Category Archives: Culture: new media

UU vlogs grow by 100%?

ck over at Arbitrary Marks has posted her first videoblog entry — as part of “blog against theocracy” weekend.

Aside from me, ck is the only Unitarian Universalist I know of who’s posting videos on their blogs — meaning a 100% increase in UU vlogs, as well as a huge leap up in average quality. Of course, even though we Unitarian Universalists tend to be way behind the curve when it comes to using new technology to talk about our faith, there must be more UU vloggers. I hope observant readers will let me know about other UU vloggers in the comments.

Happy geeky networking Easter

So while the rest of you were enjoying your family Easter dinners, Carol and I were observing the holiday in our usual fashion — each sitting in front of our laptops. I spent the evening reading up on the Semantic Web. I got particularly interested in a subset of Resource Description Framework, or RDF. RDF is a way of presenting information on the Web that is machine-readable, and therefore which will make it much easier to find exactly what you’re looking for when you search the Web.

What I got interested in is a subset of RDF called FOAF, which stands for “Friend of a Friend.” Here’s what FOAF-Project, the creators of FOAF, claim:

The Friend of a Friend (FOAF) project is creating a Web of machine-readable pages describing people, the links between them and the things they create and do.

For example, FOAF-Project is working on a FOAF browser, which would show you the links from one person’s Web site to their friends and family and co-workers. The current FOAF specifications also allow you to specify your workplace, interests, contact information, and even your Geek Code.

After spending some hours reading up on FOAF and related topics, I came to the conclusion that FOAF is a great idea — or at least it will be a great idea, if it is actually ever implemented in a user-friendly way.

As it turns out, there are other ways to accomplish similar kinds of things. There are the commercial social netowrking sites that allow their users to do this sort of thing. Anad as any blogger knows, your blogroll is actually a social networking tool:– it’s a list of other bloggers with whom you have some connection (however fleeting). However, a blogroll doesn’t give you much beyond a bare link.

But the blogging software I use actually implements a kind of social networking called XHTML Friends Network, or XFN. Embedded in my blogroll are markers that tell what kind of relationships I have with the bloggers I link to. If you go to RubHub, an XFN search engine, and enter the Web address of my blog, you’ll get a list of all the bloggers I link to, along with what I claim is their relationship to me. You can then in turn check out those bloggers, and see their relationships to still other bloggers. (Oops — although I’ve requested that they add my site, they haven’t added me yet….)

XFN is still pretty new, and still not widely used. But even so, it gives you a taste of what it could be like to embed machine-readable relationship information into your Web site. Someday, I’d like to see every Unitarian universalist blogger linked up through some such scheme — whether FOAF or XFN or what-have-you. It would make it far easier for readers and bloggers to explore the large Unitarian Universalist web on the Web.

And I got so involved in this fascinating topic that I forgot to call my dad, as I usually do on Sunday evenings. Sorry, Dad! I’ll call tomorrow.

Two more blogs…

OK, it’s turned into a night of serious blog surfing. Two more blogs worth reading — this time, they’re both Unitarian Universalist blogs…

Not Muslim Anymore is the religious journey of a former Muslim who has become a Unitarian Universalist. As someone who grew up as a Unitarian Universalist, I love hearing how people who came from other faiths become Unitarian Universalists. And I’ve been particularly interested in the Muslim-to-Unitarian-Universalist path ever since I met a former Muslim in another UU congregation congregation I served. Fascinating blog. Serious snark.

Faith and the Web marks the return of Anna Belle Lieberson, who formerly blogged at Talking UU Technology. Started on April 1, Anna Belle promises “excellent websites for churches and other faith-based organizations.” In just five days, she’s posted lots of great ideas. Anna Belle is particularly good at combining PHP and CSS, so there is lots to look forward to with this blog.

Blogs to visit once

They’re not going on the blogroll at left (yet), but these three blogs are worth a visit:

(1) Father Matthew, a liberal Episcopalian video blogger. Only a little didactic. The one on the sermon is pretty funny.

(2) Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog. Yt is a goode waye to practise yowr Middel Englysshe. But ich knowe not if yow wil lyke hys poetrye:

THYS IS JUST TO SAYE

We haue had y-slayn
the knightes
that were in
Newgate

And which
ye were probablie
wisshyng
vs to pardoun

Forgyveness
nevir!

The lawe of Engelonde is ower will and lieth in ower breest, knave.

(3) And yes, after vingtillions of years, Plush Cthulhu does have his/its/her own blog, Brain-operated God. Be a good minion, and go listen to Fluff slaver and gibber.

That’s enough for now. Good night.

Clear Blogging

A while back, I mentioned I had started reading the book Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them by Bob Walsh. Now that I’ve read most of the book, I want to say a little more about it.

This is quite simply the best book about blogging I have yet seen. We are ten years into the blogging phenomenon now. Technically, blogging has evolved from a few geeks hand-coding Web sites to carry entries in reverse chronological order, to wide availability of easy-to-use publishing platforms that require no technical knowledge. The result of this technical evolution is that millions of people are now writing and reading blogs, and blogging has really changed the way many people exchange information.

In Clear Blogging, Bob Walsh gives an excellent overview of the state of blogging today:– from the way blogs have changed the national political landscape to the way blogs have changed personal life. I’m going to focus on two chapters in his book, both of which apply directly to post-Christian congregational life. At the end of this post, I’ll give a broad overview of the book, and tell you why you should read it.

Congregational blogs?

While Walsh is really writing about the corporate for-profit world in the “Building Your Company Blog” chapter, much of what he has to say applies equally to congregational blogs. So when he makes his most important point — that a company blog can increase sales — that applies to congregational blogs as well. Blogs build Web site traffic; blogs give potential buyers (or potential new members) a personal sense of what you are all about; blogs are a very efficient and very directed form of marketing. All this means that congregations should be taking a serious look at incorporating blogs into their marketing mix.

However, in order for congregations to incorporate blogging into their marketing mix, it’s going to mean a change in the way most congregations perceive marketing. Walsh interviews Richard Edelman, a blogging CEO (my comments are in square brackets []):

Q. Corporations [and congregations!] tend to be known for their hierarchies more than anything else. How does the idea of people [e.g., ministers and staff] just saying what they want on the company’s dime at their blog go over when you talk to other CEOs? [or how about to congregational boards?]

A. I think there’s a real trade-off between control and credibility. If you are too much of command-and-control kind of person [or congregation], blogging is probably not for you, but you’re also probably not in tune with what it takes to be credible in this world….

I hope congregations — and the Unitarian Universalist Association — take note. Congregations should really start thinking about credibility…. (For the record, I do not blog on company time — I write this blog solely on my own time.)

Blogging professionals

Every minister who is blogging or who has ever considered blogging should read Walsh’s chapter “Professionally Blogging, Blogging Professionally.” While Walsh focusses on the traditional professions of law, medicine, and ministry, all other religious professionals — directors of religious education, congregational administrators, etc. — will find much that is useful and relevant.

Walsh covers the obvious ethical questions, and gives us enough specifics to really make us think. Doctors actually have a code of conduct covering what they post on the Web; that’s something we ministers should be thinking about.

For ministers and other professionals, Walsh also points out how blogging can build your career. Most obviously, if you’re looking for a job Walsh shows you how a blog can help your job prospects. Yet for those of us who aren’t looking for a new job, a blog is still a way to communicate with various constituencies, and let people know who we are and what we stand for. As a working minister who has been blogging for more than two years, I found this to be the single most useful chapter in the book.

The rest of the book

Anyone who blogs will find lots of useful tips and ideas in Clear Blogging. For example, even though I think I know something about blogging, I learned a lot about feeds and blog usability and search engine optimization — indeed, I’ve already implemented several of Walsh’s tips on this blog.

And anyone who just reads blogs will find lots of useful information, from very practical things like how to post good comments on blogs, to big-picture ideas like the way political blogging is changing democracy.

Definitely, a book worth reading — just make sure you read it soon, because blogging is changing so fast this book will be outdated in a year or so. (Let’s just hope Walsh updates the book to keep up with changes!)

Do I need to remind you that this blog is completely non-commercial and ad-free? I reviewed and recommended this book because I wanted to, not because anyone asked me to do so, or paid me to do so.

Splog!

Thanks to a link on Academic Blogs Wiki, I found an online article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology titled “Splog! or How to stop the rise of a new menace on the Internet.” I was particularly interested because of my own battles with comment spam on this blog. The article starts out with a concise definition of comment spam (which they call “link spam”) and spam blogs, and an overview of the extent of the problem. Then the authors explore the legal ramifications of trying to regulate comment spammers and spam bloggers. They conclude that some regulation would be both constitutionally allowable and realistically enforcable….

…Congress should enact a law proscribing the use of automated software to post to blogs, wikis, and blog comments. Because this approach would not target speech directly, the government can constitutionally attack the incentives of spammers. First, the proscription should codify the Central Hudson test for commercial speech. The government has a substantial interest in protecting the “user efficiency” of bloggers and Internet readers and the vitality of an important new method of speech. Also, this method of furthering the government’s interest is a “reasonable fit.” It directly advances the government’s interests by limiting the quantity of spam blogs and freeing up the blogosphere for productive free speech activity. Furthermore, it is not more extensive or intrusive then it needs to be, since it prevents spam blogs from proliferating in great numbers but does not prevent any particular type of speech from being posted to the Internet. In fact, the law would function much like certain portions of the CAN-SPAM Act, already enacted into law.

A ban on automatically created spam blogs and link spam should withstand constitutional analysis even if some spam is found to be non-commercial speech. The proposed regulation is content-neutral in that it is “justified without reference to the content of the regulated speech” posted to the Internet. Any currently posted spam blog could be re-posted without offending the new law, as long as it is not reposted with automated software. As such, the law is a content-neutral manner restriction on posting material to the Internet. Furthermore, it is an acceptable manner restriction because it is narrowly tailored to the problem being addressed — the large quantity of spam blogs and comment spam — and “leave[s] open ample alternative channels for communication of the information.” As noted, the spammers can still use the same forums and avenues for spamming, just without the benefit of automated programs and open proxies. Indeed, such a regulation would be akin to laws that prevent the use of loudspeakers on city streets or limit decibel levels at concerts. Spammers can still get their “message” across, just at lower “volumes.”

[pp. 483-484, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, vol. 19 no. 2, spring 2006.]

The authors are fairly realistic about the possibility of enforcement — such legislation won’t eliminate comment spam and spam blogs, but at least it provides a minimal level of legal protection. Or I’d say this: at least it would show that Congress is committed to protecting authentic free speech on the Internet, which would in fact mean a lot to me as a blogger.

Right now, the Bad Guys are winning the range war here in Blogger Gulch, and the Good Guys (like me) are feeling like the Marshall in our little town is more interested in catching rustlers in the next county, than catching the rustlers stealing our cattle right under his nose. It almost feels as if the Marshall isn’t really interested in protecting free speech at all, he’s just interested in shooting off his gun (to hopelessly mix metaphors).

The complete article is worth reading for anyone interested in the intersection of free speech and new technology.

Link.

Org theory and b-schools

The blog orgtheory has a good post on the recent history of organizational theory, summarizing a recent paper published in Organizational Studies: link.

What interested me most about this history of organizational studies is that since the 1980’s, most organizational theorists have migrated to the business schools. Which helps explain why the organizational theory I read seems to be permeated by free-market and business attitudes. I’m pretty comfortable with a business approach, but a congregation is not a business, a minister is something different from a chief executive, other program staff are not the same as employees, lay leaders are not the same as volunteers in a non-profit. It’ll never happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if organizational theory developed ties to the theological schools?

Shut down

Pursuant to the previous post, I note with interest that a group has declared 24 March 2007 to be “Shutdown Day“:

Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate! Shutdown your computer on this day and find out! Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer?

Not a bad idea. It reminds me of the concept of a “media fast” advocated by Thomas Cooper, professor of media at Emerson College. Cooper described the purpose and results of a media fast in an article titled “You Are What You Watch,” available on the Emerson College Web site in a PDF file (the article appears on the second-to-last page): link.

Since March 24 is a Saturday, a day when I’m not in the office, I’ll be able to participate. No blog entry that day.

Computers suck up time

Last night, Carol said that suddenly her laptop shut down, and then told her to restart. My gut clenched — that’s exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago when the logic board died on my laptop. Sure enough, she couldn’t restart her laptop. Today, she drove it up to the Apple store in Cambridge, where I’m sure they’ll tell her to send it in for major repairs.

Of course this had to happen just when she is nearing the deadline for her book. Fortunately, she had been backing up her files pretty regularly. Unfortunately, she lost a day or so of work because she hadn’t backed up at all yesterday. Her bad experience reminded me to back up my own computer — it had been over a week since I last backed up.

Then today, my sister Abby called to talk about her blog. She’s been experiencing a flood of comment spam, and wanted help in controlling it. I thought it would take us ten or twelve minutes. We chatted on the phone while I installed various spam controls. Then I saw that WordPress had come out with a major security upgrade yesterday, so I started to install that. Upgrading proved to be a time-consuming process, mostly because I did not read all the directions ahead of time, which meant I had to repeat several steps. While I waited for files to upload I got to chat with Abby, so the whole process was actually kind of fun. Finally, after an hour and a quarter, we were done.

Now I have to go and upgrade the four other blogs I administer — this one, and three others. And I had better go and back up my desktop computer at work.

Even though they’re supposed to be time-savers, computers sure seem to suck up a lot of my time.