courting-the-net.wmv

Fast Track to Divorce Courts

Thanks for this link David.

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-the-new-fast-track-to-divorce-courts-20110126-1a5f2.html

Early on I realised  that as long as I remember Facebook is public space, and I could be overheard at any time, I am not likely to get into trouble with it.

The danger is that when it is just you and the screen, it can all seem very cosy and private.

Another Film about Facebook: 'Catfish'

It says it is not a horror movie but their are scary parts so I probably won't watch this film, but the comment in the review from Eureka Street that jumped out at me, and is relevant to my study of church websites is:  

'If a "virtual relationship" affects you emotionally, then it's not virtual at all. 
Ariel Schulman.

http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=24799 

Though the critics at Rotten Tomatoes give it 81% so it may well be worth seeing.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/catfish/

My essay is finished. :)

I am posting it in 7 parts over the next week.

Why should the church embrace the internet? It is seen as costly, time consuming, impersonal, confusing, irrelevant, threatening and downright dangerous for many of the people I speak to.

In this essay I will examine some of the current literature relating to the use of the internet in local churches; looking at the themes that arise in the discussions, to find out why my church should be involved in the internet. I will use my conclusions to decide how and to what extent this involvement should take place.

I found only one book in the Library for this reading unit, The Gospel in Cyberspace: Nurturing Faith in the Internet Age.   It was also the oldest, a 2002 publication, but it was valuable and set the scene for the rest of my reading.  It is written by Catholic Priest Father Pierre Babin, and Sister Angela Zukowski. They write as Catholics and frequently quote the Pope. 

The argument of the book seems to be that the internet as new medium and spawns a new culture and as with all innovations and cultures, the gospel needs to be translated into the new culture’s language.  Father Babin quotes the maxim of Mencius, “The man of a different race is a forgotten aspect of ourselves, and, thus he is a secret mirror of God”[1]  For Sister Angle the most significant symbol for the discussion is Rublev’s Trinity Icon.  It is a door to authentic community and communication.[2]

There was some discussion in the book about Christianity being at the cutting edge since Christianity began as far as media are concerned. 

“The new technology calls for a deep change in the system.  The Council of Trent also changed the system after the invention of the printing press.”[3]

Pierre examines the evangelisation that needs to take place in this new medium.  Evangelism is not proselytising he explains but needs to be a respectful authentic exchange.[4]

Sister Angela talks of a four part approach to enable effective evangelisation.

1.      Our way of being (or presence)

2.      The environment

3.      Authentic listening

4.      Action within our cultural contexts

Her example of this is going to visit a Navaho woman in her village.   She went seeking answers but the woman just smiled and kept weaving and she felt most uncomfortable.

After seeking advice she went back and sat with the weaver week after week (environment), Until she could perceive the whole range of sounds around her. (authentic listening) Eventually the woman said:

 “You know sister, several weeks ago our spirits joined.  In our silent presence with one another we were woven into a deep communion.  Have you felt it? What has it said to you? You first came to me with so many words.  Your vision was narrow.  In the silence I have learned much about you and I hope you about my people our land and myself. Now are there questions or comments you wish to make to me (action)?”

Well what could I say?  So many of my original questions appeared to no longer be relevant to the context.  I the evangeliser was being evangelised.  As we proceeded to tell stories about our spiritual experiences of the All Holy, I found we had much in common as women and seekers of spiritual truth”.[5]

---

[1] Babin, P. & Zukowski, A The Gospel in Cyberspace – Nurturing Faith in the Internet Age. (Chicago: Loyola Press,  2002), p. 193.

[2] Ibid., p. 191

[3] Ibid., p. 191

[4] Ibid., p. 177

[5] Ibid., p. 127.

The Pope and the Internet

How timely.  So nice to see the Pope coming in on the discussion.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=24821

Heading towards Drupal Gardens

I am desperately trying to get my first essay finished. I have so much written, over 6,000 words in journals and blog, but putting it together is taking more time than I thought. In my head I have moved on from why the church should embrace the internet, to the how.

1. My next challenges (after the essay is finished will be to  come to grips with Labels and how to use them effectively.
2. And to put photos at a URL address so that the slide show on my blog contains my photos not someone else's.
3. And then tackle Drupal at Drupal Gardens.  http://www.drupalgardens.com/

Social media helps communication during Qld floods

More Tips for Church Websites.

Here are the next 25 of the Tips for Church Websites from Mark Stephenson’s book: Web-Empower Your Church.  But first a few links
.http://www.nigeriansermons.com/stories/story-70-tips.htm
I so agreed with them about 'splash pages' being annoying.

Actually that will do for links I think, the rest are repetitive. 

1. Put the address of the church on the template footer.
2. Never put the words “under construction” or an “under construction” graphic anywhere on your website.
3. Provide an alternative to the back button on your navigation.
4. Use a CMS, and train many people to help maintain your website.
5. Let the people who generate the content enter the content.
6. Make sure pictures are resized to their final display size, not just resized with HTML.
7. Use JPG’s for photos.
8. Use GIF’s for animation and cartoons.
9. Consider design for viewing pages with PDAs and cell phones.
10. If at all possible, transcribe your sermons and post them in text format.
11. Minimize use of plug-ins and technology tricks.
12. Avoid Java applets.
13. Add interactive features and online community to your website.
14. Don’t do this alone; get at least a few other people to help.
15. If someone posts something nasty to your website, make it a ministry opportunity.
16. Use fewer words; use words most people understand; remember visitors may be from far away.
17. To make large blocks of text more readable, narrow the columns to less than 500 pixels wide.
18. Avoid mistakes, and make removing mistakes top priority.
19. Know from the start that this takes much longer than you would ever think.
20. Take security very, very seriously.
21. Remember that it not about technology; it is about ministry.
22. Use standard XHTML.
23. Plan your folder structure, folder names, file naming and styles.
24. Use Flash or video for communication not just looks.
25. Don’t use Flash for navigation.

Tips for Church Websites

I am on to Mark Stephenson’s book: Web-Empower Your Church.  I was hoping to get his latest book, until I realised the book sites were telling me it wouldn’t be released until February 2011; just a few weeks too late. 

He has 14 years experience at running a church website, so I am keen to use his information.

Part of my second essay will be looking at a variety of church websites and comparing them so I will start looking at tips offered, and use them to create a checklist.  I can already use it on our facebook page, take out the picture of the church and put in the people!

Oh dear there are 70, perhaps I will just do the first 20 today. (He says, “Almost all these tips are the direct result of a not-so-nicely-learned lesson.”)

1. The people on your team are more important than the task of building your website.
2. Start with static content first, and add changing content only as you are able to keep it up-to-date.
3. Don’t post personal phone numbers or addresses without permission.
4. Never post private e-mail addresses; instead, create e-mail aliases.
5. Don’t violate copyright laws, and especially watch out for copyrighted music.
6. Design for people with low-end PCs, modems and 800-by-600 pixel monitors.
7. Keep the total page size with graphics under 150 kilobytes.
8. Use a common CSS file that can be cached by the browser.
9. Don’t use frames.
10. Restrict page width to 760 pixels or less, or to 100 percent.
11. Don’t use graphic backgrounds; white or black is usually best.
12. Don’t make pages longer than three screens vertically.
13. Never require horizontal scrolling.
14. Keep the link colours the same throughout the website, and use an obvious colour.
15. Never underline text, because it will look like a link.
16. Use animation sparingly and purposefully.
17. Never allow banner advertisements on a church website.
18. Include many pictures of people.
19. Get written permission to post pictures of kids; get at least verbal permission from adults.
20. Put a church logo or pictures of people on the front page instead of pictures of your church building.

The Social Network

This flim shows the development of Facebook, with a focus on the two lawsiuits Mark Zuckerberg, the founder,  is involved in.

Mark shows symptoms of Asperger’s, a brilliant intellect, yet showing little expression and ability to socialise and relate to other people.  In spite of that, he creates a startlingly innovative social network that the university population take to like a duck to water.  Perhaps it is because he isn’t able to unconsciously absorb the social rules that he can be more conscious of what the rules actually are, analyse them and apply them to his computer programme. 

And he seemed to be learning with each interaction.  He gets better at recognising mistakes and better at finding sensible people to give him advice.  He becomes more aware of what is appropriate self revelation on the internet and what isn’t. 

It was like he used the internet as a mirror to discover about himself those things he wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see and he developed a social network which enabled the less computer literate population to do likewise.

I was left with a number of questions:

What did Mark think of this portrayal of himself?

What is Mark’s background?  There seemed to be no mention of parents or siblings.  He seemed to rely so totally on himself unlike the rich kids who were suing him. 

I felt that I would like to read the book sometime to fill in a few gaps. (The Accidental Millionaires by Ben Mezrich) but of course then there is Wikipedia, and I was able to find some of the answers there. 

When asked about the film he said he just wished no-one made a movie of him while he was still alive.  He thought what his character was wearing was accurate to the last thread, but that the past 6 years had been mainly hard work with a focus of writing the code for Facebook, not nearly as exciting as the film made it out to be.

A co-worker said that the representation of him as a socially inept nurd was overstated.  Although a  co-worker might not be the best judge of that, his background does seem to support it; he was captain of his prep school fencing team and earned a classics diploma; hardly nurd type achievements.

His dad is a dentist and his mother a psychologist.  They encouraged his gift for programming when it emerged as a child.  He has three sisters.

A well made and thought provoking film.