it means to be human. This is part of what it means to be created in the image of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Good Old Days

So you're not quite sure of what to make of the Kindle and the whole idea of digital books? I thought you might enjoy reading what Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers has to say. I encourage you to read his blog article titled, Why Traditional Books Will Eventually Die. It's a good read and will give you an idea of where digital book content is going.

Michael Hyatt's analysis - "The book, as we know it today, will eventually die. It won’t happen all at once. And it won’t happen immediately. But, in my opinion, it is inevitable. Why? One word: efficiency."

We may or may not like it, but the world is going digital. Think of the candle. It once was the means of lighting a room. Not any more. Candles are still around as decorative accessories, but they are no longer used as a source of light. Unless your electricity goes out, like last winter!

Books will always be around, they will just be religated to the category of collectibles or relics. Sort of like the vinyl record album. You remember those don't you! So hold on to those books of yours. One day you will tell your grandchildren about the "good old days" when you used to curl up in a chair and read a book! My oh my, the times, they are a chang'n!

Book 2.0

The world is going digital and fast. First it was video, then music, then photography, then short-form reading material. Until now, books have been one of the last bastions of analog. And now, Jeff Bezos of Amazon is taking on books, seeking to bring them into the digital world.

This week Bezos is releasing the Amazon Kindle, an electronic device that he hopes will become the turning point in a transformation toward Book 2.0. There have been previous attempts at introducing digital readers but none of them have been successful. The Kindle hopes to change that.

The Newsweek cover story this week features Bezos and the Amazon Kindle. The Kindle will be able to store up to 200 books and will connect to the web. It will be able to receive automatic downloads from major newspapers, magazines and other publications, and will offer owners more than 88,000 digital titles at launch time.

I don't know about this whole thing. I love reading, but there's something about holding and marking up an analog book. But how about being able to purchase books for $5 each, or to be able to do instantaneous content searches. You can't remember where you read that great quote? No problem? A quick search brings it up in an instant. And you would be able to move seamlessly between your favorite books, newspapers and magazines. It just may work. Maybe not this year or next year. But within the next ten years the way we receive and interact with our reading materials is about to be transformed. Mark my word.

This is a subject that I'm passionate about. During the past eleven months I've read 22 books and countless blogs and online articles. The opportunities to learn and grow are endless. We're only limited by our imagination and time. And of course, being an empty-nester now affords me more time in the evenings to read. In this day and age of information explosion, there's no excuse for not being a reader and a learner.

Yet, increasingly, people are reading less. A 2004 National Endowment for the Arts study reported that only 57 percent of adults read a book—any book—in a year. That was down from 61 percent a decade ago. The study also documented an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002. The rate of decline is increasing and, according to the survey, has nearly tripled in the last decade. And of greatest concern, the rate of decline for those aged 18 to 24, was 55 percent greater than that of the total adult population.

Jeff Bezos believes the Kindle "is the most important thing we've ever done. It's so ambitious to take something as highly evolved as the book and improve on it. And maybe even change the way people read."

The Kindle may in fact change the way we read, but will it increase the number of people who read? I doubt it. That will only happen if we turn off the TV, power-down the computer, unplug the video games and pick up a book. Or should I say, turn on your Kindle!

It's A Small World After All

It's a small world and it's getting smaller every day! CNN.com reported yesterday that the government of Brazil will provide free Internet access to native Indian tribes in the Amazon in an effort to help protect the world's biggest rain forest. You can read more about the Amazon tribes at the National Geographic site.

The environment and communications ministers signed an agreement Thursday with the Forest People's Network to provide an Internet signal by satellite to 150 communities, including many reachable only by riverboat, allowing them to report illegal logging and ranching, request help and coordinate efforts to preserve the forest.

The ministry said city and state governments must first install telecenters with computers in selected areas, including indigenous lands. The federal government then will provide the satellite connection.

There are currently a few telecenters on the outskirts of cities, but that the new ones will be built deep in the forest and will allow Indians easy access to public officials so that they can alert them of illegal miners, loggers and ranchers.

Indigenous leaders support the program but worry that computers might erode native cultures in a country that has well over 200 tribes, said Ailton Krenak, a member of the Krenak people and also of Brazil's national Forest People's Network. "I don't like computers but I don't like planes either," he said. "What can you do?"

What can you do? May I suggest that we leverage and use technology to advance the kindgom. The gospel knows no geographical or cultural barriers. It is good news for all mankind, including tribal Indians who live in remote villages in the Amazon.

My oh my, internet access for bush villages in the Amazon! Who would have ever guessed? It's a small world after all.

Pageflakes

I came across a site called Pageflakes today. It's pretty cool. It allows you to create your own online content and then collaborate or share it with others. It's quite a bit like the MyYahoo that I use for my homepage. You can subscribe to RSS content and add what they call "flakes" or tools that add functionality. I've published one of their "flakes," a cool little tool that allows you to track sports scores and keep up with the latest news.

I'm going to play with Pageflakes for awhile to see how I like it. MyYahoo has also released their new Beta version. I gave it a try at the end of last week but found it to be too sluggish. I'm sure that they will be tweaking it in order to improve its performance.

The future of the web is moving toward content sharing, collaboration, customization and personalization. I look forward to the day New Covenant leaders will have access to the information that they need pushed out to them via the web. A small group leader would be able to report and track their group attendance online, communicate with others leaders and groups, and stay up to date with the latest small group announcements. We hope to do all this and more with Arena Church Management Software.

We are hoping to implement Arena this summer and roll it out into our various ministries. Technology and virtual community can't substitute for face to face interaction and connection. But as a tool it can expedite and facilitate ministry. The future is Web 2.0. Let's use it to leverage the gospel and to make an impact for the kingdom!

Leaders Stick Together

We had a great Leadership Community meeting this month. I'm showing my photos off with a new, free photo viewer provided by slide.com. The photos advance on their own, you don't have to do anything. Let me know how you like it!

We are enjoying using the Red Green theme for the months of January thru March. Pastor Bob even showed off his new Red Green suspenders! Doug Forret won the Best Dressed award with his ductape vest!

Our Glory Lodge Leadership Community meeting kicked off with the Leaders Prayer:
I'm a leader
I can lead
Because I get to
By God's strength.

We enjoyed Lightening Round presentations by Dianna Burnett for SinglesTogether, Erin Bird for the Campus Staff, and Gina Green for the Women's Retreat.

Pastor Bob gave us several important Community Neighborhood News (CNN) updates:

• We are now in the Throne Zone with our master plan. We hope to wrap up the master planning phase by the end of February. The issues is how much can we trust God for in the first phase. We hope to bring the master plan to the congregation late spring, early summer and then vote on the project a month later.
• Faithful Endeavor ~ Our Relocation Journey is the name of our relocation project. This process is all about people - reaching more people with the gospel and then helping them grow.
• On February 25 we will begin a new financial series called Real Life. On March 11 we will launch small groups that will study the Good $ense material.
• We are planning to launch a second site this fall in order to open up more seats at our 1800 46th Street site. The sermon will be captured on DVD and then shown at our multi-site campus. We are going to ask 100-150 people from our 46th Street campus to help us launch this new site.

Pastor Bob gave us a great leadership lesson using this Red Green video. Red Green attempts to to concoct an ingenious system of head projection, all to no avail of course. Pastor Bob encouraged us as leaders to be prepared for attacks from Satan. Our enemy is seeking someone to devour. Ephesians 6 encourages us to put on our armour in order to stand against our enemy. Our protection comes from community, spiritual disciplines and mission.

You can listen to the entire Leadership Community meeting by going to our web site. It's great getting together with other leaders. Remember to "keep the main thing the main thing." Real servant leaders stick together!

Blogger Buzz

You may have noticed that I upgraded to Bloggers new Beta version of software. I was getting ready to migrate my blog over to Type Pad right when Blogger released their new, improved version. Several features that I was looking for included:

• The ability to label posts. The list of my labels is on the right hand column of my blog. You are now able to sort through my blog by selecting labels or categories that are of interest to you. For instance, I have assigned this post with the "technology" label.
• It is now easier to customize the layout of my blog. You will note that I have added a Flickr photo badge and a list of Books I have read in the right hand column.
• Publishing is now quicker and easier and there are more templates to choose from.

All in all, I'm really pleased with the improvements Blogger has made. The Labels weren't working at first so I emailed Support to report the bug. Several days later the bug was fixed and the Blogger Support Team visited my blog to see if it was working properly and then sent me a followup email. Not bad for free software!

So, what do you think? Do you enjoy the new enhancements? Have you ever considered publishing your own personal blog? Let me know what you think.

Dell Delivers

By this time probably everyone has heard about Dell's recall of 4.1 million laptop batteries and Apple Computers recall of over 1.8 million batteries. Both of the recalls involved batteries manufactured by Sony. Like Dell, Apple recalled the lithium-ion batteries because of potential overheating problems that could result in a fire. Dell's recall was preceded by the circulation on the internet of a video of one of its laptops spectacularly bursting into flames.

And in case you were wondering, it's a bad deal when your computer goes up in flames. It gives the phrase, "a hot computer," new meaning! I wouldn't want to be working in Sony's quality assurance department right now.

I learned about Dell's battery recall on Sunday, August 13 from a breaking online news story. Dell's recall site was up and running on Monday, August 14 and I confirmed that Jason's Inspiron battery was included in the recall. I submitted an online request for a battery replacement and received a confirmation email from Dell on the 17th informing me that I could expect to receive a new battery within 20 business days. I was impressed, realizing that Dell was trying to process 4.1 replacement orders.

So you can realize my surprise when I received an email from Dell on the 21st indicating that my new battery had been shipped and that I could expect to receive it within 7-10 business days. Now I was amazed.

My amazement turned to shock on the 22nd when the DHL driver delivered the new battery! Wow! One week from first contact to the delivered product. Dell took a negative and turned it into a positive by managing expectations. In a competitive market where so many talk about customer service, but so few actually follow through on their promises, Dell delivers!

The Old Man and the Computer

The Pew Internet & American Life Project issued the results of a new study on blogging last week. Among other things, the Report indicates that:

• Eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog.
• Thirty-nine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs.
• Eight-four percent of bloggers are 49 years of age or younger!

Yikes, I'm the old man. I would have responded to the Pew Survey on blogging but my telegraph was down and the Pony Express no longer stops at my house. For all you younger "whipper snappers" who use all that "new fangled" electronic media like telephones, television and the internet, here are a few ways you can make your blog reading more enjoyable.

• You can subscribe to blogs using a web-based blog reader like Bloglines. Bloglines is a free online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and other web content. Bloglines makes it easy for me to follow 30 plus blogs, telling me when blog authors have added new articles or content that I haven't yet read.
• If you use a web portal like MyYahoo or MyMSN, you can subscribe to many blogs on your home page using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. My blog has icons at the bottom of the right hand column you can use to subscribe to my RSS feed, pushing new content to you home page shortly after it is published.

Wow, I've got to go. I didn't realize that it's past my nap time. I need to get a glass of warm milk and some rest. This typing wears me out. Until next time boys and girls!