Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

New RSS Feed

You should see the new site if you type in www.gavoweb.com. The feed was going to be the one valuable item that went away with the change. So I've got a new RSS feed to plug in my site to your reader programs.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/gavoweb

Moving Day for gavoweb.com

That's right folks. After some 6+ years with typepad I'm moving over to a self hosted WP site. The domain name will remain the same but I'm certain the RSS feed will change. So check out gavoweb.com & its new features & look. Then subscribe to the new site.

I am going to keep this site around for a period of undetermined time. It will reside under the http://gavoweb.blogs.com url. Thanks for hanging with me!

shalom

-gavin

where is gavin these days?

i haven't been asked where i've been of late so much as "what i'm doing now?" which is an acceptable question since my leaving the paid staff church work back in july. the last few months have been a real ride emotionally and spiritually (not sure if those are completely seperate but for purposes of this sentance they are). i've run the gammet meeting/talking/chatting with people i respect a great deal on what they might see God's plan in my life. my general idea is that i was so close to myself that i needed help stepping back and looking in through the window. through this process i've identified some short term and long term places i'm putting my creative and passionate self into. thought i'd share those with you, so we can skip the "what are you up to now?" question.

All American Pest Control: this might be the most visible of the entities of late because for the past month or so i've been pretty chatty about my work with All American Pest Control. This is our family business and Erin has been working there for the last 7-8 years. We will eventually finish a purchase of the company in about 4-5 years from her mom & dad and we'll be sole owners. So, in the spirit of doing anything for the family, i've been crawling houses of late to help tend to our historical customers allowing our other employees to focus on some of our more current and up to date protection services. i am also helping erin our with promotions, marketing, and social media aspects of the company. you can follow the adventures of my life in pest control by following on twitter or facebook.

Sticky Sheep: this is one has been in the brewing for a year or two now. my buddy john ellis & i had spent a number or conversations talking up the mixtures of church & business, specifically marketing. we started writing a book on these conversations and we are still putting that together. in the mean time we figured it is time to start sharing these connections. you can engage in our little musings by hitting up the site or checking our twitter or facebook presences.

 

Proof Branding: this is an exciting project to be a part of. i'm joining in with long time friend sam davidson and a crew of others whom are especially creative in a full service branding company. my part in the team is to help translate and work with the church communities that wish to rebrand themselves. this would cover communications, marketing, design, creative directions, and more. i've been working independantly with with first presbyterian church youth in nashville before the launch of proof this past month and have had some real successes and enjoyable moments. you can follow the tweets of sam & matt via proof and the news on facebook.

YouthWorker Movement: is something that i'm really jumping into as my youth ministry passion. i am helping to put together a vibrant and transformational entity to help my beloved, and struggling, united methodist church & fellow wesleyan youth ministries. i've partnered up with charles harrison and a team of others i getting things mapped out and ready to roll next month. if you want in on the braintrust of a vast community of people you should get plugged in with the youthworker movement. in the short term we will have a new email list going out next week. a new website will launch in january (a temporary one will be available next week). in the spring we will be putting forth full service curriculum options from a wesleyan youth ministris perspective. through all this you can keep up on the 'movements' via twitter or facebook as well.

thanks a quick gist of me, if you want to talk further on any of these projects or hire me or my friends give a shout via email gavoweb(at)gmail.com is still my email. i'm pumped to get creative!

in another note: the company that hosts this blog is going in some different direction, so in anticipation of some crazy server issues. i'm going to be moving this blog over to my own hosting options sometime soon.. maybe when i have a minute not doing other cool stuff.

me speaking & talking : here & there for your amusement

next week i'll be doing some of that speaking thing that i do.

wednesday thru friday i'll be in and around the dallas area for the united methodist reporters communicators conference. i'll be leading a churchy discussion based off the keynote speakers thoughts on new media strategy. the possibilities of that conversation could be amazing, so i'm excited to get to lead that. the next day i'll sit on a panel with a bunch of social media geek / church nerd friends on, what else, social media. that will be easily enjoyable. hope we can bring some stuff to the table that challenges everyone in the room. that's the task i'm giving myself.

flying back on friday and then on saturday is up early to volunteer with podcamp nashville and put on my session of 'sex, lies, and social media.' that's going to be interesting & a whole lot of fun. vegas is betting my awkward statement and subsequent blushing will be an over/under at 4 (its just 20 mins of talking otherwise it'd be much higher).

unfortunately, if you are not already signed up for the communicators conference then you'll have to miss me this go round, but you can still sign up for podcamp & check out me and some of the other fabulous minds of technology and what they are thinking about.

welcome you umc.org peeps : a little history

i want to welcome you folks who find this little corner blog in the interwebs via the umc.org website. i was somewhat dumbfounded when i saw my face on the frontpage of my tribes denominational website. you see, when a more mainstream/mass media interface acknowledges us fringe blogger types it gives us some semblance that we are legitimate. like an internet pat on the back.. or a digital trophy..

well, for newbies here (i guess there could be many). i've been part of the methoblogosphere for, well, since the beginning. this blog has been somewhat dormant in '09 so most of the readership are hiding away in rss feeds. so if you find the post navigating away from the post you found your way here with, you'll notice my stuff lately is kinda campy, satirical in nature. that in part because over the last five years or so i ran out of stuff to say.. it feels that way anyhow. but within these links and many connected through the methoblog you will find a lot of commentary challenging & commenting on the state of our church we live our faith within. i encourage you to check that stuff out.

so long my friend : nashville no longer talking

noticed today that nashville is talking is ceasing to exist as the blog portal for the nashville blogging community.

truth be told, it probably ceased to be the main portal some years ago when brittney left and the whole chaos ensued at nit & music city bloggers was birthed for a short while.

i enjoyed that community of folks at that point, some of the people i'm still in conversations with today. {in fact, have to thank newscoma for tipping me off to this.} back then you looked for the 'fresh rolled blogs' and knew when your site got linked because hits & comments would take off (well, for someone small time like myself). i remember going to the first barcamp cause all my blogger friends were planning on going, which was the first time i met many folks.. remember sitting next to rob robinson & recognizing him immediately because his hat & outfit was exactly like his thumbnail pic on his blog (yes i teased him about that one). met kate o in line with john carney (john whom i've known for years) we were all first in line (well, kate was actually first).

fast forwarding: that medium, that town square, we all met & built our friendships and community on ceases to exist. since those days of nit i can safely say that twitter, facebook, or anything since has garnered the loyalty & passions that the nashville is talking site did for us some four or five years ago. (gosh, has it really been that long?).

i would love some new place find some of that community. but alas, not all good things are forever & nashville is talking served a great place in my cyber musings life. so much so that it impeded into my real life, which i was more than okay with (it just took some explaining to the wife). so long my friend, nashville is talking. (i want to say some 'long tail' ulogy comment, but its just not quite there, so assume i said something clever & smile)

we're all gonna die : so who is your digital executor

saturday i spent my day at barcamp nashville 2009. barcamp is one of my fav days of the year. that along with podcamp are when i get to really hang with the geeks of nashville's tech community. one of the sessions i took in was dave delaney's session titled "we're all gonne die!"

i like dave's presentations because they are never quite what i expect them to be and his gift is that he doesn't try and cover everything in his braintrust. i say that's a gift. anyways, i recorded his session for your viewing pleasures with my notes & thoughts to follow.

Dave Delaney : We're All Gonna Die : BarCamp Nashville 2009 from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

my notes:

• what is going to happen to our content when we die?
• when die what to do with email, paypal, websites, domain names, web hosting fees, facebook, etc.
• facebook will close off profiles to new friends when someone is confirmed as having passed away, but will keep the account live for friends to visit.
• need a "digital executor," someone who knows all your stuff to keep your digital footprint going
• i see this necessity as much as leaving a 'digital legacy' much like the last lecture was from a dad to his children.
• facebook/myspace/blogs become a new place of mourning for a loved one or friend as they pass away. taking the place of the makeshift memorials on roadsides, fences, building walls, etc.

this was an interesting chat with erin after this, exploring the 'digital executor' idea. i'd thought of what might happen to all this stuff i do if i were to pass away. erin knows my passwords that i use and could figure out how to get into each account should she feel that need. however, her expression was, if you died i wouldn't want to mess with that stuff, so it'd be better to have someone to handle that stuff.

so i'm contemplating that.. who would you put in charge as a digital exector? friend, family member? someone you are close to or someone that is close to your wife/family who they are comfortable talking to?

chris brogan & trust agents : stories & philosophy of social media

today i spent my morning (and greater part of the rest of the day) with chris brogan. if you do not know who chris is, my quick description would be that he is the mayor of twitter & one of the most recognized people in the world of social media 'who gets it.' i stumbled across his blog some years ago and have been a constant reader since, many times sharing his postings via google reader or twitter. he's good stuff. so good, i even payed a decent penny to attending this sucker.

anyways, he has a new book out called 'trust agents' and was in nashville as per a promise in a psuedo book tour live web event. a crew of local tech geeks & other business types showed up to hear from the guru for a special 1 hour pre-web conversation with chris & then got to be front and center for the rest of the web event (which was an interesting thing to be a part of).

here is the footage i took from that 1st hour with chris. its on my mini tripod, so the angle is something you might have to get used to, but its doable. with that said, he's tall, but not nearly as gigantic as he looks in video.

Chris Brogan : Trust Agents conversation : Nashville 2009 from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

you can follow the twitter stream of thoughts and conversation by visiting #cbnash at twitter search. check in next week for some expanded thoughts off some of the footage i have from his live web session.

theology of twitter : spirituality and social media

emergent conversant, fellow social media friend, steve knight put together this presentation on a theology of twitter. it has some great content. maybe the greatest content is him quoting me from my spirituality and social media series i did with matt cheuvront.

The Theology Of Twitter

View more presentations from Steve Knight.

telling stories on missions : sharing experiences with congregations

how to use social media to share your ministry story with home congregation & ministry partners from Gavin Richardson

one of the things that social media has allowed myself & you the lay web designer to do is easily share missions, event, and other ministry experiences with our congregations and ministry partners. i know folks are starting to do this more & more, so here's some of the set up & tips that i've used in the past.

• site: have a website that you can do quick updates to. this might be a special wordpress site or typepad/blogger are all formats that give you ease in telling little stories or updates without having to know code or ftp information. you can even use twitter if you need. i also like to use flickr for posting pics & videos. so much easier to upload a batch than to put into a blog posting.
• connections: ask ahead if you can get wifi in the area or cell service, and which kinds of services. if you can get wifi (which is surprisingly much more common than not) its wonderful. next best is cell service & you can probably spring for one of the broadband connecting cards depending on your provider. next, if you can only find cell service you might tether a connection, or just plan to use a smart phone application. my iphone has applications for all kinds of blogging updates, or i can just surf the web browser.
• ahead of time: depending on my anticipated needs i'll set up a posting ahead of time. example: our experience up into appalachia last summer i knew there was no wifi options, so i set up a blog post with a twitter widget that i could send updates to. i gave a shortened url link to the one of the ministry secretaries that she could put into the prayer chain emails.
• hardware: if you have a wifi connection bring your laptop. if you do this right you can stay up a few minutes after lights out, do what you need to do and then close shop and move into the next day. one of my key hardware pieces is a universal card reader. the best 30 bucks i ever spent in ministry. if you don't take the pictures, no worries, borrow someones camera card download theirs and use them to upload. same thing with video. if you have one or more video cameras (we used a sony webbie flip camera and a harddrive camcorder for our bahamas trip this year) bring what cables you need for charging & downloading. if they use flash/sd cards then you just need your universal reader..
• mobile upload: most social media sites have mobile upload options. you need to have them in your back pocket. twitter has an email to post option, as well as twitpic (which will post to your twitter). so if you can send pics or video through your cell service you are good to go. flickr also has an email that will post to your account. have your mobile apps tested out and ready to go before hand.
• choose your portal: life on a missions or other ministry experience is generally filled with little downtime. if you are like me you don't want to spend your every minute telling others and not living into the moment you are in. so, choose what your portal is for sharing. do you want to write out stories? or, like we have done, take the photos and put them out there to tell our story. this year we went more immediate video doing some little one or two minute update videos. since we are photo/video heavy this year, we just used flickr. set up a trip set and gave out the shortend url then populated it as the week went on. boy have we ever populated that... most likely too much. if you want to just have the youth or adult participants write stuff for blogs, give them a heads up. sometimes though its hard for people to sit down and write, so you either need to tell them what to talk about or give them the whole week to work on writing to get into a flow. some folks though, write very easily, well & quickly, look for those folks, but not at the detriment of the experience.
• clean it up: once you get home, clean up some of the url updates, spelling errors, add captions, edit finished versions, add more content, etc. people don't need everything, they love to get a taste or idea of what it looks like & what is happening.

disclaimer/distribution: i've been asked before if i've gotten permission for posting photos and such. yes & no. i've put in our release forms that this is part of our group & i tell parents that this is what we do, so if they have issue we can remedy the situation. most of the times our parents are exstatic to see what's going on. how often do they get frustrated with their kid going to camp, only to return & asked "what happened?" responding "nothin.." with this, they know something did happen. now, we do take some precautions of not putting in names, certainly not full names. we generically name photos most of the time. i don't do uber tagging so it falls into the greater searches, but is usable for my own search. with flickr you can protect download of pics to just your contacts/friends/family which is helpful if you can get people to get a free account and 'friend' you.

bringing back the blog : an idea for the future

i basically took the month of june off from blogging, in case you didn't notice.. part was work induced, part was family induced, mostly though, i needed to take a break & figure out how to come back to blogging and feel good about it.

i figured to come back july 1st.. oh well.

the new ideas to the blog, will be to integrate more video commentary & teaching into my postings. this will mean less posting (which probably should have happened years ago), but hopefully a broader sharing of thoughts in not just the written medium but branching into video. we'll see how that goes. my goal is to integrate one to two postings a week in that format.

another spot too, as fillers to commentary, is to put in more practical looks into youth ministry & technology. its my calling & i've strayed way too far from it in the past few years getting caught up in some big church things. i still love the big church stuff, but i've been narrowing my 'responsibilities' and helping to distribute talents to some of the networks i've developed over these last 15 years of ministry so to tend to my flock God blessed me with more fully.

i might fall off what stool i was on in the big church landscape, but that is totally cool & totally necessary. not really sure how i got there in the first place, probably my own pride & ambition. regardless, i'm feeling really good going into this new phase of ministry & how to share it with others.

looking forward to reconnecting with you all again soon.

shalom

-gav

long time no post : i do have a plan

hey all, as you can see i've been sort of on a blogging hiatus. a few things seem to have brought this on.

• i've been increasingly asked to do projects (and asked to be a part of a few) that are taking up what blog time i've had.
• church life (for which pays my bills) has been blessed with some great growth & renewal opportunities. the opportunities need a great amount of attention.
• family life, erin & i are expecting child (if you hadn't already heard) and some of the prep stuff for that is adding on
• i want to be a lawn master! when i was a kid i mowed the lawn.. now i am now trying to figure out how to grown lawn & flower beds & all the extras. i figure i can start to live out loving neighbor by having a kickin lawn. not to mention i get to see & chat with all the neighbor folks when i'm outside. its a good thing
• i've been twittering, probably a bit too much that is arguable, which has been a lot of my commentary and conversations in social media spectrum.
• i am playing more golf. more on that later. but its a good thing for me... well, when i play okay. somedays are just bad.
• there is probably more, but this seems a sufficient list.

with all this, i'm not killing or shutting down my blog. with the time away i have a new vision for trying to take this medium and use it to its fullest. i won't reveal the whole plan, but i will resurge again with posting regularly, but not daily. personal stuff is going to move over to our family site and i am going to devote this space to the projects, ideas, training, etc that i am becoming a part of.

God has really blessed me with some excellent understandings, some name recognition, and a the coolest community of people to associate with. so i cannot see a reason to not be a part of the methoblogosphere & cyber communities. thanks for hanging with me

shalom
-gav

blogging towards enlightenment : discovering your virtual self

i've been doing some guest postings over at matt cheuvront's 'life without pants' blog talking up spirituality and social media. last week we talked about enlightenment & blogging today we are talking about discovering your virtual self.

got check them out, let me know what you think. lay claim to some of the stories & expand on them. did i mention that my latest posting i actually use capitalization? yeah, it was wreaking havoc on matt post editing

immersing in the new media : what has happened to my blogging

i regularly called blogging my spiritual practice. it was a way of reflecting on some idea or challenge that came across in my day. however, if i was honest with myself, the 'spiritual' aspect of my blogging practice was waining. very few times did i really have some thought that was challenging on a daily basis. instead, and probably more healthy as a practice, i was pondering something for weeks or months at a time. but that doesn't help in keeping an active blog going. so i have been feeling like i was putting in a bunch of filler stuff.

well, some of that filler stuff (which i do think was good most of the time, admittedly not all the time) is moving around to other avenues, along with some of my other ponderings. i am more and more using twitter as a way of crossing the town green, sharing prayers, information, links and photos from my day etc. i have also taken advantage of posting within facebook.

i've started to reshape my blog to reflect this change. putting all my lifestream stuff through friendfeed and showing it off on the side bar. i also created a lifestream page that is more expanded.

tricky part to all of this is that there is not a searchable long tail in twitter content. its probably a good thing as i am not sure i want to find 140 character snippets for the first page of all my searches. so what is worthy of sharing for the long term? i'm still trying to figure that one out.

blogbatical : 70s & february

if you are in nashville you know that its not february.. at least weather wise. so i am on a weather induced blogbatical. back to posting tomorrow, when it is supposed to rain.

i am the whiteboard : coo coo cachoo

its been a long time since i did a web quiz. this one was short & sweet & i can live with the results. tip to ironic catholic

You Are a Whiteboard

You are a dreamer, a visionary, and a straight up idea person. You are very creative. Even if the things you think up are a bit wacky, they often are brilliant.

You are an adept problem solver. You are always tossing around dozens of ideas. You would make a good artist, designer, or architect. You do best when work feels like play.

What Office Supply Are You?

look back into the past : the things that were about this time years ago

in my on going toss out of lifting up some of the archives of this blog from similar time period over the years.

• i jumped in on some oovoo conversations with marketing & tech type people (pretty sure i was the only youth minister participating in the event). that was fun, but oovoo hasn't taken off. tokbox seems to be the next multi person video conference center.
• some ponderings from the desert fathers & mothers on parenting & youth ministry
• everyone can use some new 'faith filled' pick up lines
• an early morning reflection on the homeless in my city
• remember when the nfl was going to sue churches if you had a super bowl party.. seems they have learned from that pr nightmare
• i was again likened to a celebrity.. well, he wasn't so much celebrity then, he's more now
• church shopping & the devices of the entertaining church
• i took the strengths profile test that our church is big proponent of. can you guess what i came out as?
• my abbey journal kept while on retreat at gethsemani. good times, need to get back soon.
• in what is the only time you see capital letters use consistently, my pastor michael williams guest blogged on the theological conversation with miroslav volf
• this is what happens when you are friends with jonathon norman
• thoughts on how justice issues can become an idol unto themselves
• some ponderings on contemporary worship in my church context & how our greater church sold their soul to contemporary worship
• starbucks goes down!

caption contest & freebie : winners & close to winners

i got a little distracted, sorry, i know you all were waiting on the edge of your seats for this announcement. but i am naming my inauguration day caption contest freebie give away winners.

i loved all the captions for various reasons. so i'm giving away some choice stuff to my top three.

reverend mommy: "And how long will those indulgences last?" now i'd say that prez bush shouldn't believe in indulgences since he is methodist, but let's be honest, he isn't much for listening to his church, so this works for me

kevin alton: "...so he says (heh heh), 'Does the Pope wear a funny hat?' (heh) Get it? (heh heh) Get it? A funny hat!"  (heh) Pause. "What?" Pause. "Lemme start over..." i had john stewart's bush imitation in my head with this one, so i laughed pretty good with that. a bit long for a caption, but hey, this is my completely subjective contest.

aaron alexander: Now that I'm done with this President thing, you down for some Xbox this weekend? Call of Duty is right my alley! just the idea of the president playing video games, and its complete possibility was a great image to me.. and its within plausibility that he'd say something like this too.

to you three fine captioners. look in your mail for some treats courtesy of me.

a band by any other name : wind farming

the good bishop schnay-z whom i got to hang with the other night had some really nice thoughts on connection from our evening conversations. much more well spoken than my bullet list. one thing that i found interesting, and i quite like it, is he called jay & myself 'wind farmers' for some of our work with the methoblog. jay thinks itd be a great band name.. i'm just glad the bishop isn't from tennessee as we don't have much wind farming in tennessee.. itd be more like coal ash mush shovelers.

congress on evangelism : blogger bishop meet up

tuesday was my second day at the congress on evangelism. i took in two workshop sessions, one with mike slaughter of ginghamsburg notoriety, and bishop robert schnase of 5 fruitful practices notoriety. the cool part, and the anticipated moment for the day was a sit down conversation with bishop robert schnase about church & technology with some of our "methotweet" & "methoblogger" community.

folks in attendance, were my wifey erin richardson, theresa coleman aka reverend mommy, jay voorhees, amy shanholtzer & stephen drachler, wayne cook aka tnrambler, kathi ambler, bishop schnase, midlife rookie, & amy forbus of dog & God.

some of the things we discussed as i can best frame

• the essence of blogging community & how they are bona-fide relationships for us
• the sharing of information & creative media, creative commons ethos
• communication across the lines of the church, cultivating a relationship connection
• finding the bright voices to lead the church, who are they?
• some of the role of technology in church
• we solved global warming, but jay doesn't think it'll work
• the bishop as a blogger and engaging in social media
• how we have huge divides in the church over a theology of bbq
• plus more

we had some really great conversation for about 3 to 4 hours. a bunch of laughs, stories, and a few deep thoughts. strange though, we didn't talk about twilight or potter puppet pals. i would loved to have discussed that.

i've posted some of the photos from my days hanging out at the congress.

blogger meet up : the bishop robert schnase

if you are in the nashville area, a blogger, and got some free evening time on wednesday evening. come over to the congress on evangelism for a blogger meet up with bishop robert schnase. amy posted info at the methoblog.

Several of us attending the upcoming Congress on Evangelism in Nashville are pulling together a blogger meetup at the supper break time on Wednesday, January 7. We haven't yet set the location; one factor in that decision is how many people we expect to have. So, please email me at aforbus(at)umr.org by Friday, Jan. 2 if you plan to attend the meetup. Bishop Robert Schnase will be part of the gathering.

UPDATE: We've decided to meet later, to get around the time crunch of the supper break. We are going to meet up after worship and go somewhere that'll let us sit around and talk past 9:00.

bishop schnase is the toast of methodism with his fruitful congregations book & resource. i first ran into him at the umerging event back in 2006 when he sat in as a q&a with bishop scott jones. that was a heated little conversation, but in the following years i believe we all understand each other more. i liked bishop schnazz then & i expect to like him more after hanging out.

stirring the pot : back to sex week challenge

my article for the united methodist reporter got picked up by the dallas morning news religion blog. as i'd expect there are folks who disagree with me. that's perfectly okay. not a problem with that. i disagreed with pastor ed, so its only fair conversation.

things on tab : stories sex religion church teens and technology

as part of my new integration of lifestream stuff into my blogs newer look. i've been plugging a lot of stuff into my gavin del.icio.us account. so you can track back to these and other links of interest long after this posting (and others) have cycled out of view. i'm working on figuring out how i like stumbleupon or digg.

• simply my favorite story of a teenager & faith that i've read in a long time. here is his official website & a powerful youtube video testimony
• in similar news, jolly blogger announces he has cancer
• a big deal with the episcopalian church break up is, what to do with the property? the umc has the same set up, so this is interesting news for me.
• the wifey wanted me to read this.. its true, i have bad sleeping habits. sage advice?
• i'd say this is pretty darn cool for perkins school of theology
• poor pastor, at least he's got his congregation
• muslim teenagers growing up in america. not so easy to keep to traditional rules
• 10 questions that separate girls from women.. how do you answer?
• some united methodist churches talk merger
• inside of the bernard madoff's 'scam of the century' (though, this century is kinda young)
• phyllis tickle and peter rollins talk emergence shop
• a lot of folks upset or happy about rick warren doing the invocation. this one caught my eye though. ben witherington always has a thorough thought on the subject
• if you missed my sex week challenge article
• reverend mommy's prayer musings and her last supper lunch box
• locking down your own data
• turbulent cleric on reimagining the world a sermon of sorts
• asbo jesus at it again
• sky lowe mccracken highlights the troubles of a methodist university
• chris brogan on the distinctions of a blog post versus twitter post & how to see that in the whole social media spectrum
• is a green shift in home ownership going to save economic times?
• jason's many hats
• newspapers are still figuring out the whole conversation thing, by techcrunch
• top 10 photography tips and tricks plus why you should shoot in raw format
• josh's guide to God blessed college football bowl games

life of the blog : this week in retrospect

as i am doing every now and then, during this 4th year anniversary of ye' ole' blog i'm pulling out some posts that are significant to me for some reason.

• part of me is that i am an ambitious slacker..
• had an advent district worship service where we did prayer stations, choir of angels was my fav
• i began pondering the brilliance of henri nouwen's "clowning in rome"
• still one of my favorite morning prayers
• i wasn't then & i am still not, a fan of the war metaphor in youth ministry

tweet patterns : i do work

this seems to be a new thing roaming around the net. a graph chart on your twitter patterns. i felt like recognizing that have a very low twitter rate during my critical times of the day. you can also check out the wifey's twitter pattern.

happy b'day to me : blog-aversary

today marks four years of blogging. wow!

as i think of my the life of this blog it's gone through some interesting times. days of big numbers, lots of posting, seasons of posts on church life, church & culture commentary, monasticism, youth ministry, methodist everything, then more and more oddities (which i think is what i've been doing a lot of lately).

my thought to celebrate four years is to do some rooting through the archives and find some gems. some cool thoughts maybe, some commentary or reflections that don't make sense anymore.

so i will be going through and finding significant posts that reflect the same week four weeks back.

back in 2005 around this time beth stroud's case of being defrocked, undefrocked, and defrocked again. i also had found some resemblance of the modern church in this monty python sketch.

internet is our parish : nuts and bolts

in a few hours i will be in session for my first workshop here at christian educators fellowship conference in albuquerque. my first workshop is a nuts and bolts session we will be going over a better website and see where that one takes us. next session (tomorrow at 2pm mountain time) i will be going over building communities and social media. lots of fun stuff.

this is not the first time, but i am using liveworship as my presentation software. i felt the organic nature that this topic can take was disserviced by a linear training method like keynote (i actually started using keynote but abandoned it at last minute). liveworship is not as slick at keynote in bells and whistles and tweaking the spacings, but it will service just fine i am sure.

these are my all encompassing notes for my workshop... i might revise as i get closer to time.. i've revised them every time i've opened up the file. already did one edit to the first saved copy.

The Internet is Our Parish, by Gavin Richardson

I am also making suggested reading this free e-book from chris forbes

Facebook for Pastors, by Chris Forbes

blog or not to blog : rise of social media

mitch joel has some expanded thoughts on why you need to invest in social media & disagreement over the life and/or death of blogging. he has rooted some great thinking lines.

It sounds like we're back to the relationship over the immediate sale.

Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It's almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter...

"Don’t blog to get known, blog to be knowable."

barcamp nashville : live blogging

erin & i are attending barcamp nashville today. i'll be live blogging what i can, as i did last year. you can also follow my twitter, and the barcamp twitter feed.

the wifey and i are all settled in & registered. got a cool t-shirt and already ran into john.

wordpress 101 : power to the people via mitch canter in 'other camp'
why wordpress?

• dynamic
• easy to use
• open source, hundreds of plug-ins available
• powerful
• useful & free!
• is the last software you'll ever use to maintain a website

where can i get?

• www.wordpress.com & www.wordpress.org
• .org user downloads the software
• requirements php 4.2.x or above, mysql 4.0
• godaddy.com or dreamhost give good deals on hosting and will do a turn key application

why host it yourself?

• custom themes
• advanced heirarchy
• ability to host podcast (podpress & powerpress)
• you own content!

set up!

• copy wordpress to your site via ftp
• database name, database username, database password, database host, table prefix
• confirm, run the install
• name it, log back in, you're in!

files

• missed stuff
• sidebar, recent posts, recent comments, blog counter, page index, widgets, etc.
• footer
• index, brings in the template and 'the loop' displays posts in chronological order, can be customized for any theme design, runs using logical php

why so passionate about wordpress?

• you can edit or make changes without knowing code
• wordpress themes are designed just like regular web sites
• go from photoshop, to dreamweaver, then to wordpress, then internet (works well and custom)

successful social media overview by david bullock in 'basecamp'

what do to?

• small workable steps
• case study barack 2.0 (www.barack20.com), he was using twitter, linkedin, myspace, meetup, flickr, friendfeed, facebook, youtube
• obama, has over 100,000 followers on twitter, you can push a headline, you can be authentic, valuable to the people who are following you.
• a url now is a new premium. if you can find something cool and give to people you have added value to their life. do that often enough they start following you
• use email, twitter & be valuable across the medium
• twittterholic.com list barack leads
• mobile messaging, (trumpia) and you can send them a text message. obama campaign sent out txt collected over
• user generated content, "yes we can" if you create a story that people become interested in, they will create content on your behalf. over 10million views of yes we can video, 53,000 comments.
• product placement, xbox 360 burnout paradise
• widgets / calculators - visitor engagement. the use of the obama tax calculator
• know your numbers, bounce rate is critical, people come to site and then leave cause it's not what they want. low bounce rate.
• product creation & distribution, 81% conversion. go from video to podcast, transcribe it then put out ebook or newsletter from just one conversation then move it offline to magazine for monetizing
• barack 2.0 site folks interview the barack obama site creators, check out
• you can take a blog and podcast that is not monetized and make it work for you if you pay attention to the market

• twitter is actually a mailing list.. think about it
• engage people who have a lot of folks who are following them. they will ask, who is this person?
• instead of talking about cats & what eating, have stuff of value
• 140 characters is a headline

• your major marketing channels: your blog, your list, your customers/clients, your comments/commentators, internet-email/twitter/social media, offline-magazines/etc
• props brought up for jackson's urlzen

times up!

pr 2.0 the deer have guns now via steve horton & bill seaver in 'other camp'

• some book drops, missed those
• choose a tool, simple tool or high end
• monitor, set up rss feeds on google alerts for business, boss etc. if you are into/needing metrics you can go paid route
• who are the talkers about you? what is their motivation? how much influence do they have? who is in their network? (how are they connected)
• you can feed twitters searches into your rss feed
• learn the culture, if you are new to this space you need to learn the culture to give your 'pitch'.. its not a traditional media outlet
• second, become a participant, get on twitter, comment on blogs, join relevant discussion boards & forums. (there is active chatter in discussion boards, don't write off them completely)
• pitch bloggers strategically, don't pitch them like traditional media outlet.
• the p.o.s.t. method (from ground swell book, that was one of the book drops)
  
  • people, who is it that you are trying to reach, who is going to do the reaching? marketing & pr are increasingly coming together in the social media space (so true). put money into people cause people have time and time is what is needed to work.
  • objective, what are you trying to do, accomplish
  • strategy, how are you going about doing that?
  • technology, tech comes at the end when you identify objective people and strategy. that is the only time tech should come up. where most folks start the tech and back into it.
• creating really good content, create & enable. e.i.e.i.o (average american gets hit with 4000 advertisements)
  • entertain
  • inspire
  • educate
  • inform
  • outrage
• measure your engagement, are the things you are specifically concerned about influencing are they happening? where should people be talking us? where are you no where on the radar?
• make it easy for others to create content, be not afraid for people to create content for you. how easy is it for them to grab all the logos and images they would want to create content for you?
• maybe create a whole news room on site for such a thing
• don't cross the post it note car and others this day and time!

times up!

podcasting, blogging, etc via mitch canter in 'other camp'
what is new media?

• social, the collaborative efforts of us
• interactive, not just something we do and push to side, but interact with
• immersive, there is always something we do
• omnipotent, it only knows what we put in it, but once its on there its there forever
• adding & sharing information, ideas, and lives

three main categories

• blogs
• podcasts
• social networks

blogs

• a conjunction with web/log
• shares easily
• rss (really simple syndication)
• to start, find a topic you enjoy, sign up, start blogging
• "the power of the press is only available to those who can afford a press, we all have press' now"

podcast

• main fear is getting over the fear of your own voice
• takes the information from your brain and puts it out there for others to listen too
• start with a blog it has rss, software (audacity, protools, garageband)
• microphone
• really really easy
• record it
• upload it (archive.org)
• publish it (podcast.com bluberry.com, itunes)
• lots of podcasting directions, get your artwork ready before distributing through itunes
• 2mobile used for sending out video feed anywhere. is there a place for podcasts? let us know

social networks

• network for people meeting together, connecting together
• general networks (facebook, myspace, twitter)
• niche networks (deviant art, linkedin)
• why use? to connect with people, to share ideas
• search.twitter.com for rss searches on twitter & hashtags
• privacy issues? hopefully we will be smart enough not to put stuff on the net that we don't want others to know about
• tubemogul.com to send one video to 17 services, 5 for free
• throwing out friendfeed for putting a plug in on site to harness all the stuff you are doing

times up!

free! digital loss leaders in the new economy via josh goggans in 'other camp'
how can we understand using free products, or sold as a loss to generate more sales.
the rEvolution of free! driving the new economy

• technology is cheap. everything on the net has a fixed cost & it is fairly cheap to add more in distribution. as numbers grow the per user cost goes down. you can get more users and eyeballs by giving it away.
• attention economy, with the net you can distribute digital content to a vast majority that you were never able to reach before, because they have something valuable, time.
• youtube has a vast amount of content and users so they have a vast amount of resource of peoples times, so they are getting a lot of monetization from that
• google forced yahoo to give away its email services for free
• the downturn is driving the free economy, so people are looking to save money. when the economy is good people are willing to spend money for convenient (netflix, example) when the economy goes down people have more time

models of free!

• the direct cross subsidy (askaninja.com you watch videos for free but pay for , local rabbit room offers music for sale to the free fanbase)
• media business model, business is offering free content because someone else is paying for the advertisements (leo leporte's podcast network is subsidized by advertising niche audiences. city paper might be a local model)
• "freemium" multiple teirs of a product, one limited set is free, to get more unlimited framework is paid. (flickr as an example, basecamp as well)
• "gift economy" capitalize on the scarce resources of peoples time (google 411 as example instead of cellphones companies paid call, they are collecting the data for future efforts, noisetrade.com is a more local example)

rules for using free in the economy

• you need a business plan. you just can't go out giving away free stuff
• be transparent, if users are feeling you are shady they will walk away
• it needs to be free. if you say it is free it needs to be free, no clauses. they will feel slighted and never use anymore
• value to them/user
• needs to be easy, if it is a complicated process they will walk away

people will watch if it is unique information in how its presented, has to do with you, niche

times up!

digital enablement in rural tennessee via paul van hoesen in 'other camp'
need to educate the stakeholders in the community, particularly rural area as many times agricultural background

• we are 15th in per capita broadband penetration among developed countries
• the us ranks in the lower third of nation in terms of the rate of broadband adoption. ie. 2/3rds of the developed world is connecting its population to the internet faster than we are. the top third is doing this at 2x the rate of the us
• in about 2000 the rural and urban areas diverged as usability and for some groups if you are not online you are not part of the conversation puts rural communities out the conversation
• digital citizenship produces the unseen downward spiral. high tech workforces leave out those who are not familiar with tech
• realities of fall survey, 29% had no computer at home, 47% did not have broadband, large gaps in broadband availability
• connectedtennessee.org
• the school is an important place of exposure to technology. for some students, its is all the exposure they may ever have
• real transformation occurs when the major local stakeholders agree to work together toward a common goal
• technology quotient? measure of personal technology readiness, regions attractiveness to new industry and ability. needs digitally educated employee

digital citizenship

• essential life skill, having email, instant messaging address, being able to find online information, posting a resume, online banking, online purchasing, relational online networking tools
• essential life skills are now the essential business skills
• increasing the technology quotient can stimulate an upward economic development spiral
• how to increase? computer ownership at home, community labs or collaborative environments, technology incubators to have young with mentors in digital business by peers and connection to outside support groups

initiatives

• expand internet access to unserved areas of the country
• touch typing, train students in touch typing starting in 6th grade. you have to know 30 words a min to get into 8th grade in lauderdale county
• video as supplemental lesson
• lynda.com fab resource for online training

video production goals

• incorporation of video into non-cte classrooms, creative writing, science, school morning broadcast, school's psa
• incorporate into advanced cte classes, teach commercial software packages like adobe
• courses are very wide-ranging

how can the digital have help?

• connect with the school system once a month as volunteer
• classroom webinars
• build and online mentoring relationship
• volunteer to help a tech teacher get resources they might need
• volunteer with community non-profit
• offer tech training to work programs

times up!

took some lunch with wifey, john and chris. talked a lot of geocaching in rippy's

seo site clinc by john w ellis & jon henshaw in 'other camp'

• if sites are structured well you shouldn't need a site map
• its all about who is linking to you, amazon and others selling your product are getting the link love
• going through www.chefjoanna.com website

not too much from this.. hard to follow what felt like a consulting session

brand management & marketing foundations via pinky gonzales in 'base camp'

brand is like describing the wind. brand is different for every single person that observes it. the brand is one thing & the perception of the brand is another thing

• imaging (logos, typfaces, colorschemes, etc)
• reputation, it is important to tend to the reputation that coincides with your brand
• associations, you are defined in part by who you hang with and associate with. we define a brand based on the preconceptions that we know about that person. politicians work within that especially
• platform
• stereotypes, if you brand is in anyway associated with a stereotype it can get you brand out even quicker
• communication, how you communicate the functions, flickr uses casual error messages, southwest humor

know thyself. personal brand. madonna & bono classic examples. the better we know ourselves the better we know the brand we can develop.

personal brand

• appearance, says something about my brand
• personality traits, the way you are wired
• psychological attributes, the way you think
• spiritual views, some peoples entire brand is based on their spiritual views. it will help to dictate what your brand eventually is
• political opinions
• social associations
• occupation,

to know yourself is to know your perspective on the world. to understand your perspective on the world is to justify the strategic decisions you make for yourself and those you serve.

company brand

• logos, can be so iconic that you don't even need a word.
• names, we are in a new era for corporate name branding.. in part due to domain squatting, trademark is easier to own a misspelling than a correct spelling,.. amazon is a name that we have re-purposed, sprint & apple the same way. catagory killers, names that created the category itself, kleenex/xerox/q-tip. slogans, spend so much time and effort that we are now familiar.
• iconic brands,
• product brands, brands within a brand, ipod. sum of the brands reaches the overarching message
• marketing foundations, be genuine, who are we after? how do we communicate? our reach? be in touch.  know. be consistent. a solid strategy implemented consistently over time has no other option but to grow, but in our hyper society we sometimes want abandon. listen, persistently

times up!

make google your bitch by jon henshaw in 'base camp'

keywords and domains sitting in a tree..

• google loves keyword

keywords and domains shouldn't use birth control

• buy domains that relate keyword to your
• buy domains, with dashes can be read better
• create vertical micro-sites

vertical mini-site

• focus on the keywords in the domain
• reuse/rewrite content, rewrite a bit so it doesn't look like duplicate content
• contribute frequently, build wordpress suggestion
• build links and test with ppc as a landing page
• link liberally to main parent domain

own competitors' traffic

• register a keyword centric domain that includes the word 'reviews'
• create a review website (wp and a good theme)
• only write about your competitors. am i insane? possibly..

avoid nofollow (nofollow is something the google police came up with, an attribute to put on blog comments so i could build links, they won't pass 'link juice')

sans "nofollow"

• with rare exception, always try to build links that don't use nofollow
• its a popularity contest, they are looking for who all people follow
• use 'do follow' directories, the absence of nofollow
• keep track of social networks that are 'do follow'
• use raven's free firefox toolbar to highlight nofollow links

external, internal & inbound

• write blog entries and articles frequently
• link out to high quality, relevant websites often
• make a habit of referencing high traffic sites, it will stroke the ego
• internal linking will reinforce keywords and context to google
• make anchor text keyword specific - don't use 'click here'
• nofollow unimportant pages, re-emphasize the important pages in your site
• keep and eye on nofollow links
• advertising won't help much other than to temporarily advertise

reputation repair

• social networking profiles
• wikipedia entry
• create vertical micro-sites
• argh missed the last three..

not my best note taking, but it's been a day. i'm sure you understand.
times up! barcamp nashville is over for this session. will check the website for future video updates.

blog action day : poverty

today is blog action day on  poverty.

you too can be a hater : picking on jay

i'm picking on jay. he can take it. having a little fun with this westboro baptist church sign generator. tip jeremy

short distance dedication : sweet song

john reminded me of a instance where i was watching some hip mtv show and started singing a background song. wife asked what the song was, i told her it was matthew sweet. she didn't know who i spoke of.. we're in counseling now (haha) & i share this video as a short distance dedication to my lovely wife. &:~D

a photo remembrance : the stache lives

so was i flipping through some old photos. this one caught my attention. it's jonathon & jay, but rocking their excellent facial hair (which they don't rock anymore). this was a stop at jacobs well church in kansas city when we were up there for the umerging conversation back in 2006. made some excellent friends that week. had some blogging fun with other friends, and the jay stache became such a powerful entity in the emerging church we had to give it forums to speak.

anyways, a little stroll down memory lane.

a good day : its what i like

this morning started with a bit of a chaotic drive through nashville rush hour. not something i have had to deal with for a few years now. but, in the end, i spent my morning hours with jay, chatting a new book project and all points updates on each others lives.

now i'm sitting in alektor cafe, chilling out, reading a bit, eating some good foods, and just breathing in prayer. this, is the kind of morning i miss having not living as close to downtown as i used to. it may sound shallow or an excuse, but having physical, pilgrimage sites, to feel rejuvenated really does make a difference.

as the wife blogs : freshly rolled

erin had started a new hybrid blog of personal & business stuff as 'the bugbabe' now she's working up a new more business blog, but i'm sure it will morph at a point, called 'the buzz of nashville.' give her some love would ya please. now, if only i can get her to twitter...

bringing in new folks : to your blog

barbara has a thorough posting on how to strategically bring in new inbound links. there are some things in there that i hadn't thought about, some i didn't know i benefited from. a few i'll ponder further

6. Search Google for blogs that cover a topic you’re writing about and link to them.

8. Create a way to regularly invite bloggers to send links to you

9. Invite others to guest blog - they’ll promote you on their site and link back to you

i might add, get to know people. barbara i met when i was in chicago for a district training event. yup, that means she's a good methodist gal, along with her being a social media & pr expert. which makes her super cool in my book. so i am more apt to follow her and link to her.

since i'm bringing in the church.. do you see any parallels found in social media etiquette to welcome in new interest to your church community?

old friend : new metho blogger

my old friend mark conforti has started blogging. mark, i know, was one of the first people to hear about this blog. what is funny is that as young person friends go, mark and i met through service with mountain top but his wife mary allan crafted a friendship with erin working at lake junaluska. years later we're all some odd happy family.

if you haven't heard. old blogging buddy shane is back!

wednesday randomness : link love

oh some stuff for your procrastination

• happy meal virtual world
• sad beating of a gay teen
• i agree, but that is the case for all teenage television shows
• skateboarding franciscan
• are we obsessed with youth culture that we get rid of our older folks? what's old? i might be out of a job
• teens dressing modestly? i'm not shocked
• virtual world to real world.. difference?
• what, like you didn't hang out looking for that older person, but we had to pay for it
• sex sells, so they say, so this isn't terribly creative but predictable
• i'm impressed they wrote a thank you note
• stats show this doesn't work,.. i could go on for half a day on this
• this could actually be a real reality show.. documentary
• what is before the next generation
• if youth ministry were a website.. interesting question
• when halo isn't enough, give this non-recruitment tool a shot
• creating business from a blog
• how dare you push around cartoonchurch!
• "Jesus needs a drink" i can't resist, title is too good
• wisdom of friends, get a mentor.. after watching the hall of fame inductions last week. they all had mentors. not gangs, posse, crews, entourage.. but mentors
• why we prefer a segregated sunday
• can i feel this way too?
• guilty as charged
• neat charging station idea
• there is nothing wrong with you.. serious

mass of links : something i really should organize

in my ever growing list of links. i realize i should probably at some point organize them, or offer commentary of my own.. naaah...

• myyearbook.com continues to grow. will it be the next myspace / facebook?
• the new romantic engagement process.. not so much
• andy is moving to nashville.. yeah! more music city bloggers
• jim palmer on the church basement roadshow.. i think he nibbed one of my pics. good thing we are friends &:~D
• top twittering church leaders... why am i not on this list?
• andrew wrapping up business of the church series: strategic planning
• allen on how the church is very political
• bw3 breaks down 'the shack' in the way only he can do.. really loong, but great, thoughts
• josh on scriptures that you can laugh at
• simple youth ministry is into the txt game. bit more expensive than my plan
• i have the blogger part taken care of, so if i were a woman, i'd go to this..
• so what your telling me is these sexy teen dramas are bad?
• teens and their tattoos. just don't get the tramp stamp kids
• start of a new job position, teenage green marketing manager. watch for it
• what if rock horror picture show was remade with teen cast? imagine
• i still like the children's book. but for my lazy day, this will do
• most modern libraries in the world.. the one down street from my house is not on the list, though they just got some renovations. i was really hoping
• i'm a new contributor to the technopastor. look for me to.. well give much of the same babble
• go ahead and get started on next years vbs. i enjoyed it!
• i don't know if they set the pace or just take the lead in adopting technology
• wisdom of crowds, customer evangelism.. your consumer is important, you should listen
• to be a rigid parent or not to be & have some rebellious child. that is the question
• is today's generation more or less colorblind (cough.. racist)
• my wrestling will be more family friendly now.. now erin might actually like it (she is my family and it will be her friend)
• sync any desktop cal with google cal.. nice!
• brains (featured above) courtesy of asbo jesus
• rowan williams address to the lambuth conference. brian mclaren got a chance to talk as well
• 10 secrets to better blogging.. dang, are they secrets now?
• the difficulty of singing contemporary
• wasting your money on short term missions..
• print made us more individualistic. great book that i loved
• worshiping the messenger, missing the message (possibly the best title ever jim)
• sam is noticing that people are interested in gen y.. y?
• say it aint so thunder! say it aint so!
• what makes a congregation distinctly methodist? hmm... exactly
• how your church can break into social media and get free pub!
• "typical baptist" (okay, shaun gets the best title award)
• best hardware & software.. stuff you should have or strive to have.
• chris on 50 steps to establishing a social media practice

senior high mission experience twittered : asp in real time

today i am heading out into eastern kentucky with 44 youth and young adults to work with asp (appalachia service project) as part of our senior high mission experience. i don't expect to have wi-fi access at camp, so i'm putting in this twitter feed. i am confident in verizon to give me enough service to give updates via twitter. stop in regularly or subscribe to my twitter updates for your cell phone.

 

hfumc youth asp twit

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