Technology Lectures at Seabury

AKMA bemoans the technological cluelessness of Churches in World [Class] Series,  as he reflects on the Technology lecture series they've been hosting at Seabury:

If the series’ insights were to seep into Seabury’s bloodstream, and hence to the Episcopal Church more broadly, we might see begin getting a message across to a culture-generation conspicuously absent from many congregations

I worry that Jordon Cooper came to us so long ago that people no longer remember the tremendous demonstration he gave. Jordon showed, on the basis of cases in which he’s been involved, the ways that a hyperlinked congregation grows in community, in effective congregational communication, and in outreach to an increasingly digitally-active world. Jordon’ talk connects beautifully back around to David Weinberger’ on the last night of the series; it’d be great if we could re-run him again, now.

Jumping down to his blog of Jim McGee's presentation at Seabury April 10,  he notes this:

The time balance the modulates from innovation to a new system has compressed considerably. Much of twentieth-century economic growth has come from (Taylorism, Fordism) extracting more productivity out of a single factory model. That’s reached its limit; now we have to learn what to do when everyone in the organization thinks. We now live in a world where innovation has to fit in as a part of the economic process.

It seems that this was a big problem in the place I just left.  There seemed to be no mechanism nor real openness to the idea of a group of people working on a project where EVERYONE thinks.  It seemed to be very much a worker-to-management type process.  Oh sure,  there was the rhetoric of things like "team" and "collaboration",  but when it came down to it,  there was just all of us working on somebody else's ideas.

What we typically do is to measure productivity with knowledge workers in the same way that we measure the productivity of industrial workers. Can you walk into an organization and see somebody of importance reading a book? Reading a book doesn’t look like you’re busy; we can’t measure the output.

I certainly experienced the "pressure" of feeling self-conscious about "reading" something and putting it down quickly when I heard the supervisor coming,  lest he think I was "playing" or "chasing rabbits".

Then I notice this note about parish administration: 

What about blogs in, for instance, parish administration? Jim observes that blogs open up and build community in a new way. They contribute to building a trusted persona; it adds depth and texture to your persona, especially in a parish environment. They offer a way to discover commonalities, shared interests, and make possible personal and community links.

Yes.  The very thing that a pastor often strives for;  to be able to "add a perspective" that they consider important to the idea of living the gospel;  the weblog offers a way for many to "sit in" on the day-to-day reflections of the blogger,  whether it be the pastor or laypersons;  to be "exposed" to one's perspective in a way that sheds new light for them,  and to do so much more frequently and on many more topics than is available through traditional channels. 

 weblogs plus aggregators support self-discovering and self-organizing communities of practice.

The aggregator element is an important piece for me.  HOw many times have I realized that I haven't vistied a particular "favorite" Web destination of mine,  and discover when I return that I could have found out something a month ago or got a new update to a piece of software I like.  The perspectives I like to read are often spurred by some shared public, national, or world event,  and it matters WHEN that word comes,  so that I am "thinking" about the event's impact upon me,  and I am challenged and/or persuaded otherwise or affirmed in the validation of similar feelings.  This seems particularly important in Church community life.  Shared events there may have a lot oto do with the experience of Pentecost at any particular moment.  It may be that "all together in one place" may become a kairos moment in Web spaces as well as in those spaces in physical space;  there may well be a "there" there where God seeks to dwell.   

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:40:41 PM.