Technology and Cross-Cultural Ministry Strategies

Technology, Cross-Cultural
Organizations and the Poor
Andrew Sears

Course Goals
1. Understand low-cost business models and common strategies
applied by businesses serving the Base of the Pyramid and poor
communities and apply those into organizational strategy.
2. Analyze the cultural and power implications of key trends such as
social/peer production, the long tail, mobile and online education
that have major implications for the poor and to create
organizational strategies to respond to these trends.
3. Apply principles of cross-cultural ministry in developing
organizational strategies and new product designs.
4. Understand the digital divide, knowledge divide to be able to
develop strategies for Christian organizations to effectively
respond.
5. Analyze case studies of organizations and business strategies
that were successful in serving the poor and apply that toward
organizational strategy.

Outline
 Part 1: Technology and Low-Cost Business
Models
◦ Google Hangout with Google Access
 Part 2: Technology and Cross-Cultural Ministry
◦ Google Hangout with Lightsys
 Part 3: Digital Divide, Knowledge Divide and the
Christian Response
◦ Google Hangout with Denver Rescue Mission
 Part 4: Case Studies & Final Project

Final Project
 30-35 Pages; Work on it each week
 Summary: Demonstrate achievement of course goals
 Create research report and strategic plan for a new
division at work using technology for the poor
◦ Apply concepts from course across each of the 4 parts of the
course
 Example Projects
◦ Adult Education Center or Youth Tech Program Plan
◦ Adult Basic Education, GED and Career Readiness System
◦ Technology & Missions Organization Plan
◦ Christian Consulting Company

Part 1: Technology & Low-Cost
Business Models

-
200,000,000
400,000,000
600,000,000
800,000,000
1,000,000,000
1,200,000,000
1,400,000,000
1,600,000,000
1,800,000,000
2,000,000,000
1800 1900 1970 2000 2007 2025
Christian Membership by Region
West South
Status of Global Mission 2014, Todd Johnson
http://www.gordonconwell.edu/resources/documents/statusofglobalmission.pdf

1900 1970 2000 2007 2025
South 21% 59% 86% 91% 99%
West 79% 41% 14% 9% 1%
21%
59%
86%
91%
99%
79%
41%
14%
9%
1%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Growth of Christianity by Region
Status of Global Mission 2014, Todd Johnson
http://www.gordonconwell.edu/resources/documents/statusofglobalmission.pdf

Characteristics of Low-Cost
BoP Business Models
 Priority is 1) Cost 2) Speed 3) Quality
 High volume is needed to achieve low cost
 Labor/time is cheap
 Pay as you go better than high up front

Project Management Triangle & the Poor
Cost
Scope/
Quality
Time
Cost is the determining factor.
Decrease scope/quality and time to decrease cost.

Technology as Culture across Generations & Class
1. Record Labels/Publishing
• Closed & Majority Culture
• Priorities: 1. Quality 2. Speed 3.
Cost
• Cost Structure: $100-$1 million per
item created
• Website is interactive brochure
• Optimized to promote brand
2. Apple/iTunes
• Closed & Mono-cultural
• Priorities: 1. Quality 2. Speed 3.
Cost
• Cost Structure: $500-$1 million per
item created
• Website is an online store
• Optimized to maximize profit
3. Static Org Website
• Closed/Reflects Org Culture
• Priorities: 1. Cost 2. Speed 3.
Quality
• Cost Structure: $10-$100 per item
created
• Website is low-quality brochure
• Website optimized for low cost
4. Craigslist, Wikipedia & Android
• Open & Diverse
• Priorities: 1. Cost 2. Speed 3.
Quality
• Cost Structure: < $.50 per item
created
• Website is a sharing community
• Optimized to maximize social value
Older Generation Younger Generation
Upper/MiddleClassUnder-Resourced

Low-Cost Project Management Approach
 Highest Cost
◦ Waterfall (highly structured and planned)
 Medium Cost
◦ Agile, Scrum
 Low Cost
◦ Lean, Worse is Better, Kanban, Lightweight, RAD,
Cowboy Coding, Hack, Quick-and-dirty

 Before the Internet: 80% of profit comes from 20% of
products
 After the Internet: 60% of profit comes from 40% of
products = increased content diversity
Effect of the Long Tail: 80/20 Rule
Becomes the 60/40 Rule

Effects of the Long Tail & Missions
 Long Tail Increases Diversity of Videos
◦ Blockbuster Video: 80% of rentals are recent “blockbusters,” only carries
75 documentaries
◦ Netflix: 30% of rentals are “blockbusters” and carries 1,180
documentaries
◦ Amazon: carries 17,061 documentaries (of a possible 40,000)
 Long Tail of Search Terms (TechMission Websites)
◦ Top 500 search terms provide 19.5% of visitors
◦ 604,916 search terms provide 80.5% of visitors
 Missions Implication
◦ Non-Western culture voices are almost entirely on the long tail.
◦ The Internet extends the long tail. It decreases the proportion controlled
by big media from 80% to around 60% which gives more room for non-
Western voices.
◦ Open strategy maximizes visibility of non-Western voices.

Part 1: The Main Ideas
1. The most aspect of tech strategies to serve
the poor is understanding tech strategies of
low-cost business models
2. The long tail, open source and zero
marginal cost are reducing the costs of
production, and we should use these trends
to serve the poor
3. Reduced cost of production can both help the
poor and reverse the trend of secularization
and Westernization of media

Recap: Key Lessons from Part 1
 Most Bottom of the Pyramid lessons apply to serving the poor in the
US
 There are thousands of tech concepts to learn, but those selected in
Part 1 are among the most important to understand when serving
the poor
◦ We need to understand and partner with these forces
◦ Common theme: they all reduce costs of production and the price to
consumers
◦ Read the books related to these concepts to fully understand them
 Three keys to success in business “Location, Location, Location” is
replaced with “Cost, Cost, Cost” in serving the poor.
 World is “divided between people who have money but
no time and people who have time but no money”
◦ What opportunities are there for people with
“time but no money”

Examples of How to Apply Principles
 Rescue Missions/Salvation Army
◦ Time Not Money = Thrift Stores, Recycling
◦ Seek employment onramps in freelance economy
◦ What are the digital analogies of key aspects of your business
model and how do they change? Bell ringing, thrift stores
 Tech Consultants
◦ How to partner with tech Christians in the developing world?
◦ How to provide reduced cost consulting to ministries serving the
poor?
 Education
◦ Partner with open education and long tail resources
whenever possible to reduce costs and promote diversity

Part 2: Technology and
Cross Cultural Ministry

Cultural Distance
 E0 – Renewal to Christians of same culture
 E1 – Evangelism to people of same culture
 E2 – Cross-Cultural missions
 E3 – Cross-Cultural missions to radically
different culture
If there are Christians indigenous to a culture, the role of
tech should be to support E1 evangelism (indigenous leaders)!
Ralph d. Winter - The New Macedonica: A Revolutionary New Era in Mission Begins

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
 Power distance index
 Individualism (IDV) vs. collectivism
 Uncertainty avoidance
 Masculinity (MAS), vs. femininity
 Long-term orientation (LTO), vs. short term
orientation
 Indulgence versus restraint
 Apps
◦ http://geert-hofstede.com/mobile-apps.html
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory

Needs of the Poor vs. Middle Class
Reconciliation Across Social Class by Andrew Sears

Common Class Value
Tensions in Ministry
Non-Dominant Class Value
 Low Cost
 Low Cost
 Relational
 Relational
 Spontaneous
 Subjective
 Intense
 Hierarchical
 Trauma is Common
 Any Lower Class
Culture/Values
Dominant Class Value
 High Quality
 Speed
 Structured/Orderly
 Efficient
 Detached/Objective
 Objective
 Reserved
 Egalitarian
 Trauma is Avoided
 Any Middle/Upper Class
Culture/ Values
Reconciliation Across Social Class by Andrew Sears

Dimensions of Cross Cultural Technology
 Front End
◦ Language
◦ Types of media (text, images, audio, video)
◦ Graphics
◦ Information access (open, restricted or pay)
◦ Device
 Back End & Development
◦ Cost
◦ Content Economics (who owns, creates, distributes &
consumes)
◦ Information Architecture (hub-spoke, distributed, open vs. closed)

Ethnic Identity Development Process
Description Goal
Stage 1.
Unawarene
ss
Unaware of racial and
social identity.
Become aware of racial/social
identity
Stage 2.
Awareness
Growing awareness of
race, culture and racism,
but most processing is on
a head-level
Become aware of racism and
other forms of social injustice
to provide basis for entering
immersion
Stage 3.
Immersion
Immersion and
identification with
minority culture
Process on an emotional level
and heal the effects of racism
and social brokenness
through action, relationships
and forgiveness
Stage 4.
Holiness
Secure, consistent racial/
social identity while
integrating strengths
from other cultures
Continue reconciliation by
addressing social injustice,
bringing social healing and
addressing personal cultural
brokennessEthnic Identity Development

Jesus
Christian Social Sector
AGRM, CCDA, Salvation Army,
Teen Challenge, UYWI, World Vision
Job Boards
Internships.com
Simply Hired
Christian Higher Ed for Justice
Bakke U, UCC, Eastern, Fuller
Azusa, Acton, NET Institute, Christian ABE
Open Education
Straighterline.com,
MOOCs, EdX
Coursera, Udacity
Nonprofit Recruiting
AllforGood, Idealist
VolunteerMatch,
Guidestar, FB Causes
Tech & Missions
ICCM, Lightsys, MAF,
GEM, EMI, WIN, OB
VisionSynergy, AIBI
Wycliffe IT, CheckItOut
Tech & Ministry
Internet Evangelism Day,
Mobile Ministry Forum,
YouVersion, ABS, Cru
MSTSM
Program
Tech-Justice Sector (secular)
Jesus Tech
Sector (Word)
Jesus Justice
Sector (Deed)
City Vision College
ChristianVolunteering
City Vision Internships
Tech Christian Colleges
AccessED, ACU, Calvin, Taylor, Baylor
Biola, Olivet, Fuller, Wheaton, Liberty
Christian Technologists
Christians Engineering Society,
Intervarsity Faculty, Cru Faculty
ISCAST, Code for the Kingdom
Christians in Tech (FB & LinkedIn)
Christian Recruiting
MeetTheNeed, ChristianJobs
ShortTermMissions, Missions
Christian Media
Christianity Today,
Publishers, Radio & TV
Tech Philanthropy
Google Grants, LinkedIn
Facebook, Salesforce,
Microsoft
Open Source
Drupal, Moodle
Church Tech & IT
LifeChurch, Menlo Park
Saddleback, Willow Creek
Christian Recovery
NACR, Celebrate Recovery
Urban Internships
Mission Year
Churches of the Poor
Christian Higher Ed
In Developing Countries
Low Cost Online Training
Lynda.com, Skillshare, Pluralsight
Parachurch IT
Cru, Intervarsity
Open Data/Content
Wikipedia, Open Gov’t,
Semantic Web
Christian Funders
Foundations, Individuals
Secular Funders
Foundations, Individuals,
Government, Corporations

Ministry
with the
Poor
The Poor
Christian
s in
Secular
Tech
Tech
Ministry
Tech
Ministry
with the
Poor
Secular
Tech
Diffusion of Innovation:
Ministry with the Poor
Justice
Ministry
& Tech
Tech
Secular
Nonprofit
Tech
Nonprofit
Tech
TechJustice
Tech
Ministry
& Resources
Ministry
TechJustice
Tech
E1-E2
E2-E3
(rarely effective)
E1-E2

Part 2: Main Ideas
1. Understand the concept of cultural distance (E0-E3)and
different measures of it (culture, class, ethnicity, etc)
2. Understand the importance of using technology to either
a) support indigenous leaders E1 (if there are indigenous Christians)
or
b) supporting cross-cultural missions E2-E3 (if there are not).
3. There are many dimensions to consider in using
technology in cross-cultural settings, making it very
complex.
4. We need to find our own role as bridge builders and
form partnerships to maximize the diffusion of innovation
and leverage existing cultural competencies.

Part 2 Assignment
 Cross Cultural Ministry Assignment
◦ List the cultural dimensions of you and your
organization
◦ History of Ministry (E0, E1, E2 or E3)
◦ What communities do you serve as a bridge builder
between and how can you make that more effective?
 Final Project
◦ In the Book Review section of your final project, you
should plan to write one paragraph on each handout
or video with the key “takeaways” and lessons as they
apply to your context

Part 3: Diffusion of Innovation,
Digital Divide, Knowledge Divide
and the Christian Response

Diffusion of Innovation
 Consequences of Innovation
◦ Desirable vs. Undesirable
◦ Direct vs. Indirect
◦ Anticipated vs. Unanticipated
 Equality & Innovation
1. Level of Good
2. Equality of Distribution of Good

Types of Injustice
Individual
Collective/
Systemic
Intentional Unintentional
• Bigotry
• Selfishness
• Bullying
• Unjust laws
• Policies creating an
unequal playing field
• Exploitation
• Unjust War
• Imperialism
• Not understanding culture
• Not understanding perspective
• Unintended offense
• Cultural encroachment & assimilation
• Second-order effects (urban decay)
• Natural momentum of systems
1 2
3 4
People assume injustice comes from quadrant 1, but most comes from
quadrants 3 and 4. Often due to effects of diffusion of innovation.

Injustice
Resource
Divide
Innovation
Divide
Knowledg
e Divide
Digital
Divide

Three Waves of History
Agricultural Industrial
Informatio
n
Rural Urban Virtual/Digital
Sunday School
Primary/Secondary School
Higher Education

Source: (US. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014)

Mismatch of Jobs & Education
Jobs in
2018
People in
2012 Difference
Less than High
School 10% 12.42% -2.4%
High School
Degree 28% 30.72% -2.7%
Some College 12% 16.97% -5.0%
Associate’s
Degree 17% 9.45% 7.6%
Bachelor’s Degree 23% 19.49% 3.5%
Graduate Degree 10% 10.95% -0.9%

“Human history becomes more
and more a race between
education and catastrophe.”
- H.G. Wells
Image from Wikipedia

38.9 pt. growth
4.5 pt. growth
4.1 pt. growth
19 pt. growth
Bachelor’s Attainment by Income
Adequate Education:
winning the race
with automation
Catastrophe
Source: US. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014

Percent of Population 25 Years and Over Who Have
Completed High School or College

www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/minorities_less-educated_workers_see_staggering_rates_of_underemployment

Changing Trends in Imprisonment

Changing Trends in Unwed Births

Figure 12. Increasing Cost of Higher
Education over Time

Figure 14. Distribution of Total Student Debt
by Level of Household Net Worth

Changing our Educational Trajectory
Adequate Education
Winning the race with automation
Mass
Unemployment
(catastrophe)

Tech
Christians
Globally
Tech
Christians
in U.S.
Tech in
Christian
Orgs
Tech
Christians
Serving
the Poor
(1,000’s)
• 77,500 full-time IT staff
• $12.5 Billion IT Budget
• 6.3 million Christians in
STEM jobs
(71% in computing)
• 50-100 million Christians
in STEM jobs
Size and Scope of Christians in Technology

Mechanisms of Diffusion of Innovation
 Conferences, workshops, webinars
 Formal education: degrees, courses, lectures
 Media: books, videos, websites, magazines,
software, open resources
 Employment: Staff training
 Networks: Professional networks &
associations, informal networks of peers
 Programs, products and their replication
 Personal: Consulting, word of mouth
 Open source software/open content
Who are the leaders in innovation?

Part 3: Main Ideas
1. Most injustice is systemic requiring the systemic
response of new institutions
2. The transition from agricultural to industrial to
information economies is creating a knowledge divide
3. Our partnership strategy will determine whether we are
a part of the problem or the solution in the knowledge
divide
4. Decreasing costs of knowledge production is creating
an opportunity for Christians to reverse the
secularization trend in education

Part 3 Assignments
 Brain Drain: exploiting or contributing expertise
 Identifying and mapping sources and clients of
innovation and knowledge
◦ Create MindMap
◦ Summarize MindMap in Forum Post
◦ Write strategy for improving diffusion of innovation

Part 4: Diffusion of Innovation &
Case Studies of
Technology and the Poor

Diffusion of Innovation Case Studies
 Snowmobiles & Ski-Doo
 Oral Rehydration Therapy
 Steel Axes for Aborigines
 Irish Potato Famine
 Organic Farming

Appropriate Technology Movement
 Movement to prioritize technology that is small-scale,
decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient,
environmentally sound, and locally controlled
 Strengths
◦ Established the dominant perspective in academia on using
technology with the poor
◦ Provides many key principles useful when serving the poor
 Weaknesses
◦ Largely a movement of left-leaning, upper-middle class in
developed economies which can result in prioritizing the
environment and being small over practical impact on the poor
◦ Scale is needed for many technologies for the poor, so the
definition of appropriate technology overlooks most digital
technologies (like mobile phones)

Christian Education Globally
 Christian Colleges and Universities globally
 7,200+ Bible & Theological Schools globally
 K-12 Christian Schools
◦ About 7% of US students
 Community Education Programs
 Home schooling
◦ 3.4% of US growing at 75% per decade

One Laptop Per Child
 Initiative of MIT’s Media Lab to provide one
laptop to each child in the world
 Strengths
◦ Raised visibility of vision for technology for the global
poor
 Weaknesses (reasons for failure)
◦ Eclipsed by Android smartphone & tablet markets
◦ Leaders were too removed from cultural contexts they
were serving
◦ Media Lab’s core competency is creating “sexy” tech
projects not creating change in low-income
communities
◦ Prioritized technology over more basic needs

Computer Learning Centers
 1990-2005
◦ Community Technology Centers Movement: CTCNet
◦ Association of Christian Community Computer Centers
(AC4)
 2005 to 2014
◦ Access moved to libraries and homes
◦ Training moved to adult education and youth programs
in large organizations
 Lessons
◦ Android, Crossing the Chasm

Best Practices of Christian Computer Centers
 Operate as a part of an adult or youth program
in a well-funded Christian social service
organization
 Consider strategies for virtualizing machine
images
 Use Open DNS or router-based filtering for
client machine
 Consider using Google Apps and/or Office 365
 Provide structured educational time using online
educational tools (courses, GED, youth
education)

Universal Christian Wikis
 UrbanMinistry.org and StrategicNetwork
 Problems
◦ Cost of Maintenance too high. Assumption: 1% of visitors would
contribute, but actually < .001% contribute
◦ Value of other networks (Wikipedia) superseded value of
independent network
 Conclusion
◦ Scale needed for Christian social networks & wikis is too high to
compete
◦ For Christian organizations, wikis are just another type of content
management system
◦ Unless… you have captured a semi-closed audience

Crossing the Chasm
1. Amara’s Law: We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short
run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”
2. The Chasm: The organizational culture to meet the needs of early adopters is
entirely different than the culture to meet the needs of later adopters.
Hype

Assessing Online Social Ventures
 What scale of resources are needed? Is it a…
◦ $10,000 problem
◦ $100,000 problem
◦ $1 million problem
◦ $1 billion problem
 How does it scale?
◦ How does revenue scale?
◦ How does in-kind resources scale?
◦ How does social value scale?
◦ How does earned income scale?
◦ How do expenses scale?

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?

Law of Network Effects
𝑁𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 =
𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑥 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑥 𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘2
𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑥 𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑁𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠2
Value
Time
Wikipedia
Universal Christian Wiki

Open Education
 Many educational materials are being
commoditized or made free
 Future could be an “app store” with tens of
thousands of accredited courses available at
almost no cost
 Christian schools can build on open and low-
cost educational resources to bring education to
the world
 Has potential to reverse secularization trend of
education

Audio/Visual Gospel
 The Problem
◦ 2/3rds of the world are “oral” communicators
◦ 50% of world is illiterate
 Jesus film
◦ Billions have watched with 200 million+ indicated
decisions for Christ
 Faith Comes by Hearing
◦ Translating audio Bible of every Bible translation
 Lesson
◦ Technology is useful if you start with the needs of the
people you are trying to reach

Emerging Opportunities
 Microfinance/Microenterprise
 Clean Water
 Ultra-low Cost Higher Education
 Mobile Banking in Developing Countries
 Solar in Developing Countries
 Mobile Health

Key Principles of Case Studies
 Most people underestimate the scale needed to
effectively serve the poor
 Cultural Mismatch:
◦ The poor are often reached after “crossing the chasm”
◦ Many tech initiatives for the poor are lead by
innovators or early adopters

Final Project
1. Literature Review (6-8 pages, 10% of grade)
2. Project (20-25 pages, 85% of grade)
3. Self Reflection (5% of grade)

Technology and Cross-Cultural Ministry Strategies

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