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So when I first joined Ecunet, I wasn't seeing very much discussion about what new things we might do with this communicating machine. I had looked around on Compuserve and Prodigy , and saw a vast sea of resources out there: news, software, items for sale via modem, and helps for making home computing easier. I finally created a meeting, after 4 months of being online, and called it "A Compuserve for the Church".

The meeting has since then generated about 400 notes, and I only recently uploaded an index of topics we've discussed since then. How can the church and its organizations use this medium for making available important resources and information? MOst of us realize that th personal computer is destined to become one of those items which will be a "necessity" before too long, just as the telephone did. It's just too convenient of a communication tool to be without if one wants to get things done.

Soon there will be no resource that will not be "archivable" online. Video is already being "captured" in computer files. Right now, the hardware is still beyond the budget of most, and storage is a problem with the large sizes. But prices are dropping dramatically, storage issues are being solved (ie. CDROM, even recordable CDROMs, optical drives ) and file compression makes it even easier.

Full motion video in electronic form, storable and able to be played back on a desktop or laptop computer will bring in the age of video on demand, video phones, and sharing, distributing, and desktop production of video resources. Books will be ported over to electronic forms, not only with text readable on a screen, but with video, audio, and "links" between subjects (perhaps even links to other resources outside that particular book, resource, or program.

Hypertext (being able to jump, via links to other places in the resources on the PC---or even on someone else's PC or one some other supercomputer somewhere else) will make resource shopping more fruitful. One can search for resources on a particular issue or problem by subject, and find things which answer to these issues from any linked resource provider.

This seems to hold revolutionary possibilites for the extension of ecumenicism, for what will people begin to discover as they discover the resources of other groups which address their own concerns? It is a sad matter indeed when I see the Southern Baptists roping itself away from the larger community by choosing to go online "privately" on Compuserve, and exchange their own resources only amongst their own. Paul Gamber also told me about an Atlanta church with its own Internet server, but basically keeping it to themselves. What a missed opportunity for extending the reach of the church! But I guess that's what you do when you perceive the rest of the church as being dangerous to your way of life. I guess it's also what you do when you operate in a business frame of mind and treat it as competition.

A key piece of this context I feel is the manner in which we utilize this resource we have in CMC, and that our manner of using it be built on principles of community building and not that of capitalistic, competitive ones. It is a sad part of this context that there are churches using this medium primarily to stay ahead, rather than with a concern for being effective in ministry and building on the concept of the body of Christ rather than as separate entities all competing for the same prize. This approach tends to try to re-invent the wheel, which is a poor stewardship of resources.

Another issue I see is that of having to battle conservative forces within the computer community as well as those intimidated by computers. There are some who would fight against the idea of better interfaces, and not recognizing the fact that we need to be developing ways of searching for and accessing our resources and information that are as seamless as possible in the experience of the user. Otherwise, they will not use it, and we will have missed our purpose of sharing and connecting.

It's not only a need to get computer access to those who don't own computers, but that we present a friendly, hospitable interface to them once they get there. It'd the same with face to face. If we make it hard for people to know what's happening face to face, they simply choose not to come. It's the same in the "Virtual Community". They simply will not come.