1024 Window

I am working on a small presentation for tonight for a project I am calling the 1024 window. A billion people are online and they are viewing the world and finding answers through a screen that is most likely 1024 pixels across and 768 pixels high. The most popular display resolution in the world is 1024 x 768. Fact is, when those one billion people need some information, they use a search engine and aggregate the results that show themselves on the window, or the 1024 window to be exact. I will present some ideas tonight on the challenge and opportunities of “screenagers”, Generation Text and bloggers as a new kind of scribe. Its not a big meeting tonight, not big at all, actually, and I just hope both of these guys will really like the idea.

Missionaries have talked a lot about the 10/40 window as the place of greatest need and by employing the term 1024 (10/24) window, I am certainly not trying to take away any attention from the two thirds of the world’s population that live in the 10/40 geographical area of the world. God knows we need to keep our resources flowing to those countries. But I am suggesting that a new grid has arisen that deserves our attention – the one billion people who access information through screens, a number which will no doubt continue to grow as more of the world gets connected.

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btw – I just bought the domain name 1024window.com to be a home for the project i am proposing tonight (details to follow). i cant find any evidence of anyone using the phrase “1024 window” but if you have previously heard or used the term, please let me know so i can keep my facts straight. And if you think the term is totally lame, then feel free to leave your complaint below.

Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

13 Comments

  • tony sheng says:

    I love it.
    It’s the perfect combination of global mission + geek.
    Awesome

  • Tim Bednar says:

    I like this; let me know if there is anything I can do to help out.

  • Dave Treat says:

    You’re onto something… go for it. (Even thought my MacBook Pro is 1440 x 900)
    May read your content as RSS anyway…

  • Nice. I wonder if wikipedia is the best focus for this. I think lots of us have backed away from WP because of the wikiwars and petty self appointed moderators, but it is still the best source of information, with the highest profile on the interweb. For example if I google ‘guilt’ wikipedia is the top hit. Same with Jesus, church, christianity etc.
    It is also a place of genuine engagement with ideas – if you are willing to participate in the discussion and negotiation.

  • Brian Hogan says:

    Speaking of using the web:
    Check out this YouTube Page on Simple Church:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/ChurchPlanters
    and make sure that you watch this BBC take on Simple Church from Doctor Who:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAIfaMyeWf4&watch_response

  • Dave Bruno says:

    Great idea and name. So are you going to post the presentation for the other 999,999,998 of us?

  • GordonG says:

    Great Idea – look forward to reading more on it.
    Shalom
    Gordon

  • Chris says:

    Good morning,
    While I both understand and appreciate the need for online evangelism through digital media, I am wondering about the neglect of a few key things. Personally I very well acquainted with missions as it is both my job and my calling, just to give where I am coming from.
    While it is proper to make a distinction for those who are tied into digital media, the problem I see is that those who are digitally capable are the very ones who are more likely already reached with some form of the gospel. In other words, the typical non-westerner who has a computer has access to the gospel whether online or through education. Most who own a computer are the elites of many of these countries and are exposed to a variety of avenues of the gospel. The most unreached, however, are still among people who are not educationally strong, who are not elites in their country, and have little to no contact with digital media.
    The last frontiers of missions is still in remote areas that have little access to television, computers and such. What than do we do with these people. Again, I agree that we need to reach those within the 10/40 and those who are digitally connected, but what of those who still do not have access to the gospel period? Who will go to them?

  • Hey Andrew,
    Really like this idea. A good friend in the States has Cystic Fibrosis and her husband started a blog less than a year ago to talk about what they were going through. cfhusband.blogspot.com It has been pretty amazing to see the impact of their testimony through incredible trials on the CF community.
    It’s a great example of being true about life and faith and letter others see that. A city on a hill cannot be hid…

  • dan says:

    i have a deep suspicion of anything online (i know this may come as a surprise, andrew). this is for two reasons: 1. information is corrosive of meaning (blasphemy, i know) and 2. acceleration as the constituting property of this medium disseminates and deincarnates dwelling (that is dissembles the coherence that is the whole and home of kerygma).
    there were no nay-sayers so i thought i would at the very least play devil’s advocate…

  • I just found out today that if I get my pixel resolution on my laptop wrong and try to project from it I lose part of the picture. (Praise God for techies to sort me out.) But I wonder how that fits into this allegory. Any ideas?

  • Justin Long says:

    It’s a great name. No one else is using it. You should go for it! And while I am definitely a person who is pro-reaching the unreached, it is also quite clear that more and more people from unreached portions of the world are coming online. There is a huge audience in India, China, southeast Asia, and a growing audience in other portions of the world. And the difficulty is that much Gospel material as always is available in English–but many of those who are coming online do not read English. There are huge numbers of Mandarin websites, for example… but how many are about the Good News? Plus, how many take an additional step to help people not just “become saved” but “encounter the ongoing life-transforming power of the Good News”?

  • andrew says:

    Dan – i share your suspicion. i found a recipe a few weeks ago online and half way through i decided it was stupid. however, a lot of recipes have been excellent and i trust the web more when i see there has been the testimony of one or two witnesses, or even better, that it has been subject to accountability from the masses.
    in fact, i often put more stock in a blog post that has been viewed and commented on (and argued against) than i do in a published book by a single author that may or may not have ever been tested in the firey furnace of a million virtual eyeballs.
    hey – missed you in orkney this week, dan. try again next time and enjoy your time in UK.

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