The following is a post I made to Ecunet this morning, responding to a post about how Weblogs seem to be mainly one-way, personality oriented rants of one individual, and therefore not really “community”.

The personalities thing is something that can be applied to nearly ANY ftf community as well. SOMEBODY is nearly always the “creator” or driving force, without whose efforts the community would never come into being.

And to say that Weblogs are still a broadcast medium, albeit with more efficient feedback loops is the same deal…..this also can be applied to ftf communities, since in the large majority of cases, the “Church” structure is one to many, and most members approach it that way.

Additionally, I disagree that removing some key individual in the Weblog world would cause the community to disappear. Anyway, I don’t think that what I have in mind for Churches use of weblogs brings this factor into play. The key for Churches, I think, is to provide a medium that is an “aggregator” of concerns, passions, and interests of its members, and this provides a way for people to discover things about fellow members in a way that is just not there in the face to face, particularly as that executed in the traditional/typical Church.

As for models, I simply point to what has happened to me. One, the Weblog community inspired me to “stake my territory” and begin writing again. This is the first step. Through that, I have come to “mmet” several acquaintances who “subscribe” to get constant updates in their “News Aggregator” to postings I make. I get notifications of responses people make, and “Trackbacks” indicate who has commented on their Weblog about one of my posts.

There is a “Blogs 4 God” through which I have found several kindred souls, although much of the “Members” of that Blogring are of the conservative variety, there are still, within that crowd, several who “take notice” of several of my postings because of my technical interests and in exploring how Churches should be using weblogs. It reminds me of the Southern Baptist Convention before the “takeover” when there was a willingness to let a wide diversity of theological perspectives and ministry styles co-exist.

I have the feeling that the Ecunet of 10 years ago would have been “all over” this Weblog thing like ants on a piece of candy.

There are certainly tendencies for Weblogs to be used as broadcast, and some do “consume them” that way. But that’s the problem we have with all new media. Early TV was a picture and sound broadcast of what was on the Radio. Early Web (and quite a few still do this) simply shovel out print brochures onto the web). Al Mohler, my favorite guy (NOT) , has “Weblog” that is simply plopping down several long articles during a week that were probably done as a magazine article. There are not even any “comment” options. For him, it’s only a broadcast medium. Then again, that’s the way he’s always worked.

There are several “Postmodern Churches” and that whole movement that make extensive use of weblogs to keep in touch. That makes sense, since they’re the ones who seem to make a concerted effort to “do church” in different ways, and experiment with “styles” and “structures”.

I have yet to see the kind of “Church Aggregator” Blog that I envision, but I have been inspired to do quite a bit of writing about what I see as “emerging” from all of this energy in the Blogging world (at my blog at http://theoblogical.org) , and the blog/portal currently under construction at Old Saint George, which you’ve heard me rave about. OSG represents for me a VERY HEALTHY mix of Brick and Mortar , physical , ftf traditional community opportunities, and are constructing out of forum software, blog software, and a Bookstore hooked into Amazon but also keeping several thousand in stock, where discussions and blogs around issues (originating in group or organization meetings or seminars hosted at “The George” –our nickname for OSG) can help keep some of those fires forged at events burning well beyond the event itself, and serve as a “Resource Center” to notify such groups of Books published, books being discussed, etc. )

All of this is to say that the task is NEVER done, that of EFFECTIVELY integrating and becoming conversant with communication technology tools. As you know, I am always suggesting how we might use this to enhance that, and how Ecunet should try this and that, and how Churches should trythis and that. The fact is, Weblogs ARE more “designed” for community than typical, static, one way Web pages, or even data driven pages that “push data about products”. The comments, the trackbacks, and the News Aggregators all see to it that there are feedback loops, and ways to get in front of us the posts from sources we have decided to frequent. The further in toward “interactivity” and “personal touch” that we get, the more valuable such tools become. Combine all this with Portable technology, Pocket Blogs, PDA’s , “Smart Mobs” and the like, then the tools become more and more ubiquitous (pervasive, comfortable, seamlessly fitting into our routines). To find useful ways to “keep in touch” seems like a good trend to follow.