I have an idea.
If you are on staff with CCC, you might remember the 250 book from a while ago. It was a book that compiled 250 of the best outreach ideas from CCC campus ministries around the nation
I actually used it for inspiration a bunch of times….back in the day.
So here’s my idea. What if we had an online version? What if we had a way for staff in the campus ministry to upload their best evangelism outreach ideas on to one specific site. And let’s get crazy, what if we had the ability to leave comments and rate the ideas like we do on Amazon.com? Think about the engagement you could have. Think about the filtering of bad ideas you could have. You could have categories like 1-1 evangelism or large group outreach. I think it might just work.
As far as I know there is nothing like this. But how cool would it be if I could see what the Boston Metro team is doing, borrow an idea and and tweak it to fit my context. It could spur on new ideas in your context and move us forward quicker.
Sharing is good right?
Does this idea have value? Any problems with it? How could I make this happen?
Photo courtesy of Simon Gurr
Other LTI posts kinda like this one:
Matt, I think that’s a great idea. you should do it!
One thing that will need to be considered is how to structure the site so that it’s user friendly. If there is an idea but 150 comments on it, I’m not likely to read it. I think there needs to be some sort of filter even in the comments of the ideas.
or instead there could be a search engine similar to chowhound.com where you can search by topic specific to ‘region’. And a region could be Muslim outreach, Greek System, Science, Business…
And it would be great if there could be a ‘this idea is similar to these 3′ – just like amazon does with books. This will keep people seeking new ideas they didn’t even knew existed.
Obviously, you would need someone monitoring the site and deleting duplicates.
And because I’m in Canada, I want this to be open to us too =D I’m excited for this, from the GCX convos we have up here north of the 49th, I know other campus staff would be too.
A system like Digg’s could work where you digg/like a comment but then have an opportunity to expound on it of you’ve actually tried it. Like 43things.com
Even on Amazon.com they have a feature where the comments are filtered and you can easily view the most helpful comment. Products are also rated well by the consumer. That’s the idea I like the most…have our staff engage in rating and commenting on ideas.
Love the ‘this ides is is similar to these 3′ idea!
I’m all for it It’d be a great resource.
I know that Canada has a wiki for their campus ministry with a bunch of resources and ideas on it. This would probably be the easiest way to get something close to your idea up and running. I think GCX may also have the functionality to do some of what you’re talking about.
I’m still learning about the GCX communities. I’m not sure of the functionality yet. But I’ll start checking into it.
What I think is interesting is that very functionality was part of the original GCX spec. I remember being excited about a system that provided knowledge and digital asset management organization-wide. Things like you talk about here would be possible: plans, studies, flyers, etc. that were created in one place could be easily reused in another. It really is a shame more knowledge and assets aren’t being stored and reused vs. everyone always starting from scratch. Imagine the time savings of being able to look up outreach ideas, talks or Bible studies by topic, etc.
In the meantime, sounds like a good use of “Idea Bank” software, like the popular one from UserVoice.
He Matt, thanks for stopping by. Have you used the Idea Bank software at all?
I’ve been on the consumer end and really enjoyed it. Everyone can submit their ideas, and they get upvoted, commented on, etc. I THINK there’s a way to combine ideas on the back-end, but don’t know for sure. Several of my vendors/service providers use it, and it’s a really easy way to create momentum and help steer a product’s direction.
AFAIK, GCX, in its current form, doesn’t have this functionality. It was part of the original design which got SEVERELY scaled back before the actual release.
First, awesome idea. Phenomenal, really.
Second, thanks for letting an outsider know about The 250.
Third – and not to be a punk – but I would hope anybody who took the (likely immense) time to put this together wouldn’t simply structure it only for one college ministry organization (even if it’s a college ministry org that sets it up). That would be crazy. Since there are far more individual college ministry thinkers outside any one group than inside that group, why not open it up to a divergence of ideas? Categorizing / tagging could take care of most actual divisions. And the honest critique offered of some ministries’ methods might actually improve health across the board.
Fourth, while we’re at it, other methods could be incorporated in other sections. Once you’ve got the engine, it could be used for far more than evangelism.
Really, Matt, this is one of the best field-advancing ideas (if it’s allowed for the entire field) I’ve heard. Ever. If we can find somebody to do it. Everybody discussed method-sharing, but usually it’s in a “knowledge base” format, and something about that just doesn’t sit right for me (pragmatically, I mean; I question whether it will be used and will be viable). We’ll still run into the terrible lack of learning-motivation, but hopefully we’re all working on that.
This also partially solves the transfer-lag Brian B. has spoken of in the past, between a great idea being developed and it making it “up the rungs” to national leaders and then back “down the rungs” to local ministries.
And do I know how it gets done? Nope. It will take somebody who’s willing to push through the large Dip between the excitement over the idea and it actually becoming viable. In my mind, it’d be quite worth it.
One last idea: Any “tags” or descriptions should include types of campuses (and I don’t just mean broad types) a method seems best for. In the future, I think we’ll find that many methods will transfer best between like-campuses, but we haven’t developed a good sociology for determining those campuses.
You’re not a punk Benson. I had that same thought about a week ago. It would be silly to limit it to CCC.
I agree there is a great number of fantastic campus ministers all around the world and being able to help each other would be a good idea. But I see a possible red flag.
There is a reason why we have so many different campus organizations – we have different goals and different things that we value. This is actually a very good thing, it allows us to focus on what each group does to do it well. I see opening this up might endanger this specialization.
I have just seen it happen before where something that was great original idea gets snowballed to include so many people that the goal and the vision of the original idea gets watered down and eventually not used. A reason why the 250 book worked is because of the niche that it targeted.
I don’t want to sound like I am snooty and wanting to only limit this tool to CCC. I think that the tool can be adapted for each group with a specific focus and should be shared. A chaplain at a Christian University in Texas will have very different goals compared to a CCC staff member at a secular University in Quebec. So I think there can be different search engines for it.
Thanks for your thoughts Hannah.
I agree…there are distinctives (goals, values, etc.) that each organization brings to the table. But at the same time there is value in have the idea exchange available. At the very least don’t make us have to get GCX email to sign in.
If this project ever really began, I wonder how you tag or sort based on organization in a way that’s helpful?
This might be way off, but I wonder if the All Callings site and facebook app could somehow begin to pull something like this off? Would be fun to sit down some time and sketch this out on paper, Matt. After that, we’d just contract it out to somebody really smart and good with computers that works for free. Know anyone like that?
Matt, Have you ever looked at http://www.wikihow.com? It has always intrigued me as a model for doing something similar to what you are talking about. It has all the features and functions to post an idea and make it available for interaction and even editing in a wiki way to mold and shape an idea. It’s based on WikiMedia so it has much ability to play well with other social media.
I once pursued building a proof of concept but it seems it was the wrong time.
I’m curious of you, or anyone else see usefulness in something like a WikiHow format?
Joe, hmmm…haven’t heard of it. I’ll give it a look!
Thanks for stopping by!