I came across an interesting article on Integrating Social Networks and Sensor Networks which I recommend you have a read of.
It raises some interesting possibilities for using integrated social / sensor networks to get away from noisy places to find quite spaces. It also offers some possibilities for improving the lives of the elderly.
Get you thinking? Can you imagine other ways integrated social / sensor networks could be used for empowering the disadvantaged and enabling spiritual growth?
While the church is busy adapting to the emerging wired culture, have you ever wondered what this wired culture of ours is going to look like in another decade? Given it could take churches a decade to adapt, you've gotta ask, what should churches be adapting to? To the world as it is now? Or to the world as it will be by the time we get there? It seems to me that focussing on the now will guarantee you'll be left behind. So here's a few articles to stir the pot:
Wireless Social Networking To Generate $2.5 Trillion By 2020 According to this article, electronic marketing research company iSuppli has predicted wireless social networking products, services, applications, components, and advertising will generate more than $2.5 trillion in revenue by 2020, stating that companies that can't keep up could become irrelevant (and one must ask about churches too eh?). iSuppli analyzed social networking and found three levels of interaction for users: immediate family and close friends, extended friends, and shared interest groups (sound familiar?). iSuppli predicted wireless devices are likely to become the primary means of communicating, accessing content, and using applications by 2018. (can a church ignore the primary means of communicating?)
Social Networking More Popular Than Email "Stats from Nielsen Online show that by the end of 2008, social networking had overtaken email in terms of worldwide reach. According to the study, 66.8% of Internet users across the globe accessed 'member communities' last year, compared to 65.1% for email. The most popular online activities remain search and Web portals (with around 85% reach) and the websites of software manufacturers ... As has been reported elsewhere, Facebook’s fastest growth demographic is older users" (so, it's not just a young persons game anymore)
The future of social networks "If we are here in ten years talking about profiles, web sites or social networks, something is really wrong. Social networks will be woven into every product and thing we touch"
I Saw The Future Of Social Networking The Other Day "Imagine walking into a meeting, classroom, party, bar, subway station, airplane, etc. and seeing profile information about other people in the area, depending on privacy settings." (And no doubt these profiles will include religious preferences and other information)
The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras "Expect the Groundswell to continue, in which people connect to each other – rather than institutions"
It's this last comment that I find particularly pertinent. It has implications for all institutions. And some of the suggestions it lists for companies could be equally thought provoking for churches, even should they choose not to follow blindly. So, where from there?
Here is some news. I just got word that my blog has been nominated as one of the world’s top church blogs. Church Relevance has compiled a list based on various popularity indicators and, thanks to all of you, I came in at number 80. Encouraging to know that so many find it thought provoking.
Wild Hunt Blog inspired me to do some newspaper archieve searches. Here are the results I got for "Anabaptist". Seems that interest has really been high over the last decade. Compare that to "Charismatic" which peaked just prior to the millenium.
And here are results we should all pay attention to:
Enui is evident with "spirituality"
But "Jesus" is as attention grabbing as ever
Most conversations about Christianity and Science bore me. Not because I am uninterested in Christianity. Not because I am uninterested in science. Not because I am uninterested in the interactions between the two. But because the conversations seem to revolve around the same stale question - did we or did we not evolve?
Personally I would like to see the Christianity and Science conversation evolve beyond this. I would like to see more attention to other questions. Questions like this:
1/ Artificial Intelligence. What questions does artificial intelligence research raise about what it means to be human?
2/ Quantum Cosmology. Can a multiworlds interpretation of quantum mechanics be reconciled with a Christian worldview?
3/ Genetic Engineering. If scientists ever create a human-animal chimera, will it have a soul? What is a soul anyway?
4/ Entropy and Time. What do we, as Christians, have to say about entropy? Can we speak of a new heavens and new earth without entropy?
5/ Scientific Neutrality. Are scientific theories ideologically neutral, or might monotheistic, pantheistic and polytheistic bias go deeper than we think?
This I could just not resist. HT Despair, Inc
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