Here's the text of a Guest Post on Church Mouse's site this afternoon...and lots of news about what CODEC are up to...hint BOOK OCTOBER 16th, 2010 in your diary now!!!
Mouse’s
comments on the Churches Media Network 2010 Conference #cmn10 included an endorsement of CODEC’s Digital Symposium in 2009
and a call for CODEC to be involved in next year’s Network Conference
#cmn11. I was grateful to Mouse
for the endorsement of CODEC’s work.
Mouse’s basic critique of #cmn10 was that
it didn’t match the advertising – it offered new media (at least suggesting
some discussion of the implications of ‘cloud’ computing and its impacts –
which are not just crowd sourcing a verse of a song!) but tended to deliver some
excellent reflection on old media.
The comments suggest however that there was a good smattering of new
media present throughout the conference with a twitterfall being set up during
the event and a number of twitterers encouraging more and more use of new media
– although a thunderstorm in the middle cut out all internet connection across
the venue for a period. There was
a mix of old and new, it seems but there was a lot about ‘old’ media perhaps
because of the make up and history of the conference. It was clear that people really
appreciated the BBC discussions and the opportunity to listen to
‘screenwriting’ royalty and I’m looking forward to seeing some of the intern
presentations and listening to the audiocasts now available from the CMN temporary
website.
But I wasn’t there and nor was Mouse. I have to say that I was able to pick up a new media vibe
from the Conference through receiving lots of tweets about what was happening
(several saying that CODEC seemed to get a good few mentions during the
Conference). If you’re interested,
Bex Lewis kept a record of the tweets made
with the #cmn10 hashtag here: http://export.twapperkeeper.com/cmn10-4c1365ca31c75.tar. Don’t you just love the name
‘twapperkeeper’?
Although CODEC wasn’t officially there,
Andrew Graystone, CMN Chair, is a good friend of CODEC and is on our Steering
Group. Andrew is working with us
next week on our Media training event for clergy and Christian professionals (Medialit). And the indefatiguable Bex Lewis (a
polymath, no less) was there and fielding some questions about CODEC and the
work we are doing – more on Bex below.
Having said all that, certainly, we’d be
more than happy to talk with CMN about #cmn11 and increase our involvement in
this important conference. It is
important to push into new areas of thinking (and yes, I think there is a
difference between traditional media and new media) – cloud networking, the
implications of new technology and the age of distraction, the instantaneous
nature of contemporary news media, and the democratization of reporting are key
factors of how the media engages with the contemporary world. I heard of the West Cumbria shootings
on Twitter long before the BBC had picked it up.
And talking of the news, Mouse says I can
plug some of what CODEC are doing at the moment – so briefly…
Bex
Lewis and the Big Read
While I’m posting, Bex Lewis is starting
work with us from July 1st for 2.5 days a week based at Premier Christian Media in Pimlico,
London. Bex is going to working
with a number of agencies (Premier, SPCK, Biblefresh,
Methodist Church, and others) to develop a national version of The Big Read – an initiative
launched by Bishop Tom Wright in the NE of England last year. Watch this space for lots more in
preparation for Lent 2011.
A
Theological Refraction on the Internet, 16 October 2010, at #cnm10
Put Saturday 16th October 2010
into your diaries and book your train journies to London NOW (or as soon as you
can!). Last year, Mouse won an
award at the Christian New Media
Awards. These are being held
this year on Friday 15th October (and, according to her twitter
stream, one of the judges is blogger
Maggi Dawn).
On the Saturday, Premier and CODEC are
joining forces to put on the first Christian
New Media Conference at the CASS
Business School. This will be
a conference with three streams – one for church leaders, one for technicians,
and one for theologians. CODEC are running this third stream which is likely to
be called “A Theological Refraction on
the Internet” – a gathering of academic, professional and amateur
theologians (I think I might be all
three!) to look at some of the theological implications of new technology
and the internet and glimpse into the future of what is coming and what the
internet may yet offer.
We’re planning for the whole event (#cnm10)
to be twitter friendly (twitterfalls, interaction, questions), streamed live
and also available by podcast and videocast after the event. We’re currently putting together the
website and booking arrangements for the event and should launch all the
details at the beginning of July – look out for more details.
Prayer/Funding
Finally, a prayer request! We’ve put in a bid (for £30,000 over 3
years) to one of the major churches to help us set up a major Biblical Literacy
Project in rural North Yorkshire.
The bid is going through the processes at the moment and it will be so
encouraging to get some good news.
If you’re a funder and you want to partner CODEC or you need to talk
about commissioning some research from CODEC – my email is below.
Thanks and if you’d like to receive emails
about CODEC’s work, send your email to me [email protected] or visit
the CODEC website: www.durham.ac.uk/codec
Pete
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