Such is the potential that could be realized by the Church, in harvesting this to support and grow their community. In typical churches, the content flows “from above”; the “connections” that are “recommended” are from a position of “authority” as filtered through the singular experience of the pastor. Back to the rant that drove me to this conversation. In the Continue Reading

I feel a bit “detached” right now, not because I have to have my “techno-fix”, but because the “connectivity” I sense I am missing is to the conversation I have with these “Feeds” and the emails, to people with whom I accustomed to communicating via these “electronic pathways”. If there were a physical meeting place with all of the elements Continue Reading

The previous post expresses som eof why I think The Cluetrain Manifesto did such a number on me. When I read that, I immediately sensed in this “Book about Business” , a spiritualityand recognition of a truth that the Church, of all places, has so little clue about: That people become energized when their own interests and passions about things Continue Reading

David Weinberger lists several things that indicated how Joe Trippi had several “Clues” about how to use the Web with politics. See Loose Democracy Below , in my “Continue Reading…” secton for this post, I have copied the list DW gave, with the intention “filling in” some of the insights I believe can be culled by the Church if it Continue Reading

From a comment ( by a fellow named Hank Prohm) on David Weinberger’s article, Loose Democracy on Corante: I think all of the folks on the Internet have to ask this question: Are we willing to let the Dean candidacy die because a “hot” candidate from the “hot” medium of the Internet is having trouble translating to the “cool” medium Continue Reading

I’ve expressed it in so many ways. The Churches are largely clueless about the nature of the Web. They are SOOOO missing the boat on the “conversation”. Is it REALLY the case that “two or three gathered” is NOT at all a possibility on the Web in the sense that God might be there “among them”? It’s not face-to-face, but Continue Reading

I may soon need to create an “Emergence” category. I’m reading Steven Johnson’s Emergence which a lot of bloggers read a year ago or a while back, so I ‘m behind the curve, BUT, like with so many things, not finding too much written on how this is related to the Church, or IMPACTS the Church, or helps us to Continue Reading

The previous post, referring to my post about “WHAT MATTERS”, pinpoints some difficulties I have in understanding why Church groups think they are “communicating” via the Web. There is certainly contact made, but the potential for conversation and the finding of such conversations via search are so much more powerful and useful than the email link that invites comments. The Continue Reading

A quote from David weinberger in the WIRED feature on the Dean Campaign got me going on the power of the conversation, and how the Churches still aren’t getting it about online discussion. It’s on my dotText blog

Note (via Trackback) to David W: Hearing your account of how you were somewhat depressed about politics, and this campaign giving you “new hope” just may help provoke a similar awakening in me. I have been following with some interest the Dean campaign’s unprecedented reshaping of political conversation, but simply have not jumped on board. I haven;t even visited the Continue Reading

David Weinberger answers questions about the Dean campaign’s use of the internet in an MP3 aufio interview with IT Conversations. Click the Stream button or downkload it. These two links will take you to a Stream Request or a Download request page, where you click “Stream” or “Download” respectively. It didn’t make me fill out the form before it let Continue Reading

I saw a piece on 60-minutes earlier tonight about companies using carefully, strategically placed “agents” to prominently postion a product , under the guise of public-but-private use, to “lure” people into catching an eyeful (the first example was a video game that utilized a sensor-glove-joystick to navigate and operate key operations in some environment). The question posed was whether this Continue Reading

I have often written individual rants inspired by concepts gleaned (or ones that “jump out at me”) from The Cluetrain Manifesto. They are very Theoblogical, or theological rants become blogs, but nevertheless go to the core of my theology; specifically a theology of cyberspace for the Church. That is, that conversations are holy. In them we discover the treasures waiting Continue Reading

Great piece in WIRED by Lessig on blogs and poliics A managed community works about as well as a managed economy. So the challenge is to find a way to build community without the community feeling built. The article’s message is that Open Source is what works.  It seems the Church can learn here from the power of the movement Continue Reading