Pancake Crazy

[check out the latest pix in the photo-pool]

The place is CRAZY these days! Lately, Saturdays are filled to capacity. Must be Tim's pancakes -- what else could it be?

Anyway... come on down and try to figure it out for yourselves.

And watch 'Ask Anything Saturday' on a number of website channels now...

• AskAnythingSaturday.com (of course)
• AskAnythingSaturday.TV (of course)
• UBcafe.com (of course)
  
• IndyChristian.TV
  
• Blews.TV
• CityReaching.TV
• ModelChurch.com
• YOUR website? (contact us)
  

See ya at the cafe sometime soon. Bring a chair. *smile*

Today at the cafe... "BarCamp Indy 2008" !!!

'BarCamp Indy 2008' is finally here!

Welcome. It's an 'unconference'. It's unconventional. It's unexpensive. We ARE the presenters. We make our own rules. And we pay ourselves -- ie, it's FREE!

And it's all about LEARNING from each other... about TECHNOLOGIES. We have short presentations, each followed by intense fast-paced discussion.

And it's about trying something different -- practicing our flexibility, to enhance our ability to 'innovate'.

You can see more in the wiki today. And stay tuned at BarCampIndy.org.

You'll see there, for instance, that we're STREAMING LIVE TODAY... and we plan to archive videos from today's presentations.

And here's the BarCampIndy2008 photo-pool, including my favorite...


Dr. Thomas Ho, 'evangelist' for the cafe's pancakes.

Saturday computing...

Nice photo, Alex (Conner) -- one of our Indy Christian Geeks... who help with the 'Ask Anything Saturday' internet-training program. Thanks Alex. [...and Ellen -- we see you down there.]

This gives people a little idea what things are like on Saturdays. Cool.

JT brings it...

Jonathan Thomas filled some big shoes today at the cafe. The MidNorth Shepherd Center monthly luncheon group had invited former Colts lineman Tarik Glenn to come speak to them... but he fell sick and was unable to appear.

On short notice, JT came and spoke to the group... sharing his personal testimony... and the dreams instilled in him by his mother, and by His Lord.

JT's testimony reasonated loud & clear in the hearts of everyone present. The Lord is never caught off-guard, is He? JT was no last-minute substitute in the mind of the Almighty.

[more photos in today's UBcafe photo pool]

De'Amon Harges.... today on Ask Anything Saturday TV

Today's guest on 'Ask Anything Saturday' at the cafe, was our neighborhood friend, De'Amon Harges.

Ask Anything Saturday TV is now seen at a growing number of websites...

• UBcafe.com
• AskAnythingSaturday.com
  
• AskAnythingSaturday.TV
  
• IndyChristian.TV
• Blews.TV Network
• CityReaching.TV
  
• ModelChurch.com

Click to see how YOU can get involved with 'Ask Anything Saturday' as a neighborhood guest, or even help us behind the scenes.

Impact... in the house today

[See who else was in the house today -- visit our cafe photo-pool.]



With us today at the cafe was Rasool Berry, Director of Impact Music. Rasool and his wife Tamika have moved to Indianapolis in recent months, and are building the team here called 'Infinit Impact' comprised of a number of talented Christian musicians anxious to make an 'impact' in inner-city communities through music. Listen in, as their YouTube video gives you an idea how they are doing that in cities around the country...

Visit their Impact Movement website to enjoy more of their music & ministry.

MLK Day... Mapleton Fall Creek Neighborhood

[more soon... including a major cafe announcement... In the meantime, visit our cafe photo-pool which includes photos from today's Martin Luther King Jr. Service at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.]

Indy Christian Geeks... expediting 'Ask Anything Saturday TV'

Here's just one team of our 'geeks'...



...who are helping expedite "Ask Anything Saturday TV" at the cafe.



And when it comes to USER-level technologies like these, ANYONE can help. Sometimes we even learn more from young folks. **smile**

...So come join us any Saturday morning, 10am, at the UBcafe.

Always something going on in the neighborhood...

Uh oh. What was THAT? What's going on outside the cafe?

The cafe's photo-stream tells it all....

[continued at the cafe photo pool]

Rules in effect.... for BarCampIndy... Feb. 9th... at the cafe...

[Perhaps one of the most unusual groups to ever come to the cafe... LOL...]



[Rules from national site... BarCamp.org]

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

NO SPECTATORS, ONLY PARTICIPANTS.

• 1st Rule: You do talk about Bar Camp.
• 2nd Rule: You do blog about Bar Camp.
• 3rd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
• 4th Rule: Only three word intros.
• 5th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
• 6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists.
• 7th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
• 8th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present.
  (Ok, you don't really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

[Visit BarCampIndy.org]

Ask Anything Saturday TV.... goes LIVE... tomorrow (Jan. 5th)

We go 'LIVE' tomorrow... January 5th (and every Saturday thereafter)... at 10am (Eastern)... at 'AskAnythingSaturday.TV'. Come chat during the show. Or come be with us in person here at the cafe -- where we'll be interviewing folks, asking their 'most important question' they need the answer to. We'll hope to be able to reach out for answers to those questions, by being able to contact our network of friends in the community, or online, or Facebook, or even those of you in the chatroom. Is that YOU? Join us at the site.

************

If you'd like to come help, one way or another, come at 9am for a pre-production meeting. And/or check out the 'Production Wiki' -- where we're collaborating. Consider leading a segment in the future.

In the house today... Warriors and Wikiers

These are just a FEW of the people at the cafe this morning. It's apparently becoming THE place to be on Saturday mornings, as some of the most unlikely people from all over the city get together and learn from one another...



Mary Walton is a prayer warrior in her Brookside neighborhood on the eastside of town, writes poetry, and has worked with kids by teaching them the Bible. So Mary and Sister Gail (Reaves) immediately 'hit it off' as they considered just how they might work together in the future re developing children's activities.



Her husband Donald is a artist -- displaying paintings at Victory Village Shoppes -- and now learning how to collaboratively work in the Indianapolis wiki. Here's a page we started this morning, re 'Heaven-bound Ministry'. We even toyed with adding a YouTube video to his page in just a few clicks. As an artist, Donald quickly understood the value of compelling 'media'.

We'll look forward to picking up next Saturday where we left off today.

Come join us, for "Ask Anything Saturday" at the cafe.

*****************

Other new pictures in cafe photo-pool.

Ask Anything Saturday... Every Saturday

Definitely the cafe was HOPPING this past Saturday !!!



17 new photos of new folks in the cafe's photo-pool.



And the 'Ask Anything Saturday TV' concept is gathering a lot of steam. In fact, even beyond just our 30-minute internet-tv show that will start January 4th, the show is now scheduled in the national 'Media Center' -- and the associated Timeline of LIVE MEDIA shows re various initiatives among our cityreachers across the country. So go to our 'production wiki' for the show, and sign up to help with some week's production in early 2008.

[Major appreciation to Alex re the tv site, and to all our guys... Indy Christian Geeks -- an awesome bunch! Join 'em any Saturday at the cafe. Or once-a-month lunch at some other cultural cafe. Or wait til 'BarCampIndy2008' **LOL** (Not telling; don't even ask. *smile*)]

Working Magic On A Schedule

Christian illusionist Tom McCormick
works his 'magic' with the help of
'volunteer' Joe Whitchurch, Intervarsity.

Today at the cafe, the Transform Indiana ministry-networking coalition met for the 2nd Annual 'Indy Timeline' (2008) Planning Luncheon.

Christian illustionist Tom McCormick, a friend of the cafe's "Ask Anything Saturday" program took off his tech-hat and put on his top-hat, so to speak... and performed one of his slight-of-hand tricks. Unfortunately, his 'volunteer'... Joe Whitchurch (Intervarsity's grad-school rep) stole the show by working a little magic of his own.

The luncheon also featured a live webcam-interview with Steve Hawthorne, Waymakers.org -- headquartered in Austin, TX. Waymakers publishes the 40-day prayer-guide called... "Seek God For The City"... for the 40-day Lenten season. These prayer guides are used in congregations around the country... praying for transformation in THEIR communities. [There's still time to order a couple of hundred for your favorite church.]

But the whole point of the luncheon today was to somehow 'pull a rabbit outta the hat' for 2008, and find ways we can best COLLABORATE as we together carry out the Great Commission here in Indy. Or more to the point today... "We want to move beyond mere collaboration, and into COORDINATION for 2008." That is, we want to be intentional about finding ways to get disperate ministries here in Indy to feel & act more like a TEAM.

And every true TEAM has a team bulletin board, do they not? ...a centralized place for posting the main things. So we looked into our bag of tricks and pulled out a 'wiki'.... to use as a centralized filing place online. Thus we've started compiling considerable information on the Indianapolis page of the CityReaching wiki.... For instance, we've now built the 'Indy Timeline' in the wiki. After training folks today during the meeting, EVERYONE can edit it themselves, adding their events and linking to details at their ministry websites. Example: Our annual hands-on community-service week... "Faith Hope & Love"... now appears in the July section... with links to their site.

Several have now even created their own personal page, to practice with it... and to help everyone get to know each other more quickly. Examples: Ellen, Eldon, and Pastor Boyd. Some just use TEXT in their page, while others have figured out how to easily embed a photo, a map, or even a video-clip.

Moreover wikis are easily SEARCHABLE -- go ahead, try searching for something using the search-block in the upper RH corner of any wiki-page.

A major vote of appreciation goes to Scott Wilder for shooting a ton of video-footage today. We call Scott our 'Chaotic Christian' friend. [He's extremely talented at everything 'tech'... including video editing and training. Need him for YOUR ministry?]

Here are some new items at the cafe photo pool.
[more photos on the way... and some video footage]

Be sure and be with us at our next lunchtime meeting... January 17th... which will again return to the cafe. We'll be helping ministry leaders get familiar with YouTube, and be able to add any of its videos into the wiki. We'll hope to be working with some of the footage Scott shot today... So mark your calendar 'timeline' and stay tuned for announcements for the 1/17 meeting.

Anyone want to buy a slice of 1964 ?

Yesterday, during our time together which we call "Ask Anything Saturday", one of our cafe regulars asked... "How could I use the internet to help sell an old newspaper I have from 1964?"

As it turns out, he didn't just have ANY old newspaper, he had one from the day a young, brash Louisville fighter beat the reigning heavyweight champion of the world...


photo by Ellen Spencer

Cassius Clay, later to be known worldwide as Muhammed Ali, had just taken down Sonny Liston -- a fight that some of us remember from our childhood.

In the course of a few minutes, our newest 'new media' expert **way to go, Ellen** was able to take a photo of the newpaper and upload it to our UBcafe photo pool at Flickr. James is getting familiar with how easy it is to get a photo online and then use it in various pages around the web... eg., his wiki-page.

And we are now able to tell you about it here in the UBcafe blog site. That's the easy power of synergy at work.

So, does anyone want a slice of 1964?

Sister Victoria's Last Day...

Sister Elease & Sister Victoria

Today is Sister Victoria's last day working at the cafe. **sniff sniff** We're going to miss her for sure.

Click to get yourself a digital piece of the cake (and more). *smile*

Another great little video from CommonCraft... "Blogs"

**********************

Learn more about easy-blogging, and other 21st Century capabilities... in the 'Internet Tool Kit'.

Or come by the Unleavened Bread Cafe any Saturday morning... 10am... and make friends with some hands-on geeks who would be glad to help you with your internet questions & capabilities.

In the house today... a whole lotta folks...

The place was abuzz today with tons of folks -- we can't begin to name them all here...



But check out the cafe's photo-pool, and you'll see friends from way back... and friends of the cafe starting today. Folks from Texas. And folks from New York. [continued at UBcafe photo-pool]

[When are we going to see YOU here? **smile**]

Unleavened Bread Cafe -- "Food for the stomach and soul".... "Where smiles & hugs are free".

'Ask Anything Saturday' TV...

Get ready. It's coming...

Ask Anything Saturday TV.

"In all humility, we assert that between our entire network of friends, WE CAN ANSWER ANY QUESTION. Try us."

Coming soon to an internet tv near you. Stay tuned.

[Fact is, we'll be demonstrating the power of social-networking friendships, by interviewing many different friends & visitors at the cafe each Saturday. And we'll be inviting some web-cam cohosts out in the burbs... or maybe even across the country if we need to... to answer people's questions. ]

[Looking to HELP?]

Monday evening's MFC meeting at Tab

[click to zoom in]

Here's a photo from the neighborhood meeting held Monday evening at Tab. The meeting was conducted by the Mapleton Fall Creek Development Corp, in conjunction with the Mid-North Church Council and the goodwill of the people of the neighborhood.

Discussion tables were arranged topically, including... Service, Economic Development, Parks, Infrastructure and Security. Each table was well prepared with a helpful SAVI neighborhood map reflecting key items related to their topic.

The meeting was very well done... with possibly one notable exception. Almost every table's reported conclusions included some reference to the need for a centralized mechanism for information exchange. And while our table (Service) specifically discussed the 'Ask Anything Saturday' wiki as a helpful collaborative tool that could be used, in the end that was not reported to the larger group. Perhaps this reflects once again the problem we're trying to help solve at the cafe... These low-cost internet solutions are rarely understood or considered particularly useful by the people who need them most.