Googlezon

Have you seen the "future history of media" at http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/ ?

What do you think of this eu/dis-topia?

I was struck by the way their "future" did indeed capture some of the strongest trends we see at work around us. Personalization, communication (think a 16 year old with MSN, TXT and the old fashioned landline phone all going at once), publication (think 25 year old blogging his snowboarding) and advertising...

Iain's biography

I always find writing about myself to be a somewhat difficult affair so I will keep it brief. I started out life in religious studies (there was no life before university) and moved across to philosophy for my postgrad work. After far too long completing my PhD, I chose (this may be a case of selective memory) to move into multimedia. Now these two have vaguely come together in my incarnation as Director of the Learning Technology Unit, Medicine Faculty, University of Auckland.

Participating in this colloquium will allow me to work explicitly in both my areas of interest - philosophy and technology. As will become apparent I'm not much of an academic philosopher. Perhaps more of an anti academic philosopher. I believe that the concern of the philosopher should be with questions that press urgently. My interest in virtual space etc has to do with the teaching role of the philosopher and with discursive freedom (amongst other things).

Peter's Material

Don't miss Peter's material (and bio) below in the comments on the Colloquium description.

Short Bio - Stephen Garner

Hi, here's a brief biography about me.

I'm a PhD student at the School of Theology at the University of Auckland. My thesis research centres around examining the interaction between emergent digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, with Christian understandings of human nature (based on the image of God motif). Working title for the thesis is "Angels and Robots : Theology in Posthuman Times." In particular, I'm interested in the "religious" stories that technologiest tell (e.g. transhumanist "gospels of salvation") and quests to transcend the human flesh as well as emulate it synthetically.

As well as a background in theology I'm also a computer scientist - postgraduate study at both Canterbury (software engineering) and Waikato (machine learning) universities as well as working in IT in both industry and education.

I've lectured Theology and Biblical Studies from time to time at the Bible College of New Zealand and Carey Baptist College, as well as having been IT support for BCNZ's Centre for Distance Learning.

My paper for the colloquium will centre around the development of a model of interaction between Christian theology and technology - something that goes beyond the normal split of dialogues into science-religion and technology-ethics. Further details TBA.

introducing steve taylor

hi. i'm dr steve taylor. i work in multiple worlds - teaching, church ministry, on-line where i run my own website. i have a phd in how religious groups respond to changing environs, and a side-line to that is, of course, new media. hence the invitation (arm twist) from tim bulkeley to be present. my paper is a mix of these worlds.

1. my bug-bear - most of the discussion that i've read around new media and theological scholarship is about how to disperse information. eg. will web journals count for my PBRF! this seems to miss the essentially horizontal, P2P nature of the web. i did a journal article on this for a recent stimulus journal, arguing that authorship and the Biblical canon was essentially P2P. a further research angle is the place of p2p colloboration on the theological process. how will the web impact on the doing of theology? will it move from individual scholars to team? what are the implications for "ownership"?

2. so i am interested in exploring a model for how p2p theology might work on the web.
a) not yet sure whether this will be actually trying something. i have a website idea, but am not sure that i can do it technically alone and i am not sure that launching a new website before christmas and into january is the best time.
b) the other option is to look at p2p work in other disciplines, primarily pedagogical and then apply it to theology.

looking forward to meeting you all, although your CV's make me feel i'm gate crashing the wrong party.

Who is Tim Bulkeley?

I’m a half and half.

Half time at the University of Auckland (School of Theology)

- half at a denominational theological college.

Born a Pom

- but a Kiwi (by passport) for some years now.

Half my teaching life was in Francophone Africa

- half in Auckland.

Pastor and theologian by training

- but computer geek by avocation.

My big project has been discovering how to “do” Bible commentary online, and preparing the Amos commentary as a prototype for a series.

On the side I am also working on the coherence and cohesion of the prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible.

The people involved

I am sorry, I realise that (precisely because I am keen that this blog serve to begin our interaction on the topics before the physical meeting) I ought to have started with introductions!

So, please would you each post a brief description of yourself. Be as informal as you like, not a traditional academic CV, but please do include some indications of your areas of work/research!

I will post mine above in the next hour or so (if all goes well...).

Re-forming Christians Online; Models of Authority and Participation

Hi Ann Hardy, Screen and Media Studies Waikato University here. My colleague Mary Griffiths and myself have decided to collaborate, both on the presentation for the colloquium, and for later work on the same topic. We are media studies scholars rather than theologians, but are both interested in how conservative and evangelical Christians in particular, are mobilising to make effective use of online communication.

This is the abstract we have worked out and we'll be doing what we (practically) can on it what with Christmas and holidays intervening.

"This paper outlines preliminary research into the connections between new media and ministry. Widespread public access to information through new media, such as the Internet, has encouraged Christian churches in New Zealand to develop organisational websites. These promote knowledge about the church and its stance on theological issues but also encourage various degrees of interaction from users. They offer traditional ministry and e-ministry, and use new media (streamed TV, mail lists, chat groups) to service existing communities and possibly expand them.

Internet protocols and practices typically encourage horizontal rather than top-down relationships. We are interested in exploring the technology's impact on changing social and pastoral power relationships, possibly their democratisation, through a developing analysis of the representation of activities on four NZ church websites: the Presbyterian church, Kahui Rangitahi (Maori youth division of Anglican church), the Destiny Church and New Life (NZ).

Our aim is to identify the various models of relationships between conceptions of godly and bliblical authority, church organisation, and cyber-communicants/congregants.

Our research at Stage 1 will focus on:
- the model of church governance each representation offers:
- the audience positions they construct:
- the level of interactivity and empowerment provided
- the degree of mobilisation implied;
- intended audiences and outcomes;
- responsiveness of the church community to user feedback

Summary of Method

We use a combination of comparative textual and media discourse analysis, key informant interviews, and selected user feedback to work towards a typology of church website communications."

Dr Ann Hardy and Assoc. Prof. Mary Griffiths
Department of Screen and Media Studies
University of Waikato
Hamilton
New Zealand

Brief outline of Tim's proposed paper

This paper would have three sections, (despite the fancy titles for them I still have no overall title!):

The return of the Rabbi

This section will argue that characteristic features of electronic media in particular its ubiquity, cheapness of delivery and cost of production will have a profound impact on all education and that Theology will not be different.

Ubiquity of access combined with low cost of delivery will make quality teaching available fronted by well-known names. The cost of production for these quality materials will impact on the current egalitarian nature of web publication creating once again an “unequal playing field”. Thus when Walter Brueggemann hosts Introduction to the Hebrew Bible on the Harvard Channel there is likely to be small market for Tim Bulkeley’s lectures on similar topics.

However, there are in all religious traditions models of education, that are better suited to the new environment than is the “sage on the stage” of the traditional “lecture theatre” for the delivery of education that moves beyond the communication of ideas. The rabbi or guru provides a model for personal communication and shaping in understanding and wisdom that information transfer alone cannot achieve. [Cf. much contemporary pedagogical thinking.]

Out of the Ghetto

Yet, at the same time (but not really paradoxically) web publication is extremely cheap, if one does not require high production values in the multimedia components. This “cheapness” (in terms of both cash and effort expended) combines with ease of access to ensure that theology cannot remain a largely closed activity preaching only to the converted.

In an electronically mediated world theology must leave its (self-imposed) ghetto and return to the market place. [Cf. the Public Theology movement.]

But Back to Shul

The locus of theology is a community. Again this heading has a back to the future feel to it. And, again to multiply the inversions, contrasts or paradoxes, at the same time the possibility of creating communities of education that share common culture assumptions and heritage can occur in new ways. Instead of a shul (a Yiddish word that means a local meeting house including its associated educational activities, but that to Anglophones suggests primarily education) that is local – because of the need to be within a Sabbath’s walk from all its members homes – one can have a community producing theology that is not localised.