I love fun headlines.
David Hayward (aka “Naked Pastor”) participated in an interesting publication experiment through the Wikiklesia Project that will benefit the nonprofit organization NOT FOR SALE. He and several others wrote a wiki-book, a community written collaborative work built with wiki-technology. (Boy, do I feel like a geek after that last sentence…)
Here’s an excerpt from the email David sent to his readers:
A breakthrough experiment in Christian Publishing has just taken place. The Wikiklesia Project is an on-line, self-organizing, collaborative, virtual publishing event that has been completed from start to finish in just days.
Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution explores the growing influence of technology on the global Christian church. This book includes more than forty influential voices. The book can be ordered via my blog here (http://nakedpastor.com/archives/1265). All profits go to charity.
I had the honor of being invited to write a chapter for the book. It is titled “Virtuality and the Practice of Authenticity”. Here’s a quote:
“With the Internet there is no body language, no voice inflection, no eye contact and no spirit of place to benefit either the writer or the reader. It is blamed for the problem of what we call “virtual realityâ€, the phenomenon of that which is not real but may display the full qualities of the real. There is the possibility that the person online is not the person he or she is in person. The person online is only virtual, seeming to be real, but who’s true self is concealed behind keys, wires, screens and words. I suggest that the problem isn’t the Internet, but that this problem is a human one and a condition of our fallenness that manifests itself in all our relationships.”
David tells me that proceeds will go to NOT FOR SALE, a charity devoted to the elimination of human slavery in our lifetime.
{ 7 comments }
I wondered if you’d announce this. I was thinking of doing the same . . . I like his observation that we humans put up masks already–the internet doesn’t really exacerbate it as much as it maybe highlights it.
This looks like a really interesting project. While it’s true that the internet persona is simply one more manifestation of our usual human tendency toward mask-wearing, the internet can be particularly insidious, since we lack the benefit of looking into the person’s eyes, which are the “window of the soul” and which can often help us evaluate the people we meet, allowing our intuition to kick in and warn us when we need to be cautious.
Thanks for an interesting post!
Blessings,
Jeanne Dininni
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. I’m going to keep an eye on it. (through you, of course)
Jenn, yeah. Given that David is sort of becoming an online friend of sorts, I thought I should mention it. Besides the fact that I am very interested in exactly these kinds of publishing experiments.
Jeanne, your comment makes me wonder where that “windows of the soul” concept originated. I’m not sure.
RLP, dude, the windows to your soul are going to go through me? I’m guessing that will hurt. Try to avoid essential organs if possible.
Hmmm…Not sure where the “windows of the soul” quote originated. Did a very quick search and didn’t find out, but plan to check further as soon as I can find a few spare moments…
Thanks for your comment on my blog! The points you made about The Good Blogs were very timely, as you’ll see when you visit again and read my response.
Take care!
Jeanne
You are a geek – no doubt about it
And while the internet does allow people to hide, for example, things said on “internet chat” that wouldn’t normally have even been whispered
However, it also allows a vulnerability for those that are working hard at being real – because you can’t control who is reading about you and your latest spriritual faux pas
Susan, that’s a really good point. The internet is already much less anonymous that we realize. That is one reason I don’t even play around with screen names.
Everything is always me. Mark Goodyear. If I am nervous about putting my name on it publically, then I need to rethink that post or comment or whatever.
I’ve been a geek my entire life. In the 9th grade I won the state science fair… in mathematics. GEEK! Thankfully my wife loves me (and likes me) anyway.
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