[This unit is part of the C4UI course... "New Media for Urban Change".]

 

Unit #4 -- Web2.0 and Communications Tools...

 

An introduction to common communication technologies such as email, social networking (such as FaceBook) RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds (along with feed readers & aggregators), chat, social-bookmarking (team-tagging) and cellular telephone services.  [See official assignments for this unit.]  [Note:  We're going to need to defer MOBILE communications (cell, texting, photos, videos, cam) to another segment... other than to simply provide a quick overview.  It's of great future importance.]

 

 

 

 

Assignments for Unit #4...

• Watch the 'Did You Know' video... at UrbanNewMedia.org... if you haven't already.  You may be quizzed on it.
• [Sorry... I failed to include an assignment of reading pages 1 to 9 in Bill Seaver's e-textbook... "Pastor's Guide to New Media".]
• Internet Tool Kit... Go get familiar with clicking through the "Internet Tool Kit"... which is almost 100% "Web2.0" type of tools/capabilities.
• Skills.... Hyperlinking.  In the 'Internet Tool Kit'... review Coffee Lesson #1... You need to be able to create hyperlinks in YOUR wiki-page.  Create some.  In fact, create a link there in your own wiki-page... to go to your own personal del.icio.us page of bookmarked links.  [If you can't figure it out... email me or call... 490-1255 (cell).]
• Skills... RSS capabilities.... Watch the 4 short video-demonstrations... 1 in each of the pages re... What's Web2.0, Tagging, Social Networking, RSS.
• Skills... Team-tagging.... Consider these 'Tags 4 God' concepts and be prepared to discuss during class next week.

 

 

 

 

Tonight's Big Idea...

 

 

• Review from last week.... Unit #3 -- Social Impact of Technology & Internet ...Convergence of tools of collaboration... built the platform Friedman was focusing on.... In 2001 Thomas Friedman meant 'the internet'.  In 2007 he'd mean Web2.0 tools.  They're easy (browser-based) and free... thus collaborative.   Social Impact?  Especially touch on TechMission.org... what need are they/we trying to fill?  Surf Brunswick Center and UBcafe and UrbanMinistry.org.]
• "Did You Know" video-clip... Language? English... China.  50% of U.S. 21-yr-olds have created content on the web.  Number of internet devices (2006)... 600,000,000.  Exponential times. Text messages sent/received TODAY... exceeds the population of the world.  One out of 8 couples married (2005) met on the internet.  2.7 billion Google-searches... this month.  Technical info doubling every 2 years.  (2010, every 72 hrs).  Fiber already laid (accidentally over-supplied per Friedman) -- they're just improving switches at both ends... at a cost of near-zero.  With new low-cost laptops, kids who never held a textbook... will now hold the world and be connected.  What does all this mean?  We're currently preparing students for jobs & technologies that don't yet exist... in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.  Students around the world communicate & collaborate every day.  Are you?  Your kids at school?  How are you helping my child become literate and successful in the 21st Century?  Now that you know all this, what CHANGES should be made?  What's our vision?  ShiftHappens.wikispace.com.  "Did you know?" was developed by Karl Fisch... thefischbowl.blogspot.com with the assistance of Scott McLeod... dangerouslyirrelevant.org.

 

 

 

• Biblical basis?  Spread the gospel rapidly.  Make the most of every opportunity.  Pray, study, prepare... lead.  Theology of Christ's Church 'overcoming'.  Paul and others... I'm having great impact, and can't come to you right now.  Caveat:  But the fruit of the Spirit is... Love, joy, peace....  God's very much in charge and His promises are sure.

 

 

 

• Just for Fun... "Scene from 'The (Pastors) Office' ? -- Shouldn't a 21st Century Pastor/Leader have readi-access to information he needs, to lead?   [But we'll defer MOBILE computing to another session in the future.]

 

 

• 6:50pm... WebCam Interview... with Barry Bowen, Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com -- the best Christian news-aggregator on the web.  The site uses RSS-feeds, tags... and Barry uses Google Reader to stay on top of it all.  He used to do everything the hard way.  [Btw, you can see IndyChristian.com is pulling in CH's RSS-feed into our sidebar.  Conversely, CH is aggregating IC's RSS-feed into their page.]  Barry's responsible for turning me onto tagging... as well as being a friend and alerting me to major stories as they break.  [Gmail chat?]

 

 

 

• Web2.0.  [Define Web2.0... per Wikipedia, 9/12/2007... "The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users."  Your assigned Web2.0 video concluded that it's about 'harnessing our collective intelligence'.j
• Btw... have you noticed... that we're USING Web2.0 to teach about Web2.0?
• Compare & Contrast... eg.. Britanica v. Encarta v. Wikipedia.     Doesn't it pretty much boil down to the issue of 'chaordic'?  Chaos v. Order?  Quality v. Quantity?  Control vs. Collaboration?  Wild West v. Protocols?  What's God truth that we may consider to be a similar issue?  (say, in the Church?  Leadership?  Can you cite examples?)
• Big Idea... collaboration/teamwork beats individual work every time.... African proverb... NASA example?  This is the better model of the Church.  Disregard what you've learned about the American Church, if you've not observed it in scripture.  [discuss?]  What are the implications re harnessing our 'collective intelligence'?  Discuss... a wiki re the color of Martians?  a wiki about theology?  a wiki about creation v. evolution?
• It's REALLY about 'harmony & teamwork', isn't it?  When we say Web2.0 is essentially COLLABORATIVE... what does that mean.  What is teamwork for reaching our city for Christ anyway?  And what does all this say about needed Urban Leader skills?
• Big Idea... Your ministry's leaders & its staff should be actively learning/using Web2.0 capabilities... and move to a wholly Web2.0 'platform' asap.  Stop paying Microsoft for (offline) apps like Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and even Excel... for the most part.  Collaboration is the capability you should be building.

 

 

 

 

 

• Tags 4 God... ie, Team-Tagging... ie, "collegiate"... "teamwork"... eg. Hosea's request re 'bibliography' site.  How much like the Church's various gifts (of each of us) 'belong' to one another?
• Bible Tagging?

 

 

 

• Biggest Idea... so how does Web2.0 hold opportunity & hope for urban communities tomorrow?  What should we be doing today?  Think about urban needs.  How might we apply what we've learned tonight, to hypothesize a potential urban solution?  Eg... Employment issue -- how could the evolution of the internet, to Web2.0 level perhaps help solve employment issues in the city?  [Eg... an Employment wiki-page might collect great links.  One answer might be that a (Christian) expert on the topic might share his/her knowledge via a blog.  Or that expert might at least tag some great links for people to go check out.  Or, as we get into social-networking, we'll see that your network will potentially be VERY helpful in finding a job.   Or maybe even a network of driven Christians might actually start an ecommerce business in the inner-city, and mentor the business-leaders via the web... and web-cam, etc.   [Compile EXAMPLES via wiki-page.  Also... personalize this concept... what need have you personally filled by using something you've learned in this class so far?  And keep thinking about possible CU490 Projects that could greatly help expedite urban ministry.

 

 

 

 

Tonight's Skills Needed...

 

• (Catchup from last week... re Browser Buttons... think dashboard)
• Team-tagging.   (eg... BlewsWire, Add folks to your tag 'network'.  Maybe 'subscribe to your own network-feed later.)
• Gmail...
• RSS... Using your Google Reader...
• Subscribe to your own tags-feed... and your network-feed?  And maybe a general del.icio.us tag feed like say 'c4ui' or 'ccda' or 'john piper'.  Maybe go build a GoogleNews Search RSS feed... and pull it into your Reader.  Maybe pull your Facebook friends' status updates into your RSS Reader.
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• Your 'shares' as an outgoing feed.   We'll link to them, and very possibly each of us will want to pull each-other's shares via RSS-feed... into our own GoogleReader.
• Search your Google Reader items.
• Chatting?    (using gmail-chat) 
• Mobile computing?  Texting?  Mo-blogs?  Photos, videos, cam... from your cellphone?  [defer to future session sometime]
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Followup Assignments...

 

• Assignment for AFTER our lecture & lab re Unit #4...
• [Sorry... I previously failed to include an assignment of reading pages 1 to 9 in Bill Seaver's e-textbook... "Pastor's Guide to New Media".]
• Discuss Unit #4 Topic on our FB group page.
• Make sure you're now caught-up re tagging all the assigned pages/links for this course so far. 
• Create an outgoing GoogleReader 'shares' page... and its RSS. 
• Add those 2 links to your wiki-page for now. 
• [FYI ONLY... Later, you'll build your 'shares' into the sidebar of your upcoming blog... as we've done at IndyChristian.com.]
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Strays Not Covered Tonight...

 

• [subsequent note:  Great post by Cynthia Ware begging some great thought(s) about the New World Order.  Also read the comments.] 
• [subsequent note:  we didn't yet have this must-read link to Tim O'Reilly's own white-paper re Web2.0 concept.  I've archived it here as a .pdf for posterity.] 
• (still thinking/drafting... perhaps particularly about fitting in a little 'Change Management' conversation... ie, Leadership?  Urban Leadership?  Probably it'll all be in another session down the road.)
• Mashups?  [or is it a little too early?  probably, other than just to expose the concept]
• [Touch on getting familiar with the terms... taxonomy & folksonomies?]
• [find my research-stats re how much is done now online... vs. on your individual computer... point being... Friedman was right, it's about being online.  Thus what's the future for MSFT's offline tools?]  [Bryan... here'd be a good spot to mention what scenarios currently still pretty much require OFFLINE capabilities, and why?]   Maybe we'll all DISCUSS online vs. offline.  And btw, what if we're the ones who've been 'Left Behind'?  Thus a major thrust of our Ask Anything Saturday program is to get our folks to the net asap, even before teaching Word, Excel, etc.
• Application of Web2.0 Principles?  Recognize & start considering... seize the opportunity to help create a collaborative Communications Center for cityreaching here in Indy.
• Subsequent new Research re web apps.
• Cynthia Ware's article (and ton of links)... "7 Helps for Pastors Who Hate Technology"