August 2003 Archives

What would really be neat is if Weblogs were compatible enough for two different blogs to pull from and generate a mutually used RSS file. The Radio-to-MT cross poster doesn't quite do it for me, since any edits I make to an existing entry after posting go to the MT blog as a duplicate post (only with the changes being different).

I have a couple of Weblog experiments I am toying with. One is a Cold Fusion based system, the other a .Net system. The CF blog is created by Raymond Camden The .Net blog is DotText, which is headquartered at http://scottwater.com/dottext/ I'm still perusing the Mailiing List dev list to find some answers to a few things that have me stumped. Both of these, with a bit of work, will show up as links here pretty soon. There's also a DotNetNuke blog I'm hoping will be ready soon (if I haven't missed it)

Thursday is Sept.4th, which is the 21st anniversary of the first meeting between Janet and myself. We did a blind date thing, going to the WEBN fireworks (Labor Day Weekend), 1982.

I had a long good afternoon/early evening pow-wow with Larry about stuff OSG last Saturday, over at his house. I drove over there from my nephew's birthday party when we were up there last weekend. Either tomorrow night or Sunday I am heading up to do some more talks about some OSG Web development on Monday (yes, on Labor Day) and Tuesday, and come back Wednesday.

Larry wrote email that told me about a Software Development firm who is going to be at a meeting Tuesday night I'll be attending, who is also interested in OSG and an organization with whom OSG and Larry have collaborated. There may be some chance of finding some more contract work there. Hopefully, there will be talk of also finding sources of funding for the OSG work, and of other collaborative possibilities where some pay-for-project work can be shared.

I also hope to hook up with Dave and/or Pat while I'm up, whom I usually at least call each time I visit Cincinnati. Dave may be tied up with family responsibilities. Pat may have a little work for me that I can do, but whatever that may be, it's always good to visit with him and horse around and be wierd.

The new toy, which I got at a good closeout.
The WiFi spot convenient to me in Southeast Nashville (Lavergne) is Perk Central. I went there the night I got the Pocket PC (a couple weeks ago), and was unable to connect. That Sunday, I tried 3 spots in the Vanderbilt area (Bongo Java on the Belmont Campus...or acrosss the street, anyway), CoCoCafe, and Fido, all of which I was able to access and surf. When I went back to Perk Central, I was still unable to connect. Today, I was able. The person at the counter said someone had installed a new router.

That's next on my plan. Getting a Wireless blanket for the house.

This is fun. Simple, but really fun. I gotta get me one of those keyboards that fold out. This little touch pad and stylus won't cut it. I type slow enough as it is.

Anyway, I'm enthused. I've crossed into new territory.

See the Pocket PC I am using in the above entry. (Toshiba e740)

So I must once again switch gears,  from "what am I going to do? (the "pre-OSG kairos time" world)  to "this (the OSG Kairos stuff)  is what I'm gonna do and and it seems to be THE THING,  and the support will come--- I have faith that it will" to the recent "OK,  I can do this (the $1000 a week contract job) and help us catch up on debts and such, and reap some benefit of learning Cold Fusion and get a good recent job reference and reccomendation,  and the THING can develop on a slower pace,  given the some 50-odd hours a week that I'm at work or traveling to work"  .......and now it's back to "OK,  the THING (the OSG new development) is going to be king again in,  especially in three weeks ,  where come September,  I will be back to on my own again".   I want to get back into the exciting sense of expectation about what might be happening as we explore the horizons of OSG.org and Great Good Places and Ecumenical outreach and resourcing on the Web,  and building "Smart Church Mobs" channels and demonstrating what can be done.

A month ago, I was busy scurrying about, getting a scanner hooked up to do some scanning of materials for OSG, for website content. I was also looking at PocketPC's, as I had been charged to go get one so that I could include PDA-compatibility in my Website development. We were not sure as to where the precise sources of support were to come, but I was confident, especially that there woulod be quick, tangible and important additions to the OSG online prescence. Later that day, I got an email informaing me that the Contractor position was available again (there had been an opening a couple months back for which I had applied but not been chosen, but had run a close third. The first person turned out to be unreliable and simply stopped showing up, and the second worked 4 weeks and then got a great paying job, and so he was leaving.

After almost three weeks of my Contract work,  I learned there may be only another 3 weeks to go,  unless some new addtions to their Web development staff is approved.   I have had the opportunity to learn ,  hands-on,  some really cool Cold Fusion stuff.  I hope the next 3 weeks will bring more of the same,  and more.  Maybe they might agree to funding me for 4 30-hour weeks instead of 3 40-hour weeks,  which would allow me an extra week to find other work,  and have some time to cram more extra-curricular learning on my own as I go.  I've been going through Ben Forta's "Cold Fusion MX Web Application Construction Kit" during these three weeks in my spare time (which hasn't been much).

I was initially very down when I learned of this today,  but then ,  I have been reviewing all of this.  Back in late June,  I was all aglow about the Old St. George development plans that were begining to roll as Larry and I began to exchange ideas.  I remarked on this Weblog that "Things are going to start hapening to me now" (taking a line from Steve Martin).....and when this present contract  position happened,  I was intially a bit deflated that much of this work was to be "deferred".  Now,  on the positive side,  I will be returning to this sooner than I thought,  but with the added anxiety of wondering again how and from where will come suffcient support funds for this work. 

Oh, I have joined the ranks of the PocketPC owners. I just got me a Toshiba Pocket PC e740 at a nifty special deal. I just hooked it up, synced it, and now I'm off to search Google for a WiFi free spot where I can try its integrated 802.11b.

Whoa man!  Some real "stickin' it to 'em/us"  from Jordon Cooper in these three posts (this one and the two before/below it):

I wonder if the reason that churches are afraid to engaged in the online discussion is that we know how unattractive our churches are to the new generation of postmodern church attenders and instead of facing that and fixing it, we would just rather bury our head in the sand and leave it to the next person who pastors the church. As long as the church keeps focusing on unconnected builders and boomers, the harder the paradigm shift to those who are a part of the digital culture is going to be.

Excellent point. I have also found myself shaking my head when I see the Church passing up the oppotunities to participate in REAL conversations.  (I say REAL,  because much of what we do now,  IN THE CHURCH meetings,  is not conversation at all.  I have not felt known at all via traditional Church channels and activities in , oh,  11 or 12 years.  Jordon continues:

People online aren't real because they don't sit in our pews, they don't help our numbers in our denominational reports, and they rarely tithe (although I believe people will give to a community they find compelling enough to give to).

Great Stuff from Jordon Cooper:

here

...This hits at what I think is the root of why the church fears the web. Many churches generally won't allow individuals the freedom to create compelling content and enter into a conversation. Churches aren't friendly to conversation. The worship is lead from the worship leader. The sermon is prepared and presented by the pastor. The congregation watches. It is one way communication. Early on when I was fooling around online I was apart of a mailing list that was hosted by Ginghamsburg Church's web team. Around forty or fifty of us would talk about web ministry and help each other out. One of the topics that kept coming up was how do we fit the web team into the traditional command and control structure of the church and have content approved and things properly vetted. The church didn't trust anyone to create any content. It needed a committee to make sure it was all okay. It was before the Cluetrain Manifesto was out and articulated it for us but it was true, organizations can't have a conversation and I think organizations also fear the individual....

In my Cluetrain section, I post three sections of quotations from a kick-butt post Jordon Cooper wrote a few days ago.

(I reposted this on my Radio blog since something got into my post yesterday which threw my whole home page out of whack.)