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Dante's Inferno as a Video Game. Hell yeah. (ha.)
So, if you only knew how much I would enjoy this if I were a gamer. I’ve spent many a day trying to muggle my way through Dante’s Inferno. I understand about 10% of the references, but I love it nonetheless. The idea of a game based on Dante and Virgil’s stroll through hell sounds freakishly awesome. If only I were a gamer.
Wired supplied the article, and image. Read Wired for other good geek stuff.
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Communicating in Multi-Ethnic Communities.
I work at the Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN. As far as churches are concerned, we are a rarity. We’re a church of more than a 1,000 people, in the city, with a multi-ethnic community of participants that is vastly unlike most churches in America.
On any given Sunday, our people gather, roughly 50% European-Americans, 40-45% African-Americans, and roughly 5% or so of other ethnicities. This presents challenges on so many levels. People are here for many different reasons. We’re young, we’re hip, we bring in da funk’ (notice how white I am?).
Design and Communication for inter-cultural communities present the very challenges that you’d expect:
- Language is not common. Different words have different meanings to different cultural groups.
- Imagery doesn’t represent the combined audience. Unless you’re using real pictures from you’re real community, stock imagery will likely feign multi-ethnicity with unrealistic representations.
- The motivation is not the same. Some white folks are here for specific reasons, some black folks are here for other reasons. It’s a major challenge to find the heart and mind motivators that are common amongst us.
I am by no means an expert, but I would suggest 4 helps for communicating to a multi-cultural audience:
- Engage your audience, invest in relationships. Beyond anything you do, investing time into cross-cultural relationships will bring perspective on your design and communication strategies that no book, blog or axiom can help you with. Relationships matter. Listening and learning people’s stories, passions and pursuits will shape your content.
- Keep it simple. If you can’t communicate it in 3 or 4 bullet points, it’s unlikely information is going to be retained anyway. Keeping it simple means keeping it accurate and to the point. Let your images do the motivating and let your text do the informing.
- Be yourself. Don’t try to be something you’re not. If you are a clean cut designer and it’s hip hop day at church, stay clean cut, but add a twist of hip hop. People will know if you’re trying to over-reach beyond your style.
- Track results and modify your approach. Find out who is showing up and why. Who didn’t show up? Pay attention to the details and ask questions to learn why one approach may have had a huge reach, while others had a shorter reach.
Homogeneity will kill the church. A multi-cultural generation is growing up with multi-ethnicity as a baseline. If the church isn’t aggressive in connecting across culture during these global cultural shifts, we’re going to continue to see church attendance and participation in steady decline.
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Willow Creek LEAD SUMMIT Speakers Announced
Bill Hybels announced the line up for the 2009 LEAD SUMMIT in a webcast today.
Here they are:
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BILL HYBELS
panel discussion with:
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GARY HAMEL
TIM KELLER
JESSICA JACKLEY
HARVEY CAREY
DAVE GIBBONS
DAVID GERGEN
BONO
DAN & CHIP HEATH
WESS STAFFORD
ANDREW RUGASIRA
I love the LEAD SUMMIT. I think it has been one of the most influential experiences that planted the seeds of leadership in me over the last few years. I’m really looking forward to going again this year.
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Safari 4 Beta
I downloaded the new Safari 4 Beta from Apple today. I’ve been using it for the afternoon. I have to say it is definitely, by far, the fastest browsing experience I’ve ever had. Even on our lowly T1 1.5mbps here at the office. I can’t wait to fire it up on my 8mbps cable at home.
Some new features:
Top Sites – at the click of a button, a grid of screenshots of your most frequently visited sites pops up. Quickly select and cool animation feature as the site loads.
Full History Search – Brings Cover Flow previewing to history browsing.
Basically, they’re taking the web from having a bunch of text based links, and turning them into visual previews. I love it. I’m visual. I remember what things look like, but struggle to remember names. I know faces. Not names. This is a step forward.
Just to reiterate, I can’t get over how fast it is.
Download it here for Mac or Windows.
UPDATE: Here’s Ars Technica’s early review of Safari 4.
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Pancake Art for Pancake Day
Apparently, in Britain (Forgive me, I may have this wrong), In order to rid the house of Lenten temptations, the day before Lent is called Pancake Day, in which you take everything out of the cupboards and spread it on a pancake. I’ve participated at The Lacey’s House for the last few years. This year, I’ll be flippin’ cakes as well.
I may go crazy like this collection of Pancake Art.
from squiddles.
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This Week in Prefab: Mod.Fab
Mod.Fab is a collaborative project of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture students.
This potentially Gridless prefab follows the visual tradition of Wrights’ Prairie-style, while being quite at home in the desert. Well-designed and worth appreciating.
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These guys kick out websites like new media matters
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A Communications Primer: A Film by Eames
This one unlocks the vault.
Charles and Ray Eames are legends.
Watch and learn old skool style.
The Eames’ “A Communications Primer” from FI$H 2000 on Vimeo.
link via Infosthetics, via alltop.
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Jump off a cliff.
The next generation doesn’t believe that the way things are, is the way things have to be. They see the end of the road as an opportunity to change course, not a forced retreat. When they get to the edge of the cliff, they’re willing to jump, if they think that opportunity for change lies on the other side.
Millennials as they are known, believe the world to be their canvas. To right the wrongs of the previous generations. To make a difference in systems of injustice. To shape their future in a grand experiment of social collaboration and horizontal leadership.
Deloitte Consulting put out a Millennial Fact Sheet a while back that sheds some light on the characteristics of the next generation. Here’s an excerpt on how Millennials integrate into the workplace:
Millennials at work…
• Work well with friends and on teams
• Collaborative, resourceful, innovative thinkers
• Love a challenge
• Seek to make a difference
• Want to produce something worthwhile
• Desire to be a hero
• Impatient
• Comfortable with speed and change
• Thrive on flexibility and space to explore
• Partner well with mentors
• Value guidance
• Expect respect
What are you doing to capture and capitalize on the enthusiasm of the next generation? I know I need to do more because this generation is determined not to have their lives determined by what came before them.
We need to harness their energy, engage their collaborative spirit, and draw out the leadership qualities of those we lead. I’m being challenged to think about my role in fostering Generation Next, because they seem to want change more than my own generation.
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Stable Modernism.
Just saw this post on Inhabitat this morning. Had to repost….
This is such a beautiful rehab. It ain’t prefab, but still strikes my fancy.
Few pics, then click over and check out the whole kit and kaboodle.
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Two Ted Talks for Designers / Communications Peeps.
20+ minutes long, so, not a casual viewing, but if you’ve got 20 minutes, take a peek.
David Carson on Humor and Design
Paula Scher on Play and Design
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Fellowship One.
At Sanctuary, we’ve recently signed on with Fellowship One. Fellowship One is an online Church Management System that has helps you do the “work” of the church, so you can focus on the ministry of the church.
Today was a big day for us to dive in to what Fellowship One has to offer. I think I speak for the rest of our staff when I say that I was refreshed, relieved and excited as we began moving ahead with Fellowship One today. Their implementation plan is what has sold me on the product.
Basically, they take the first 5 months to make sure we get it. Not just get it, but live it. They learn and listen to who we are. Then, they customize the software to meet our needs. And they hand hold us in the process to make sure we’re ready to be on our own at the point of church ownership. The point when we’re comfortable enough to take off the training wheels and ride away from mom and dad on our own.
Of course, these are early accolades, but compared to our last system, I feel like we’re taking a giant step towards clarity and ease of use. Now it’s just up to us to really use it…
Backing up is hard to do…wait, no it’s not.
Just $5 a month for unlimited storage. I like that. I do.READ THESE
