PODCASTING. I was just thinking how different technologies connect with different denominations and church streams.
2004 - WORDS
Although the emerging church people were well into blogging by 2004, there was a huge upsurge of blog publishing that year which attracted the Reformed folk who love to write and read words. Creating your own RSS feeds and aggregating others was the rage. Blogging became respectable. The PDF file became a stable form of publishing. Technology for layered PDF's with multimedia (including movies) was available but no one in the church really used it.
2005 - SOUNDS
By the end of this year, Podcasting may have won over the Baptists and others who love preaching and sermons. If the podcasting movement goes from word based sermons to music based tracks and experiences, then the Charasmatics might kick in. The emerging PodJockeys might not necessarily be the most famous preachers. Maybe a few conference speakers will sell their "enhanced podcasts" with chapter breaks (now enabled in iTunes 4.9) as audio versions of their books. Or replacements for their books.
Here's an interesting convergence: The DJ's have been adding words to their sounds. Now the Podcasters will be adding music to their audio. Somehow, the two will meet in the middle.
2006 - MOVING IMAGES
Maybe I am stereotyping here (forgive me) but Video Blogging might take off with the Pentecostals and others who already do a lot with video. Or maybe the podcasters will want to add some visuals to their audio feed. Or even better, maybe the underground movement of Video Jockeys (VJ's) will have a wider audience to show their creations. Either way, as broadband becomes standard and digital cameras accept video as well as still shots, video blogging or its new forms will be popular.
Now if only I can get some better lighting and a can of Jimmy Swaggart hairspray . . .
Further:
Jonny Baker has more about podcasting.
Or read my "Podcasting and Godcasting"
Thought you might want to know about some serious podcasting I found. Emerge http://emerge.typepad.com and Generations http://emerge.typepad.com/generations has lots of podcasts. Really cool stuff. There are also Podcasts at Coffee For One off the same page. There is many hours of listening pleasure.
Posted by: Joshua | June 29, 2005 at 12:52 PM
Thought you might want to know about some serious podcasting I found. EMERGE http://emerge.typepad.com and Generations http://emerge.typepad.com/generations has lots of podcasts. Really cool stuff. There are also Podcasts at Coffee For One off the same page. There is many hours of listening pleasure.
Posted by: Joshua | June 29, 2005 at 12:55 PM
brillant analysis, with just a dollop of snarkiness :) all of what you're saying would be true and actualized, if only churches were not so stigmatized against virtual technologies! I know getting the big screen installed into church sanctuaries is becoming more common, but providing enough resources for the artistic & tech geeks to produce the images/ audio/ video and publish + distribute them is still sorely lacking, people-wise and equipment-wise. You and I know how cheap things are, but you tell that to the budget setters in those churches that are at the moment lagging. Many (most? majority of?) churches still don't have up-to-date websites.
Posted by: djchuang | June 29, 2005 at 03:41 PM
i would hate to see vlogging become the next platform for teleevangelists. i've been calling these folks evlogelicals though i don't know of any yet.
http://thevoiz.typepad.com/weblog/2005/04/evlogelical.html
Posted by: Aaron | June 29, 2005 at 05:08 PM
DJ is right. I've been trying to get my church to invest some $$ in a good website. The people who make the $$ decisions are, in Leonard Sweet's definition, "foreigners". (sigh) I've been trying since the beginning of the year to get our church to consider the neat applications of podcasting as well. We're one of "those" Penticostal groups. I hadn't thought about vlogging yet. LOL
Posted by: Zema Chambers | June 29, 2005 at 07:34 PM
The best podcasts will come from average folks, why do I say that? Well, denominatons and even Christian radio rarely does anything interesting or takes any risks. I don't see them with any motivation to try out this new techonology to see what they can do. Just please no more sermon-based podcasts.
Podcasting is an opportunity (not unlike blogging) for denominations to reveal stuff in process rather than always a finish, polished, highly produced show.
Okay, this is just a shameless plug for my podcast.
http://www.e-church.com/podcast.asp
Posted by: Tim Bednar | June 30, 2005 at 02:41 PM
Here is a good one complete with RiverTribe music!
Coffee for One
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CoffeeForOne
Posted by: tim smith | July 13, 2005 at 10:16 PM