Enabling Open Collaboration in a Mobile World

Timothy Jore
www.distantshoresmedia.org

The Mandate

make disciples every nation, tribe, people & language

How will we reach the least of these?

3 Game-Changing Factors:

The rise of the global church The flattening of the world The rise of open collaboration

the rise of the global church

The world gets flat*

In the flat world, what can be done, will be done...

-Thomas Friedman The World is Flat

*like a waffle

The traditional content-creation model

An openly collaborative content-creation model

Features of this new model

Self-selecting Massively distributed Technology-enabled Incredibly capable quantity & quality

The rise of Open Collaboration

Open Collaboration expands

MATLAB

InnoCentive

Traditional model: Britannica

120,000 articles (web) 1 language <5,000 contributors restricted access, read-only

Openly collaborative model: Wikipedia

20+ million articles ~270 languages 15.7 million contributors unrestricted access, read/write (open collaboration)

Volumes of Britannica

Volumes of Wikipedia

Open collaboration on a spectrum

potential contributions by non-owners formal relationship with owners informal (or no) relationship with owners

outsiders
(untapped potential)

non-outsiders
(traditional domain of ministry)

informality of relationship to owners a b team collaboration c d

insider collaboration
owners only (closed)

owners + insiders (completely open) (not open to outsiders) owners + insiders + partners (partially open)

formal open collaboration collaboration anyone

Requirements for Open Collaboration on a global scale: 1. technology to enable it

2. open-licensed content

The Mobile Phone: Enabler of Open Collaboration

The rise of the mobile phone in 10 years

The rise of the mobile phone in 1 year

What can a mobile phone do?

The only library some will ever have

books audio

video

A tool to create, not just consume

books audio

video

A brief, painless guide to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

copyright just happens copyright = all rights reserved

IPR Pop Quiz

Q: what can you legally do with copyrighted content? A: whatever you have permission to do

an obstacle

A License for FREEDOM

Needed: a license for FREEDOM

(not just free)

The ministry world of today

The ministry world of today

Some Observations:

Copyright restrictions are what preserve the economic benefit of the product Biblically-sanctioned ministry model (1 Cor. 9) But the model is unable to go the distance
100s of millions of content creators 1,000s of languages multiple international legal jurisdictions takes decades to reach a fraction of the languages

Is the creation of a Christian Commons an idea whose time has come?

Some Observations:

The commons is collectively owned by the global church, not a single entity The commons is free + freedom The commons is read/write (BY-SA) built by the global church, for the global church The commons does not mean every outdated work in the Public Domain The commons does not replace the traditional model, they coexist

The ministry world of the near future

Is there Biblical basis for a Christian Commons?

we have not made use of this right [to make our living by selling discipleship resources], but we endure anything, rather than create an obstacle for the Gospel 1 Corinthians 9:12

no one said that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common. Acts 2, 4 ...there was not a needy person among them.

The rules have changed...

"A new rule is emerging: harness the new collaboration or perish."
Tapscott & Williams, Wikinomics

"In the 'flat world', what can be done will be done the only question is whether it will be done by you or done to you."
Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

If we are serious about the future of the global church, two things are needed:

1. mobile first ministry processes & tools to enable...

2. ...a Christian Commons

Open Bible Stories

30 stories of the Bible, in every language, in text, audio & mobile video

door43.org/stories

The future of the global church is Open!

 2011 Distant Shores Media www.distantshoresmedia.org

This work made available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Credits, by slide number

1. Nico Kaiser (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicokaiser/5657004) by-sa 2.0 5. babasteve (http://www.flickr.com/photos/babasteve/3399480445) by 2.0 9. James Cridland (http://www.flickr.com/photos/18378655@N00/613445810/) by 2.0 11. brands & logos are the intellectual property of their respective owners 17. Jonathan Cohen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathancohen/3888318454/ ) by-nc 2.0 18. LordFerguson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordferguson/4209066122/) by-sa 2.0, 18. Michael Cory (http://www.flickr.com/photos/khouri/5595268683/) by 2.0 18. imtfi (http://www.flickr.com/photos/58236987@N03/5476123076/) by-sa 2.0 18. whiteafrican (http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2735720397) by 2.0 22. whiteafrican (http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2736560904) by 2.0 23. yoppy (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spilt-milk/4800648627) by 2.0 24. jurvetson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/1118807) by 2.0 25. Adrian van Leen (http://openphoto.net/gallery/image.html?image_id=20394) public domain 28. Aldo Cauchi Savona (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36012356@N00/102721676) by 2.0 41. Jonathan Cohen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathancohen/3888318454/ ) by-nc 2.0 44. Sweet Publishing (http://www.sweetpublishing.com) by-sa 3.0 45. Charly Morlock (http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlymorlock/3724581698/) by-sa 2.0