"The iPhone is a PLATFORM, not a phone."
Someone (bad memory) at the Virtual Goods Summit shared this statement that caused me to stop and think through its implications. I obviously knew that the iPhone was not just a phone, but I thought of it as a Phone-Plus, or the common moniker Smart-Phone. I did not see the iPhone as something completely different from a phone.
When you stop thinking of the iPhone as a smartphone and start thinking of it as a platform, the ways that you might think to use it change. For me, one of my platform thoughts was this: What about using the iPhone as a means to log attendance at a church service, or college ministry service (like my own)? Why not use it as a PLATFORM for attendance and the means by which people connect to my ministry?
I don't think this is a revolutionary thought by any means, but I know I would NEVER have went down the train of thought that led me to this question unless first starting with the premise of the iPhone as a platform.
Already others in ministry are thinking of how to use the iPhone as a platform. Kevin Lamb, who I mentioned this summer in one of my blogs, has thought of showing short evangelistic video clips via the iPhone as a way of sharing his faith on campus. If some Christians were to invest some time to think through how to use tools such as the iPhone as platforms for the various roles and responsibilities of ministry, I wonder what they/we could come up with.
As I look to the future, I believe that in ministry we will need to think through how to leverage the various platforms offered by social media tools for the Gospel.
Any thoughts?