In these troubled times we are caught between the promise of technological breakthroughs and the great fear of how that same technology might do us harm as it controls more and more of our daily life. Information is a power that has come of age and it is something that each of us must contend with.
But information is still an inanimate thing. It does not love, smile or do a victory dance. It is 1's and 0's given meaning by each of us as we live our lives. We give data meaning and we use that data to make a difference in people's lives.
Just today I found a wonderful example of how a group of people brought data together through a database and gave it meaning and significance. The team at YouVersion (one of the most popular Bible apps in the world) just released a list of the verses most often bookmarked in 2011. Take a look at the list here.
This list was generated from a database that tracked all of the times a verse in the Bible was bookmarked by the countless users of YouVersion's software. In the database it was just a bunch of information.
But people on the YouVersion team decided to pull that information out and share it with the world. Now we can look at the collective impact of Scripture on many lives through the verses they decided to bookmark.
It is a simple act of generosity enabled by a database but brought to life by a person who God inspired to share that information.
What data do you have at your disposal? How could it be used to make a difference in people's lives? Are you actively asking that question today?
But information is still an inanimate thing. It does not love, smile or do a victory dance. It is 1's and 0's given meaning by each of us as we live our lives. We give data meaning and we use that data to make a difference in people's lives.
Just today I found a wonderful example of how a group of people brought data together through a database and gave it meaning and significance. The team at YouVersion (one of the most popular Bible apps in the world) just released a list of the verses most often bookmarked in 2011. Take a look at the list here.
This list was generated from a database that tracked all of the times a verse in the Bible was bookmarked by the countless users of YouVersion's software. In the database it was just a bunch of information.
But people on the YouVersion team decided to pull that information out and share it with the world. Now we can look at the collective impact of Scripture on many lives through the verses they decided to bookmark.
It is a simple act of generosity enabled by a database but brought to life by a person who God inspired to share that information.
What data do you have at your disposal? How could it be used to make a difference in people's lives? Are you actively asking that question today?
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