Using Twitter for something useful

Twitter has been a Web 2.0 favourite flavour most of 2008, but increasingly I am noticing people are getting tired of following Twitter posts, getting inane updates about where people are and what they are doing. Fun for a while, it soon gets added to the pile of techno-time-wasters. But there could be a great use within Feba for a corporate Twitter account.

Check out the sidebar widget we have called Instant News (look on the right panel of this blog). It uses Twitter, which can be updated by SMS, email, Skype, and even by spoken word using TwitterFone. We have started to use it for Feba staff who are away and have newsworthy items or quick prayer needs to communicate. Read on if you want to know how to place the widget on your blog, or get the RSS feed for Feba’s Tweets. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Mark Posted in: New Media, Newsworthy No Comments » June 2008

The Productivity Myth

By John Edmiston (original source here)

 

The three moments we most remember Jesus for are times when he was completely, physically motionless, when he was:

1. wrapped in swaddling clothes as a baby,
2. nailed to the cross, and
3. laying in the tomb.

At these three moments Jesus’ productivity was not measurable by any modern, corporate missionary standard; and yet it is precisely these moments that changed the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Mark Posted in: New Media No Comments » June 2008

Feeding Frenzy with RSS

Hang around conversation with me long enough and I will pop ‘RSS’ and ‘feeds’ into conversation quite a lot. I realise that most Feba staff don’t really understand what RSS is, and more to the point, what it can deliver. If you are want to find out more, try these links:  What is RSS?   Wikipedia

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Mark Posted in: Blog Design, New Media No Comments » June 2008

Skype gets better

The new beta version of Skype has been released (Version 4) and I spent time today looking at its new features, and a couple of videos they have done. Pretty nice improvements.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Mark Posted in: New Media No Comments » June 2008

Recommended Reading

RSS can confuse and overwhelm until you figure out how to tame it and use it to help you rather than waste your time. That journey for me is about three years old already, and still I have lots to learn.

Having tried numerous RSS ‘feed readers’, I have decided to stay with the Google Reader, which has many useful abilities. One is that I can mark posts I read as ‘worth sharing’ and then actually share them in an RSS feed. In my RECOMMENDED READING page, I have used the INLINE RSS plugin for WordPress to display the latest 30 shared items.

Posted by Mark Posted in: Site Administration No Comments » June 2008

21 indispensable qualities of leadership

I have made a start on some leadership pages, by posting a list of the 21 indispensable qualities of leadership (sometimes called the 21 laws of leadership) here.

I can make available a copy of the book, and can also make available a lending set of the audio book, if you are interested. John Maxwell, who authored both laws and book, has recently released an updated edition of the laws, based on 10 years of teaching them. It’s always nice to know that our ‘leadership giants’ can say that they learn from experiences and will change their teaching content based on experience.

 

Posted by Mark Posted in: Leadership No Comments » June 2008

Prayer requests page added

I have just added a listing of current work and personal prayer needs, which I will do my best to keep updated and current. You can go there directly, here.

Posted by Mark Posted in: Prayer No Comments » June 2008

Salt and Light

Rose and I spent time away in the lovely Peaks District this weekend, officiating and attending the wedding of Gail and Paul. I am not (yet) licenced to do the legal bits of a marriage ceremony in the UK, so they had a civil ceremony first. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Mark Posted in: Personal News No Comments » June 2008