Phos Collective is just this sort of collaborative project:

Nine guys + their iPhones + a tumblr blog = a collaborative adventure.

Featuring each of the contributors unique visual temperament via photos from their mobile devices. Phos Collective is based upon the premise digital photography, that is, a collection of light refracted through a lens onto a electronic image sensor partnered with the immediacy of mobile internet connection, can be collaborative, creative, inspiring, and fun.

So. What’s the point? What are we trying to do with this site?

Without speaking for the collective, I think the reason I am contributing is two-fold, first I want/need to be challenged creatively. I take pictures everyday, and to have a motivating force behind each shot is a fantastic challenge. Second, the reason is simply relational. I love these guys… I’ve worked with every single one of them and have nothing but good great things to say about their creativity, work ethic and personality. I jumped at the chance to be apart of this project as it is just one more way to stay connected as we have been scattered around the US over the past few years, each pursuing our passions whilst taking photos of the journey.

The guidelines are quite simple (and are evolving), upload an inspiring photograph from your iPhone utilizing a filtering app like Camera+, VSCO et al. The only stipulation is, we cannot submit a photo that has cookie cutter filtering, like for example Instagram photos that have very specific filters and easily identifiable borders. Phos Collective is trying to stay away from an identifiable photosharing brand… rather, we are focusing on the individuals use of filters and trickery to produce a visually striking photo.

The dudes that make up Phos Collective are: Adam, Chase, Daniel, Dave, Don, Jo, Nate, myself & Wes.

Go check it out — http://phoscollective.tumblr.com

I’ve been on the tech side of church, as a project manager with YouVersion (The Bible App) and most recently on the ministry side of church as an experience coordinator at a large church in Pella, Iowa. These experiences have given me insight into the trends of church growth, while also putting me on the front-line. Over the past three years, I’ve sat in meetings at a tech-savvy megachurch looking to disrupt an industry and a tech-averse rural church looking integrate visual storytelling. If I were to take a moment and characterize the church today (mega, micro, house or community), I would say, most are poignantly aware of the new opportunities of the Digital Age, and at the same time these churches are extremely cautious to how these changes will tangibly impact their church community.

I think we can all agree, the internets have changed the game, and now mobile technology is causing major disruption to the traditions of many churches across America.

My former boss at LifeChurch.tv, Terry Storch, loved mantras. As the team was building YouVersion’s initial web app and launching the first iteration of The Bible App on the iPhone IOS, he would walk around the office writing on the white boards, “MO-MO.” He would then follow the scribble with a pep talk, “The momentum guys, is mobile. So, the question is, how do we build a beautifully simple Bible application putting the Bible in the hands of everyone with a smartphone?”

With his leadership and the vision of Bobby Gruenwald, YouVersion grew to be the ubiquitous Bible app for smart phones. I’m not just tooting the YouVersion horn to be cool, the app recently eclipsed an astounding 31 million unique users. I think we can affirm Terry’s mantra of “MO-MO.” Unequivocally, the momentum is mobile.

This shift in Bible interaction, has disrupted many a Sunday morning, as more and more people pull out there smartphones to engage with scripture, while in the sanctuary! Don’t believe me? Check Twitter on Sunday mornings and you’ll see what I mean. People are tweeting out verses, quoting pastors sermons, and responding to God all within 140 characters via Twitter and YouVersion. This shift, mobile inclusion to Sunday morning worship, is one of the reasons I believe Dwolla is prime for adoption by the Church. With pastors leading the crusade of integration and adoption by their parishioners.

The pitch: Imagine yourself on a typical Sunday morning. You may sleep in, make some French press coffee, read the Sunday paper, cook pancakes and eggs for the kids, shower, throw on some clothes (dress your kids), and pile into the car with just enough time not to speed. You make it to church just in time, the opening announcements have concluded, and the worship set is just beginning.

As most Sundays go, two or three songs in — a young face comes on the stage to begin the Bible reading for the day. You, being the young tech savvy hipster that you are, pull out your iPhone or Android based smartphone and follow along in your YouVersion Bible app. Then the young face on the stage prays and transitions to the offertory, as the worship band slips into an instrumental adaptation of something that sounds familiar, but not quite. In response, you reach into your pocket and realize… you don’t have any cash! And, as per normal, in the rush to put the dog in the kennel before the kids piled into the car, you left your checkbook on the counter. Doh! The guilt begins to build…

Then you remember, this church accepts Dwolla! So with a double tap, you switch out of The Bible App and into your Dwolla application on your smartphone. You find the church’s ID with the Dwolla product called proxi, enter your weekly tithe amount followed by your PIN number to authorize the transaction, and Yahtzee! Before the plate even arrives in your aisle, you have already tithed and received an email confirmation for your gift!

Easy peasy. Mobile giving for a mobile generation.

Now, to the point of value. Why is using Dwolla better than any other payment option? To be specific in answering this question, let’s first look at the secret world of interchange fees.

Over the past few hundred years, our economy has transitioned from a barter economy, to a cash economy, to a credit economy. Each transition brought with it remnants of the past, but the premise remained consistent: I will trade you something of value for something else of value. This idea of value transferred from precious metals, to physical goods, to paper and more recently to plastic. And with plastic replacing physical goods, the world was introduced to the third party vendor. That is, the person in the middle passing data credentials from one account to the next.

Over the past few years, these third party vendors have become increasingly greedy, gaining a bigger payout by increasing the fee, ie: a percentage of each transaction processed. Sometimes in the form of points or miles, these credit card companies pass on the cost of your vacation in the Bahamas to the merchants and organizations in which you pay utilizing their card. The rising cost to merchants in accepting plastic transactions is part of the reason your double soy latte costs $4.28. Merchants see billions of dollars a year in potential revenue lost to these interchange fees. And when we are speaking of non-profits and churches, these processing fees essentially act as a hole in the offering plate, allowing money that should be going toward the mission of the church or organization, trickle out to pad the pockets of banking execs.

Luckily, we are now in the digital economy. This is a new era of operation, in which the savvy can build new systems and enterprises based on a digital framework rather than on legacy systems and archaic networks. However, even those companies that have been built upon digital frameworks have kept the traditional practices of the credit economy, tacking on confusing fee structures and escalating percentages, thereby taxing the merchant for each transaction.

One of the things that makes Dwolla different is our transparency, we believe a dollar should not lose it’s value when passed between two people, whether it be a friend, a non-profit organization or a local retailer. Dwolla’s fee structure is simple: $0.25 for every transaction over $10, free for transactions $10 and under. How can Dwolla do this? Simple. By building a scalable, secure, pro-consumer application on digital networks, Dwolla can offer its users a valuable, convenient option for initiating and receiving transactions.

When speaking to non-profits, I often ask, “What is the story of your organization? What drives your daily donation of sweat, blood and tears? And, what compels the monetary contribution of your supporters?”

As a potential partner, I want to know the story being told and if that story is being lived. When an organization has sold me, that is, when I believe in the mission and vision enough to part with my hard-earned cash, I want to make sure they receive my entire gift.

And because I never carry checks or cash, I want to give to their story from wherever they won me over, whether that be at a coffee shop, in a theatre, while sitting in a pew, or while watching television from my couch. I want my giving to be as mobile as I am, and I don’t want them to be taxed unreasonably for this convenience. So. I use Dwolla.

To celebrate with the team, I wanted to put up some infographs that highlight some of the milestones over the past few years, including recently breaking ’30 million installs’ barrier! So check those infographs below (click on the thumbnails to see the full infograph). Also, be sure to check out the special webcast scheduled for November 30th — http://youversion.com/webcast — which will highlight the global YouVersion community and share some new developments coming in future updates… be sure to mark your calendar and check out more by clicking the banner below… I hear they are giving away some Beats by Dr. Dre and an iPad 2.

*From L to R: 30MM installs of the Bible App, Bookmark Behavior in the Bible App.

From Brewski.me own mouth:

Brewski*Me is a beer drinker’s best friend! Rate and review new beers. Discover new brews and breweries and find out what your friends are drinking! Don’t Drink Alone, Drink with Friends!

As many of you know, I don’t drank — like a college fratboy. Rather, I drink — like a responsible adult. Because of this differentiation, when I drink beer it is for the flavor and/or it’s compliment to the meal. I prefer American craft beers with full flavor, rich aroma and a story behind the label. This app, introduces me to the different regional breweries through my friends and what they are drinking, allowing me to sample new beers and hone my preferences and styles.

So. If your so inclined, go download this app for your iPhone or iPod and friend me! I’d love to see what brews are filtering past your palate. Some pictures are below of the app’s beautiful design by Apps vs. Robots and Rocksauce Studios.

*Remember, you must be 21 to drink alcohol in the United States and as always…
PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY!

The new creatively inspired site, is much simpler than the previous version with a user friendly front page containing everthing you need to know about what Samwell Creative is and can do. I’ve also included some lightbox links to the company values and also a link to a gallery page containing pictures of places around the world we have found inspiring.

Besides getting rid of the blog, which can now be found here… and other unnecessary pages, I’ve completely redone the portfolio page. The motivation behind this rather utilitarian page comes from my frustration of other web company’s portfolio’s that don’t actually take you to the work that was done because they just show static screen grabs. So. In the current layout, you just get links to the actual sites that we have worked on. Allowing you full accessibility to the working site in just two clicks.

Hope you enjoy the new site and let me know if you find anything buggy… cause sometimes staring at a screen for multiple hours in a row the typo’s just kinda blend in.

A year later, I’m having an absolute blast reminiscing on the relationships made during that time. It seems unfathomable that a ragtag group of developers, designers, dreamers, pastors and project managers meeting in an old storage closet could come together and build a platform that would exceed everyone’s expectations and hit the milestone of 10,000,000 (10MM), unique mobile downloads. YouVersion.com and all of the mobile apps that have been produced on top of the web application will forever be a highlight in my professional career, not only for the end product and the success it is having, but for the relationships built throughout the process… friendships with my teammates, relationships with some of our strategic partners, and connections with many of the end users. It’s all just awesome.

So. I wanted to take a second on this blog to celebrate with YouVersion.com and all of my friends who made it possible! Well done YouVersion community!! Below is an infograph by Bryan Connor and YouVersion that I think brings a beautiful picture to the accomplishments thus far:

The Challenge: The truth is 10,000,000 is a big number, but 10,000,000,000 is even bigger. Bobby Grunewald, the Innovations Pastor at LifeChurch.tv threw down a challenge for all of the YouVersion users for the month of January, he wants to hit 10 billion minutes of interaction with the Bible, which just seems crazy…

Until you do the math:

10,000,000,000 (users) / 10,000,000 (minutes) = 1000

1000 minutes per user in one month.

At the current number of users that averages out to be about 30 minutes of reading time a day, everyday for a month. Doesn’t seem so crazy now does it? To spend 30 minutes reading the Gospels, delving in the Epistles, and praying the Psalms!?! So. If you haven’t yet downloaded the Bible yet go to TheoMusings.com/Bible and download it for the device of your choosing. And happy reading, wherever life takes you!

________________________________
Places that have announced this milestone:
* VentureBeat – God Comes to the Smartphone
* GigaOM – What if the Apostles Developed an iPhone App?
* New York Times – God Comes to the Smartphone: Bible App YouVersion Grabs 10M Users
* Christian Post – YouVersion Bible App Users Grow to 10.7 Million
* Christian Today – Bible app users challenged to spend 1 billion minutes reading the Bible

Our goal with this donation platform is to give non-profit organizations the opportunity to collect donations easily and securely through a online portal, without a large front end investment. If your interested in learning more about this platform, please contact us today! If you’d like to see it LIVE you can visit hopecity church’s donations page.

Front Page:

Donation Page:

If you or your church or organization is interested in this type of technology, please contact us today! We’d love to get you started down the path of interactive welcome screens for your church lobby or business office space.

Look at the infograph after the jump…

Though, there is problem. It is one that could impede a quick embrace by the marketplace… This hurdle that is in view is not selling our services (creative storytelling/branding) but lies in selling the platform. Those who have an iPad know what I’m talking about… you have to hold the device and interact with it (more than just a few minutes in the Apple Store) to realize the impact this could have on your organization (non-profit or for profit). The folks over at Charity:Water understand. Not only are they innovators and game-changers in the social justice sector but they are also early adopters, passionate spokesmen for the iPad as more than just a consumption device. Along this vien, they have posted a well written testimonial (yes, on Apple.com) on why/how they use the iPad in their everyday, a portion of this post is below:

Handheld Storytelling

Like most charitable organizations, charity: water needs to raise money. And to do that, Harrison must connect emotionally with prospective donors. So when making a presentation, he shows photos and videos of charity: water’s international projects — images that make a big impact when displayed on iPad.

“In a 30-minute donor pitch, I show 175 photos and videos,” he says. “It’s awkward to set up a laptop on the table in an upscale restaurant. With iPad, it feels more like sharing. I can hand my iPad to another person and let them move through a presentation at their own pace. It’s a whole new level of intimacy around storytelling.”

Recently Harrison found himself making an impromptu pitch using iPad in the back of a taxi. “I flew back from a presentation in Mexico City and ran into someone I hadn’t seen in four years,” he says. “We shared a cab back to New York, and the next thing you know, I’m giving the presentation on iPad. She was so moved that she instantly made a pledge to request donations instead of birthday presents for her 50th birthday.

And iPad is just as effective in the boardroom. “When I go to a meeting or a conference to speak, iPad is incredibly easy to bring along,” says Development Officer Lane Wood. “It’s the size of a book, and it plugs into a VGA adapter, which is usually in the boardroom or conference hall already. I just hook it up and I’m ready to go.”

Which just spurs us onward in our journey to deliver inspiring content via ePub documents, on your iPad and other portable reading devices. Look for a couple new project examples in the coming month to see what we mean when we call the iPad a transmedia agent a beautiful platform for creating inspiring content, creative storytelling, and an engaging brand identity.