postmodernbible

BBC airs nine must-see programmes exploring Digital Culture (Sept 14-24) #intelligentmachines #makeitdigital

For those of you interested in all things digital, this week the BBC are focussing on Intelligent Machines (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33978561) as part of their larger Make It Digital Season.

Over the rest of September there are nine special programmes on the background to digital culture:

Already screened - a documentary on Gordon Welshman - the forgotten genius of Bletchley Park

Sept 14th - Brian Cox (!) hosts a new panel show called Six Degrees of Separation (10pm BBC2)

Sept 14th - Girls can code - a rather short BBC Three series following five innovative women coders.

Sept 15th - Gamechangers - a factual drama about the battle behind Grand Theft Auto (9pm BBC2) - (clashes with UEFA Champions League sadly!)

Sept 17th - Calculating Ada - a programme all about Victorian mathematician and early computer pioneer Ada Lovelace. YOU MUST WATCH THIS IF YOU CAN! (9pm BBC Four)

Sept 23rd - In Case you Missed It - a review programme with a difference - nothing is as it seemed with Dara O Briain.

Sept 24th - The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms. Prof Marcus du Sautou explores this largely hidden aspect of contemporary digital culture.

There are also news slots, online materials and a full radio schedule... 

 

Well done to the BEEB!!!

 

Pete

 

A Digital Prayer Companion with some great academic reflection (2010)

Goldie - designing and implementing a device for prayer for an enclosed order of nuns.

Many thanks to Claire Bailey-Ross who brought my attention to this paper about Goldie - The Prayer Companion developed for the Community of Poor Clares "in a northern city" some years ago. The paper is a great read - full of serendipitous theology and lots of practical points about design and spirituality. I love the section in particular where the nuns complain about the "I feels", a selection of messages about how people feel rather than about news concerns for prayer. I think the decision to cut these down rather than cut them out was important. Sometimes the news needs some added relief.

I wonder whether this might work for other situations too - like a prayer room, a boiler room for 24/7 prayer or a pioneer church situation. Gathering the world's concerns for prayer seems like a good thing to do rather than always relying on one media source or one's own imagination or perhaps even guidance by the Holy Spirit?

The full paper is here: http://www.gold.ac.uk/media/The%20Prayer%20Companion-1.pdf

What do you think?

Pete

Sin Free Social Media - really??? #facegloria #facebook #ummaland #dawah

The other day I received a phone call from BBC Scotland - "have you read about FaceGloria - could you give us an interview?".  Frantic googling and there I saw all the media hype about FaceGloria - a Brazilian Evangelical alternative to Facebook - Facebook without the sin.  I checked on Google Trends to see if this was a major news story and noted a lot of press picking up the story first released by AFP and then by many other news agencies including most of the online newspapers, and the BBC:

My first reaction was that a sin free Facebook was probably a human-free Facebook. But this , site, set up by Atilla Barros in Brazil, really does seem to be suggesting that it wants to be like Facebook (same colour scheme, social interacting, friends, posts, photo folders, messaging) but without the nasty stuff on Facebook - no profanity (600 words are excluded), no nudity (no bikini shots), no homosexuality.  The site has set up 20 morality guardians to patrol the site and remove anything they find that is inappropriate.

I joined. I was appalled at the technology. But I kind of see the idea. A simple way of connecting with like minded evangelical Christians. Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea but you can see how it works sociologically to bring together people with the same views, the same love for Jesus, the same desire to purify themselves from the world. It's a classic Christian holiness trait - separate yourself off from the unholy and you will be more holy yourself.  I still have no friends, though. 

As I stayed on the site, I was worried about a few things - where were the privacy settings? How could I exclude someone from viewing my profile? What if I was being pestered? You can see all the users and their profile pictures. But there is no CEOP button, nothing about guidelines, a FAQ for problems, nothing about an anti-bullying procedure.  All those things that Facebook has set up to make Facebook a better place to be. In fact, if my kids asked whether I thought FaceGloria or Facebook was a better place to be, I'd go for Facebook any day.

That's not to say that Facebook doesn't have its problems. Someone in my friendship group decided to post an explicit picture the other day involving nudity and other content which I thought was obscene. I was rather shocked. I friend people who aren't Christians and so perhaps I am just a bit naive. But I complained to Facebook about the picture because I wouldn't have been happy for my kids to see it or to see it associated with my feed.  Facebook replied to say that the picture did show nudity but it was within the Facebook guidelines. I unfriended the person who initially posted the picture - a slightly awkward thing to do but I saw no alternative.

But note that I was in control. I could adjust my feed, adjust my friendships, change what I saw from who. In other words, Facebook allows us to make our own safe space. And it has all the reporting we would want to see. It is not completely free of bullying, trolling, obscenity but you can control that pretty well.  Well, I think you can.

So, I was asked in the interview, do you say don't go on FaceGloria? No, I replied. It's an interesting social media experiment, but it needs better technology, better funding, lots more security.  At the moment, I think FaceGloria is a dangerous technology. To leave security to 20 moral guardians rather than to code and machines is crazy! Not to have proper safeguards against grooming, trolling and abuse is...well...bad.  I daren't use the word I want to use there.

The bigger issue is whether we should be burying our heads in the digital sand in the first place. We are called not out of the world, but into the world, although remaining as resident aliens: not in the world but not of it (John 15:19, 1 Peter 2:11). But that idea of residents seems important. As does the idea of being salt and light to the world (Matt 5:13-16). Salt is only good if it engages with the world. Salt has no effect on other salt. Light is not needed in a bright room. Light shines in the darkness.  So, as I suggest in the interview, evangelical Christians have long argued that engagement with the world is better than withdrawal from it. 

I argued in the piece - let's make Facebook a better, richer, nicer place by our Christian presence rather than hiving off into niche worlds, sinless echo chambers, holy huddles.

Social media sites are places for interaction, friendships, all the busyness of everyday life to be shared and to bring joy to those reading, sharing, befriending.  That means that social media is not just something we consume but a place for us to work at making it a better place for everyone else. 

While researching I was also directed to look at UmmaLand - an Islamic social networking site which is seen as another, better, place to avoid gossiping, frivolousness, distraction from the core subject of being a better Muslim and a better citizen of the Islamic World (the Ummah).  Now, Ummaland presents a pretty monolithic and conservative form of Islam which has no place for homosexuality, provides extra security options for women and promotes certain Imam who clearly don't present a liberal view of Islam.

The site's founder, Maruf Yusupov, originates from Uzbekistan but is now based in Denmark, however seems less concerned about doctrinal orthodoxy than he is on promoting a different perception of Muslim social action and concern. So, one of the first things you see on the site is the BE HELPFUL button - how can you help out with the project, how can you make your contribution.  This is real social media which engages everyone in the task rather than doing it for you and allowing you to be a consumer of a product.

In several interviews, here and here, Maruf outlines the core focuses on Ummaland:

• Productivity: “It‘s not just about what we do; how we do it is important, too. We believe productivity enables the Ummah to live in a more efficient way, thereby permitting us to reclaim our dignity and integrity.”

• Charity: “While education and productivity relate to self-improvement, we’d also like to focus on charity, gathering donations for worthy local and global causes.”

• Action: “In contrast to other social networks that promote ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ only, we‘d like to change this attitude into something actionable. For example, if a masjid or local community needs support, we want to be able to visit and help out in person if we can.”

• Education: “We believe proper Islamic education is the solution to most of our daily challenges. That’s why we’re integrating Islamic education as the core feature of our network. We welcome all Islamic institutions to join us in this endeavor.”

I think there are some big issues with Ummaland as a social networking site and I am aware of the dangers of removing people from embedded, real-life teaching. But just as that removal can be part of a process of radicalisation, so too, a place like Ummaland which teaches Dawah (social action, mission, engagement) so powerfully can be a place of deradicalisation, a place to embed and enact the values of Islam in a really helpful and worldwide project.

If you asked me where the real example of positive social networking is taking place, in Facegloria or Ummaland, I'd have to say the latter any day.

What do you think? Leave a comment, please.

Playing with some data in Tableau Public #newbee #digitalhumanities

This is my first attempt at exploring Tableau Public - click this link to see the full picture...

Just some basic graphics listing the sentiment analysis by chapter and then taking the two chapters at each extreme - the most negative sentiment in chapter 21, the most positive in chapter 17.

Personally I think there is more work to be done on Sentiment Analysis of biblical texts... Pete

Methodist Church and Communion Mediated through Social Media #methodistconf

Ironically tomorrow at either end of the day the Methodist Church will do two things:

1.    around 9.15am LIVESTREAM the Conference Communion Service - presumably so that Methodists across the country can feel some solidarity with those who are in Southport, can join with them in Worship.

2.    around 4.30pm Debate a report which says such social presence in not fully possible unless you are physically present with those celebrating communion.

 

I have already sent out a couple of posts on this subject.

Some initial thoughts and a video

Some further thoughts and a reading list

AND 

David Wynd has written an amazingly thoughtful piece: Draw near by faith

 

The Methodist Conference is debating Communion mediated by Social Media. It is recommended the following:

'The Faith and Order Committee recommends that the Conference adopt the policy that presbyters and other persons authorised to preside at the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper may not be permitted to use electronic means of communication, such as the internet or videoconferencing, in order to invite those not physically present at the celebration of the sacrament to participate by using their own communion bread and wine.'

This leaves little leeway. 

In my thinking the ONLY justification is concerning presidency which is a matter of Church Order. I think this argument stands as long as Methodist polity of presbyteral presidency stands. As such, I would need to reluctantly abide by this ruling if it was passed. But if I was in the Conference, I would have to ask for the report to be sent back to F&O for reconsideration because of the issues relating to the other arguments, which are used to support this.  I think they fall away pretty easily.

I don't think physical presence is the issue. I think that sufficient social presence is possible through social media to recognise the body of Christ in different locations at the same time. Solidarity does not mean you need to be physically present to each person you are in solidarity with. Most of all, I think the focus on physical presence could be used to argue that we cannot have solidarity with Christ or with the Church Triumphant. 

But you know this.

As such, I'm joining those who wish to offer some form of digital dissent:

Will you be tweeting the picture too? Add the hashtag #methodistconf or the twitter handle @methodistgb

Pete

#Methodistconf and Social Presence Online - some reading? #asrequested

So I was also asked to put together some suggested reading for people who want to look at social presence through online engagement.

I've put together a starting list - although sadly without reference to the books scattered all over my office in Durham. I'll need to upgrade it when I get to the office later in the week.

Of course, where do you start? The idea that Social Presence online is a debateable thing kind of doesn't make sense to me. Of course we can engage online and have meaningful community. Of course being physically present is richer. But being fully present can also be overwhelming and manipulative and completely disempowering as well. Social presence isn't limited to embodied presence.

God, Jesus, Paul all know this - the great theologians and mystics, every Christian who believes that Jesus dwells within their hearts. That latter isn't an embodied presence as if a little Jesus sits inside a hermetically sealed chamber within your upper right atrium (that's Pixar's Inside Out you're thinking of). If we can know Jesus' social presence both in mystical union and in the breaking of bread and wine, we should be guessing that human psychology does not need embodied presence to afford social meaningful presence to one who is absent in terms of physicality.

Isn't that kind of basic?

Download Social Presence Resources

Anyway, here is the list. I wonder what one book you would add to it to strengthen it. I am more than aware that I have focussed on secular digital literature rather than run around the houses with the theological literature.

Cheers

Pete 

Methodism debates Twitter Communion - Initial Reflections #methodistconf

Over the next week, the Methodist Church in Great Britain is holding its conference in Southport. One item on the agenda is Communion Mediated Through Social Media. The Report is Here. This story was picked up (with a quote or two from me) in Christianity Today recently - and David Wilkinson and I have done a brief video on the subject before the report was available for scrutiny:

 

The report broadly proposes rejecting such celebrations of the central liturgical act of the Church. The reasons are threefold – community, presidency and virtuality. But the key controversial section of the report for many is the query about whether you can have social presence online.  The committee who wrote the final report is saying it wants to explore this further.

As part of the preparation of the report, I was asked to submit some thoughts on the subject as a representative of CODEC.  So I have decided since I retain the copyright and intellectual property rights on the piece I wrote and because there is not much left of my comments in the final report, that I would make it more available.

So here it is…

Can we ‘do’ Communion Mediated by Social Media” – or as the original memorial asked:"he practice of celebrating Holy Communion with dispersed communities via live, interactive media such as the Internet or video-conferencing"

My point is not that Holy Communion mediated by social media cannot be a valid celebration, or a significant corporate act of worship, but simply that within Methodist doctrine on Holy Communion it cannot be done – presbyteral Presidency stops us performing multi-local communion.  It’s all about procedure and church order (the only reason we hold to presbyteral presidency) and not about theology at all.  The theology both of community across multiple locations and of social presence across multiple locations and multiple modes of embodiment (or not) has been well rehearsed over the years and certainly well within reach of contemporary conversations about a Mission-shaped Church.

We need to hold in mind that the Faith and Order Committee has severely limited the remit of the report by moving away from the original Memorial (a broad definition of translocational Holy Communion) to a narrower idea of social media mediated communion, indeed even to Communion on Twitter.

The original memorial  from the South East District asked the following question:

The South East District Synod requested the Conference to instruct the Faith and Order Committee to form a policy regarding the practice of celebrating Holy Communion with dispersed communities via live, interactive media such as the Internet or video-conferencing.

In this form of remote communion, a minister in one location would be permitted to preside over a celebration of Holy Communion with a gathered group of fellowshipping believers consisting of groups or individuals residing in disparate locations who provide their own elements to be blessed by the person presiding

The attached document represents some of my initial thoughts.

The key  question is the validity of social presence online.  The report has this rather crazy (IMHO) sentence (para 29):

However, social presence is only fully possible in a physical, embodied encounter in which people establish a relationship in numerous ways through verbal and non-verbal communication. 

Sociologically, pyschologically, anthropologically, theologically, digitally, relationally - that sentence cannot make sense. Letter-writing? Friendships? Long-distance relationships? Faith? Families connected by blood rather than by distance? This is just so wrong. 

This is the key problem with the report that if the section on social presence being limited to embodied presence is passed, then it would seem to be both counter-biblical and counter-theological.  Remember that Paul said he could be present in Spirit not body - proper, influential, social disembodied presence (Colossians 2:5, 1 Corinthians 5:3) and Jesus said he was with us always (Matthew 28:20).

Indeed, if we argue that there can be no experience of social presence without the direct physical presence of the being with whom we are in social engagement, then I wonder whether we blow apart the whole concept of religion in any case.  A reductio ad absurdum argument - but isn't that what the current report suggests?

Pete

Download Communion mediated through social media Initial Thoughts