Ten Years of Blogging

I have been blogging for ten years! The unsettling events of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 had so distracted me that that I almost let such an important anniversary slipped my mind! I started this blog on 21 January 2006. I posted my 1000th post on 20 July 2008, 2001st post on 1 Jan 2010, and 3000th post on 11 Feb 2015. One of the features I like about blog is that I can easily retrieve previous posts, unlike Facebook or twitters. Blogging is part of my digital Great Commission activities.

My very first post Why I begin blogging in 2006 states the reasons why I started the blog.

• With the numerous viewpoints available, I want to add a distinctive Christian one
• I support the open access of knowledge that the Internet offers
• Use Web 2.0 as a platform to sharing our learning experiences
• Be part of an online community

In time, my blogging activities expanded and so did my number of blogs. Aside from this blog, I also administer the following blogs, reflecting my diverse interests.

• Random Writing from a Doctor’s Chair
• Random Sermon from a Doctor’s Chair
• Random Spirituality from a Doctor’s Chair
• Random Photos from a Doctor’s Chair

My postings in the blogs have lessen in the last few years because of my increased involvement in Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Google Plus and Youtube. This does not mean that I think that the importance of blogs has decreased. In fact, I believe that blogging has settled into the distinctive niche it was meant to be. Where Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Google Plus deal with the daily, social online interactions, blogs offers a place for longer, more reflective and reasoned articles to be posted.

I will continue to blog 

•  Spiritual discipline. Blogging is a spiritual discipline as I try to write at least 1,000 words daily. Not all of what I have written will be posted. Some will be published elsewhere. I find writing helps me to think and understand myself. It also helps me to experience God and engage with his creation.

• Teaching. The Internet has grown tremendously in the last two decades. It has become the largest depository of knowledge mankind has ever created. It is also the largest collection of hubris. I will continue to present a Christian viewpoint from as far as I understand it. I do not pretend to know it all but I see the need for Christian counterpoint especially from an Asian perspective.

• Recommending. I will continue to recommend good books, blog postings and websites. I find open sharing is very useful as others may also come across articles or post I am not aware of.

• Interaction. I value interactions on my blogs and other social media. I value open minds and fellow seekers. However, I will not waste my time with biased, opinionated, rude bigots. We learn more in our interactions. 

• Community. My readers and friends are my online tribe and community. I value every one of them. Their comments and likes are much appreciated. I love the friendships we have formed online and in some cases in the physical world. It is always a pleasure to meet someone in the flesh whom we have met online. I am slowly going down the list and praying for each of my Facebook friends.

Dear friends, thank you for reading this far and being part of my life. God bless you all. 

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New and Old Websites

I started the Kairos Spiritual Formation website in 2006, starting from a scratch using Microsoft FrontPage and a couple of website building guide books. It was an exciting challenge for me to learn programming language and website design. That is almost 10 years ago.

I have been continuing updating the website on a weekly basis, adding all my writings, reflections and other stuff. In these years, website designs and language has changed tremendously. Microsoft Frontpage has been discontinued by Microsoft when better and more user friendly website builders became available. Many nowadays do not require the knowledge of any language.

I find my Kairos Spiritual Formation website very useful. Though it has an aged look to it, it still serves me well as a resource and hopefully to others out there. The original purpose of this website is to serve as a free resource on spiritual formation, spiritual direction, engaging culture, spiritual nurture and other areas I am interested and is researching in.

I have considered updating it but the website has ballooned to about 9,800 files! I once consulted a website designer to upgrade the website but the poor guy turned pale and ran out of the room. I guess it will not be easy to upgrade such a large website. Since it is difficult to upgrade, I have decided to maintain it as long as possible. Microsoft has since stopped servicing and updating its Frontpage.

I am still keen to have a fresh look. I cannot do anything more to my present Kairos Spiritual Formation landing page (front page). I have twitched the software so much that I fear it will just die on me. So I decided to start another website which will link to my Kairos Spiritual Formation website. This new website will have all the frills and bells of  new website designs. It also gives me the opportunity to update my skills on website designs. So here it is, Alex Tang, Seeing God in all things www.alextang.org

I know the title is a bit Kuyperian and Ignatian. Will I be transferring all my files to this new website? I am not too sure I want to do that for two reasons. One is that it will involve a lot of work and time to manually transfer the files. I know there are programs to do that but so far these program do a reasonable transfer but often mess up the files. The second reason is that I am afraid that by the time I have finished updating the new website, a new generation of website will have arrived with more bells and frills. I know how that feels. I still have old cartridge tapes, LD, VCD, DVD, HDVDV and now Bluray of the same movies!

Do come and visit my new website at www.alextang.org while my old website www.kairos2.com is still open for business. Shalom and welcome.

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Living my Fantasy in the Star Trek Universe

By day I am a paediatrician and a theologian. I captain a spaceship by night. The name of my  spaceship is USS Alexander. It is a Constitution class cruiser. I have since upgraded to USS Alexander H, and it is a Galaxy Dreadnought. I have a beautiful female human first officer called Number One, a Vulcan science officer and an Andorian engineering officer. Every night I undertake missions given to me by Star Fleet Command. Have I gone crazy as John Nash in the movie A Beautiful Mind (2001) or Sam Lowry in Brazil (1985)? Hardly. I am enjoying the simulated Star Trek Online (STO) game. For years I have waited for the Internet in my home to improve both in speed and bandwidth. Finally this year, it has allowed me to join thousands of Trekkies or Trekkers in this total immersion experience. Star Trek Online draws on almost all background materials from the television series; Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise, and the movies up to Star Trek: Nemesis. It does not include J. J. Abrams’ two recent reboot movies. In other words it remain in the original timeline where Vulcan was not destroyed. It continues about 30 years after the events of the movie Nemesis in the 25^th Century. Star Trek Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Cryptic Studios which went live in February 2010.

The game is a gradually virtual expanding universe as every few months a ‘season’ was added to it. Each season is made up of a series of missions. The missions are developed by the game designers (who I suspect are all Trekkies) as if each mission is an episode of a Star Trek television series. The screen writing is so good that at times I have a sense of déjà vu. I feel I am actually living through an episode of Star Trek! It is that good. So far nine seasons had been released. These seasons are in order (1) Common ground; (2) Ancient enemies; (3) Genesis; (4) Crossfire; (5) Call to Arms; (6) Under siege; (7) New Romulus; (8) The sphere; and (9) A New Accord. All these are accessible for me to play free. Legacy of Romulus is the only season so far that one has to pay to play. It is sited between seasons seven and eight. Each season is located in one area of space so that I get to enjoy each television series accordingly. One season involves the Cardassians and the Dominion and I get to hang around Deep Space Nine. I can actually walk around the promenade and hang out in Quark’s Bar. One involves the Klingon while the Borg invasion is featured in another. The player acquire skills and is promoted. With promotion comes a new starship. The maximum rank in Federation is Vice-Admiral. I can play as one of the three sects: Federation, Klingon, and Romulan.

Fandom of Star Trek is huge. Fans come in various shape, sizes, ages and colours, yet they are united in their love of a concept of the adventures of a future spaceship or ‘wagon train to the stars’ created by Gene Rodenberry and subsequent writers and directors. Star Trek is a rich imaginary universe that has a consistency and continuity. With the premature cancellation of the television series Enterprise in 2005, there has not been any new television series. The timeline continues on in the Star Trek novels by Pocket books and the IDW comics. The two movies by J. J. Abrams Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek into Darkness (2013) is basically a reboot of the franchise which develops in a separate timeline. Fans themselves have not been idle. The fans created stories, novels, videos and mechanizing is enormous. Among the fans themselves, there are efforts to reach out to one another. This is especially capitalized by Star Trek convocations which are huge events and yearly highlights around the world. When a trekkie meet another trekkie, there is a special bond that comes from a shared ‘heritage’. That is something that is difficult to find in this postmodern world where the bonds of friendship, family and community are being dissolved in a daily basis.

There are good guys and villains in this universe. However they act in predictable fashion according to Star Trek rules. There are gun (phaser) battles on land (away team) and space battles. Yet there is no gore nor glorification of violence. One feels that one need to fight either for the sect one belongs to (Federation, Klingon, or Romulan), loyalty to friends, and honor. There is no senseless violence as in the world outside the virtual universe. In this sense in this construct of electrons there is still honor, decency and hope.

Hope was something that Star Trek offers in the decades of the 1960s. That period was a period of upheaval with the Vietnam War, the hippies, and drug abuse. Star Trek shows that people from different races can get along with each other; and achieve something together as a team. Each episode was a commentary on the sociopolitical situation but each episode ends with hope. Star Trek reminds us that we are better than we are. By pointing to the stars and boldly going where no man (and woman) has gone before, we can build a future for our children and our children’s children. The message that Star Trek brings is still relevant today. Maybe that is why I enjoy Star Trek Online so much. It reminds me of the ideals of Star Trek. It reassure me that there is always hope. And hope is what I need the most now.

Soli Deo Gloria

6 June 2014

SFI seminar on Citizens in Digital Spaces

SFI Seminar 2012/3

Citizenship in Digital Spaces: Challenges and Choices

Date      :                      2.00pm- 9.30pm, Saturday 22 Sept 2012

        

Place     :                      Berea, Holy Light Church, 11-C, Jalan Gertak Merah, Johor Bahru

Programme:                  2.30-4.00pm    

Session One: Understanding The Digital Communications Revolution (Dr Calvin  

Chong)

4.30-6.30pm

Session Two: Trapped in Cyberspace: Internet Addiction (Mr Ray Chua)

6.30-9.30pm

Session Three: Platforms and Resources to Engage the Digital Generation (Dr Calvin Chong)

Speakers:

 

Dr Calvin Chong is Associate Professor, Educational Studies at Singapore Bible College.  His areas of teaching and research interests include hermeneutics, orality and storytelling, design learning, and digital technologies in education.  He also serves on the Central Council of the Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore, the Theological Advisory Board of the Graduate Christian Fellowship, and is a Global Advisory Partner with RBC Ministries. 

Ray Chua is a psychologist at National University Health Systems. He is currently working to bring the Cyber Health & Internet Programme to secondary schools in Singapore. He was formerly Assistant Manager (Counselling/R&D) at TOUCH Cyber Wellness (TCW). He led the development of cyberwellness education materials used in schools and led the counselling team to help youths overcome cyber-related problems. He was also involved in the cyberwellness training of students, teachers, counsellors and parents at 22 schools, organizations and churches. He has a honors degree in psychology and his research focused on cognitive-behavioral factors influencing excessive gaming. He is married with two daughters in primary school. He is currently serving as Honorary Treasurer on the church council of Geylang Evangelical Free Church where he had worshipped for the past 21 years.

 All are welcome

 

(Seminar cost RM20.00 includes refreshment,dinner and seminar notes).

Spiritual Formation Institute Seminar 2012/3     

Citizenship in Digital Spaces

Name: …………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………….. Church…………………………………………

Tel    : …………………………………………………………………………………. Email:………………………………………………………………………………………..

Please register with Sister Grace Soon of HLCE (Tel:07-2243285)

Visit our website Spiritual Formation Institute

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Is Dr Google My Competitor?

Increasingly, I find that many of my patients' parents have googled their children's problems before bringing them to see me in my clinic. Gradually, I have been eased from being the first and primary source of healthcare information by Dr Google. Should I be concerned? Yes and no.

Yes, because there is such a pleothora of information out in cyperspace that it is difficult to distinguish the facts from the trash. Anyone and everyone can set up a blog or website and give their two cents' worth. Whether their two cents is worth anything, given the inflation nowadays, is questionable. In the websites of reputable centers such as the CDC (Centre for Disease Control), universities and peer-reviewed journals are a lot of useful information but the general public is generally not equipped to interpret this information and apply it to their own conditions. Support groups and information produced by companies are sometimes useful but often dubious and laced with hidden agendas.

No, because I have taken on Dr Google as my partner in my clinical practice. While I am no longer the first source of information, I remain the trusted source to help the parents sieve through the information and recommend the helpful path. Quoting Aurora et al, an informative opinion article from the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics, Virtual Mentor. May 2012, Volume 14, Number 5: 363-436, The Patient, the Physician and Dr Google

From a thorough review of the patient communication literature, Arora et al. recommended that in addition to exchanging information a responsive health care system should also find ways to: (a) enable patients to manage their own care; (b) foster healing relationships with the care team; (c) support patients in making sound decisions, taking evidence-based medical knowledge and personal values into account; (d) manage the uncertainty associated with medical diagnoses and probabilistic treatment recommendations; and (e) help patients deal with and respond to their own emotions 

I also agree with the author, Dr Hesse that

Unlike other sectors, the health care sector must rely on a shared understanding of complex processes to be optimally effective. According to the Institute of Medicine, that shared understanding can and should be extended to patients . Online supports for patient engagement may eventually become an integral part of the process. In fact, new data from the Livestrong Foundation suggest that patients do better at self-management once they begin to feel comfortable with their ability to search for and find medically relevant information from a variety of sources.

I am not taking a backseat to Dr Google but partnering with him in my patient care. Dr Braddock shares his opinion about this medical trinity in Through the Physician's Eyes: The Patients (Internet)-Physician Relationship. He notes,

Similarly, by demonstrating a respectful rather than scoffing attitude toward the patient's sources, one can convert a potentially adversarial discussion into a more collegial one. When patients share their sources of information, they are also demonstrating trust in us and giving us insight into their thinking. What do they really think of our diagnoses and treatment recommendations? These are questions for which we need answers; they hold the key to fostering patient adherence to treatment regimens. We can make the patient feel comfortable by acknowledging that they are not taking their medications, or that they are taking alternative treatments outside of our prescribed plan. These situations also offer an opportunity to give patients advice about finding reputable sources of medical information. We can ask them about their sources, and along the way suggest sources we know to be providers of good quality information. 

 As we doctors have embraced other technologies in our patient care, we must recognise that the Internet is another tool in our arsenal. Like other technologies, it must be used responsibly.

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Internet Addiction

Internet Addiction and Disorder on Prezi

How much is too much Internet use? When you feel more comfortable with your online friends than your real ones, or you can’t stop yourself from playing games, gambling, or compulsively surfing, than you may be using the Internet too much. Or even worse, are an Internet addict.

read more

Wiki for Scientists

One of the commonest complaints of scientists and people involved in research is the amount of time spent on writing papers, submitting them to journals, waiting for the peer-reviewed paper to come back and to rewriting according to specifications before these papers are published. The various journals realize this time delay and have taken the step of publishing papers online before the hard-copy comes out. Many scientists think that more should or could be done. Scientist Fabio Casati suggests that scientists should just post their papers in their websites like a wiki. Information Society Technologies (ICT) reports,

Don’t print it; post it

Following the lead of physicists and mathematicians who for years have been posting early versions of their papers on a website called arXiv.com for quick dissemination and peer critiques, Casati and his colleagues propose that all scientists jump start the dissemination of their findings by posting them online.

“The idea is that when people write papers, they put them on their webpage quickly, easily and for zero cost,” Casati says.

At the same time, Casati suggests, every scientist and research group can create its own “liquid journal” which groups publications that are interesting and relevant to a given topic.

read more.

Online The Scientist journal adds to the discussion. One of the worries is whether the papers will be up to standard. Wikipedia who have millions of articles boost an accuracy rate compatible to the Britannica. Will it work with scientific papers? Can scientists police themselves and an 'invisible college' acts to maintain standards?

Image: Wikimedia commons, Gflores

Now, information engineer Fabio Casati of the University of Trento in Italy and his collaborators are suggesting science publishing try something entirely new, taking full advantage of the rapidly evolving Web 2.0 technology.

They suggest making research -- including formal manuscripts, datasets, presentation slides, and other presentations -- available through the web without any sort of traditional peer-review process. That research would then be searchable and citable by the rest of the scientific community at no cost.

"In this way -- by looking at what people do in terms of reading, sharing, or connecting scientific knowledge -- we can have a way of finding out which scientific resources are considered good and interesting by the scientific community," Casati said.

Specifically, he and his team envision a new age of scientific journals, created by the users themselves -- the scientists. "I [could] have my own journal, which I maintain on peer review, for example," he explains. "[When I find an interesting paper], I drag and drop the pdf file [in] the journal" using the platform provided by LiquidPublication, which recognizes the file, obtains the url, and retrieves the metadata, etc. "I do this because I want to keep track of it for myself [and alert] all my team, [but] by doing this, we also share [our thoughts on the research] with the world."

Read more

Book Review on Qualman's Socialnomics

Erik Qualman (2009), Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Erik Qualman is Global Vice President of Online Marketing for EF Education with extensive experience in e-marketing, e-business, search engines, and maximising the impact of the social media. Social media includes social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, twittering, blogs and the internet. Qualman wakens the world to a new reality. As he writes, "the world as it was, no longer is"(p.14). This cryptic remark is the key construct of his book as he tries to show how social media has changed the way people connects, communicates, interacts, and changes their perception of reality.

Qualman confirms what most of us are aware-that social media is changing the very fabric of our society. His chapter on how Obama became president is illuminative. The data mining of people's use of search engine may predict future social trends is interesting. The little known fact that Pepsi, by using Yahoo's search engine data, was able to predict Britney Spears' popularity a few months in advance and are able to sign her up for their commercial is telling. Unfortunately this did not able to save her from the dangers of becoming a celebrity.

Social media especially micro-blogging such as twitter and texting, argues Qualman, actually makes people better because whatever they have sent into the internet will remains as a permanent record. While the records are permanent, it is debatable whether most people actually care about that-except maybe politicians and CEOs. People will continue to spin a more than perfect image of themselves online.

It is hard to prove that the economic influence of the social media is as powerful as Qualman suggests. People who are active in social media, called soialmedioraties, still remains a small segment of the demography which may not be identical to the demography that has the purchasing power. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile studying the trend especially since Facebook membership has reached half a million people. Still only a small fraction of this many people are active. Most will have an account with which they access for an occasional update.

In a people-driven economy, social media has potential for an increasing role. However as most of the people of less developed countries do not have internet access to this social media, one does wonders how this will translate to the rest of the world.

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Buddhism in a Global Age of Technology

A distinguished scholar of Buddhism, Lewis Lancaster founded the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative to use the latest computer technology to map the spread of various strands of Buddhism from the distant past to the present. Series: "Burke Lectureship on Religion & Society"

Wales and the Founding of Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales: Founder of Wikipedia

With a vision for a free online encyclopedia, Wales assembled legions of volunteer contributors, gave them tools for collaborating, and created the self-organizing, self-correcting, ever-expanding, multilingual encyclopedia of the future.

Jimmy Wales went from betting on interest rates and foreign-currency fluctuations (as an option trader) to betting on the willingness of people to share their knowledge. That's how Wikipedia, imagined in 2001, became one of the most-referenced, most-used repositories of knowledge on the planet, with more than one million articles in English (compared with the Britannica's 80,000) and hundreds of thousands in dozens of other languages, all freely available.

The "wiki" in the name refers to software that allows anyone with Internet access to add, delete or edit entries. This has led to controversies about the reliability of the information, prompting the Wikimedia Foundation to set tighter rules for editors, while still keeping Wikipedia open-source. One thing is certain: Wikipedia will never be finished. In the meantime Wales has started working on Wikiasari, a wiki-style search engine.

"Wikipedia represents a belief in the supremacy of reason and the goodness of others. ... From the respectful clash of opposing viewpoints and the combined wisdom of the many, something resembling the truth will emerge. Most of the time."

WIRED

Tapsctott on Grown Up Digital

In the Global Conversation on Technology which in was mention in my post Digital Great Commission, Al Erishem mentions the book Growing up Digital. Here is my review of the book.

Tapscott: Grown Up Digital

Don Tapscott (2009) Grown Up Digital : How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, (New York, NY: McGraw Hill)

This is a much anticipated book and I have been looking forward to reading it. Don Tapscott is Chairman of nGenera Innovation Network which is a research company and adjunct professor of management at the Joseph L. Rahman School of Management, University of Toronto. Tapscott is well respected for insightful comments in his books which include Wikinomics, Paradigm Shift, The Digital Economy and Growing Up Digital.

Grown Up Digital is a followup on Tapscott’s earlier 1997 work, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation in which he clarified how different the present generation is from the previous ones because of the improvement in communication technology especially the Internet. Now a decade later, there are enough data to confirm his hypothesis.

This present book is based on the findings of a $4 million research project, “The Net Generation: A Strategic Investigation.” More than 10,000 people were interviewed in 2007 and at least 40 reports have been generated. From his findings a clearer picture of this Net generation is emerging.

Where there are many areas of interest touched upon in this book, almost all are based on the eight “norms’ characteristics of the Net generation. These may be summarised as:

1. They want freedom in everything they do, from freedom of choice to freedom of expression
2. They love to customize, personalize
3. They are the new scrutinizers
4. They look for corporate integrity and openness when deciding what to buy and where to work
5. They wants entertainment and play in their work, education, and social life
6. They are collaboration and relationship generation
7. The Net Gen has a need for speed
8. They are the innovators

Using these descriptive behavioural norms, Tapscott seeks to explain their effect on culture, work attitudes, markets, family, learning and education. The section on the need to adapt learning and education to these norms are especially helpful.

While Tappscott paints an overall positive picture of the Net Gen, it must be pointed out that he is dealing with a particular narrow segment of the North American privileged group of young people (and he seems to model heavily on his own children). It will be interesting to know about the characteristics of the Asian Net Gen or South American Net Gen. One also needs to take into account the digital divide in the Net Gen itself.

Together with the launch of the book, Tappscott has created a website, Grown Up Digital in which a new initiative Net Gen Educator Challenge was also launched. To visit the site, click here.

This is a good book to read about the younger generation and indispensible for educators. Highly recommended.

Endnote:

Four Generations: From 1946 to Present

1. The Baby Boom generation: January 1946 to December 1964 – 19 years

2. Generation X January 1965 to December 1976 – 12 years

3. The Net Generation: January 1977 to December 1997 – 21 years

4. Generation Next: January 1998 to present

The Digital Great Commission

In my article The Influence of Globalisation on Christian Spiritual Formation in Churches In Malaysia and Singapore I highlight the use of technology may be missional.

Globalisation is not necessary bad. Using the improved communication and extensive networking provided by new technologies, it is easier to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world than before. The Internet has made it possible to reach even the remotest part of any country as long as there is Internet access. It has also allowed even the remotest part of the world with Internet access to be readily accessible. A Christian website may be accessed by anyone, even those in areas not accessible to missionaries. Social networking allows people to connect over long distances which otherwise will not know of one other’s existence. Streaming videos and MP3 allow download of materials anywhere in the world. The global culture has a made inroads into many other cultures. It is a two-way street. Local cultures may influence global culture. There is much potential in the wise use of art, music, video and writings to spread the Gospel. Anyone can upload something onto the Internet and have it viewed by thousands within the hour! YouTube may be used as a media for evangelisation. Virtual Christian faith communities may be set up online. The degree of Christian spiritual formation that may be done through the Internet has not been fully explored.

Christianity Today runs a Global Conversation on technology and mission.

THE GLOBAL CONVERSATION The Face-to-Face Gospel and the Death of Distance Al Erisman says we need to think about ministry in the digital culture the way missionaries think about the culture of the people they serve. Interview by Tim Stafford RESPONSES: Nigel M. de S. Cameron: Sci-Fi Reality Wha-Chul Son: Technological Divide Juan D. Rogers: Not Just Tools Haron Wachira: Blessings & Curses of Technology Video: Emotional Robots .

Help, Someone Hacked My Website!

Someone hacked into my website Kairos Spiritual Formation a few days ago and Google and Firefox showed this dreaded message everytime someone try to access my URL.


This is the first time I heard of an "attack page." An attack page, I found out is, when someone hacked into your website and install some malicious software that either changes your website or redirect your readers to other websites. I immediately emailed my website host server which immediately replied that it has nothing to do with them.

I next tried to find out the extend of the attack by using Google Webmaster Tools Diagnostic. It was very helpful in identifying all the codes that the hacker/hackers has inserted into my website. Then followed many tedious hours of deleting the said code from my website. Thank God that I was able to remove all these code because Google and Firefox restored access to my website.

I felt sad and disappointed that people will do something like that. It is like someone breaking into your house and desecrating it. Kyrie eleison.

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More Web Language Learning Needed

Four years ago, I set out to set up a website Kairos Spiritual Formation. I bought myself a couple of books on HTML writing, websites and a copy of Microsoft Frontpage 2003.

And I did set up a website, was able to write in HTML and I thought my learning is done.

Then I discovered that Frontpage is now obsolete and has been replaced by Expression Web. And that HTML is on the way to becoming obsolete too and now I have to learn to write in XHTML, CSS, PHP and ASP.NET.


Arrgh!!!

So I bought this book and started learning again.

Church Growth by Google

Churches are discovering that advertising on Google can be effective and inexpensive.

Tyler Charles | posted 2/06/2009

Attendance at Radiant Church in Colorado Springs had been declining for years when Todd Hudnall accepted the position as senior pastor. Recognizing the computer-savvy nature of their community, Hudnall and his team focused their efforts on improving the church website and using the Internet for advertising.

"Our position on Google searches was poor," Hudnall says, "so we decided to use Google Adwords. It has essentially replaced our large Yellow Pages ad; it's less expensive and seems to be more effective."

After two years of using Google Adwords, the number of first-time guests who learned about Radiant through the Internet has gone up 25 percent.

read more

Facebook as a Saboteur

Facebook: Entertaining Saboteur

I don’t believe Facebook is intrinsically evil.

This is not a promising way to begin a column, but it must be said upfront so that readers don’t think I’m a Luddite. I am actually on Facebook and have a great many “friends.” And I actually visit my homepage a couple of times a week. Like many people, I’ve especially enjoyed connecting with friends I haven’t seen in decades.

Connecting is what Facebook promises. Not community as such, or even friendship. Everyone knows that a Facebook friend is not a friend in any meaningful sense, but only another Facebook member with whom one is “connected,” meaning you have access to each other’s information as compiled on your respective pages, and can, among other things, instantly get short “status updates” about what the other is thinking or doing.

Facebook is part of the larger electronic phenomenon deemed social networking, which includes text messaging, Twitter, e-mail, blogging, and so forth — all of which are said to herald a new day in human interaction. But let’s stick to Facebook as the prime example and admit that, in the end, Facebook actually sabotages our ability to genuinely connect with others. But it is an entertaining saboteur.

read more

Hey Dude, What Happening to My Blog Post?

Picked up this interesting post from Bill Reichart of The Provocative Church blog.

Wired magazine: issue 16.02

The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You
By Frank Rose 01.22.07 3:00 PM

You have a blog. You compose a new post. You click Publish and lean back to admire your work. Imperceptibly and all but instantaneously, your post slips into a vast and recursive network of software agents, where it is crawled, indexed, mined, scraped, republished, and propagated throughout the Web. Within minutes, if you've written about a timely and noteworthy topic, a small army of bots will get the word out to anyone remotely interested, from fellow bloggers to corporate marketers. Let's say it's Super Bowl Sunday and you're blogging about beer. You see Budweiser's blockbuster commercial and have a reaction you'd like to share. Thanks to search engines and aggregators that compile lists of interesting posts, you can reach a lot of people — and Budweiser, its competitors, beer lovers, ad critics, and your ex-boyfriend can listen in. "You just need to know how to type," says Matthew Hurst, an artificial intelligence researcher who studies this ecosystem at Microsoft Live Labs. Here's how the whole process goes down during the big game.

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eLearning Reloaded

e-Learning Reloaded: Top 50 Web 2.0 Tools for Info Junkies, Researchers & Students
Published on Monday 18th of February, 2008
By Jessica Hupp

There's a reason why the Web is called the information superhighway-it's full of seemingly limitless resources for learning and research. And with the advent of Web 2.0, harnessing this information has never been easier. These are some of the best tools for organizing, citing, searching, and more online.

Organization
With all of the information available online, it's hard to keep track, but these tools will help you stay together.
1. RSS: For ongoing publications, you can subscribe to syndicated feeds and get updates every time there's new information.
2. Backpack: Backpack does what it sounds like it does-it keeps all of your stuff like notes, lists, ideas, calendar, and more all in one handy place.
3. Remember the Milk: Create a checklist for your project, stay on top of assignments, and more with this handy to-do app.
4. Google Docs and Spreadsheets: Keep all of your documents online, and even collaborate with peers using this tool from Google.
5. Google Notebook: Add clips, organize your notes, and even access your notes from your mobile phone with Google Notebook.
6. openonmy: Store files up to 1GB so that you can research and save information from anywhere with an Internet connection.
7. ThinkFold: Create outlines that can be shared and collaborated in realtime using ThinkFold.
8. Bubbl.us: Use this mind mapping tool to get your thoughts in order.
9. Flowchart: Create charts to organize your thoughts or notes with this neat tool.
10. Connotea: Designed for researchers, clinicians and scientists, this reference management tool is great for organizing and sharing references.
11. Google Calendar: Stay on top of assignment deadlines and more with this calendar. You can even add publicly-available calendars, like school schedules and more.
12. Zotero: Use this handy extension to collect, manage, and cite your research sources right from your browser.
13. Netvibes: Use Netvibes as your go-to page for collecting RSS feeds, and for jumping off points for research.
14. Notecentric: Using Notecentric, you can not only organize your notes online, but also share them with your classmates.

Bookmarks & Citation
Stay on top of references and generate bibliographies using these neat tools.
15. Yahoo! Bookmarks: Yahoo's bookmark tool makes it easy to organize with folders, utilize the drag and drop functionality, and more.
16. Diigo: Diigo makes it easy to highlight, clip, and sticky-note right on a web page.
17. Notefish: Put all of your web research in one simple page with Notefish.
18. Qipit: Take a photo of notes and documents, and this service will turn it into a readable, taggable document.
19. BibMe: Enter books, websites, journals, and other sources into this tool, and it will automatically create a bibliography for you. They'll even let you choose between different formats.
20. Clipmarks: Clip out important pieces of the web using this neat app.
21. Del.icio.us: Use del.icio.us to organize your bookmarks online, and access them easily with tags.
22. Google Bookmarks: With Google Bookmarks, you can keep track of sites and add your own searchable notes to them.
23. Wizlite: Highlight the Internet like it's paper, then share it with your classmates or colleagues.
24. MyStickies: This awesome sticky note app allows you to put post-its on your desktop, or perhaps most importantly for researchers, on specific web pages.

Communication
Get connected with experts, classmates, and colleagues using these tools.
25. ConceptShare: If you're working on a group project, this tool is great for collaboration. Because it's web based, this tool is particularly ideal for long-distance group members.
26. LinkedIn: This professional networking tool is great for research. You can find experts in specific industries and even ask questions for the community to answer.
27. SpeakLike: Forget about language barriers, and use this chat application that will translate between two languages simultaneously.
28. Campusbug: This cool community has loads of useful tools, like flashcards, a bibliography generator, rapid learning, and a question bank.
29. NoteMesh: Using NoteMesh, you can share your notes with classmates whether they're right next to you in class or on the other side of the world.

Money and Numbers
Whether you're figuring out student loans or deciding how much to charge for your research, these tools can help out.
30. Instacalc: This calculator will do just about anything you want it to, and you can save links for later reference.
31. Prosper: Find the money you need to pay for school on this peer-to-peer loan site.
32. Calcoolate: With this cool calculator, you can do calculations, save your calculating history, and even replace your Windows calculator with the app.
33. Wesabe: This dashboard has it all, with advice, accounting tools, and more.

Search Tools
Use these tools to find the information you're looking for.
34. trueknowledge: Get answers to your questions from this search engine built on knowledge.
35. CiteULike: Find academic papers on this site using their easy search and tags.
36. ChaCha: Use this human-powered search engine to find what you need. You can even use a live guided search with a real person who will ask you questions to find exactly what you want.
37. PennTags: Search through this user-created catalog to find articles and other references.
38. Footnote: Use this tool, and you'll get access to millions of original documents from archives to shoeboxes.
39. SiteTradr: Find sites that are ranked socially by the education community on SiteTradr.
40. Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a great repository of information, both as an end point or a place to get started.

Learning
Learn how to do just about anything with these collaborative sites.
41. Instructables: Find out how to do just about anything, with pictures, on this instruction site.
42. BookRags: Find guides, lesson plans and more on BookRags.
43. College-Cram: College-Cram offers "social learning," with resources, study groups, and more.
44. eHow: In this community, you'll learn how to do everything from sneaking your child into a gifted program to creating a scavenger hunt.
45. Edublogs: See what instructors are saying and check out blogged classes on Edublogs.
46. TutorLinker: Get one-on-one guidance with a tutor from this site.
47. AnswerU: Ask a question, or look up old ones on this student-governed Q&A site.
48. MIT OpenCourseWare: Some colleges offer free courses, but MIT is the Queen Mother of them all with 1,800 courses to choose from.
49. SuTree: Get community knowledge with video lessons from all over the web.
50. wikiHow: In this collaborative writing project, you can get and share knowledge on more than 30,000 articles.

HT: Jessica for this excellent collection of links.

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