Networking is an interesting contact sport. I had a pleasant conversation with a co-worker named Mark one day where I was sharing some thoughts I had about creating low cost computer labs for churches and non-profits using the free Linux OS Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) and he was nice enough to listen. I also shared the further suggestion of Durham entrepreneur Denise Tawwab (http://bus23.com/ and http://ncconnected.org) that training youth in these skills should be folded in. At the end of our conversation Mark calmly states "You should talk to my brother. He has a ministry technology firm and works with Max Lucado." After a pause I lifted my chin off of the floor. Fast forward to later that week and I received a call from Mark's brother Andy, CEO of Upper Room Technologies (http://uroomtech.com/). Even though I was quick to point out that I was not sure Long's Memorial was ready to fully take advantage of such tools Andy was not fazed and went on to share his vision of technology and ministry. His time spent with a new Pastor was much appreciated. Since that conversation I have spoken with other very friendly and helpful staff at Upper Room Technologies like Desmond, the Ministry Development Officer at Upper Room Technologies. Here is what I learned:
Amazing stuff is coming on line. Upper Room's product, Mediafusion makes building a media portal for document, audio, and video content about as straightforward and polished as I have ever seen. Below is a link to Max Lucado's sermons at Oak Hill's delivered using mediafusion available on line for your computer, tablet, etc. at the link below:
The next move is to streaming content in the home. We purchased a Roku box for our home recently (wifi media streaming device for TVs starting at $59, www.roku.com) for Netflix duty in the homeowners' room. Best $59 I have spent on geekery lately. Roku is the business deserving it's own blog chock full of praise, but that is for another day. It took less than 5 minutes to set up and while looking through the channels I saw a now familiar mediafusion logo. A few button mashes later and I was viewing a Max Lucado sermon on my home TV. Andy and the folks at upper room technologies came to mind as fireworks went off in my head imagining the possibilities for local churches. I believe data streaming is the future of in home media content distribution eventually displacing cable in the upcoming years in my humble opinion. Why else would Comcast buy NBC from GE (my first employer out of college)? Blog mentioning a GE Engineering Development Program NBC tour here: (http://tinyurl.com/5ve4l3a). With media distribution access rendered a level playing field content is king. The flipside is that anyone with content can play. Churches of all sizes now have access to the media landscape. Here is an excellent article from Church Crunch on the service:
Additionally Upper Room Technologies has a tool called Groups Interactive.
The ministry uses are many, but the first thing I thought of was the Methodist concept of class leaders (per Wikipedia: "Class - a group of Methodists, normally about 12, under a Class Leader") where regular meetings are encouraged. Groups of individuals can organize meetings with ease. Click the image below for the Oak Hills Church's Group:
That is all for now. I will update as I find out more information in future blogs.
God bless,
ELW
