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The following guest post is by Abraham Piper, web content editor for Desiring God ministries and author of one of my favorite new blogs, 22 Words.

My son brought home a toy from McDonald's yesterday. It's a little plastic singer named "Hippie Harmony" that plays a 6-note tune whenever you lift her "microphone arm."

Every note that warbles from the cheap speaker in the back of her head is now stuck in my head.

We all know what it's like to be unable to stop humming a catchy tune. But as we hum, it's not usually the whole tune. The only part stuck in our mouth and reeling us in is the hook.

Hippie Harmony's song is only a hook.

Of course, the toy's tune is not a good pop song, because it's just 2 seconds long, but it gets its message across. I'm humming it.

Sometimes our writing, preaching, marketing, or any kind of important content-creation should be like a well-crafted pop song: 97% forgettable context making the 3% that is a hook even more memorable.

Other times, the content should be all hook, 100%. Like Hippie Harmony, we should sing it, say it, or write it--and then be done. Sit down.

Either way, we need a hook--a point. Then, whatever we write or say beyond that should serve readers by enhancing that point.

Because, after all, the point is...the point. We're not. Good writers, preachers, marketers, etc. get out of the way of their message.

Hippie Harmony will be in the garbage soon. That is to say, if she had an RSS feed, I wouldn't subscribe. Still, no matter what municipal dump she ends up in, her effect--small as it may be--is staying right here in my mind.

As she gets trucked away, I'll be humming her tune.

To most people, our articles, blogs, sermons, and sales pitches are like low-grade plastic doohickeys: Hopefully, we're not a nuisance to have around--in fact, we might be somewhat helpful or convicting or amusing. But when it comes down to it, we're simply not that important in and of ourselves.

But we keep writing, blogging, preaching, and selling!

It's not that surprising, I suppose--we have messages that really matter to us. We can't shut up--we're too excited about what we have to say.

This is exactly how it should be. The message of what we write or say is what will make our contribution to the blogosphere or church service matter to people.

Any time we're creating content that we think is important we should constantly think, how can I cast my hook so it lodges most securely (and helpfully) in my readers' minds. Sometimes it will be amid a lengthy article with all kinds of supporting text. And other times, like this McDonald's Happy Meal toy, we'll just sing our 6 notes and be quiet.

Either way, the goal is never to make ourselves more valuable to more people, but to leave behind a message that will serve an audience who may very well have already forgotten who we are. If our content is important and we heed our hook, people will still be humming our songs long after you and I have gone the way of Hippie Harmony.

Abraham Piper practices the "Hippie Harmony" method of getting to the point at his blog 22 Words. He also edits and contributes to the Desiring God Blog.

[Note: A version of this post originally aired in April 2005.]

The towers looked like legless stick figures, waving to the neighbors across the French landscape. Spaced six miles apart and stretching between the major cities of France, the optical telegraph system devised by Claude Chappe became the first high-speed communications network in Europe. By using this ingenious method, Chappe helped spark a revolution and revolutionized rapid communication. The method of transmission was a crude form of mechanical mimicry. The tower's operator would set the mechanical arms into one of 94 positions, corresponding to a letter, a number, or a special symbol. The next closest neighboring tower would use a telescope to view the arrangement and set his own tower to a similar configuration. By using this system, messages could be sent at more than one hundred miles an hour, an astonishing speed for the 1790's.

Technology has radically changed in the three centuries since Chappe invented his system of telegraphy. Fiber optics and wireless communications now make it possible to communicate almost instantaneously with people across the globe. But while the techniques have changed, the blogosphere has resurrected the Frenchman's method of passing information by mirroring the messages of others.

Bloggers tend to be unfairly lumped into two distinct camps of "thinkers," those who write original content, and "linkers," those who simply link to other articles or blog posts. Few bloggers, though, are exclusively linkers or thinkers and most combine a mixed approach to blogging. Still, just as some bloggers tend to produce compelling, original analysis or thought-provoking opinion pieces, others have a gift for shepherding readers to the material that matters most.

Unfortunately, this gift is rarely acknowledged or appreciated as a distinct skill. Too often we view the ability to collect links as an unexceptional activity that could be performed by anyone. If this were true, though, then we should be unable to distinguish between linker-type bloggers. Yet most blogs are filled with links that simply add to the noise rather than reduce the confusion.

Though undervalued, linkers are even more essential to the health of the blogosphere than are thinkers. The Internet is already inundated with provocative ideas and punditry. What is most needed is what Hugh Hewitt calls "cyber-sherpas," bloggers who can guide us through the mountains of information.

Talented linkers, however, do more than merely guide readers to new material. They provide the value-added services of sifting through dozens or even hundred of blog posts, news updates, and magazine articles and sharing the handful that are worthy of attention. Like the tower operator's in Chappe's France, linkers provide the link between information and the reader.

So what can would-be linkers do to set themselves apart from the crowd and improve their value? I offer the following modest advice:

While the current political cycle has sharpened our focus on the role of religion in the public square, we often fail to reflect on the role of the public square upon religion. Increasingly, when Christians engage others in public forums, we do so using tools that we did not develop. Whether through movies, music, or new media, we tend to start with a pre-existing cultural forms and incorporate the Gospel as best we can.

As communication theorist Marshall McLuhan argued, the tools we use to communicate a message can shape that message in ways we may or may not intend.* If this is true then Christians have a duty to critically evaluate the effect of our media choices on our message. Do our choices of media forms allow the message to remain Christian? Or are the tools with which we communicate at odds with the message of the Gospel?

In order to explore the issue in greater depth, I've decided to make it the topic of the 2008 EO Symposium, sponsored this year by Wheatstone Academy.

Responses to the following question will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, April 25th:

If the medium affects the message, how will the Christian message be affected by the new media?

The top five posts chosen by our panel of judges (James Kushiner from Touchstone magazine's Mere Comments, Melinda Penner from Stand to Reason, Matt Lewis from Townhall.com, and Matthew Anderson from Mere Orthodoxy) will receive:

(1) A full tuition scholarship for a Christian high school student of the winner's choice to Wheatstone Academy. [A $950 value]

(2) The 'Quintessentials' from Stand to Reason, including the Ambassador Basic Curriculum, Tactics in Defending the Faith DVD, Decision Making and the Will of God CD set, and a signed copy of Greg Koukl's new book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air. [A $150 value]

(3) A $200 donation made to Compassion International in the name of the winning blogger.

(4) A full-tuition scholarship to the upcoming GodBlogCon (September 2008). [A $150 value]

(5) A two-year subscription to Touchstone Magazine. [A $59.95 value]

(6) A year subscription to Townhall magazine. [A $34.95 value]

The first place winner will have their choice of items with the second place deciding between the remaining four items, etc. The sixth place winner will will automatically receive the unselected item.

Those who choose only to write a brief comment promoting the Symposium are still eligible to receive a prize for participating. Anyone who includes a link to this post and a brief comment will be entered into a separate drawing for one of three copies of The New Media Frontier, forthcoming from Crossway Books.

To include your post in the symposium, send the following information to eosubmissions@gmail.com:

• Name


• Name and URL of blog or website


• Title and URL of post


• Brief summary

Finally, I am grateful to those sponsors who have generously given time and money to make this year's Symposium a reality, especially Wheatstone Academy, a discussion-based summer conference that seeks to instill a love of learning and dialogue in Christian high school students.

* For more background on McLuhan and his theory, read Mark Federman's excellent introductory article.

This week Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails released his new, four-part instrumental album Ghosts I-IV, Rather than distribute the album through a record label, Reznor is selling it at a variety of price points from his own website. The $300 "ultra deluxe edition", which was limited to 2500 copies, sold out in a couple days. As New York Magazine's blog Vulture points out, "Trent Reznor's probably already made at least $600,000 on a double album of synthesizer instrumentals."

While only a handful of musicians will be able to duplicate Reznor's success, his approach may provide a useful model for the starving artist. As Kevin Kelly argues in his intriguing post titled "1000 True Friends", there is a "path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales."

One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans....

Young artists starting out in this digitally mediated world have another path other than stardom, a path made possible by the very technology that creates the long tail. Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum hits, bestseller blockbusters, and celebrity status, they can aim for direct connection with 1,000 True Fans. It's a much saner destination to hope for. You make a living instead of a fortune. You are surrounded not by fad and fashionable infatuation, but by True Fans. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there.

Kelly's article is a must-read for all producers of creative content who hope to someday earn revenue from their chosen craft. I include myself in that category, though my ambition is much, much more modest (I aspire to be the poor-man's Malcolm Gladwell.). In fact, I've decided to test the model in the hopes that if it succeeds it will provide inspiration and encouragement for other "creators." I figure that if it can work for a small-time, obscure blogger like me, then those with real talent will be able to implement it to greater effect.

The Better World Fund, a group which "works to build a stronger relationship between the United States and the United Nations", has started the On Day One project. The purpose of the site is to provide a platform for gathering and sharing "ideas about what the next president can do on the first day of his or her administration to help address the world's most pressing challenges."

Not being a fan of the UN (I'm more of a League of Nation kind of guy) I would normally not give such project much thought. But a friend is involved in promoting the site and suggested that social conservatives should "submit ideas, swarm and vote, and get their readers to push those ideas." Since it would be amusing if the UN Foundation ended up having to submit a bunch of social conservative policy recommendations to the incoming President, I decided to add this proposal:

Require Family-Impact Statements for Global Policies

President Reagan's EO 12606 required government agencies to file family-impact statements before implementing policies that affect families, and to provide "adequate rationale" for any negative impact those policies might have on families. The next President should issue a similar directive that includes not only policies that affect Americans, but also global polices that affect the international community and which are not directly related to national security interests.

The site is still new so a few hundred votes would push it to the top of the page. (Click here to vote for this entry.) I'd also encourage other social conservatives to submit their own ideas. The site could use some thoughtful suggestions to help balance out the left-leaning entries (Submit Kyoto for Ratification, Withdraw Troops from Iraq, etc.).

This week Tim Challies is embarking on a "blog tour" to promote the release of his new book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. For ten consecutive days, a blogger on the tour will pose a question about discernment and Tim will address the question and the comments that readers might have.

I'm honored not only to be able to participate but to have EO be the first stop. The question I posed to Tim is, "What does discernment mean from a biblical perspective?" Here is his response:

Thanks, Joe, for participating in this blog tour. You ask a good question and one that is as good a place as any, I think, to begin this series of questions. As I researched discernment I found that there are a great variety of definitions--many different understandings as to what discernment is and what it entails. And Christians certainly do not have the market cornered as there are many New Age books dealing with the subject. Most people, and even the majority of Christians, seem to understand discernment as being something that involves feeling more than thinking. Discernment, they believe, is a person's ability, perhaps an ability that is innate for those who are Christians, to understand the will of God for their lives. A person who is discerning, they might say, is a person who is able to determine with confidence whether he should be a doctor or a dentist, a pastor or a pediatrician. As I researched the topic, relying on the Bible to define its terms, I found that it pointed in a different direction.

In order to prove to customers that its software wouldn't break down under heavy use, the AskMe Corporation decided to create a website that offered a version of its software to the wider public. AskMe.com was launched in February 2000 and quickly became one of the most popular knowledge exchange sites, drawing ten million users in the first year. The advice on the site was freely offered by self-appointed experts who were ranked by the people who sought out there advice.

In June 2000, Marcus Allen registered as a legal expert. Allen became a prolific responder, answering, in one two week period, 939 out of the 943 he received. By the end of July he was the 3rd ranked expert on criminal law at AskMe.com.

But then Allen made a change to his online profile: he admitted he was only 15 year old high school student. The lawyers on the site attacked and drove his rankings down. But the people to whom Allen gave advice still supported him and within a month he rebounded to become the AskMe.com's #1 ranked legal expert.

On the surface, this incident may be read as a cautionary tale about trusting the Internet's self-professed experts. But what about the people who were satisfied with Allen's answers? There is no evidence that the teenager's answers were inadequate --at least not any more so than the average law school graduate. The problem appears not to be with inaccuracy but with our need for reliable authority.

[Note: I’m still trying to acclimatize to the pace of working on a Presidential campaign (I love saying that), so for the next few days I’ll be recycling material.]

"There were never in the world two opinions alike, any more than two hairs or two grains. Their most universal quality is diversity." -- Montaigne

In his latest report, Technorati founder and CEO David Sifry claims that in the last 20 months, the blogosphere has increased in size by over 16 times. Technorati now tracks over 7.8 million blogs which, if Montaigne is correct, makes for a great deal of diversity. Yet if opinions are so dissimilar, why does their appear to be a general homogeneity of viewpoints within the world of blogging? Why can the vast majority of blogs be grouped according to binary political categories? A forty year old experiment on racial diversity might just hold the answer.

In the 1960's, the Harvard economics professor Thomas C. Schelling devised a simple model to test his intuitions about segregated neighborhoods. Shelling found that most neighborhoods in America were mostly or entirely comprised of black or white families. Only a handful of neighborhoods where found where neither race made up more than three fourths of the total. Racism seemed to be the obvious culprit for the lack of diversity but Schelling thought something else might be involved.

At the recent GodBlogCon I was asked to give an address on "Identifying Impact Points in Culture." Even on a good day I'm not much of a speaker, but this speech was rushed and incomplete. Because of time constraints I had to cut down my 30 minute lecture into a 10 minute presentation. Still, I figured I should post it on the blog in the oft chance that someone might find it useful.

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Below the fold is the related essay I submitted for the "Bloggers' Toolkit" booklet that was given to the conference attendees.

Although I've been back almost a week, I still haven't finished putting together my post on the recent GodBlogCon. Some subjects are trivial and rather easy to write about (i.e., politics). More substantive matters are more difficult and it takes me some time to think about what I want to say. GodBlogCon is one of the most important events of my year so it's taking me awhile to get the words out.

I could have (and probably should have) linked to all of the other blogger that were there, but I've wanted to save those until I can comment on them. I hope to have a post on it completed for Friday. I apologize for not having something sooner.

I will say that it was one of the best GodBlogCons ever. If its not the best, it's definitely in the top three.