Tall Skinny Kiwi

Mega-Churches in Cyberspace?

Wanna help? I am writing an article on missions and post-modernities, in particular the idea of transcoding mission in a world of new media communications. It will be published [unless they think it unworthy] close to the Edinburgh 2010 events. It would be a help to me if you could read an old blog post of mine regarding scale-free networks, strategic centres and whether they will be mega-cyberchurches or not. Appreciate the response and comments.

"So will we have strategic centres in cyberspace?

Yes – we already have them. And they are increasing in size and influence. I believe we will see on the one hand, a continued de-centralisation of power away from traditional hierarchies but we will also see new centralizations around key words, online gatherings, relevant conversations, timely projects, and social communities that choose to express themselves on the internet.

I believe there will be new strategic centres that will blossom out of proportion, not necessarily formed around organizational power or geographical location, but around issues of justice, common needs and interests, commerce, recreation, and education. We will also have mega-cyberchurches, relational networks with millions of subscribers, religious blogs and sites that act as global hubs of information and connectivity. We have not yet seen how big these communities will become."

Andrew Jones, (2005) Will We Have Mega-Cyberchurches?

Technorati Tags: christian, church 2.0, mission, missional, new media

Reaching the Online Generation

'Who is God?' was one of the top three sentences googled in 2007.
says Paul Watson on his new website called Reaching the Online Generation, an initiative of City Team Ministries. My friend Joe Hernandez (formerly NAMB) is with City Team and we will be exploring ways to work together this year. What other good websites like this do you know?
Related: 1024 Window

Life Cycle of a Blog Post

Wired points to the life-cycle of a blog post. Very cool! HT: Matthew Labels

Technorati Tags: blog

Quechup Social Networking Site: Warning

There is a red flag waving in the blogosphere about Quechup, a new social networking site, and I just eliminated my account. The accusation is that Quechua is using an "underhanded" approach to request new members through mining the email accounts of subscribers, resulting in an email frenzy that is causing embarrassment and fear. That was enough to scare me out of the Quechup system, at least until things settle down and the ripples stop flowing everywhere.

I only joined yesterday at the request of friend. [Did he know he was asking me???] I noticed when i signed up that they wanted my email details and password which was a little unsettling but normal for some systems. I pretty much join all the social networking sites when i get an invite. I like to road test them and people ask me for my opinion so I need to be in the know. But this one freaked me out so I cancelled my subscription. Luckily, no invitations have issued from my account except for a friend request to the guy who invited me. WHEEEOOOWWWW!!!!

My advise is to JUMP SHIP if you are a member, until Quechua get their act together - assuming they turn this thing around. Two things you can do:
First is to make yourself "unsearchable" in your account profile.
Second is to go to "Account" and cancel your subscription.
I did both.

For the record, I have watched the progress of social networking sites, going back to The Well in 1996 when i lived in San Francisco,
which I found quite intriguing,
to Orkut in 2004
which I found too artificial,
to various Christian based sites like Xianz
which i found too insular
to sites for the very young like Bebo
which I found too juvenile,
And of course Facebook
which I find too invasive

BUT

I have to admit, Facebook has turned out to be the best and the only one worthy of my attention., I joined Facebook last year when it was a student based site because I was giving a talk to University students and wanted to be found by them. I have recently bumped up my commitment to FaceBook, am trying on a few games for size, and have gotten over my previous prejudices. It really is a great site and I might give thought to developing some apps. for it.

As for virtual relationships in general, I am a big fan of connecting on line but you still cant beat face to face. Nobody wants a virtual Christmas dinner.

Technorati Tags: facebook, quechup, social networking

The Ugly Blogger - Wikiklesia

Despite my chapter called "The Ugly Blogger", positive endorsements for the first Wikiklesia e-book, released a few days ago, are coming in.
"The hive-mind of Christianity speaks! It brings news of the future. Uttered like a prayer retrieved from the year 2030, spoken in a new tongue, a new form. Listen!" Kevin Kelly, co-founder, Wired Magazine / Long Now Foundation.

If you have read my chapter and want to discuss it, then leave some comments below. If not, buy the book and lets talk.

Related: Wikiklesia: World's first self-perpetuating nomadic business model?

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, business, new media, web 2.0, wikiklesia

Global Christian Internet Alliance: Day Three

Tony Whittaker is talking now on Internet Evangelism Day which started in 2005. I remember it, actually. I think I was involved. Tony is talking about misunderstandings about the web and confusion with old media methods. GOOD! No one has really said this well at the conference until now and its necessary to talk about it. A website is not a tract. He also mentioned the Gray Matrix and tackled the 99% problem - that 99% of Christian media is written for Christians. Hhhhhhhmmmmmmm . . ..

I arrived a little late this morning at the GCIA because I had to talk to my wife. My family leave today for Freakstock Festival in Gotha, Germany. I will stay behind for my meetings here in Berlin.

Back at the conference: Eric has an amazing web portal in France called TopChretien. He has been talking this morning about how the site was developed, how partners were added, business models etc. Many people click on the site to register their interest in following Jesus and I think he is using Google earth to locate them near a church. Something like that. Its also good to see healthy approaches to business and income generation which will help these portals become self-sustaining and help other countries get going.

Thanks to Zondervan for their email newsletter yesterday that not only promoted an e-book that is not theirs (Wikiklesia) but also pointed their readers to this blog to read about the Global Christian Internet Alliance. For those just tuning in, you may want to start at Day One. Blogging From the GCIA: Day One, Day Two, Day Three

Dave Hackett talking about some really cool stuff.

Oh yeah. Last night we went out to Lukas Gemeinde and my friend Axiel gave us the skinny on Berlin. We prayed for the city and had a good time of worship. Heres a picture of us last night. Keith Stonehocker, in the foreground, is one of the main culprits behind pulling this conference together. He My wife had a great chat with Keith's wife Carolyn last night and really likes her.

This and other photos by Rolf are here.

Technorati Tags: gcia, web 2.0

Global Christian Internet Alliance: Day One

I just arrived at the Global Christian Internet Alliance meeting in Berlin. About 50-60 people here and we are listening to Dr Wolfgang Stock talking about the possibilities of the internet and the limitations of written text. Christians are well positioned in this new era, he is arguing. Good number of countries represented here - quite a few Asians. I see Lee Behar from Maclellan. I dont recognize any faces but some of the names on the list I know from emails and blogs.
Related: Casting a Global Net by Dave Hackett

Technorati Tags: gcia, global christian internet alliance

Wikiklesia: The world's first self-perpetuating nomadic business model?

"Wikiklesia may be the world’s first self-perpetuating nomadic business model - raising money for charities - giving voice to emerging writers and artists - generating a continuous stream of new books covering all manner of relevant topics. Nobody remains in control. There is no board of directors. The franchise changes hands as quickly as new projects are created." Wikiklesia Press Release

As a missionary and church planter, I like anything that can self-perpetuate, multiply, reproduce spontaneously and keep on giving itself away until it reaches it goal. That means churches, conferences, training systems, and also this little publishing experiment called WIKIKLESIA that LAUNCHES TOMORROW [now available] on Lulu.

Volume One of the Wikiklesia project gets released July 23rd and its called Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution. BUY THE BOOK! My chapter on blogging is buried in there somewhere but the other chapters will be much more interesting than mine.

I have invited one of the project leaders John La Grou to my Happy Hour video cafe on Wednesday, along with some other geeky guests, and hopefully, if everything works out, John will chat about the uniqueness of this collaborative project.

Technorati Tags: book, collaborative, ecclesial, new media, nomadic, participatory, publishing, wikiklesia

Towards a Mixed Economy of Old and New Media

Interesting discussion at DAVOS 2007 regarding how MSN and new media [bloggers, etc] can get along or if it is possible to do so. Classic quote:

"A blogging entrepreneur drew a useful distinction between old mainstream media (MSM) which had attention deficit disorder and the best bloggers, who were obsessive compulsive. Newspapers started out on stories or campaigns and then got bored. Bloggers never got bored of their own subjects." Guardian

The discussion reminds me of the old vs. new media conversations at London's WeMedia Fringe that i participated in last year. It also reminds me of the tension between institutional church and emerging church - and the desire to work together to be a 'mixed economy'.

Technorati Tags: davos07, world economic forum

Nintendo Wii: Remote Control for Ableton

DJVicar brings up the possibility of using Nintento's Wii remote and Ableton Live for a worship setting and links to a post that discusses it. There is also a video demonstration. Very cool. I saw a VJ use Arkaos and Ableton Live at the same time, but he still had to use his MIDI to run it all. Remote control would rock!.

DJ Cloudburst [Hi Tim!!] used a Gameboy at one of our worship events in Prague (2002). Once I bought Salling Clicker so I could trigger Powerpoint or Keynote slides from my bluetooth phone. But I never really used Powerpoint [yes, i know, the devil uses powerpoint] prefering to use Arkaos for teaching and presentation instead. I wonder: Is there a way to use Nintendo Wii to trigger videos in Arkaos or a similar VJ program? Anyone know?

Related: The Phones for You, The Skinny on Powerpoint