1. Using Location-Based Data,
Christian APIs and
the Christian Social Graph API
Andrew Sears
Executive Director

2. Outline
1. Background on the Semantic Web
2. Christian Social Graph
3. Helpful tools for local apps & websites

3. The Need for the Semantic Web:
What are the Online Megatrends?
Browser traffic App Traffic
General Search Vertical Search
Proliferation of Open, Standardized
Closed Datasets/APIs Machine Readable Data
All of these trends call for more standardized
APIs and linked datasets = Semantic Web

4. App Traffic Growing beyond Browser Traffic
Note: Includes all web (desktop and mobile)

5. Examples of Semantic Web & Vertical Search

7. What is the Semantic Web? AKA Web 3.0
Semantic Web is an Initiative of World Wide Web Consortium
for providing common formats for web data.
It is led by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
Aggregators: Thousands of Christian Websites
and Applications
API Terms of Use Contracts
Sparql endpoints: Christian Social Graph
Schema.org: churches, organizations,
job postings, events, volunteer opportunities
RDF: data sharing format in XML

8. Key Semantic Web Links
 FreeBase.com: Google’s open database of
structured data
 DBpedia.org: database of structured data
from Wikipedia
 Sindice.com: index of the semantic web
 Schema.org: most widely used ontology &
schema of the Semantic web

9. Schema.org: Church Definition
Property Expected Type Description
Properties from Thing
description Text A short description of the item.
image URL URL of an image of the item.
name Text The name of the item.
url URL URL of the item.
Properties from Place
address PostalAddress Physical address of the item.
The overall rating, based on a collection of
aggregateRating AggregateRating
reviews or ratings, of the item.
containedIn Place The basic containment relation between places.
Upcoming or past events associated with this
events Event
place or organization.
faxNumber Text The fax number.
geo GeoCoordinates or GeoShape The geo coordinates of the place.
A count of a specific user interactions with this
item—for example, 20 UserLikes, 5
interactionCount Text UserComments, or 300 UserDownloads. The user
interaction type should be one of the sub types of
UserInteraction.
maps URL A URL to a map of the place.
photos Photograph or ImageObject Photographs of this place.
reviews Review Review of the item.
telephone Text The telephone number.
Properties from CivicStructure
The opening hours for a business. datetime="Mo-
openingHours Duration
Su">Monday through Sunday, all day</time>.

10. Schema.org: Organization
Property Expected Type Description
Properties from Thing
description Text A short description of the item.
image URL URL of an image of the item.
name Text The name of the item.
url URL URL of the item.
Properties from Organization
address PostalAddress Physical address of the item.
The overall rating, based on a collection of reviews
aggregateRating AggregateRating
or ratings, of the item.
contactPoints ContactPoint A contact point for a person or organization.
email Text Email address.
employees Person People working for this organization.
Upcoming or past events associated with this place
events Event
or organization.
faxNumber Text The fax number.
founders Person A person who founded this organization.
foundingDate Date The date that this organization was founded.
A count of a specific user interactions with this
item—for example, 20 UserLikes, 5 UserComments,
interactionCount Text
or 300 UserDownloads. The user interaction type
should be one of the sub types of UserInteraction.
location Place or PostalAddress The location of the event or organization.
members Person or Organization A member of this organization.
reviews Review Review of the item.
telephone Text The telephone number.
More specific types: Corporation, EducationalOrganization, GovernmentOrganization,
LocalBusiness, NGO, PerformingGroup, SportsTeam

11. Schema.org: Job Posting
Property Expected Type Description
Properties from Thing
description Text A short description of the item.
image URL URL of an image of the item.
name Text The name of the item.
url URL URL of the item.
Properties from JobPosting
baseSalary Number The base salary of the job.
benefits Text Description of benefits associated with the job.
datePosted Date Publication date for the job posting.
educationRequirements Text Educational background needed for the position.
Type of employment (e.g. full-time, part-time, contract, temporary, seasonal,
employmentType Text
internship).
experienceRequirements Text Description of skills and experience needed for the position.
hiringOrganization Organization Organization offering the job position.
incentives Text Description of bonus and commission compensation aspects of the job.
industry Text The industry associated with the job position.
jobLocation Place A (typically single) geographic location associated with the job position.
Category or categories describing the job. Use BLS O*NET-SOC taxonomy:
occupationalCategory Text http://www.onetcenter.org/taxonomy.html. Ideally includes textual label and formal
code, with the property repeated for each applicable value.
qualifications Text Specific qualifications required for this role.
responsibilities Text Responsibilities associated with this role.
The currency (coded using ISO 4217, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217 used for
salaryCurrency Text
the main salary information in this job posting.
skills Text Skills required to fulfill this role.
Any special commitments associated with this job posting. Valid entries include
specialCommitments Text
VeteranCommit, MilitarySpouseCommit, etc.
title Text The title of the job.
workHours Text The typical working hours for this job (e.g. 1st shift, night shift, 8am-5pm).

12. Schema.org: Event (i.e. small group)
Property Expected Type Description
Properties from Thing
description Text A short description of the item.
image URL URL of an image of the item.
name Text The name of the item.
url URL URL of the item.
Properties from Event
attendees Person or Organization A person attending the event.
The duration of the item (movie, audio recording, event, etc.) in
duration Duration
ISO 8601 date format.
endDate Date The end date and time of the event (in ISO 8601 date format).
location Place or PostalAddress The location of the event or organization.
An offer to sell this item—for example, an offer to sell a
offers Offer
product, the DVD of a movie, or tickets to an event.
The main performer or performers of the event—for example, a
performers Person or Organization
presenter, musician, or actor.
startDate Date The start date and time of the event (in ISO 8601 date format).
Events that are a part of this event. For example, a conference
subEvents Event event includes many presentations, each are subEvents of the
conference.
An event that this event is a part of. For example, a collection
superEvent Event of individual music performances might each have a music
festival as their superEvent.

13. What is the largest social network in the world?
No. Facebook is the
largest online social network
900 million
The Global Body of Christ is
the largest social network.
2 billion Christians.
The problem is the Global Body
of Christ is Disconnected!

14. Christian Social Graph Vision
 What if every Christian could connect with
the needs and resources to maximize
their calling on earth?
◦ Missions: Mapping every need in the world to
Christians with resources to meet that need
◦ Discipleship: Mapping every Christian with
resources they need for growth
◦ Helping Christians meet the needs of non-
Christians
 Why do thousands of people have this
same vision?
◦ It’s something that God is doing

15. Examples of Resources Needed
 Christian Social Network: $100 million
 Christian Social Graph: $100 million
◦ Global Church Directory: $50 million
◦ Global Parachurch Directory: $10 million
◦ Global Volunteer/Missions Directory: $10 million
 Christian Wikipedia: $10 million
 Christian YouTube: $10-50 million
 Christian TED Talks: $10-50 million
How do you build a $100 project when you
only have a few million dollars?

16. What is the Christian Social Graph?
1. The Christian social graph is a social utility
to connect Christians and resources
◦ Similar to the Facebook Social graph, but more
open and focused on mapping resources related to
Christians
2. It will be how Christians contribute to the
semantic web (Web 3.0)
◦ Will build on standards like RDF, Schema.org and
Facebook Open Graph API
3. Provides a way to:
◦ Share data and code to avoid replicating each
others work
◦ Use each other’s data to build apps and websites

17. Existing Christian API’s
 Location Based
◦ Christian Social Graph, ChristianChirp, WeGather,
ChurchZip
 Church Management Systems
◦ Access ACS, IconCMO, Fellowship One, Planning
Center
 Bible
◦ American Bible Society, Bible Gateway, Bible
Lookup, Bible.org, Biblia.com, eBibleicious, ESV
Bible Lookup, Living Stones, St. Gregorios Church
Bible
 Misc
◦ Prayer Planet, SermonAudio

18. Christian Social Graph API
Volunteer
Opportunities
10,000
TechMission’s
Funders &
Grants
Jobs
6,000
Initial Focus
Organizations
Content
15,000
Christian
Social
Graph
Groups &
Churches
Events
Classified
People
Listing

19. Demo Links
 Data Available & Facets
◦ Local Volunteer Opportunities
◦ Short Term Missions Opportunities
◦ Organizations
◦ Christian Jobs
◦ Virtual Volunteering
◦ Maps
 Sample API Request
◦ www.christianvolunteering.org/apiaccess.jsp
◦ Feed of All Opportunities in XML

20. Data Sharing Agreement and API
 TechMission will have contracts both with data providers
and those using our API
 An API key can be provided to partners to access data from
the Christian social graph
◦ Partners not following terms of agreement in using data correctly
may have their API key revoked
 Key API Terms
◦ Only used for live access through programming on websites and
applications
◦ No use in mailing lists
◦ No reselling data
◦ May be used in for profit websites and apps
◦ Intent is to provide open access to data while protecting from
abuse
 Tech Specs
◦ Will use initially Solr query syntax, but later will provide SPARQL
◦ Will provide data as XML, JSON, RSS or CSV

21. Christian Social Graph Feeds
 Data From:
◦ ShortTermMissions.com, Meet the Need, Oscar.org.uk,
SimplyHired, All for Good, IRS Nonprofit Database, HandsOn
Network, AARP, Idealist.org, United Way, Truist, Habitat for
Humanity, Service Nation, Universal Giving,
ChristianVolunteering.org, Craigslist, MENTOR, Senior Corps,
AmeriCorps, Girl Scouts, YMCA, Up2Us, CatchaFire,
Volunteer.gov, Rock the Vote, Citizen Corps, Red Cross,
Samaritan Technologies, Catchafire
 Data To:
◦ Meet the Need, Needs Met, AllforGood, jobinventory.com,
jobisjob.com, olx.com, simplyhired.com, trovit.com, job-
search-engine.com, yakaz.com, oodle.com,
workhound.co.uk, www.wowjobs.ca

22. Expanding Christian Social Graph
 TechMission Projects
◦ Parachurches: 100-200k by 2013
◦ Churches: 300-400k in USA by 2013
◦ Christian Foundations: 10-15k by 2013
(English only)
◦ Jobs: 5-10k now (English only)
◦ Volunteer/Missions Opportunities: 10k now
(English only)
 Projects Needed
◦ Small Groups/Events
◦ Classifieds

23. Events/Small Groups
 Secular Sources
◦ Meetup.com
◦ Craigslist.org (use 3taps.com API)
◦ Eventful.com
◦ Upcoming.org
◦ Eventbrite.com
◦ Sindex.com

24. Sources for Localized Data
 Semantic Web:
◦ Not ready for prime time
 APIs & Feeds (XML & JSON)
◦ Currently best source
 Web Scraping Scripts & Tools
◦ Be sure to obey copyright
 Web Crawler Scripts
 Public Data
 Purchasing Data
 Partnering to Share Data

25. Demo Links
 Meetup
 Craigslist/3Taps
 Open Source Code Base
◦ code.google.com/p/ivolunteering-
christianvolunteering/
◦ https://github.com/techmission
 Simplyhired_feeds
 Solr-synonyms

26. Feeds Libraries
 Input Feeds
◦ PHP
 HTTP Request: php.net/manual/en/book.http.php
 Parsing:php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php
 Optional Database Abstraction: PHP Data Objects
◦ Ruby
 HTTP request: mechanize
 Parsing: nokogiri
◦ Drupal
 Use Feeds Module
 Output Feeds
◦ Solr: use XSLT stylesheets for XML, RSS, JSON and CSV
◦ Each language provides libraries for outputting various
format
 See code at: https://github.com/techmission

27. Tools for Local Apps/Websites
 IP Geolocation
◦ Free: www.maxmind.com/app/geolite
◦ Use to populate location in web browser
 Metropolitan Statistical Areas Database
◦ Use to map metro area based on Zip code entered in Web
form
◦ Free (old) or pay for new
◦ Google “metropolitan statistical area zip code”
 Geo Search
◦ Solr: Geospatial
 Geocoding
◦ Google Maps API
 Maps Display
◦ Google Maps, Bing, Mapquest, Open Layers, etc.
 Most CMS’s will have module providing some of these
functions

28. Location in Mobile Apps
 Options
◦ Xcode, Java, C#, Phonegap
 Provides
◦ Coordinates, direction & velocity, map display
 May still need to build your own
◦ Geospacial search, metro database, database
of geocoded objects, etc.

29. Partnering Christian Social Graph
Christian • Regional Christian portals
Websites & • Church management Systems
Applications • Christian social networks
• Christian portals
• Schema.org
• Semantic Web • Websites
• Search Engines Christian • System Integration
Global Programming Mobile Apps
• Social Networks •
• Places/Maps
Standards & Social Consultants • Facebook Apps
Aggregators
• AllforGood Graph • Widgets
• 211 • Open Source Projects
• Specialized Directories
• National Aggregators
Data Sources • 1,000’s of websites
• Volunteer, Jobs, Orgs, etc.

30. Potential Apps & Websites
 Needs by Data Type
◦ Volunteer Opps, Missions, Parachurch & Foundation
Search: ChristianVolunteering.org
◦ Church Search: Church Finder (concept app)
◦ Small Group Search: No public search app
◦ Christian Classifieds: None with critical mass
 Needs by project
◦ Websites
◦ App Platforms:
Android, iOS, Facebook, Widgets, etc.
◦ Integrations: CMS modules, Church Management
◦ Languages & localizations
◦ Customizations: church/parachurch website
integrations

31. Longer Term Applications of the
Christian Social Graph
 “Siri find a Bible study on Luke that meets
on Tuesday nights”
 Personality/profile type mapping to…
◦ Churches, jobs, volunteer opportunities,
roommates, etc.
 Social maps to identify “seekers” and
people about to become a Christian
 Social maps of the Global Body of Christ
◦ Relationships and giving across country, race,
languages, class, etc.

32. Appendix

33. The Problem of Splintering:
Christian Jobs
 Probably 20k-100k Christian jobs online
 Christian searching for a job would need to
search…
◦ Over 100 Christian jobs sites, most with less than
1% market share
◦ Hundreds of thousands of church and parachurch
websites with job postings on their sites
◦ Secular job sites with Christian jobs
 Usability for Christian job seeker
◦ Top 5 secular job sites combined probably have
80% market share
◦ Top 5 Christian job sites combined have less than
20% market share
◦ Results in secularization

34. The Problem of Secularizing:
Volunteering
1. If Christians cannot easily find opportunities in Christian
ministries, they will serve in secular ministries
◦ Strong secular bias against Christian organizations exists on
secular sites
◦ About 40% of volunteers are in FBOs, but the leading secular
volunteer site only list 3% of their opportunities as religious
2. Christian volunteers provide hundreds of billions worth of
donated services each year
◦ $100 billion x 40% = 40 billion
◦ $100 billion x 3% = 3 billion
3. Lack of Christian volunteer directories with critical mass
will result in secularization and a major loss of volunteer
resources to ministries and churches
4. Goal is to avoid secularizing Christian resources while
also avoiding creating a “Christian ghetto”

35. Law of Network Effects

36. Achieving Critical Mass

37. Achieving Critical Mass
Cost/Value
User
Generated
Value
Cost
Number of Users

38. Will Christians Online be like Christian
Radio or Christian TV?
 Christian Radio
◦ Called “the major single innovation of the present missions
era.”
◦ Christian Broadcast Network alone has reported 45 million
decisions to follow Jesus through their broadcasts.
◦ At its peak, religious broadcasts represented the single
largest component of transnational broadcasting
 Christian Television
◦ Gave us tele-evangelist and some really bad Christian TV
◦ Negligible presence in television compared to Hollywood
 If Christians remain splintered online in the social
graph, the impact of Christians online is likely to be
negligible like Christian TV