Gospelr is like Christian twittering

Don Reisinger posted this over at TechCrunch -- Gospelr: Twitter For Christians >>

“First things first: Praise God.” That’s how Gospelr starts out its announcement that the company’s microblogging service is officially ready for users to sign up and “spread the word.”

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Gospelr is quick to point out that it’s not “just another Twitter.” Instead, the site prides itself on being the world’s first “Ministry Microblogging” tool for those that want to share thoughts, ideas, words of encouragement, prayer requests, daily scripture readings, and oh so much more.

The company’s founder wants it to be more than a Christian Twitter, though. Beyond being a place where people can chat it up about ol’ JC, the company wants to be the place to “share the Gospel with those that have already heard the Good News (because we all could use a good reminder… daily!) and those that have not.”

Gospelr tries to change the way people interact on the service too. A normal “tweet” is colored in brown, while replies are green, and imported tweets from services like Twitter are colored in blue. That coloring scheme will make it easier to identify what’s being said and who is saying it.

What do we use for staying connected within our ministry? Wel, Yammer is getting faster sign-ups among our colleagues here at Leadership Network. I think people are more comfortable sending a text message that stays internal to our organization.

Elsewhere, there are other microblogging tools like Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk, and more. ReadWriteWeb compared 10 microblogging tools. And, SMS GupShup seems to have a larger audience than Twitter.

-- DJ Chuang, Leadership Network Director

Comments

[myles]

your use of yammer as a communication tool seems limiting...in that only people with your email address can be involved. do you exclude people in your fellowship who don't have a work email address?

it seems to me that the aim of 'wanting to control the message' is not only a negative issue for corporates but also for some (most) churches.

where we should be open books, with nothing to hide...allowing people to see how our 'corporate church bodies' work, think, play, argue and love...instead we hide that stream of consciousness behind a closed elitist walled garden.

not meaning to be judgemental or anything...just sharing my stream of thought!

keep up the good work!

[Cynthia]

Myles - Yammer is designed to serve private communication hubs. Having a closed circle of communication doesn't always reflect a walled garden. I can think of a handful of examples where privacy is crucial. Appropriate discretion is not the equivalent of hiding.

Corporations must be able to communicate about their newest product, for example, without the listening ears of their competitors.

There are many cases where church staff need to relay or route information that would not be helpful the to church at large. A fresh example is a Vacation Bible School near where a large California wildfire broke out. As 400 children (and their parents) began to panic, the church staff devised a plan (privately) for distributing information, keeping people calm and informed, and establishing chain of command for getting the children off the campus. The director later told me how helpful it was to be able to control information to prevent fear and rumor.

Yammer is designed to limit. That's why it's useful.