26 November 2008

I don't know what you dream about, but for me its emerging technologies and the way we can leverage it in ministry.

Last Christmas I purchased an Xbox360 Elite. I got the one with the big hard drive in part because all the other ones were sold out, but also thinking I would fill it up with pictures and home videos. However, pictures can easily be pulled from the network and my AVCHD video has to be converted into another format if it is to be watched on the Xbox360. So it may not have been such a necessary thing...

But that has nothing to do with why I'm geeked. The big win came in November with the release of the new and improved Xbox Live interface.

And no...I'm not talking about the fact that you can arrogantly create an avatar in your own image :).

I'm talking about the partnerships being formed and the interactivity between the Xbox and online services like Netflix. With the new interface you can connect to Netflix and stream video in HD. Simply create a Netflix account, put HD movies in your queue and they become available in your Xbox console menu.

Now I know this has nothing to do with ministry, but I'm looking at the trend and not the immediate reward. In the future, what if the Xbox360 had its own browser? What if you could go to gccwired.com and watch the weekly message in streaming flash video right on your big screen?

Oh...the possibilities!