In a previous post, I mentioned how we are re-designing the downloads portal at LifeWay.com. In this video segment I share a little bit about the standard process I use when concepting a webpage. Enjoy!
As of Saturday, May 10th, I have officially completed my school work and been given the degree of Master’s of Business Administration from Liberty University. It’s quite nice to be done and completed, having successfully gone through the courses and learned the concepts and structures of business on a Master’s level.
I chose Liberty as my school of choice for this program because I wanted a fully online experience, which I what I got. I never made it to the school, I never met any of my professors and I never met any of my classmates. I was able to do everything asynchronously and learned my studies through my own will and determination.
The program was quite interesting, as it requires of its students to be very mature and adult. Unlike undergrad work, there is no hand holding involved. You either read the materials or you don’t. You either learn the concepts or you don’t. You either do the work or you don’t.
The education through the MBA program has helped me feel secure in my knowledge of business plans, economic theories, and given me a solid foundation to more forward with exploring the business and marketing application of new media.
And so, with much pomp and circumstance, you are more than welcome to call me “Master Linne” from here on out. 
When we were in Seattle, John let us play with the Microsoft Surface.
One of the questions I asked (you can hear it in the video) is when I can use it with my XBox. John’s answer was that it could play Games for Windows, so I could play Halo 2 on it…
But this guy got confirmation that it could be used as an accessory to the actual 360.
Sweet, delicious table-gaming on the XBox. Now go make me a Magic: The Gathering game to go with it, please!
Rob Bell seems to be a touchy subject for a lot of Christians. So I’m not going to touch any of that… I just wanted to explore about with what’s actually happening with Rob Bell.
Last weekend, we got to have dinner with our good friend, Finn, and his family to celebrate his graduation from Belmont University. We sat across from this grandparents, and we talked about ministry and churches all night long. It was wonderful to have the ears and attention of solid, devout Christians who were older, more mature, and knew more than us. One of the topics that we talked about was this:
Preaching is becoming an archaic, specialized form of communication. We could only come up with two things in life that are similar in the approach and methods of most sermons: university lectures and formal presentations at work. As such, it seldom matters how good a communicator is or what their topic is… most people nowadays simply don’t know how to process a sermon. It’s either too much information or not presented correctly (for me, it’s too slow… I take in much more information in a much shorter time period every day at work).
Now then, if this is a problem for Christ-followers… what must it be like for a new Christian or someone who is just exploring faith and life? To never have been exposed to a “worship service” before and to walk in and have to follow the lead of the crowd around them and listen in a way that they simply have never done before… is that a good perception ofwhat it means to be learning? What, then is the point of preaching if not to teach… and if the point is to teach, then what are our churches learning?
So why is Rob Bell being so successful with preaching? If you don’t think he is, that’s ok. But there are few people who have as many DVDs of their teaching as Rob does, and less that have gone on tour with their sermons (and then sold them as successful DVDs).
Rob’s teachings are like songs. They crescendo and repeat and become famliar. He teaches in a way that introduces you to ideas and concepts like you already knew them. He’s turning teaching into art.
I don’t want to talk about whether his content is good or not; this isn’t the place for that and - quite humbly - I’m not enough of a Biblical scholar to tell you a valid opinion to your arguments. But what amazes me is how he turns delivering a message into an art. Just check out one of his nooma videos; one glance will tell you that he’s got skilled people working to make a short film and they are passionate about doing so.
Rob isn’t alone. He has a team that put together the message into an artform for those videos - I know, because their names are on the credits. And in his sermons at his church, he often tag-teams with other speakers, to get the message just right. Regulary, he turns into a character on the stage, turning to the theatrical.
I’m not sure what’s happening with sermons across the expanse of the church in the United States… but what’s happening with Rob is he’s turning it into an artform. And I will listen and learn and recall a song long before I can recall a sermon…
I bought a zune because I saw the vision Microsoft had for the XBox 360, and I fully understood the direction they were going to take the zune. and now, with the software version 2.5, they are oh so close to being there.
Zune, when it first launched, used the tagline of “Join the Social.” The product was pretty much made fun of for using that tagline out of the gate; the Zune wasn’t quite a full fledge social device right away. The only real social aspects was the ability to share songs from one device to another, but even that had (and has) very limited restrictions.
2.5 has introduced a slew of new features that bring the Zune into the real social arena.
First off is a much better implementation of the Zune Card (the equivalent of an XBox 360 GamerTag). You can view my actual profile page here (it’s flash, and WordPress doesn’t like flash objects. Shame on you, WordPress!). There’s also a Facebook App that plugs the Zune Card into your profile there.
But, none of that is the innovative stuff. Anyone can have a webpage and put content on it and that are third-party iTunes plug-ins that do the same stuff.
Send me music
About two weeks ago, however, I go a message from one of my Zune friends, Ceaserisok. Ceaser is a big fan of Tokyo Police Club, as you should be too because they’re awesome (my fav song being “Nature of the Experiment”), and when they’re new album came out he sent a message to everyone on his friends list that included the album.
Since I have a Zune pass, from the message I just clicked a button and *POOF* my computer downloaded the new album and I started listening to it right away. Music just got a touch more social… I don’t have to just tell you how good something is, I can message you the album.
Show me music
As life, work, our social lives and our dreams all continue to collide and entertwine, Microsoft did something else very smart: they hired people who love music. Select members of the Zune team are now considered Zune DJs; when you create a Zune profile these special six are automatically your friends. What does that matter?
Just like the 360 GamerTags, when you’re using the Zune you get to see what your friends are doing. In the case of Zune, you get to see exactly what your friends are listening to, in real time. If you see something you’ve never heard before you might get to discover things.
I know, you can do similar things with Last.FM (which I’m also a big fan of). But this is integrated, out of the box. And, it’s tied to your 360 account… suddenly your GamerTag has a dual nature to it… and I’m all for aggregating my information.
With Zune there are just so many ways to discover music. I still play with iTunes because I upload media to idea at work, and I get so confused with the limitations on their software. I feel like I’m just looking at a datbase. I’m not sure how to place my finger on it… but the Zune software makes me feel like I’m in a record store. I don’t know if they planned that or not, but it’s what happens. Invariably if I sit down to download a new album, I discover 4 or 5 more to grab along with it.
Sync me music
Now we’re getting to the really cool stuff.
Once I friend you, if I have a Zune pass, I can sync your music to my system. I can sync another Zune Card with my Zune device and, as such, Zune will automatically pull in any playlists associated with that Zune Card. Can I repeat how cool that is? It’s a social experiment in sharing music.
No, this isn’t an ad for the Zune
Enough about what I think about the Zune itself. What this post is really about what is happening with the Zune. The software/device is allowing just one more thing become social and intertwined. Where the Zune is innovating is that they have figured out a way to connect something as varied and complex as the music we like and listen to into the cloud of the internet, to be able to be pulled back down wherever.
iTunes is for people who like certain musicians. Zune is for people like music.
WIth iTunes you go in, you look for the band you like, you part with your money, and you talk about how cool band so-and-so is. WIth the Zune (if you have a Zune pass), you go in, look for the band you like, and find bands you’ve never heard of or forgotten long ago and download 5 albums. And you don’t have to tell people how cool a band is because they can SEE how much you like them. Better yet, if they have a Zune as well… they can HEAR how much you like them.
Zune is going to let the small bands win. Being the underdog has allowed Microsoft to innovate, and with the Zune they have. The only question is how long it will take people to realize that being an Apple fanboy isn’t the best choice for people who truly want to hear new and good music.
in a meeting for a new project at LifeWay yesterday, we discussed the idea of using twitter during the project experience. at first, the team thought I was joking. they laughed about how twitter is just for people to do constant life-updates, like “i’m going to the bathroom now.” there’s a distinct seperation between those who have not used twitter, those who use twitter, and those who embrace twitter.
twitter has become an asynchronous, world-wide chat room.
i remember when i was younger logging into AOL chat rooms and trying to find neat people to talk with. it was a desperate attempt at entertainment and hopes of new friendships… but it was all with random strangers and now lating ties.
with twitter I’m able to, instead, engage in conversation with people I know whether they are online at that time or not. and any of my friends get to see what i’m talking about and chime in too. and - here’s the kicker…
I get to see the conversations and thoughts (and maybe even talk to) people that I have no business talking to. as work and life continue to become more social and networked, things like twitter allows us to peek into the lives of people/topics/politics/companies that we want to be associated with.
twitter turns our sphere of influence into an open hall for the world to hear and for us to hear others. one giant conversation piece.
i believe that work is becoming more and more intertwined with entertainment, with our social lives, our identities, and our dreams. how many times have you heard “i’d love to work at…” or seen pictures or cool offices or thought about how to improve your own work place?
I know that there are many people who would love to work for LifeWay, and I am blessed to be a part of the talent that’s employed there. I know our competitors would love to know how we work. I know there are people who will do everything they can to find out what our VBS themes are going to be early so they can be the one to break the news. I know that people want all the details about the next Beth Moore or Priscilla Schrier study and will follow any blog (or twitter account) that might drop some hint about it.
And that’s a good thing. It means that people are finding people, places, jobs and products to get passionate about. It means that we don’t have to accept the spoon-fed media of network television and ClearChannel music. it means there are people out there talking about the alternatives… and that people are listening.
and this new/secret project I’m working on at LifeWay that will (tenatively) launch at the very end of this month?
we’re going to use twitter.
UPDATE: my personal twitter account is here.
This is one of the lessons I learned through observation, that actually had fair unfortunate after effects.
Back when I was in charge of usability for my company, I was called into what I thought was a discovery meeting for a new usability test. Back then we were still trying to convince people of the benefits of usability, and most of my meetings and conversations were about how it could be used and customers wanting to do it - but to do it cheaply.
It turned out I was walking into a mess of confusion and conflicting opinions. The meeting that I thought was a discovery meeting was actually a working meeting. Not a big deal, I just shifted gears and settled in to plan the session. It simply meant my job was easier; the requesting project team had already decided they wanted to do the sessions.
The other two people in the meeting was the project manager and the representative customer from the requesting component. Our department worked as a service department, so each project had a customer from the requesting component and was assigned a project manager; so far, very typical of our work.
The customer had suggested they wanted to bring in some specific people to run through the tests, including airfare and hotel. The project manager was adamantly against this. The project was in the very early stages of development and - next on the agenda - was the consideration of whether we were going to do paper prototyping or an actual mock-up of the program.
This is where the problem occurred: the project manager attacked the idea of bringing in people from across the country to view the project so early on. There was definite frustration in his voice, and I knew that something deeper must have been going on.
The customer responded well, and entertained the idea of using local testers. The conversation ended up consuming the entirety of the meeting.
Later, I was brought in to our director’s office and the explanation was given: the director had made the suggestion to bring in the key customers. It was part of the larger plan for the project.
The problem was that the department direct and the project manager didn’t have a miscommunication; they had no communication on the subject. As a result, the project manager unknowingly mocked and put down the director’s idea/plan.
Note to everyone: openly putting down your boss’s boss’s plans… hardly ever a good idea.
The problem is that it raised all sorts of issues:
As such, whenver I go into a meeting on a subject for the first time I always do my best to learn what the department opinion is on the topic, or if I’m free to express my own ideas publically. If not, and I disagree, then I’ll be sure to communicate my concerns behind closed doors within my dept… but externally I always want to show that the department I’m working for presents a unified opinion.
It’s also important that - with many issues and conflicting opinions - the boss usually has a better grasp of what’s actually involved in the decision: how promoting one agenda may take away from another project, how delicate relationships need to be handled, or what confidential info they might be aware of.
Again: tearing down your boss’s idea in a formal setting (particularly when the boss isn’t around to explain or shut you up) is seldom the right choice. Know your boss’s opinion. If nothing else, it might help you get a promotion.
Last week I gobbled up some more responsibility here at LifeWay, and became the curator of our (forthcoming) downloads portal, LifeWay.com/downloads. As of today, this is what it looks like:
Magical, eh?
So, of course, I have much different plans for the page than its currently set up. However, in making such a big change, it’s only right for the page to have the rights of due diligence and make sure that the current users of the page will still have the same functions on the name page, if it is so warranted.
The current page is set up as links going to our free resources. Is it effective? Meh.
Because we use an awesome web stats service, Fireclick, and my job used to be gathering and reporting on the web analysis and metrics for the entire LifeWay network of sites, I’m able to get at the pertinent data pretty readily.
Turns out the number one links is to the Adult free resources (the Women’s resources is a broken link, so I can’t track that). More surprising, however, I discovered that the number two link was the clipart page, and that the clipart page was surprisingly popular on our site in general! Clipart? Seriously? So this, of course, leads to exploration about the clipart page.
One of the neat things about Fireclick is you can easily pull up all kinds of stats on a webpage. My curiosity was this: if the LifeWay.com/downloads page was responsible for only 1.6% of the clipart page… how were people getting there?
It turns out that 94% of the hits on the clipart page are actually the FIRST page people hit on the LifeWay.com website. In other words, they’re coming to the page from OUTSIDE of other LifeWay.com pages. This is where data-mining and webstats gets to be fun; I was trying to find out what to do with one page and stumble upon a silly mystery of how on Earth are people getting to a page that we haven’t updated in years.
Again, Fireclick comes to the rescue as I can put the webpage into a report that tells me what the referring domains (and/or actual URLs) are to bring people directly to the clipart page.
Here’s where it gets crazy; 65% of the visits to the page are from people doing directly to the page… as in, typing it in or they have it book marked. The next biggest bracket are Google searches from Canada, and then Google searches from the UK.
So, of course, I get even more curious and mine a bit further…
We’ve got people hitting up our clipart page from EVERYWHERE. The US, Canada, the UK, the Philipines, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Mexico, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates… everywhere. This is just bizzare to me.
The key to data mining, however, is making some sense of the data. If you’ve got nothing applicable from the exercise, then it’s just a waste of time. So, some resolution points from my little stroll down the Fireclick stats lane:
Clipart could be a micromarket for us. The question is: do we position clipart as a free loss-leader for traffic/something we can just give away to help church add some flair to their bulletins, or do we find a way to commission new, high-quality clip art and sell sets of it to recoup the expenditure? Unfortunately, I’m not really in a position to make any kind of decision (or really a suggestion) on such a topic, but I find it an interesting dilemma none-the-less.
One of the best examples of things that are distinctly “new media” is interactive metaficition. Traditionally, metafiction would be a story that is aware of itself being a story; self-referential, if you would. Interactive metafiction takes that a few steps further where the reader/viewer/engager can interact with the characters and influence the actual story.
It’s hard to apply this concept to ministry, because we seem to often take a very serious tone to our evangelism and seek truth more so than crafting a story. Perhaps there are opportunities for the church to develop new parables and ways to engage a more creative mind instead of always focusing on the establishing our spiritual truths as entirely literal.
And those are just the feature-length films, not including the cartoons and direct to dvd (blu-ray?) movies. Someone at Marvel is doing something right.
(source)
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