The concept of the ContactGPS was developed over the past few years by Michel Kocher, Protestant theologian (Master in Theology & of Advanced Studies) and journalist for Swiss radio and television. He is currently director of Médias-pro (Media service of the Reformed Church, head of relations with the RTS, Swiss radio and television broadcaster).
He studied under professor Walter Hollenweger whilst in Birmingham for his post-grad year, then became assistant to professors Jean-Marc Chappuis and Henry Mottu and the University of Geneva. He is the author of a thesis in Practical Theology at the Faculty of Protestant Theology and conducts applied research on communication based on the reading of tradition as a form of oral transmission.
Between 2008 and 2015, the technical aspects of the application were down to the expertise of Jean-Christophe Emery, Protestant theologian, former journalist and head of the Protestant service at the RTS (Swiss radio and television) and IT resources for Médias-pro. He is currently director of Cèdres Formation. He is also the creator of one of the most-used GPS, Projet Khi.
The first online versions of the GPS, such as "Forms of celebration" (in French) and "The Calvin Neuron Factor", were created by Daniel Barbezat, head of technical development using FileMaker Pro. Today, FileMaker is no longer used as programming software.
Thanks to the generosity of a donator, in 2012, the ContactGPS was programmed in PHP/MySQL (web version) and Objective-C/Swift/Java (mobile apps) by Yves Bresson, IT engineer and Médias-pro employee. Today, he is the one in charge of developing the web and mobile applications.
In the last few years, many of the graphics of the ContactGPS are thanks to Diane Hostettler.
