Mapping Idea at effective web ministry notes

Mapping Idea

filed under General by rob on 19May05 @ 11:42 am EST

For those of us in the US, here’s an cool idea. People are using the new Google Maps to create cool applications. For instance, I just read from BeConnected how someone has created a way to map out local cheap gas.

How could we be creative and use something like this?

4 Responses to “Mapping Idea”

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1 Frank on May 19th, 2005 said:

Rob:

Not sure if Google Maps would help with this, but I’ve thought for awhile that it would be interesting to have a database of believers in a local area (of course, there are all sorts of privacy issues, fear issues, etc. that would need to be worked through, so I’m not sure how practical this is), along with their interests, ministry skills, affinity group involvement, neighborhood, life experiences, etc.) so that we could match up believers with unbelievers with particular needs in their lives.

For example, it would be great to be able to tell a young, recently-widowed mother who lives in such and such a neighborhood (who is also an unbelievers) that there are three people in her neighborhood who have underwent similar crises. And then be able to hook them up.

As our society is becoming more and more fragmented socially (and more and more people seem to be retreating into their own worlds), I think technology can be a bridge to facilitate face-to-face relationships in this way.

Again, all sorts of privacy and safety issues would be involved, but it’s an interesting thought at least.

Frank
2 rob on May 19th, 2005 said:

See, that’s what I’m trying to think through. I haven’t been able to land on a great idea, but yours is a good one.
3 IndyChristian on May 20th, 2005 said:

Exactly. The heart of our concept at Blogs+News=Blews.net is to help facilitate a ‘national-to-neighborhood’ network of driven Christians. That is, laying a pervasive set of communications tracks all the way down to the neighborhood level. Google maps could be a great piece of that. Further, see the related WhenYouNeedSomeone.com engine concept — to network needs-providers and neighborhood-leaders together by zip… and thus be able to better answer/meet people’s needs and build longer-term relationships & solutions.

You’ve probably heard the expression ‘all politics are local’… Well, likewise, all ministry is in the final analysis, local.

Good to see you guys helping think this through.
4 rob on May 20th, 2005 said:

I left this comment on ChurchNerd’s post referencing this post:

Thanks for the link! You can already do something similar to looking for churches in an area. For example, here are the Presbyterian Churches in my zip code. To do it, don’t go to Google Maps. Go to Local Google and search for “Presbyterian Church” in your zip code, or whatever you want to look for. It’ll give you a map with the results.