Evan Williams (or @ev) called  Twitter an information network, and in this clip goes on to elaborate on what he means.

Take a look:

Does Twitter as an information network make sense to you?

I spent the last few days at the South by Southwest Interactive conference and had my mind blown. I couldn’t help comparing the experience to the pile of Christian conferences I have been to over the years.

Here are a few observations:

Speaker Trumps Content

It’s awesome that you run a company that has revolutionized some type of technology or has been crazy successful or your church’s web or video department has blown the doors off of everyone else. But if you can’t deliver the story in a compelling and engaging way or lead a discussion on it you may as well be talking about what color hymnal your church uses.

I went to a few sessions that were addressing some issues that were really important to me and the panelists and speakers flat out sucked, so I got next to nothing out of it. Evan Williams did a keynote on Saturday that totally flopped because he is a terrible public speaker, I’m sure the content was great but I checked out pretty early.

I went to some sessions that I was drawn to because of the speaker rather than the content and I was blown away every time.  Danah Boyd gave the opening keynote and based on the title and description I wasn’t especially excited about it but never the less Danah killed it! I gleaned some great insight from her talk on a subject that I wasn’t really interested in.

Q&A FTW

When it comes to smaller sessions, breakouts and panels it’s all about the interaction. We hear enough talking heads so let’s save that for the keynotes. Some of the best content gets brought out during Q&A time. What’s more; the content that gets talked about is what the audience wants to hear… since they asked. The best session for me was Gary Vaynerchuck who, rather than give a 60 minute monologue, chose to riff for 10 minutes and then opened it up to questions. The content was great and I got some of my best notes of the week from that session.

Party On!

Rarely did I chat with someone at SXSWi without it eventually leading to: ‘What parties are you going to tonight?‘

Sure the content that is being delivered during the keynotes and sessions can be huge for your development, but it’s all about the community. it’s all about the connections. The companies that sponsor SXSWi and the event organizers know this. Serious resources are put into the community experience at SXSWi while the main stage is left pretty naked. At most of the Christian conferences I go to it’s clear where the registration money goes; to the main room in the form of insane lighting, projection, sets and more. All of that makes for a really cool experience, but it is soon forgotten. What stays with us longer are the connections we make.

I highly recommend if you’re in the web space at your church or ministry that you take a look at SXSWi for next year. There is a lot to be learned there.

P.S. The WiFi was awesome at SXSWi too. Always a bad experience being at a conference with jenky WiFi.

The highlight of this story is this thing called Spontaneous Order (which is talked about at length by Steven Sogratz in his book, SYNC) Essentially spontaneous order is this: that animate and inanimate objects can synchronize together quickly. A flock of birds for example, or a school of fish, or a large group of people dancing at a concert together.

Here’s the thing- we can’t predict spontaneous order. And, this is what we’re observing in this world of social media in the last 5-7 years. It has drawn people en mass into these communities, and we don’t know what this going to do.

We’re having to adapt in real time and think of new ways that we’re going to have to navigate. Even for the experts it’s impossible to keep up with these changes.

Read more after the jump…

Three Unpredicted Outcomes
1- Christin Rosen calls Facebook a culture of status, the more you participate, the more your status goes up.
In this culture self expression is king (and how cleverly at that). The more friends or connections we have the more credible we are- it’s cyber-street-cred.

With Twitter this is a little different in that you only have 140 characters to be clever. It’s hard. You’re pretty much generating headlines.
Essentially this culture is a culture of amplified narcissism.

2- The blurring of boundaries.
What were once clear-cut swaths in our daily lives are now, more or less, the faded lines of the information super highway. Employers are friends with employees and they connect in a virtual way that they wouldn’t have a few years ago.
Employers now go to your Facebook to check you out before they hire you. FACEBOOK ISN’T PRIVATE!.
The public nature of the ways we’re connected changes things.
The parts of our past story are coming back. We have to navigate that. What happens if I don’t add this person?!!!!
God uses this to help put back together parts of our stories that got lost.

3- Presence
It’s becoming increasingly harder to be present to the here and now, as a result of our hyper-connectivity. We’re always connected to the outside.
Linda Stone identifies this as Continuous Partial Attention (CPA). That is, doing a number of different things at once to accomplish a goal. CPA is driven by the desire to NOT miss out, so much so that we really don’t read anymore, we’re just constantly scanning to find out.

Jesse shared a story about running into a friend he hadn’t seen in a while (picture beautiful, slow motion chariots of fire-type-thing across the parking lot). About 20 feet from him, his friend stops and starts texting. His friend explained when he was finished that he was unemployed and was expecting contact from a guy looking for a job. That was great, but it ruined their beautiful cinematic moment.

Another time Jesse was facilitating a breakout session at a conference. In the middle of his talk a guy in the fron row gets phone call. He takes it, and Jesse (and everyone else in the room) thought the guy would just quielty excuse himself from the room. Not so. The guy proceeded to have an entire conversation about his kid needing to be picked up from school- everyone could hear. This was completely strange. The guy was at a conference and was connected somewhere else, instantly.

What we need to realize is that GOD IS ONLY AT WORK IN OUR LIVES IN THE PRESENT MOMENT.
It’s hard to be fully ourselves when we’re this tethered self- connected elsewhere all the time.

What is our response?
Take the story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well in John 4. There’s three things to really take from that story in this context of hyper-connectivity.
1-Jesus is intentional- Jesus goes to the well in the middle of the day. This woman should have normally been there in the morning with the other women. But something is amiss, and Jesus goes there in the middle of her routine. Our intentions make it possible for a new creative thing; they set the stage. Maintain focus. Be intentional.
2-Jesus’ humility- He never has a messiah complex while talking with the woman (even though he knew something of her story). He engages her where she’s at. And it’s his humility that helps her to trust him.
3-Jesus’ authenticity- Jesus doesn’t mince words with her, he actually cuts to the meat of the situation. Authenticity is being who we are with other people. Our authentic self. Let’s talk just where we are. It’s trans-formative.

Inherent Challenges
Naturally there are some obstacles to this.

According to N.T. Stewart we are all made for stewardship, communion, and worship. Or- sex, gardening, and God. (The last part is from Jesse, not N.T. Stewart.)

We long to know and to be known.

Wrap Up
We need to approach our hyper-connected culture through a new set of lenses on how to see more clearly all of this. We must engage our respective communities in really life-giving ways.

Live-Blogging at MISE2010!

Jesse is the author of The Church of Facebook. If you haven’t gotten it, go over and get his book now. Trust me, it’s sweet.

The sort-of subtitle of this conference has been: “Engaging Community, Igniting Mission” – these go hand in hand.

Why should we even try to do this? Why should we get a Facebook Page or a Twitter account? What’s the point?

We engage our community and culture not in order to repair it, but in order to subvert it. To joyfully, subversively effect it so that it is ultimately changed into something good.

Adolescent and Self-obsessed
This is our culture. Adolescence is characterized by a deep abiding sense of inadequacy.
The sense that we don’t have what it takes and we never will.
In order to combat that sense of inadequacy we have to find a mask.
We all have Oprah shaped holes- we are obsessed with self-help.
As a result we’re constantly interfacing with each others masks- each others avatars.(This is my most interesting information. This is me.)
This makes it hard to get past that, to get below the surface of each others lives.

Historical Amnesia
As a result of this adolescence, we have this amnesia, or a very short sided view of reality.
We are extremely gullible. We don’t have the history to counter this.
We are suckers for the new. Why else would we stand in long lines to get the new iPhone that just came out, when six months ago we stood in a long line to get the new iPhone?
We need to trust those that have already experienced.
In this culture it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s important and what’s not.
We end up as social and spiritual nomads.

So what do we do about this?
Start by recognizing cannot be repaired, it has to be replaced. It cannot be saved, it must be subverted.

The answers have to be worked out in the context of our individual communities.

The subversive is someone who takes on the coloration of the culture as far as anyone else can see. If the subversive loses their coloration, they lose their effectiveness. The subversive works quietly, patiently. The subversive has committed himself or herself to Christ’s victory over the culture and is willing to do those small things. No subversive ever does anything big. Instead, he or she is always carrying secret messages, planting suspicion that there is something beyond what the culture says is final. ~Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor

We’re going to use the very same language and tools that the culture uses to subvert it.

We don’t seek to create our own secret, private club- we use the language already out there.

Two Ways to do This
Through prayer listening.

Three types of language
What we have now, in our hyper-connectivity, is these two
Information- it’s learning and developing, it organizes our world
Motivation- do this, go there, be this, buy this, think about this, you should totally get this, language of attention
Intimacy- between a mother & her newborn child (the baby talk); so much is being said, but it’s deep and unspoken electricity between people. This is all but lost in our modern culture. The more our connectivity grows the less intimacy we experience. The church has, and should have, the corner on this language.

It’s small talk that makes the world go round- it’s subversive. We talk about the weather, the fact that we’re doing laundry. It’s an art we can learn to master. Small talk doesn’t have an agenda. It just is. It’s a form of prayerful listening. It’s the primary way we connect, and therefore it’s the primary way we can be subversive.

Prayerful listening happens whenever we give the gift of our presence to each other- the gift of our full attention.
We have to choose to be fully present.
One of the best gifts we can give is often to give our full attention.
God only works in the present. We must be present.
We are someone even when we are not connected (it’s ok to unplug).

Through creative storytelling.
Retell the story in a model that people can understand. Keep it simple.
Think of Avatar. It’s the story of the Gospel retold. It’s a great story.
It works best on a small scale. Jesus called the Kingdom of God as small bit of yeast. That the Kingdom of God was a tiny mustard seed. There is power in small acts.
The best creative storytelling is in small acts.
A small thing catches fire and soon everyone knows about it, it’s viral. So is hope, faith, love- all of these are.

These are not easy things to do.

Here’s the good news about this though:
Paul, in Philippians, reassures us by saying, “being confident of this: that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” (Philippians 1:6)

God is the one who begins. He also sustains. And He’s the one who completes. We are simply and joyfully, creative coworkers in this Kingdom of God project.

Fun fact:
Jesse had a friend named Melvin Miller in Kindergarten and they used to go around telling kids that if they like the band KISS (which stood for Knights In Satan’s Service, as he was told) they were going to hell. (This isn’t being subversive.)

Wrap Up
MISE2010 was a great gathering and extended conversation for anyone interested in engaging their culture and igniting their mission. All of the sessions were videoed and will be available for FREE.99 in the next few weeks over at Mission Igniter.

Stay tuned there as well for another MISE conference coming to the Portland area in May!

A big thanks to Michael Forney and Brett Eddy for getting this together!

The following are some notes from Jim Gray’s session titled: Strategies for Connecting Community and Mission: Dumpsters, Ninjas, and Guerillas.

Take a look after the jump (and a large picture of Jim himself [click his face]…!):

Social Media Is:

A fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one-to-many) in to dialogues (many-to-many); Facebook and Twitter.

Jim gave a massive list of Social Media Software.

All of this can be overwhelming.
The dumpster is about sorting things out.
We need to sort through what we’re going to use- about what works best for us.

The Dumpster Sorting

Social Media is about people, not about technology.
Social Media is people-aware-with people connecting all the time.
Applications like Facebook connect people directly with each other.
As powerful as technology is, it is just an enabler. More opportunities to connect.
It’s when you put technology in the hands of the almost-always-connected people that make it much more powerful.

Current Issues and Concerns

Misuse:
How much time are you spending online?
Management: Time, Staffing, et cetera
How are you going to get an ROI?
Control
How do we build policies and procedures for this?
Engagement
I have these accounts, how do I respond. What is my frequency. DOn’t build an online format and never respond to it.
Follow-up
Instant access to feedback.
Groundswell (Book by:
Once this happens, you can’t stop it. It’s already happened- it’s not going anywhere. How do we keep up with all of this?

The Effects

Negatives:
Families, Careers, Ministries, Relationships
I still have to manage the “real” areas of my life.

Positives:
Relationships, Networking, Collaboration, Synergy, Resourcing, Connecting

Endless possibilities.
Jim is a part of MISE2010 as a direct result of connect with @forneymichael on Twitter.

We actually make decisions based on how connected people are, and our sense that we HAVE to be connected is interrupting our lives.

NINJAS are intentional

Social Media is about building and leveraging relationships. It’s quid-pro-quo, reciprocal. We trade collaboration. It’s NOT using people.

Experiment
Find what works best for you and your team. Don’t be afraid to say that something didn’t work- and leave it.
Take it slow
The pressure you feel to rush is all in your head. Take time to guage and see where you are.
Research
Invest in training and resources. Get a Kindle or the app for your mobile device.
Fail
Jump off the social media infrastructure with no parachute
Finding Guerrillas
Focus on releasing your team and the gifted-ness of the body. There are people in your church or community that have this natural sense of these things. Find guerrillas, create guerrillas.

Online Strategy Ideas

If your online presence is negatively affecting your relationship with God, cut it off. This is NUMERO UNO.

Focus on internal relationship of the Body around you.

Focus on external relationships outside of the Body. We need to start thinking about these when we start building and creating technology.

How will the person outside our body use this? Glorify God through your use of social media.

User-Friendly

STOP re-inventing the wheel.
There are 4 tools that exists already:
Facebook
Twitter
Blogging
Video

On Twitter- think about the tone of your voice. Really think about that. Really.

Wrap-up

If you’ve already started using social media in your organization, great. But don’t be afraid to adapt it uses to YOUR benefits. It’s a tool and should be used as such, in a strategic, planned out way.

If you aren’t familiar with what the marketplace is all about, here’s what they say about themselves:

The Google Apps Marketplace offers products and services designed for Google users, including installable apps that integrate directly with Google Apps.

Installable apps are easy to use because they include single sign-on, Google’s universal navigation, and some even include features that integrate with your domain’s data.

Neat, right?

Here are 5 apps that might give you a good taste of what’s being created for the marketplace (and could be super useful too!):

OffiSync – Integrate Microsoft Office with Google Apps

Socialwok: Free Business Social Productivity & Customer Management

Aviary Design Suite

Zoho CRM

Dimdim Web Conferencing

Anything else you see that looks good to try?

I particularly liked reviewing some of the “web rich”; I’ll admit that I have something within me that still wants to be that wealthy, that powerful, and that well-known.

Yikes.

Just that sin nature again I guess. Success at such a young age can be so dangerous.

What’s something you’ve picked up from the interactive chart? Anything stick out?

Essentially, Jane McGonical suggests that the world needs to play more video games so that we will be better prepared to “save the world.”

If you’ve got 20 minutes (or at least 3 to hear the ‘Epic Win’ quote) then take a look after the jump. Seriously interesting stuff.

If you’ve been sitting on the fence with this one here’s your chance to get a ticket for next week’s event at Willow Creek.

This giveaway starts today and ends Friday. Here’s what you’ve gotta do…

Comment below letting us know who you think would win in a freestyle rap battle: Andy Stanley or Craig Groeschel?

Ready? Fight!

I think this sentiment probably sums it up best:

“It shows content sharing has become a huge driving force online,” said Matt Tatham, director of media relations at Hitwise. “People want information from friends they trust, versus the the anonymity of a search engine.”

Agreed. I can speak to this personally as I’ll open links from trusted sources 99 out of 100 times before I open a link from someone I don’t know.

Opportunity

But how does this apply to us in terms of online ministry? I think it’s simply another reminder that we have an unbelievable opportunity to speak into other people’s lives as we earn their trust.

Haven’t we been doing this already anyways? It’s a far better method to build a relationship and then earn the right and platform to speak into their lives than beat them over the head with a bible from the street corner.

Now we get to do this in the context of an online medium. Our opportunity couldn’t be greater.