Scratch where it itches

Which grade would you give to your local government (2.0)?

2012-02-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

I’m taking a break from Education (2.0) to spend some time trying to understand how we might transform local government with information technology, especially via social media. Gartner defines “Government 2.0” as the use of information technology to socialize and commoditize government services, processes and data.

A few months ago, I blogged about “Getting all A’s in school” to motivate the use of social media in education. For this post, I’ll “play” with a similar theme to motivate the use of social media in local government to facilitate:

Accountability and Advocacy
Business (public)
Communication
Democracy
Emergency preparedness and Engagement

We don’t want to give any F’s and in any case, this is just a gimmick to get some ideas flowing!

Accountability and Advocacy

As in my education post, government can do a much better job of advocacy by being more accountable as a result of transparency in its interaction with the citizens it serves. In a manner similar to what I described for education, social media between government and citizens could document government’s value to its citizens.

Business (public)

In conducting the people’s “business” government can deliver services more effectively and efficiently via information technology.

Communication

As a result, communication between government and its citizens would be vastly improved!

Democracy

Citizens would have greater opportunity to be heard!

Emergency preparedness/public safety and Engagement

It’s time to get practical…especially since I now live in Florida where severe hurricanes can disrupt the lives of millions of people! Due to our ability to forecast their potential severity, many lives can be saved by emergency preparedness. Especially since my county’s early social media efforts are being led by Seminole County Emergency Management, this is the best place to do more. Furthermore, my faith-based friends back in central Indiana where I lived previously are experimenting with Twitter to promote readiness. Even more is possible as efforts such as CrisisCommons suggest. I am especially intrigued by the application of the Ushahidi product Crowdmap to handle information coming out of a crisis. What is most encouraging is the pending FEMA certification of a course titled “Social Media for Natural Disaster Response and Recovery” offered by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC).

Perhaps, public safety is another likely area to try with service providers such as Nixle which publishes alerts via text messaging as well as experiments with Twitter by neighboring Orlando Police.

No matter which grade you give your local government, it could get a better grade by using information technology and social media to engage its citizens!

Where do we go from here?

Perhaps, it’s time to convene a CityCamp, an international unconference series and online community focused on innovation for municipal governments and community organizations.

I’m going to share this with my County Manager…what will you do for your community?

Testing BlogPress

2012-02-01T08:28:00.001-08:00

I just updated the app and reviews said the update isn't working with Blogger so I'd better test it out!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chuluota,United States

Has it been six months already?

2012-01-08T17:49:00.001-08:00

It's been six months since Atlantis blasted off as STS-135, the last Space Shuttle launch! In the meantime, I've seen several other launches, but they just don't seem the same especially since they've all been unmanned! I wonder how long it's going to be until I see another manned launch? I hope I live long enough to see the US with the capability for manned spaceflight!

Connecting your Blogger blog to Google+

2011-12-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

If you have linked your Blogger blog to your Google+ account, you'll be able to easily share your post to your Google+ circles when you publish a post to your blog. This post should be shared on my Google+ account after I publish it.

#NASAtweetup: Day L-0

2011-07-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

STS-135 NASA Tweetup at launch clock, courtesy of NASA

I can’t believe over a day has passed since I witnessed history at the launch of STS-135, the final mission in NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program, on July 8, 2011. I have to admit as I intimated in my last post that I did not think it would actually happen on that originally scheduled date after learning that the weather forecast allowed only a 30 percent probability for launch. But, as we were told, a break in the weather during the 10-minute launch window wasn’t too much to expect and NASA management knew that when it ordered “tanking” (fueling) Atlantis early on launch day.

We had been told to check if tanking had been announced before making the trek to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) so after my wife woke me shortly after 2 am (I MIGHT have overslept if she hadn’t ), I was on the road by 3 am and made it to Gate 3 of KSC IN LESS THAN AN HOUR because I was so early! Hardly anyone else was on the road and I expect that those I encountered were either press or NASA personnel (those who weren’t already at work)

As a matter of fact, I was so early that I couldn’t get into KSC because my Tweetup credentials did not allow entry until 5 am. I decided to head for NASA’s Press Accreditation building (where I had picked up those prized credentials on Wednesday) to wait because it was also closer to Gate 2, a gate which only allows employees to enter KSC, which we had been advised to use. When I got there, a large subset of fellow Tweetup participants were already there. As I waited, I noticed a line of cars building on State Road 3 in front of the parking lot so I realized that it could be difficult for our convoy to exit the parking lot onto SR 3. I went to talk to one of the security guards at the checkpoint which had been established on SR 3 and we worked out an arrangement where we would line up our cars in the parking lot shortly before 5 am and he would enable us to get out of the parking lot without having to wait for any cars to pass on SR 3. I am so glad I thought of that and I think my fellow tweeps were as well!

As a result, we were at the KSC press site shortly after 5 am and that’s when our 6-hour wait to witness history began. NASA had another full morning of program for us (Elmo didN’T join us this time ) so the time passed as we enjoyed ourselves with other activities such as the memorable group picture above (I’m in the SECOND row right of center next to the girl with the lime-green shirt in the first row) and the Astrovan carrying the STS-135 crew to launchpad LC-39A as we cheered them on. Not quite as momentous, I noticed I had made my 26,000th tweet (it’s taken me a little over 4 years) about an hour before launch. Most memorable, we heard from Doug Crippen who was on Columbia for STS-1 in 1981!

As launch time approached, we moved out of our “TWent” to view the launch and I chose a vantage point away from the crowd because I wanted to capture the SOUND of the launch rather than merely its imagery. When I witnessed the launch of STS-133 from Titusville earlier, I was disappointed that I could not hear the shuttle’s engines!

I used Audioboo on my iPad and recorded on my Flip camera as well. I’m so glad I brought the Flip for backup because for some reason still unknown to me (I think there’s a time limit on length of a boo), Audioboo stopped recording before the launch. One of the reasons why I stayed closer to the TWent was to stay within range of the WiFi which NASA had so graciously provided in the TWent. Next time, I think I’ll just use Griffin Technology’s iTalk app and then upload the sound file later. That app has worked very well for me when I podcasted my classes earlier. Here’s what I managed to get with the Flip and here’s someone else’s which is much better.

After the launch, we hung out to wait for the traffic to clear…I still haven’t heard any estimates of the size of the crowd. By mid-afternoon, I decided to leave after our NASA hosts told us they would be taking down the WiFi (I know I’m so predictable) and that was just as well because the trip home at that point was uneventful except for its ease! I didn’t even have to use my original plan to head north to enter Seminole County via State Road 46. Instead I went west on State Road 50 toward Orlando (it was a mess after STS-133) and I encountered no traffic until just west of Christmas so I just turned off at Christmas to head north for Seminole County. That was the same route I had used earlier that morning.

So as you can see, it was a very good day. I witnessed history as I would want my descendants to note. Nevertheless, if I ever have any grandchildren, I would want them to know that this day wasn’t nearly as memorable as the day on which their parents were born and I became a father!

I wish you the same joy as well!

#NASAtweetup: Day L-1

2011-07-08T02:33:00.000-07:00

It was a rainy day in central Florida with a torrential downpour throughout much of the day at Kennedy Space Center (KSC)! The weather outlook for scheduled L-0 (July 8, 2011) is uncertain so as I write this post, I am hoping to get at least a little sleep before I check to see if NASA tanks the shuttle so that I know to begin my trek to KSC with as many as a million other people.

Most of those folks won’t get as great a view of the launch whenever it happens (I’m so glad I live near!) nor will they have the opportunity we had today to witness the retraction of the Revolving Service Structure at launchpad LC-39A (see photo above) in advance of preparing Atlantis for launch. While that was certainly the highlight of the day, we had a full day filled with activities as diverse as NASA briefings mixed with astronauts hamming it up with Elmo from Sesame Street! See my social media aggregation at NASAtweetup.info to get some sense of our day. My own lifestream (including my Flickr set) is on the “curator” tab.

Although I think I fell asleep (I woke at 3 this morning!) after dinner shortly after I got home from KSC, I’m going to get at least a little sleep now…hoping for good weather although a delay would give me a chance to recuperate!

#STS135 #NASAtweetup weather report

2011-07-07T07:23:00.001-07:00

It is RAINING at our TWent...I guess it didn't help that I brought an umbrella ;-)

I'm actually seeing if I can post again. Until I can get to my Tablet PC, you can find my latest http://NASAtweetup.info post at http://OrlandoNewbie.com

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saturn Causeway,Cape Canaveral,United States

#NASAtweetup: NASAtweetup.info on Day L-2

2011-07-07T04:34:00.000-07:00

courtesy of http://www.facebook.com/netvibes

It was a good day. I picked up my credentials at Kennedy Space Center Press Accreditation and got a commemorative t-shirt at Space Shirts to wear on day L-0 because we’re wearing our NASAtweetup shirts on day L-1. Being an Orlando Newbie, I also learned my way around the Space Coast much better!

The highlight of the day was a tweet by Robert Scoble which shared the social media aggregation NASAtweetup.info which I built as a Netvibes public page. As I explained in my previous post, I am now turning my attention to its original purpose to aggregate the content generated by the NASA Tweetup tweeps. I have seeded the first few tabs, e.g. Twitter, with widgets where I already expect to find relevant content and I’ll be adding more later today as I learn more from my fellow tweeps about where else they intend to share their unique experience. Whether you’re a Tweetup participant or a viewer, check out the “General” tab to maximize your NASA TweetUp experience!

Watch with us as history is made at the final launch of NASA’s space shuttle program!

Let me know IF the NCAA goes after NASA’s Final Four.

#NASAtweetup: #STS135, day L-3

2011-07-06T10:17:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of http://twitter.com/lartist

As day L-3 closed and L-2 beckoned, I was exhausted trying to “drink from the firehose” of the closed Facebook group for STS-135 NASAtweetup. To help my fellow tweeps, I’ve been highlighting some of that content at my social media aggregation NASAtweetup.info as we prepared for this historic event. I’ve prepared a 30-second video to explain my intention.

My original motivation for the aggregation is chronicling the event itself so I have to turn my attention to that task. Stay tuned for a post about that.

I’m going to #NASATweetUp…better than Disney World!

2011-06-29T14:04:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of http://twitter.com/lartist

For some time, I have been aware of my selection for the NASA TweetUp for the FINAL shuttle launch. For various reasons, I haven’t said much publicly about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of history! Here’s my public reaction for “The Space Crowd” film…hope I “make the cut” instead of the floor.

Especially, I’ve been working on a social media aggregation http://NASATweetUp.info after not having done any for over a year so I’m a little “rusty”, but I finally have a version which is ready for “soft” launch. On the “General” tab, read “How to participate” which explains how you may either merely access or contribute (via crowdsourcing) content.

Although I’ve been aware of NASA TweetUp as an avid Twitter user, STS-135 is the first launch for which I actually applied for NASA TweetUp. For STS-133, the first launch after my recent move to Florida, it completely slipped my mind! I resolved to apply for STS-134, but did not realize that the application window was only 24 hours so I missed that opportunity. Realizing that STS-135 was my last opportunity to apply for a shuttle launch, I applied shortly after NASA began accepting applications and subsequently learned, to my absolute delight, that I was one of the fortunate 150 successful applicants out of more than 5500 tweeps!

As I have learned more about my fellow participants, I have been impressed by the diversity and passion of the group. I am humbled by how much some of them know about the shuttle program as well as how far some of them are traveling to attend (someone is coming from Australia!) since I live so close. I knew much more about the Apollo program which occurred while I was a student at Purdue, “mother” of astronauts, and I did see an Apollo launch many years ago. That memory has caused me to wonder if I’m the oldest participant after I realized that some of my fellow participants weren’t even born yet when fellow Purdue alumnus Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon! I’ll let you know if I find out.

Likewise, I witnessed STS-133, my first shuttle launch, from the beach in Titusville so I was somewhat “disappointed” that I was unable to HEAR the shuttle because I was so far from the launchpad. I have been assured that I will not be disappointed this time because we will witnessing history from the press viewing site which is only 3 miles from the launchpad! I hope the crowd noise doesn’t drown out the shuttle!

Mobilized: this blog now has a mobile template

2011-06-27T09:37:00.001-07:00

I've been 'frustrated' that this blog wasn't 'mobile-friendly' so I am very happy that it now IS! I don't know when Google launched mobile template for Blogspot blogs, but I just discovered they did...just in time to go with my new-found ability to post from my iPad as I've already posted.

Hopefully, this feature will also motivate me to post regularly.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How to really use the Internet

2011-06-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

Hugh MacLeod’s recent post with the same title (forgive me Hugh) motivated me to write this post to explain why I bought the BlogPress app for my iPad to facilitate my use of the Adonit keyboard which I just bought. This post started as a review of BlogPress, but I really haven’t used it yet. Anyway, I found a BlogPress review for WordPress blogs, but I’m still looking for one relevant to Blogger users which was my motivation for buying it.

Instead, I’ll be reacting to Hugh’s recent post in which he makes the case for blogging which has always been a challenge for me personally. As you can see from this blog, I can do it well enough, but I don’t do it “often enough” or regularly!

I’m hoping that the combination of the iPad, Adonit, and BlogPress will remedy that! Although I’ve been primarily using Twitter to interact with people who I care about as well as to express serious opinions via tweets about news and opinion shows which I'm viewing, I do admit to longing for a “totally different league of Internet use” as Hugh implores us to aspire. I recognize that the “Internet has given us a HUGE, life-changing opportunity that simply didn’t exist a generation ago” and I admit that I’ve been wasting it!

How about YOU?

I’ll be meeting Hugh at next month’s NASA TweetUp for the last space shuttle launch (see? I haven’t even posted about that!) so I’ll be talking to him about this and I hope to thank him someday as well.

TWO life-changing opportunities!

Happy Father’s Day to ME!

2011-06-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

As a Father’s Day gift to myself, I ordered a refurbished iPad 1 a few weeks ago and was thrilled when it arrived on the day before we left for our recent visit to Indianapolis so I was able to test if I would be able to “survive” with it as my primary Internet device for an entire week. It passed that test!

For some time, I had been torn between buying a new iPad 2 or a refurbished iPad 1. That issue was settled by two factors. First, a review convinced me that the faster processor and two cameras on the iPad 2 were not features that particularly appealed to my use cases for the iPad. Second, I discovered that an iPad 2 model of the highly-rated Adonit keyboard did not yet exist. Since I really wanted a keyboard, I realized that the $150 price differential between a new iPad 2 and a refurbished iPad 1 would more than pay for the Adonit so that sealed the deal!

The keyboard arrived the day before Father’s Day so I was going to write this post with the Adonit, but decided to do that when I post about the BlogPress app since that was motivated by the acquisition of the Adonit.

Mobilizing

2011-04-30T19:05:00.001-07:00

I finally got a new phone which I'll tell you more about in a subsequent post but I really wanted to try posting from my phone to see how easy it would be in hopes of posting more often!

At the same time. I was motivated to work on a mobile-friendly version of my online identity so try the QR code and tell me in the comments what you think of it. It also serves as the start page of my mobile browser. I used Delivr to create the QR code which also provides analytics. I used Winksite to create it and have been using it for some time but my QR code may also make it more accessible to others until they build their own. It's very easy!

Did Florida Governor Rick Scott really do that?

2011-01-20T19:39:00.001-08:00

Tonight, newly-elected Florida Governor Rick Scott held a “Twitter Town Hall” during which he tweeted in response to questions which had been tweeted during the last 24 hours including at least one question which was apparently tweeted DURING the event. I’ve had an entire day to “suspect” any number of theories regarding HOW and WHY he would do this, but I have come to the conclusion that this “PR stunt” merely confirms how much of a “miracle” his recent victory was indeed!

I did not vote in the primary election because I could not make up my mind between Governor Scott and former Attorney General Bill McCollum and until the day of the general election, it was still a toss-up in my mind between Scott and former Florida CFO Alex Sink. I won’t say who I did vote for, but in any case, Scott won by fewer than 100,000 votes or about 1 percentage point.

I hope he’s more successful at running the State of Florida and creating jobs (his major platform issue) than his handlers are at social media! During the event, Governor Scott TWICE responded to tweets addressed to @FLGovRickScott (Not Rick Scott), a Twitter account which “tweckled” during the Twitter Town Hall:

Tweet to @Floridavoters (sent to @FLGovRickScott)
Retweeting question addressed to @FLGovRickScott

They were legitimate questions from a couple of tweeters, but I wouldn’t have chosen those two questions from among many good questions which were submitted during the day-long submission period.

Am I nit-picking?

Do you feel compelled to "keep up" with all of the new social media sites? If so, why? If not, why not?

2011-01-17T05:08:00.001-08:00

I do indeed & can't seem to help myself although I realize it's keeping me from being great at ANY ONE thing. I justify it because some have told me how much they've learned from me! Of course, I personally use much of what I discover.

Ask me anything

Is “education reform” too high a price to pay?

2011-01-10T12:26:00.001-08:00

After being inspired (and reminded) by the Global Education Conference in late November, I spent the month of December immersed in the vibrant Web community from whom I had already learned so much about technological innovations in K-12 education. While I was teaching full-time, I was often frustrated (and distracted) that I couldn’t spend more time in this fascinating community. Since my daughter would be attending public school for the first time and I would be “retired”, I had resolved that I would volunteer more time than I had at the small private school which she previously attended while I taught full-time.

In addition to technological innovations with which I already had much familiarity, educational policy issues also got my attention. I was especially curious when I encountered the Foundation for Excellence in Education which was founded by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. As a new resident of Florida, I was especially interested in what Governor Bush had done (and was STILL doing) in education reform. I was especially interested in the release of The Elements of Digital Learning by its Digital Learning Council at its annual National Summit.

Since Florida has been a leader in teacher accountability, I had been paying a lot of attention to this aspect of education reform. Having witnessed the pre-occupation with standardized testing here in Florida, I was especially interested in Senate Bill 6 which was vetoed by former Governor Crist, but is sure to gain “new life” after the success of its supporters in the mid-term election.

The recent publication by the Orlando Sentinel of a story about the ambitious education reform agenda of newly-elected Governor Rick Scott motivated me to comment about whether education reform is stifling innovation.

In the course of my orientation to Florida public education, I encountered Florida Virtual School which appears to be one of the more comprehensive statewide online educational programs. Since Florida has already demonstrated its commitment to harnessing the Internet, I have wondered why I haven’t encountered much Florida-based innovation in the educational use of social media and other emerging technologies in six months of use of such technology to find Florida examples. Expecting that its practitioners would NOT be “shoemaker’s children”, I have used services such as Twitter and Facebook to find examples similar to my own experiments as well as others with which I am familiar. In addition, there is already ample evidence elsewhere!

The pre-occupation with standardized testing also detracts from more effective ways to assess learning such as electronic portfolios. I know that the University of Central Florida is hoping to incorporate e-portfolios in its next self-study for regional accreditation.

Clearly, there is much work to be done and I am wondering if the current environment is conducive to encouraging innovation. I have made some effort to share these innovations with my own school district and haven’t had any success in even getting any reaction so that is what has prompted me to write this blog post! Frankly, I haven’t seen much difference between my daughter’s education and mine (I’m 62!) except that Blackboard, the course management system which her school uses, doesn’t require chalk!

A “bend in the road” on the way to Disney World

2010-11-01T14:31:00.001-07:00

Part of my motivation for my self-imposed blogging exile has been developments after I left Indiana to come to Florida. I have shared privately with some of you and it is now time to share with the rest of you.

As I said earlier this summer, I came to Florida to join Wycliffe Bible Translators. Due to a number of reasons, I did not start my new position at Wycliffe in September as originally planned. This turn of events gave me an unexpected opportunity to think and to pray about God’s will for me to serve Him in missions.

I’ve spoken to other ministries here in central Florida. Most recently, I spoke to Chris Larson, Senior Vice-President at Ligonier Ministries, and I was encouraged to see how far Ligonier has come in a relatively short time! Neil Cox has told me how conservative Ligonier had been with "old media" so I was impressed to learn from Chris how Ligonier has managed to change its approach, e.g. social media and iPhone app, in the last year or so. I am intrigued by the potential of new media to encourage communication and collaboration among the reformed theology community. Until attending the Together for the Gospel conference last spring, I wasn't even aware of Ligonier or the reformed theology community and as I've learned more from R. C. Sproul from attending St. Andrew's Chapel as well as from Ligonier, I have been stunned to realize how much needs to (and CAN) be done to get the word out about historical, orthodox Christianity. As I've had the opportunity to be part of St. Andrew's faith community, I have been taken back (and Aback) to the Christian faith which I knew as a youngster and which has somehow eluded me during my adult life. As long as organizations such as Ligonier depended on old media to tell its story, I would have likely missed this opportunity altogether! Younger believers who don't necessarily have any previous experience with orthodox Christianity are even less likely to learn of it as they depend on old media even less!
I'd like to help to "fix" this so I've been praying and thinking about how God would like me to "finish well" by helping to tell the story of historical, orthodox Christianity by first organizing its adherents and then finding ways to broaden that community.

I have “storified” this story.

I'm back!

2010-10-25T19:50:00.001-07:00

I have ended my self-imposed blogging exile which began in late July shortly after my move to central Florida when I abruptly stopped blogging while I was in a training class for new members at Wycliffe Bible Translators. I'll have to say eventually about that, but I decided to resume blogging on a more light-hearted note prompted by an experience today which made me recall an incident which coincidentally occurred almost three years ago (to the day!)

Those of you who were part of the Indy Christian Geeks group which I organized might recall my excitement when I shared news at one of our monthly lunches about the imminent deployment of AT&T U-verse in my old neighborhood Crooked Creek Villages back in Indianapolis. By the way, I STILL have a house for sale back there!

Here in central Florida, I noticed an AT&T technician working in the yard next to my house in a new neighborhood where houses are STILL being built. Because U-verse has not yet been deployed in my neighborhood, I have been a Bright House subscriber since we moved in and I haven't been "wowed" by Bright House's DVR which has only two tuners although I have been generally satisfied by their broadband Internet service and VoIP phone service. It hasn't been much of a hardship to no longer have AT&T WiFi service since McDonald's, Starbucks, and many others now offer free WiFi on their premises. Nevertheless, I'd like the option of switching to U-verse so I asked the tech if he was doing anything that meant U-verse was coming to my neighborhood. Imagine my surprise when he told me the older neighborhoods around me would have it before me because the fiber-optic telecommunications infrastructure of our new neighborhood was actually an impediment to the deployment of U-verse! I guess that U-verse is currently engineered for a copper local cable plant so they can't deploy U-verse in our neighborhood without some significant engineering! On the other hand, I guess that also means that whenever AT&T decides to deploy a more advanced service similar to Verizon's FiOS that we'd be one of the first neighborhoods to get it! I hope that doesn't take too long...anybody heard anything about AT&T's successor to copper-based U-verse?

Equip – Day 1

2010-07-18T21:50:00.001-07:00

Today was the first full day of Equip Onsite, a two-week training course for all new members of Wycliffe Bible Translators which follows Equip Online, a six-week online course which I recently completed. Equip Onsite is held at Wycliffe USA headquarters in Orlando, Florida where I will be working after completion of the course.

I’ll try to blog regularly (and often) during Equip Onsite to share what I’m learning. Today, we spent most of the day sharing our personal stories with the rest of the group about how we were called to missions and why we chose to join Wycliffe. Although the primary purpose is to get acquainted, I suspect that this is also our first opportunity to practice “partnership development” which constitutes a large part of the course. Since most Wycliffe members depend on voluntary gifts of family, friends, and churches for financial support, partnership development is necessary. By virtue of my retirement funds accumulated during my 35 years in academia, I am fortunate to be a “partially self-supporting member” but I intend to raise financial support for special pilot projects in social media and other parts of my portfolio.

Needless to say, the variety of stories exhibits God’s leading as well as his provision which has led each of us to begin our common journey as Wycliffe members. In addition to sharing my own story today, I was also further encouraged in one of my major motivations for joining Wycliffe in order to tell the story of Bible translation through the stories of those who devote their lives to this task. Their stories are indeed compelling as well as worthy to be distributed widely so I am convinced of the contribution which social media can make to this goal.

Disney World would have been easier than house-hunting

2010-06-21T05:25:00.001-07:00

Although our original reason to come to central Florida at this time was to attend the Ligonier National Conference, we anticipated that we would also be preparing to move to central Florida so we have been house-hunting since Friday after doing some homework while still in Indiana. I make the point about doing our homework because online mechanisms have been a mixed bag in our search.

While I have felt very confident that mechanisms such as streaming of local radio programs have been extremely helpful in our orientation to central Florida living, other mechanisms such as virtual tours of prospective properties haven’t been nearly so helpful as we quickly learned after visiting a property which looked very good online, but whose physical condition left much to be desired.

Accordingly, we have now turned our attention to buying a new house directly from one of the few builders who is currently building in this distressed market. We had not anticipated this option so it has required some flexibility to which we are still reacting. Nevertheless, we are now in the second phase of this new option as we are intending to determine IF we can afford “a bit more house” after concluding that our initial choice which we could have clearly afforded is just a bit too small. In this regard, we are applying a lesson learned from our central Indiana experience where we moved to a larger home only five years after moving to Indianapolis. I’ve been saying this central Florida house is the “last house I intend to buy” (Laura has warned me to be careful or I’ll “eat my words”) so I’m glad we caught ourselves after revisiting the house on which we had put a refundable deposit on Friday.

Let’s see how it goes today!

I’m going to Disney World!

2010-06-05T09:37:00.001-07:00

No, I haven’t won the Super Bowl. I’ve done even better as I’ve found my dream job as Director of Internet Strategy at Wycliffe Bible Translators in Orlando, Florida beginning in September. How did I get to this point?

Some time ago, I attended a regional conference of the Finishers Project which encouraged me to seek a ‘second career’ in Christian missions. It has been my intention to do so since I was motivated by a conversation with George Verwer of Operation Mobilization (OM), a missions agency with which my wife Laura served. At least a decade ago, George was intrigued by the Internet cafes in north Africa which offered a means to share the Gospel with people in that part of the world which has always been difficult to reach with the Gospel. Subsequently, I wrote him an email suggesting other ways by which the Internet could be harnessed for missions and even suggesting that OM “needed” an Internet strategist. Thereafter, I had a few conversations with OM, but nothing happened because neither of us was ready yet to create and fill such a position.

Over a year ago, I became aware of a similar position at another Christian organization so I visited them to discuss the position, but it wasn’t a good fit because I was no longer willing to manage staff after stepping down as department chair of CIT@IUPUI.edu three years ago. That organization needed someone to manage a new Internet initiative and when I last checked, that position is STILL open!

In late August, Laura was on the OM-USA Web site so I looked around and discovered a job posting for a Web strategist so of course, I was encouraged because Laura has always hoped to serve with OM again. By September 11, we were in Tyrone, Georgia (south suburban Atlanta) with our daughter Tabitha to explore this opportunity. As a result, we applied to join OM-USA and virtually completed that process (short of being approved) by November, but for a number of reasons, it wasn’t God’s will for us to join OM.

I spent the month of December “mourning” but at the end of December, I did another of my social media aggregations for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s triennial Urbana missions conference because IVCF really doesn’t “get” social media. During Urbana, Wycliffe Bible Translators caught my attention with its social media activity so I figured Wycliffe “gets” it and in January, I called Ruth Hubbard, a Wycliffe Senior Vice President, who I’ve known for many years because we attended the same church here in Indianapolis. As a matter of fact, Ruth’s social media lifestream during Urbana especially caught my attention because she used so much media (she originally joined Wycliffe as a graphics designer) and this was my first aggregation in which I “got” audio and video myself!

Ruth told me she’d “ask around” Wycliffe to see if anyone might be interested in me joining Wycliffe and in March, I heard from Joe Snyder, Wycliffe’s Vice President of Information Technology. Spring break was coming so I decided to go to Florida (something I NEVER did as a student ;-) to visit Wycliffe and as a result, we were encouraged and applied for membership in order to make the move so Tabby could start high school in Florida since she was going to change schools anyway after middle school. I was especially encouraged because Joe agreed to create a position for my “dream job” and he allowed me to play a major role in crafting my job description although Joe got it right by himself anyway!

Well, we got it done with God paving the way and we were notified recently that we have been approved for membership and that our financial resources which God has provided are sufficient for us to be partially self-supporting so I can be on the job by September less than six months after initiating the process! Missionaries will tell you that many of them have had to wait years to go to the mission field while they raise financial support and that can be very discouraging. As a matter of fact, partnership development (raising financial and prayer support) is much of the Wycliffe training course Equip in which we are now enrolled because our membership approval came in time for enrollment in the current training class.

So we ask for YOUR prayer support and we will be posting our prayer requests to a social media resource which I’d started and stopped (didn’t want to count my chickens before they hatched ;-) so it isn’t ready yet. Of course, I wouldn’t refuse any financial support to fund experiments with premium versions of social media services and for incidentals like domain name registrations. On a more serious note, I don’t qualify for Medicare YET (I’m NOT “that old” :-) and I do still have to put Tabby through college (she’s sad she probably won’t get to go to Purdue now unless she does go to vet school) I’ll figure out how to do that after Wycliffe gives me my ministry account numbers.

The adventure has just begun and we’re certainly looking forward to it! Isn’t God good?

The “story” of my life

2010-04-11T10:42:00.001-07:00

Challenged by Chris Brogan to blog about the importance of story in my life, I will share part of a story which I have been keeping to myself. For some time, I have felt a calling to devote myself to helping Christian ministries to harness social media to fulfill the Great Commission. Accordingly, I have been applying to mission agencies to join as an “Internet strategist” missionary so I have had to share my salvation testimony as part of the application process. Needless to say to anyone who has done so, sharing one’s testimony is “telling the story of one’s life” in a way that demonstrates how Jesus has impacted it. Also, for anyone who has shared his testimony in evangelization, it becomes very clear that the testimony is likely to be the most compelling if it is genuine because it cannot be refuted although the person being evangelized hasn’t YET been moved by the Holy Spirit!

While I’m talking about story-telling, I’d also like to say that I have been inspired by the stories of missionaries who have been serving and the impact of their work on the lives of those who they have been sharing, but that will be the subject of another blog post.

Amplifying the message via aggregation

2010-01-17T18:11:00.001-08:00

In my previous post, I indicated I would explain how “a missions agency could amplify its message beyond traditional Web content by engaging its prospective recruits, donors, and other constituents via social media” and in my subsequent reply to a comment, I promised to do it this weekend. Since the Colts won the football game, I have no more “excuses” stopping me.

Let me preface my remarks by making clear that I am merely outlining a CONCEPT which I have NOT tried to implement YET. To bear much fruit, this approach depends on a number of prospects and donors being active in social media, whether by blogging, tweeting, or otherwise creating user-generated content. I haven’t tried to measure how many people are blogging about a people group or otherwise expressing what God has put “on their heart” via social media. I DO know that this number is growing as more people engage in social media and as it becomes even easier to generate content via a dazzling array of Web 2.0 services. To me (and many others), this is the phenomenon of Web 2.0 which offers so much opportunity!

Let me illustrate the concept with the example of blogging as the means for users to generate content. Only today, I started creating another social media aggregation since the Haiti earthquake happened several days ago while I was busy setting up my course which uses social media for learning. Having gotten my students started, I can now devote some time to assemble user-generated content about the Haiti earthquake. As I do so, I have no doubt I will find many people who have been blogging about Haiti even before this tragedy. Some of these bloggers are NOT (YET) missionaries in Haiti. Those of you who serve with missions agencies which work in Haiti ought to try to do at least the following: comment on their blog posts in order to get to know them and to let them know HOW they can help. When you comment on their posts, be sure to AGGREGATE your comments using BackType. You can see an example of this aggregation in my BackType profile. This aggregation is an example of what I meant when I claimed “a missions agency could amplify its message beyond traditional Web content” especially if many commented on behalf of the same missions agency which can be easily accomplished using BackType with some coordination. Not only would the prospective missions candidates and donors be touched (just ask any blogger how they feel about comments), but the missions agency could also publish these comments as evidence of its heart for Haiti!

As I said earlier, I haven’t (yet) tried this myself because I am not (yet) affiliated with any missions agency. This is a hint that I would welcome the opportunity to help a missions agency with its social media strategy!

When it’s OK to be about ME!

2010-01-09T16:10:00.001-08:00

A recent comment I made on The Student Branding Blog prompts me to write this post. As the past year has come to an end and the new year begins, I had resolved to put less effort into personal branding because it seems so self-centered! During the past year, I have especially put a lot of time and energy into crafting and polishing the many Web resources which I have created to support my diverse interests from politics to teaching and learning. I feel that these efforts have been appropriate because they have contributed to my students and other constituencies about which I care very much.

On the other hand, I have put considerable effort into “building my personal brand” via Web sites such as my online identity which summarizes my online activity. Among many other sites, it points to my domain DrThomasHo.com which portrays the many facets of my online life. This view clearly reveals what I care about and that’s precisely the point I’m trying to make!

For example, it’s clear I have a range of interests which span Indianapolis, human rights, and Christian missions. In creating each of these resources, I have met many others with similar interests as is evident from mechanisms such as the Twitter lists which I maintain or merely follow to enable me to keep in touch with these people. For that matter, you can tell a lot about me (or any other enthusiastic user of Twitter lists) just from this one narrow aspect of my online identity.

Admittedly, few other people are as active as I am or as willing as I am to reveal so much about myself via my online activity, but my point is that we do know so much about anyone who merely uses social networking (a large group of people) or blogs (a growing number of people) Especially if someone blogs or even regularly comments on blogs, we can learn a lot about his passion as well as his opinions on the subjects about which he is passionate. Using search engines, alerts, or other Web-based data mining mechanisms, it is easy to identify such people for purposes of recruiting them on behalf of a cause such as Christian missions which is the case which prompted my comment which I referenced at the beginning of this post.

As a matter of fact, a missions agency could amplify its message beyond traditional Web content by engaging its prospective recruits, donors, and other constituents via social media. I will develop that notion in a subsequent post.

To close, I encourage YOU to tell us about YOU! Those of us who care about the same things which YOU care about and who “know” how to…are listening!