Joe Suh wrote a great post here:  http://digital.leadnet.org/2008/04/can-chms-levera.html

In the comments, he asked me a follow-up question to my comment.  So instead of attaching another LONG comment to the post, I am putting my long version response here.  To see the cliff note version, go check out the comment thread.

Joe, to answer your question, Absolutely YES! I do see data that should be the responsibility of the individual and not the organization. And to clarify "pain," I think manual entry is painful. There are things that make manual entry easier, but church staffs are still the bottleneck to many different points of data collection such as processing contributions, marking attendance, documenting people's gifts, updating contact information, etc.

1. One simple example of painful data entry is New Member Classes.  These classes are typically used to assess where a person is at spiritually, educate them about the church, and (in best cases) find ways of getting the person plugged into the church. The manual process for gathering and inputting this information is a pain, and even if the information is gathered, it is sometimes difficult for the church to follow through. 

Case and point, one church I attended put me through this Willow Creek-ish process, found out all about me, learned where I wanted to serve, but never approached me with opportunities after the fact. There really was no information I gave to the church that I would not feel comfortable putting into a social network profile. In fact, I would prefer to keep it there.  People move and rarely attend the same church indefinitely. My information needs to be portable, so I can plug it into any church that I want to plug into. And if I have a serving resume, I would like to take that with me so the next church knows how I have been utilized in the past.

2. Access ACS is the closest thing I have seen to being able to personalize my interaction with a church.  It includes self-service for small groups, giving, and serving. I can say what I am interested in to be paired with a serving opportunity or I can search manually for things. As a product for churches, it is great, but it is not a true social network. It was originally developed for church staff and not the church consumer. Adding more social elements for church consumers will really make it a killer app. Disclosure: I left ACS Technologies in August 2007, so this is not a self-promoting plug. It is my honest opinion.

3. The cool thing about Web 2.0 (social/collaborative Web) is that everyone feels they are important with what is taking place online. I can blog for the world to see. I can tell the world what music and movies I enjoy. I can share pictures of my latest adventure. With a mobile device, I can broadcast where I am and what my status is. And the best part is, those who care respond.

This is why I latched onto the term Church 2.0 - as a parallel to what is possible with technology. To me, there is a difference between the "temple" and the "Church." One is a physical structure maintained by a select group of people and the other is an aggregate collection of people designed to edify and grow each other. Unfortunately we confuse church with the temple.  Social networks facilitate a level of personal response that today's temples fail to deliver. After all, church is about personal relationships.

What a difference a day makes. Or in this case, four months?

We launched eXpresso in August. With few exceptions, the business, investor, and user worlds thought eXpresso had big-time winning potential. Reviewers and technical writers heaped high praise on the eXpresso concept, but invariably the articles included terms like ?fledgling startup? and ?lean organization?. They were right. We were fledgling, we were a startup, and relative to other more well-financed entrants hoping to become successes in the Web 2.0 world, we are working with shoestring budgets and double-duty staff.

Fast forward to late December. PC World Magazine assesses thousands of products and names us ? eXpresso ? one of the 25 Most Innovative Products for 2008. And the company we?re keeping? Apple (for iPhone), Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and twenty others, most of whom are high tech giants and household names. (see the article) How great is that! You?ll excuse us, please, if we?re allowing ourselves just a moment of self-congratulations and enjoying one more reason to toast in the New Year this week.

We?re not naive enough to think an award, no matter how prestigious the recognition, or how distinguished the fellow winners, will pay the bills and send eXpresso to the supreme level we want it to reach. But eXpresso is breaking new ground ? there are no benchmarks to compare our progress because there?s never been another eXpresso. For now, it?s great to have outside experts confirm that we?re on the right track ? and the fast track.

So we?ll pull ourselves down from our brush-with-celebrity high and use the PC World karma to resume the less glamorous work of perfecting code and evangelizing the merits of the first online business community for Excel. In this exciting time, eXpresso is in a place where any day can make the pivotal difference. I can?t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Tags: onlinespreadsheets, spreadsheets, Excel, business, communities, eXpresso, Corp, Web2.0, SaaS, awards, PCWorld, innovative, products

Three months have quickly passed since we revealed the concept of YouVersion.com ? a free online Bible that connects the interactivity of Web 2.0 with the timeless truths of scripture. After several stages of Alpha testing and one Private Beta release, we are excited to announce the Public Beta version is now LIVE and ready for you to explore!

Simply go to YouVersion.com to see how it works. Everything is free and will remain free, but to interact with some of the personalized features you?ll need to go through a simple registration process.

Here is what you can do with YouVersion in this release:

? Search for scripture, jump to a book/chapter/verse, or scroll through our Bible Reader
? Star verses and content
? Tag verses and content
? Contribute and/or associate images, videos, links, and text to verses or series of verses
? Start journaling in the ?My Journal? feature
? See what others are sharing
? Email items to your friends and family
? Rate content
? And so much more?

Currently we have integrated the following Bible translations:

New King James Version (NKJV) - Thomas Nelson
New Century Version (NCV) - Thomas Nelson
English Standard Version (ESV) - Good News Publishers/Crossway
King James Version (KJV)
World English Bible
American Standard Version (ASV)
Smith and VanDyke Arabic Bible

We have signed license agreements and will very shortly be making available:

The Message (MSG) - Navpress
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) - Holman Bible Publishers/B&H

We also have a commitment from:

Contemporary English Version (CEV) - American Bible Society

At this point, default translation will be King James Version, but you can easily change that if you?d like by simply clicking on the title.

Our Digerati Team has been eating, sleeping, and dreaming all things YouVersion for the last three months and it is nothing short of incredible to see how their commitment has paid off as we are right on schedule. I?d also like to express our appreciation for the hundreds of Alpha and Private Beta testers who contributed their time and given feedback! Additionally, I?m very thankful for the publishers who have captured the vision of this project and been willing to allow us to use their translations. We certainly couldn?t have made it to this point alone.

This is just the beginning. Several more features will be rolling out in the coming weeks as we continue to develop this tool.

Now it?s your turn to discover YouVersion and help us make it better by giving us feedback during this beta release. For those of you that blog, we?d love to have your post your thoughts about it. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for this new community of people reading, reflecting, and sharing how God is moving in a brand new and exciting way. I?ll see you there!

Three months have quickly passed since we revealed the concept of YouVersion.com ??? a free online Bible that connects the interactivity of Web 2.0 with the timeless truths of scripture. After several stages of Alpha testing and one Private Beta release, we are excited to announce the Public Beta version is now LIVE and ready for you to explore!

Simply go to YouVersion.com to see how it works. Everything is free and will remain free, but to interact with some of the personalized features you???ll need to go through a simple registration process.

Here is what you can do with YouVersion in this release:

??? Search for scripture, jump to a book/chapter/verse, or scroll through our Bible Reader
??? Star verses and content
??? Tag verses and content
??? Contribute and/or associate images, videos, links, and text to verses or series of verses
??? Start journaling in the ???My Journal??? feature
??? See what others are sharing
??? Email items to your friends and family
??? Rate content
??? And so much more???

Currently we have integrated the following Bible translations:

New King James Version (NKJV) - Thomas Nelson
New Century Version (NCV) - Thomas Nelson
English Standard Version (ESV) - Good News Publishers/Crossway
King James Version (KJV)
World English Bible
American Standard Version (ASV)
Smith and VanDyke Arabic Bible

We have signed license agreements and will very shortly be making available:

The Message (MSG) - Navpress
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) - Holman Bible Publishers/B&H

We also have a commitment from:

Contemporary English Version (CEV) - American Bible Society

At this point, default translation will be King James Version, but you can easily change that if you?d like by simply clicking on the title.

Our Digerati Team has been eating, sleeping, and dreaming all things YouVersion for the last three months and it is nothing short of incredible to see how their commitment has paid off as we are right on schedule. I???d also like to express our appreciation for the hundreds of Alpha and Private Beta testers who contributed their time and given feedback! Additionally, I?m very thankful for the publishers who have captured the vision of this project and been willing to allow us to use their translations. We certainly couldn???t have made it to this point alone.

This is just the beginning. Several more features will be rolling out in the coming weeks as we continue to develop this tool.

Now it???s your turn to discover YouVersion and help us make it better by giving us feedback during this beta release. For those of you that blog, we?d love to have your post your thoughts about it. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for this new community of people reading, reflecting, and sharing how God is moving in a brand new and exciting way. I???ll see you there!

This survey is not quite scientific enough to qualify as the Gruenewald/Gallup Survey on Online Social Networks, BUT here are the results anyway:

Any thoughts or surprises?