Today brings a rainy end to an action-packed week here in Maryland. Tropical storm Ida has made its way to us and combined with a “noreaster” is packing a punch that is soaking the area. That makes for a great day to be inside and posting my latest entry online about what’s been happening in this most recent week.

Ron Sylvia, founding pastor of Church at the Springs in Ocala, Florida, highlights the week for me. Ron was with us Sunday at our Annual Meeting and did an outstanding job with both the planters at their banquet and in the general session as a keynote speaker. Ron spoke on “God is good…but He’s not Safe,” emphasizing the need to be Kingdom risktakers and sacrificial in the service of our lives. Ron will show up here again in the future as I have the opportunity to dialogue with him about the effectiveness of his ministry with NEXT Coaching Networks. You can visit that website and download a number of free resources by clicking here.

Today our Church Multiplication Team held its first virtual online meeting via Tokbox ™. This is an incredible tool that will host up to twenty participants at a time with visual as well as audio connection…and all at NO COST! Registration is required, but if you attempting group meetings where participants are scattered at a distance, then this is a viable solution. Our experience left much room for improvement, but all in all we were pleased with the website and I recommend it to you as well. I know planters who meet with multiple partners or prayer warriors this way. Click here to go to their site and register to use it in the days ahead.

What was Jesus’ mother’s real name? Seems simple, doesn’t it? This question, though–and others–may stump you in the recently released Bible quiz posted in one of the religion articles on USA Today. Check it out here and see how well you know your Bible.

Few people I know exemplify the priority and lifestyle of “evangelism” like my friend, Frank Shelton. He is a passionate advocate for Jesus and a huge supporter of church planting. Living in the Washington, D.C. area but traveling the world, Frank has a storied life of connections and relationships with Presidents and Celebrities alike. He writes a blog “Frankly Speaking” and has recently published a book entitled “Final Approach” that is available on Amazon. Check him out and enlist him to come to your church or to assist you in evangelism as you minister in the months ahead.

Picture of the Week

Here’s a picture of Jesus, made from LEGO’s, that came through my Twitter feed recently. It never ceases to amaze me how enamored the culture is with our Lord!

Finally, this is to LAST Call for those of you who may be interested in joining my Dad, Jimmy Jackson, and me for our planned tour to the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, and the surrounding region, including Austria, the Czech Republic and northern Germany, too. We will travel there in September, 2010, with the focal point being participation at the once-every-decade Passion Play. We will also visit Wittenberg, site of Martin Luther’s most significant moment in history, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of discipleship fame, lived during the days of World War II until his imprisonment. Send me a comment below if you are interested in knowing more about this tour and I will send you a .pdf file with all the details pertaining to itinerary and costs. We hope you’ll join us for this historic event.

TokBox – Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

Remember those commercials just a few years back where multiple people were communicating from different locations in the world using video?  The ones where you could see 3 or 4 people on the screen at the same time and carry on a conversation with each other?  With sites like TokBox, those commercials which probably cost thousands of dollars to create and market on television, have made the same technology and product available to consumers, and for FREE.

Click On My Smile, and I’ll Tell You More…

Create messages to be embedded in email and blogs, or you can go live with others online.

Imagine being in one location on Business, or even on vacation, and being able to “Video Conference” with your clients, your friends, your family, or even your business associates, and do it for FREE?  No long distance charges, no software installations, no hassles.  TokBox is just another great tool you should add to your ToolBox.  We tested it this week and found it to be one of the easiest and most efficient on-line Video Web Conferencing sites on the Internet.  It was yesterdays commercial, tomorrows technology, and it’s available today.

TokBox… this could be my new favorite discovery. I run a small non profit organization, The SOLD Project, and our staff/board/interns are scattered around the world. We’ve got people all over the United States and all over Thailand: and a team that travels regularly beyond that. We depend on technology to connect us with our very small budget, and up until now I knew of no way for us to ALL (20 of us) talk online and be able to see one another’s faces. No longer! TokBox allows up to 20 people to all be in the same conference room and have face time, while sharing video links, documents, etc. This could really change the way that SOLD interacts with one another.

Thank you, TokBox!

Last week I was part of an experiment… an experiment that involved 6 ladies who were virtually strangers.  The common thread connecting us was our husbands.  We’re all married to pastors.  Yes, it was an experiment involving pastors’ wives… doesn’t that sound like fun?

My friend, Lori, organized a virtual roundtable using Tokbox.  I couldn’t believe how accessible it made other women from across the country.  We reached from Florida to Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma all the way to Nevada.  All we had to do was grab some headsets, a computer and webcam and we were talking in real time. The variety of personalities combined with the commonality of our lifestyles created such fabulous discussion.

I really feel that our discussion was a spring board for what’s possible for other wives in ministry.  Here’s what Lori had to say…

I’m excited because I think it is a first step in being able to offer online “mini-conferences” for pastor’s wives. I hope to create opportunities for Virtual Roundtables for … church planters, youth pastor’s wives, women on church staffs, women in leadership, different pastor’s wives, etc. Each roundtable could have about 6-8 people participating.

It did get me curious about the possibilities of connecting more ministry wives via technology.  Do you guys have any thoughts?  Anyone else out there interested?

Here are a few of us chatting it up.  I have to say I was quite excited to “meet” my cyber-friend, Tiffany, face to face.

TokBox e EtherPad associaram-se para oferecer uma ferramenta para a criação colaborativa de documentos acompanhada de vídeo conferência. TokBox oferece uma interface de vídeo conferência que acomoda múltiplos usuários em cada conferência. EtherPad faz a criação colaborativa de documentos. Através da integração das ferramentas os usuários podem trocar idéias e discutir sobre as alterações ao mesmo tempo que essas são executadas. Poder discutir as mudanças pode ser bastante útil para professores online e estudantes desenvolvendo trabalhos em equipe de forma colaborativa.

Artigos relacionados:

• eBuddy Partners With TokBox for Video Chat (centernetworks.com)
• Tokbox – Free Conferencing Service (seantheblogonaut.com)
• EtherPad: Realtime Collaborative Text Editing (buddypress.southamboyteacher.com)
• Firms use collaboration tools to tap the ultimate IP — worker ideas (computerworld.com)
• EtherPad’s Real-Time Editor Gets Real-Time Playback (readwriteweb)

Helping students decide whether an online course is going to work for them is a instructional challenge.  I prefer to talk with students before a course begins.  This way, they can decide whether to enroll or select another section that better fits their learning needs.

When students are located around the globe, talking to them requires a little thinking outside the box.  To accomplish the task, I use TokBox.  Below is a video that I recorded with TokBox.

Tell me what you think of this approach.  Would you enroll in the course?

Rick Lillie (CalState San Bernardino)

 

 Hutch is a Counselor

I learned to shoot at a church camp

He ran a game on those kids

Greentree Thom almost falls off a cliff

Hutch is a literary analyst

American beer is not

Contest time

The Soul Jam
“Hollywood Boulevard” (mp3)
from “Hollywood Boulevard”
(Orange Room Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
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More On This Album

Hello,

I formatted my XP installation a few days ago (and I installed Kubuntu 9.04 that dual boots with OpenBSD 4.5). After some time when I wished to use voice chatting services (Free PC to PC voice calls), I found out that most popular voice/video chat services like Yahoo messenger, Google chat etc. were not available/supported by commercial vendors on Linuxes/BSDs/Unixes. I searched Google and found following voice/video chat program options:

Platforms supported- Atleast Linux/Unix/BSD, probably Mac OS X, Windows XP/Vista.

My views: Works great! I tested only Voice chat. Installed easily. Iirc, no configuration was needed.

Platforms supported- Atleast many versions of Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

My views: I never installed this. But reviews about WengoPhone on internet point out that it should be easy to install and use.

Platforms supported- Versions exist for Linux, Linux-based Maemo, Mac OS X (Intel and PPC), iPhone OS (iPhone and iPod Touch), Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, Vista, Windows Mobile), and even Sony’s PSP. (Source: Wikipedia)

My views: Works great! I tested only Voice chat. Installed easily. Iirc, no configuration was needed.

Platforms supported- It appears that this works on atleast recent Windows releases and many Linux/Unix/BSD distributions.

My views: I tried installing it only once and failed. So this may prove to be a useful program but don’t ask my opinion.

Platforms supported- Talk through your browser. No chat client needed. There is no client required. This service from Meebo works from within a modern web browser (e.g. Mozilla Firefox).

My views- In my case, I could neither send nor receive any voice data. It appeared as if everything was working right, but I could not use this service.

That’s it…If I find some other free and useful services, then I will post them here as updates.

Other possible options include Kopete, gaim-vv (many of these programs are limited/reduced support applications).
Another option requires you to install some supported OS for your choice of chat client inside a virtual machine.

Note: I’m not planning to update this article now (unless I find something really amazing) because you can retrieve all such information from Google. If you know of similar programs, post them in comments.

Have fun!

Has there ever been a time when you had to get a message to someone but a voicemail or email was not enough to communicate what was needed?  I think we have all run into a scenario similar to this. This idea of using a visual video mail is so simple offers a great solution for this common problem. I am surprised that larger international companies have not moved toward this technology especially in the business world. I know my companies will be using this technology especially if it continues to be FREE with TokBox. (An update, in one of my web projects, we are utilizing this technology because we are able to not only reap the programs benefits but also archive our old videos for reference.)

The technology platform for TokBox is video mail and as I said earlier it is quite simple.  There are so many ways this tool can be used.  For example, Don Kassner who is the President of Andrew Jackson University uses TokBox to communicate to the masses.  (Interested in following him, he can be found on Twitter at AJU President.)  There are times when he makes a Tweet to his followers to obtain a new message that he has left.  TokBox and Twitter allow their users to post it’s URL’s on Twitter and it executes correctly on ToxBox.

Not impressed enough yet? After exploring TokBox further, I found this tool can also be used to communicate one on one with another party privately. For example, one use I have implemented is for certain contractors that I work with on various projects.  Many of their projects occur at night and end in the early morning.  Instead of creating times that are inconvenient for both parties to communicate following their work, instead, for our nightly synopsis, the contractors use TokBox to send their messages to my email address.  First thing the next morning, I am able to watch and listen to the nightly reports, and feel that I am able to understand the bigger picture for the update. I can see the emotion of their faces in addition to hearing or reading the words they express. I appreciate and find it invaluable that this tool does one thing that voicemail and email cannot do and that is catch some of the non-verbal communication from the other party.

Additionally, you can archive each message.  This is especially useful when if notes are not being taken in a meeting or a follow-up email is not sent, the parties can always reference the message in TokBox.

Does it meet my requirement of not having to download any files to operate? Yes but it does require the users, if sending messages, to have a web camera and also Adobe Flash.  Own a Mac? No issues as this program was designed well for use with both a PC and a Mac. Other nice features include the ability to embed videos on web sites and also set privacy controls.  The other interesting feature is that it can be used as a live conferencing tool, similiar to Google Chat/Video, Skpe, and some other tools listed in this blog.  The main advantage with TokBox though is the ability to send targeted messages and archive them too. In addition to that, the users are able to communicate up to 25 other users at the same time.

At this time, TokBox is free and perfect for entrepreneurs and business people who can communicate effectively within a 10 minute range.

The company is based in hilly San Francisco and appears to be a relatively small start-up backed by some Venture Capitalist like Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures and Youniversity Ventures (which helps first time entrepreneurs with funding, and leadership).  Finally, I was sad to read that the company let go 23 of its employees recently according to Jordan Golson at GIGAOM dot com. However, according to Mickey at ToxBox on August 6, we were advised that it was not 23 employees and just 9.  Either way I found it to be a bit ironic that the this new information was brought to light via an email comment versus a member of ToxBox not using their own tool to send me a message. COME ON GUYS, DOES YOUR MARKETING DEPARTMENT KNOW ABOUT THIS?

Another major move also cited in Golson’s article was about one of the company’s co-founders, Ron Hose.  I hope that TokBox can keep their founder’s visions and continue to build this product with more features so that maybe a larger telecom company, hint AT&T or one of the other Bell companies, can implement it into our national telephone system.  Can you imagine the possibilities on a larger scale? Or what about Apple’s iPhone?

Check out Tokbox’s blog.

It was a total pain to try to have skype and ubuntu jaunty work happily together.  My miscellaneous problems with mic just can never be resolved. The medibuntu package simply doesn’t work for me. I even go as far to uninstall pulseaudio. Unfortunately, even that doesn’t make my skype work. Mic worked for the first self-test and then failed in the second one.

After all these struggles, it seems that meebo is the real solution.  It uses tokbox to provide video chat function. The only glitch I encountered was “devices disabled” that my camera and mic couldn’t be activated. It turns out the fix is simple.  Simply goto the macromedia site and set mee.tokbox.com to “always allow”.

Okay…I have been messing around with this social media stuff long enough!  I fought against it (kicking and screaming I might add) thanks to the teeny-bopperish-ness of the pioneers such as Myspace and You Tube (still don’t like either one).  Then several minister friends had po

sted through their blogs that they now had a Facebook page and we should follow them on there as we would have quicker access to things that were going on and could be more collaborative.  I finally acquiesced.  Now nearly a year later I find that I am in a heightened state of learning about this frontier in communication.

Much like everything related to computers and information technologies this arena is rapidly growing and expanding.  And by no means do I even come close to being an expert (intermediate maybe, but no expert).  However, I

do like to try new things and explore how they work and how they can be applied.  You’ve already heard me mention Myspace and You Tube (and yes I have accounts with both that I never use).  Myspace bugs me because it simply is just too dang slow.  I want places that I visit on the web to load quickly (hey I’m running a 4GHZ sy

stem, and on cable modem at home and work).  Sorry Myspace but you

didn’t cut the mustard…and what’s with all this “pimp your space” crap about?  Sheesh!  I am not much of a video person or picture taking person so I am already a little biased against these kind of sites.

But I can tell you this… if there is a video to be had you bet you can find and everything else in the universe related to it on You Tube!  More than likely if you’ve never heard of You Tube you probably just crawled out from under rock and said, “What is this inter

net thingy and can I find a video on it?”  Great service, lousy search function.  Sometime later the conservative folks, tired of seeing people make complete fools of themselves by shaking their booties or getting hit in their privates, formed God Tube (now known as Tangle).  Much better run in my opinion and the se

arches are not quite as broad in their results.  And there are many, many more video applications.  If you would like to know more about them

, I suggest dropping a line to @TonySteward.
Now for picture management on the web.  Oh where to begin?  How about the favorites like Flikr, Picasso, and Twitpic are all great services.  Like I said I don’t do much video or pictures.  Word of wisdom?  Sure.. try one out till you find one you like!
Now that all the background has been set, let’s talk about t

he major three networks:  Facebook, Twitter, and Friendfeed.  In a nutshell here is a look

at all three:
Facebook – Much like Myspace but traditionally has been for folks that are a bit less interested in pimping their backgrounds and adding music players to their “space”.  Facebook is a service that is supported by

commercials and advertising.  Fortunately for us that use Facebook, the ads are in unobtrusive places and generally do not cause a hindrance to the sites functionality.  Positives include the ability to search and find people of interest or relation in vast number of ways including game applications.  Ability to promote organizations, causes, events, and so on, quickly and easily (and free).  And the folks at Facebook are quick to

offer ways to promote what ever it is that you need to promote for a small fee (really is reasonable).  Negatives include an onslaught of these little apps that have no quick way to preview until you’ve already agreed to take a look.  You may also find yourself quickly addicted to at least one of a great number of game applications that seem to draw people into endless hours of waste.  To each his own.  Conversations with groups of people is not in real time and generally your status updates (or posts) are directed to the masses.  Facebook does have a chat feature, but seems to have a proble

m with reliability and only allows a conversation with one person at a time (try having three different conversations sometime like that…AHHHHHH!).
Twitter – Everyone is talking about it.  Everyone seems to be

joining a twit-this or tweet-that.  Yes Twitter literally exploded onto the social networking scene a couple of years ago and ca

ught on like wildfire!  Quite simply, Twitter is a simple communication app that allows you post at status (“What are you doing now?”)  Why?  I asked myself that very same question and have discovered that there are many folks out there genuinely interested in what you might have to say.  I regularly have conversations with people all over the world in short 140 character bursts.  It’s not as easy as it sounds, but now that I am nearing my 3000th tweet I am confident that I can post most anything in under a 140 characters!  But I digress…  One of the great advantages of Twitter is that it was built around the same engines that make texting possible.  Hence, if you have a smart phone Twitter is suited for instant application between desktop, laptop and mobile use.  There have also been a whole slew of Twitter-based applications that deserve looking into.  More on that later…  Downside to Twitter?  You bet there are!  First of all is the most obvious:  140 stinking characters!  For those of you that are language purists, just walk away.  Then there is the difficulty in actually having a two or three way conversation while everyone gets to see what is going on.  Once again you can have a private conversation, but only with one person at a time and not in real-time.
Friendfeed – despite it’s rather cannibalistic name, this is a great little application that seems to draw in the best of both Facebook and

Twitter worlds.  Status updates appear as threads.  And each thread gives the opportunity for you like the comment (simple and painless when no comment is needed), comment, or hide (should you find the thread offensive or not exactly work-friendly).  Like Facebook and Twitter, you still get to choose who you subscribe too, but you also get to choose what discussions groups you want to belong to (a great way to meet folks with similar interests).  Now the really cool parts:  All of the comments are real-time and auto-update!  Conversations can be individual private threads or collaborative public threads.  You have a ton of flexibility to meet your needs.  Your threads can even be set to post to Twitter and Facebook.  Another great feature is the posting of pictures directly to the threads.  In Twitter you are able to only post a link to a video or picture service (such as twitpic).  In Friendfeed the pictures and videos are directly posted in real time.  Too cool!!!  I just recently began using Friendfeed and will update you with some of the neat changes coming in the future.
Bonus – Tokbox – For those of you into live streaming video/audio, I strongly recommend Tokbox.  This is a free service that allows you to create a real-time video conference.  I have joined in several of these little get-togethers and have seen as many as nine people involved in active exchange.  A great service to consider using and it will only continue to improve.

Now that you have all this under your belt, go and try some on your own.  If you want more information on any of these apps, try tweeting some of these folks, the true gurus of emerging technology:  @human3rror @TonySteward @djchuang @CynthiaWare

Tokbox made many changes to our UI a few weeks ago for doing things like placing video calls, so I thought I would do a  very quick blog post on “How to…” do things like place a video call. Links to visuals are included for many of our key features below.

How to create a video conference or multi-party video chat

How to create and send a video mail message

How to start a video call or chat

Other recommended links:

How to add your IM accounts toTokbox (allows you to video call, conference or IM friends from other IM services)

Detecting your webcam and microphone (or helping a friend detect their webcam and microphone)

Setting Privacy Settings (protect yourself from unwanted calls and chats)

If you have any questions, or if you have any suggestions for improvement, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly.

-Damon (video mail is the best option).

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

So, I just blogged.  And I think i’m beginning to become quickly addicted to this thing..

I tweeted that I blogged, and I had two hits already.  WOW!  I’m truly amazed.  Why..??

Why not!

But what I love about WordPress is that it even tells me where people came from – Tokbox!

I’ve quickly learned (over the course of 6 months) that communication is the key.  Yes, we must communicate to our students, parents, leadership, volunteers, worship team, janitorial stuff, grass cutters, snow plowers, neighbours and everyone else that plays some role in the youth ministry.

BUT! (– side note –  during a youth message one night, I said .. “BUT!!  .. there are always “buts” in life…  and I like buts” — yah.. dont’ say that to a room full of teenagers!)

I digress– I think it’s also very important to communicate with fellow youth pastors, leaders, volunteers. It’s incredibly necessary.  No man is an island.  I said it before.. I will continue to.

If you’re in the position where you are alone in the middle of .. wherever.  If you’re in the position where your area youth pastor will not talk with you, communicate with you or anything else.. you have at your fingertips enough resources to commuicate with others outside your town.  Build friendships, relationships mentorships, .. the list goes on and on.  PDYM and SYM are two amazing, incredible ministries that you will WANT to connect with.

What are you doing in Feb??  Check this out!! I’ve been going for two years now.. and absolutely love it.  The feeling of family, welcoming, friendship overwhelms you.  You won’t find that anywhere else.  Perfect strangers (not the TV show) become friends (.. not that one either) in a matter of a few days.  Be sure to sign up and attend.

And where does the 12 secs come in??  I was recently introduced to 12 sec. tv – what is it for??  .. Communicating and connecting.

Cheers!

We are busy people…not just in my family, but all of us.  Most of us are aware that we need to MAKE MORE TIME for our spouses and commit to our marriages in good old face to face equity.  But just maybe there are ways to keep strong communication going even when you aren’t together, face to face.

Katie and I are both iPhone users.  We love our phones and we use every conceivable function of them.  One way I have started communicating to her how much she means to me is through middle of the day texts telling her I love her.  I just want to remind her that I am thinking of her and missing her when I can’t be there.  We both are on Twitter (@jasongordon & @katiegordon) and drop little tweets like the one I did yesterday afternoon as I was leaving my office…

Headed home to @katiegordon & the kids!  YEA!

Yesterday I got an unexpected surprise as my TokBox (Tokbox is a web-based video chat/conferencing application) account started ringing on my iMac.  And there she was…my beautiful wife, missing me and wanting to “see me” in the middle of the day.  This was the first time Katie had ever used Tokbox and she created an account just to see me!  Let me just say this, there is no quicker way for Katie to grab my heart than when she uses technology! There are all sorts of ways to keep the lines of communication open in your marriage.  Get creative.  Stay connected!

Hi, guys! It’s 10:01pm and I am getting ready for bed. I was just thinking of the day’s events, like a lot of people do as their sugar rushes die down and their minds slow. All in all, it was a wonderful day. I spent entirely too much time online, webcam chatting with several of my favorite people. I got a good two hours of studying in, and am feeling less nauseous about school tomorrow. My dad and I went to Panera Bread for lunch, which you must realize is my favorite restaurant in the world. Not noodles, not Arby’s. Panera Bread. I am one of those people who gets the exact same thing every time she goes to a certain restaurant. I have been staring at this small bag of clothes I bought this weekend, feverishly waiting for Monday when I can wear these pink shorts. If you know me well, you’ll know that I am not really a pink girl. I had a bad experience with one of my junior high friends and her extreme obsession with pink that it was an extreme turn off, if I ever liked it before that. But these shorts…they are pretty much amazing. Woah, don’t I sound like a 15-year-old girl, babbling on about my pink shorts and how “cexi” they are? That’s gotta stop!

Have you noticed that I use an unfortunate amount of parentheses?

PS. This picture is for you, Marina and Nora.

How’s that for eye contact?
Also, can you guess what I’m listening to?

NBC.com Partners with Kiptronic for Mobile Ads; agreement will let NBC.com dynamically serve ads on its mobile platform. (emailed release)

YuMe Launches New Video Ad Unit; the InSynch Video Takeover allows an in-stream video ad and an in-page banner ad to be synchronized so messages can move back and forth between them. (release)

Warner Bros. Television Group Partners with AOL for Socialthing; service will incorporate AIM and ICQ to let visitors on sites such as TheWB.com, KidsWB.com and Momlogic.com share and comment with friends. (release)

Tokbox Changes CEOs (Again); browser-based video chat company replaces Nick Triantos with Ian Small. (GigaOM)

Q&A with Jason Kilar About Disney; Hulu CEO talks about adding ABC content to his company’s ranks, content windowing and authentication. (paidContent) If you have questions for Mr. Kilar, he’s agreed to field some over at the Freakonomics Blog.

HBO Putting Parts of Alzheimer’s Project Online; portions of the documentary as well as 15 supplemental films surrounding the series will appear on YouTube, iTunes, MySpace and Facebook. (Multichannel News)

Pink: The Series Director Launches New Web Series; from Streamy winner Blake Calhoun comes 88 Hits, a mockumentary about mobsters that debuts on KoldCast TV today. (KoldCast TV)

[qi:090] Tokbox, a San Francisco-based start-up that offers browser-based video chat, has lost its CEO, Nick Triantos. He has been replaced by Ian Small. We had heard about this change, and Tokbox confirmed it to me. Small’s bio hasn’t been added to Tokbox’s web site just yet. Triantos had replaced co-founder Serge Fauget in somewhat mysterious circumstances in March 2008. Tokbox has raised $14 million in two rounds of venture financing from Sequoia Capital and Bain Capital.

The company launched in October 2007 by spamming me and others who were invited to test out Tokbox. The company’s video chat service has struggled to find the super-growth that a consumer-oriented company such as Tokbox needs. Tokbox says it has a “user base of over 1 million people who are making over 1.5 million video calls everyday.” According to web-traffic measurement service Quantcast, Tokbox is  getting about 62,000 visitors a month, roughly in line with the user metrics reported by Compete.com. I have always been a little skeptical of Tokbox, and frankly, I haven’t seen anything that has made me change my mind.

Check out TokBox today and get connected the right way, face to face, with your friends and family! Also, visit their blog!

TokBox.com - the Ultimate Internship

That is right, I am a finalist for the TokBox.com Ultimate Internship which will be in warm and sunny San Fransisco! I am very excited just to be honored as a finalist out of the hundreds of applications they recieved. I have an interview tomorrow with them at 1:30pm, so wish me luck!

A little background on the internship, as found on the TokBox blog:

“It’s the chance to come and work with us in sunny San Francisco, all expenses paid.  That means a roundtrip flight from wherever you live in the US, a place to stay, food, all your transportation and $1000 a week for 6 weeks.  We think it’s a chance to get some great start-up experience and have some fun at the same time. (After all, we think we’re a pretty fun team).”

Sounds awesome huh? Time to knock it out tomorrow! Plus, I want a chance to run on the Golden Gate!

If you’re looking for a free video chat and video email platform that performs extremely well, tokbox might be for you. 

The interns at Ingenex Digital Marketing were looking for a platform that could host all of us in a chat room through video. We evaluated Skype and ooVoo, but neither of them had the capabilities that we were looking for. OoVoo advertises that you can talk with up to 6 people at the same time, however, you must pay for that service (the free service allows up to 3). Skype still does not allow more than 1 video chat at a time. So, a fellow intern stumbled upon tobox.

We started the test session out by telephone to make sure everyone was signing up correctly. What’s really convenient about tokbox is that you don’t have to download their software, everything is built into the site platform. You simply go to the site, sign in (if you don’t have your computer remember it), and you’re ready to video chat. Once we had everyone set up, we hung up the phones and began communicating completely through the video chat. There is a harsh echo if EVERYONE doesn’t use headphones, as the sound from the speakers gets picked up by the computer microphone and sent back through the chat.

From the above screen shot, you can see how neatly organized the interface is with all 6 video chats going at the same time. We also had 1 intern that didn’t have a video camera, but he was still able to participate by listening to our conversations and typing in the chat box underneath the video boxes.

You can also share video clips through a YouTube option, as well as slideshows through SlideShare. These are accessible through a simple click and drop function.

The overall quality of the video is fairly decent, considering the bandwidth its using. There was a slight delay to the voices, but nothing compared to that of the platform Stickam.

These types of platforms are so convenient for people that are spread out by large distances. We save money on gas, being very eco-conscious (HAPPY EARTH DAY!), as well as everyone’s time. So if you’re looking for a platform that is reliable and can handle multiple video chats at the same time, check this out. Let me know how it works out for you or if you have any questions!

Here are a few notes from the Social Media workshop at the Sticky Church conference hosted by Suncrest last week. Countless media exist, and the experience of our group was varied, so we decided to focus on a few major SM ideas. Handout available here.

Why suggest the church use Social Media? It is a fact that being online has become a natural communication channel in today’s culture. Our approach is that we want to go where people are gathering, not just expecting them all to come to us.

A few ways the church can implement Social Media:

1. website

• Podcast your sermon

2. blogging

• Lead Pastor blogging tips from Greg Lee included: Find an Audience, a Groove, a Voice, a Conversation, a Partner

3. facebook

• Create a church facebook page, invite attenders to join in

4. twitter

• Microblogging tool that has grown over 1000% in the last year
• Similar to blogging except 140 characters or less

5. tokbox

• Especially good for online small groups – also demo’d at workshop to bring in 3 Panel members listed below.

Panel Interview – I met all 3 using Social Media

DJ Chuang (Upper Left)
Spoke on new technologies and helping church leaders become aware of them. He oversees Digital @ Leadership Network, a blog dedicated to this very topic.

Tony Steward (Lower Right)
Shared some powerful lifechange stories (from social media sources) he’s been able to hear in his role as online community pastor at lifechurch.tv.

Cynthia Ware (Upper Right)
Talked to us about social media traits/values shaping ministry. A few values she discussed were – Interactivity, Decentralization and Mobility of Social Media.

Social media is not an end in itself, but a tool that can be leveraged for Kingdom advancement.