Tall Skinny Kiwi

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

Left Behind: Eternal Forces

"The game is set in New York City after millions of Christians have been transported to heaven. Players are charged with recruiting, and converting, an army that will engage in physical and spiritual warfare with the antichrist and his evil followers." Now Public
Some say the Left Behind video game encourages prayer. Others say it promotes violence and intolerance. [Check out Wikipedia - [link fixed - thanks) What do you think?

UPDATE: OpenSourceTh. says theres a petition.

Technorati Tags: games, video games

FuseLab : media : art : stuff

- FuseLab media team (Switzerland) do the Mini event. They are good friends of ours and have helped us with a number of worship installations. They are also involved big time in the corporate scene.
- 24/7 Prayer Vision Mix
- Yusuf Islam's (Cat Stevens) new CD reviewed on Bloggedyblog
- Arts as New Creation on Open Source Theology.

Technorati Tags: video, vj

Kult: Heretic Kingdoms action RPG

KULT: Heretic Kingdoms is a new RPG released for Mac. You get to be an Inquisitor with an attitude, killing off religious sects, fanatics and other freaks who think God is alive.

Heres the skinny:
“Set in the world of the Heretic Kingdoms, a world where God is dead and religion heresy, you are cast as a young female inquisitor, working to stamp out the last remnants of religion. On instructions to destroy a relic which the Inquisition considers to be a significant threat, you are drawn into a war between two warring secret societies – a conspiracy of mages whose goal is true power, and a shadowy cult who seeks to resurrect the Dead God.”
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms might be a little too extreme for church people, but maybe the makers (3D People from Slovakia) could do a tamer version where modern day Inquisitors can stamp out emerging church influences in their denominations.

Absolutely not related: Christian gamemaker Digital Praise has announced some new titles. Link
Not in the same league as KULT but BBC admited its bias against Christianity on Sunday's Daily Mail

Technorati Tags: christianity, church, games

40

I have to preach this morning at Stromness Baptist Church - they have been doing a series on Elijah and left off with his 40 day walk. I thought the 40 day fast of Jesus would add another dimension to the story. Yesterday I put together the images of "40" by Simon Smith. I know you can buy a CD with it already made but i didnt have time. I dropped them into iMovie, gave them 5 seconds each. Jonny has also made a version of this.

What about the Music?
Scott Bader-Saye at Peacemeal used Snow Patrol's "Run" for the music (read comments) and Mark Fletcher used "Sulpher Man" by the Doves. But as for me and my house, we . . . i mean I . .. added the last 4 minutes of the freely downloadable track from Jap Jap called Blue Shimmery Fall.

Technorati Tags: jesus

The Growth of New Media

Darren at Problogger gives some reasons why he thinks new media is growing including:
participation, suspicion of institution, playfulness, relationality, holism, juxtoposition, DIY and immediacy.

Technorati Tags: new media

The Skinny on the WeMedia Fringe

Thats me at the WeMedia Fringe in my red Creative Commonist t-shirt. The MC asked if anybody was communist but I didnt let on. Nice photo - thanks Mike.

WeMedia Fringe was an enjoyable series of talks and chat in Soho, London. It was everything it was supposed to be and, apparently, everything that the WeMedia Global Forum wasn't. I wouldn't know. I didnt make it to the Forum nor could I afford the entry fee, although i could have applied for a scholarship or gatecrashed it if i was really serious about going.

Which i wasnt - i was just in London for the day and am already at Lake Constance, Switzerland, where I am now finally [sorry for my tardiness] getting this blog post up. Video will take longer.

Lots of official media suits and BBC people. I think BBC is that old TV station i used to watch as a child with the picture of a river and city coming after each show. Good to see TV folk who know the new media scene and also bloggers who stay connected with the broadcast world.

Highlight for me was meeting other bloggers, some more egotistical than I, others who had been blogging as long as me - and even one who had started 6 months before me - Regular Jen who started like i did in the late nineties on a geocities site.

Great to have a beer and a chat with interesting people - Tim of bloggerheads is an Aussie blog vandal and politcal stirrer who sees the English political scene as his playground and Google his spray can. He has an initmate knowldge of the ways of Google and shared those secrets with us.
Hint: Fresh content is a good way to keep your links and therefore google favour.

The creator of NowPublic.com was showing off his site - really nice guy and a great web site. Another place to store my video for free.

Oh yeah . . . Chris Yapp from Microsoft gave a spectacular speech which is gradually being uploaded by someone to NowPublic for your viewing pleasure.

Stayed out late with Alan (MC from BBC) and Kevin and Robin Hamman who turned out to be a thoughtful American from Preoria. More thoughts and images when i get back to my computer at home.

Technorati Tags: wemedia fringewemedia