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

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

-Thomas FriedmanThe World is Flat

The world gets 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

InnoCentive

MATLAB

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

potential contributionsby “non-owners”

informality of relationship to “owners”

b

team collaboration“owners + insiders”

(not open to “outsiders”)

insider collaboration“owners” only

(closed)

a

informal (or no)relationship with owners

“outsiders”(untapped potential)

formal relationshipwith owners

“non-outsiders”(traditional domain

of ministry)

open collaboration“anyone”(completely open)

dc

formalcollaboration

“owners” +“insiders” + “partners”

(partially open)

“Open collaboration” on a spectrum

Requirements for Open Collaboration

on a global scale:

1. technology to enable it

2. open-licensed content

The Mobile Phone: Enabler ofOpen 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

books

audio

video

A tool to create, not just consume

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

Needed: a license for FREEDOM

(not just “free”)

A License for FREEDOM

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 Stories30 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 Mediawww.distantshoresmedia.org

This work made available underCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Credits, by slide number

1. Nico Kaiser (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicokaiser/5657004) by-sa 2.05. babasteve (http://www.flickr.com/photos/babasteve/3399480445) by 2.09. James Cridland (http://www.flickr.com/photos/18378655@N00/613445810/) by 2.011. brands & logos are the intellectual property of their respective owners17. Jonathan Cohen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathancohen/3888318454/ ) by-nc 2.018. LordFerguson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordferguson/4209066122/) by-sa 2.0,18. Michael Cory (http://www.flickr.com/photos/khouri/5595268683/) by 2.018. imtfi (http://www.flickr.com/photos/58236987@N03/5476123076/) by-sa 2.018. whiteafrican (http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2735720397) by 2.022. whiteafrican (http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2736560904) by 2.023. yoppy (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spilt-milk/4800648627) by 2.024. jurvetson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/1118807) by 2.025. Adrian van Leen (http://openphoto.net/gallery/image.html?image_id=20394) public

domain28. Aldo Cauchi Savona (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36012356@N00/102721676) by 2.041. Jonathan Cohen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathancohen/3888318454/ ) by-nc 2.044. Sweet Publishing (http://www.sweetpublishing.com) by-sa 3.045. Charly Morlock (http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlymorlock/3724581698/) by-sa 2.0