Tag Archive - wikinomics

Formulating an Online Strategy for College Ministry: Part 8–Ministry Collaboration Using Wikis

August 9, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

What is a wiki? Well, if you don’t know, let’s look at what the most famous wiki, Wikipedia, has to say.

A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.[1][2] Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is one of the best-known wikis.[2] Wikis are used in business to provide intranets and Knowledge Management systems. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work”.[3]

“Wiki” (/wiːkiː/) is originally a Hawaiian word for “fast”. It has been suggested that “wiki” means “What I Know Is”.[citation needed] However, this is a backronym. “Wiki Wiki” is a reduplication of the same word.

Seem simple enough? If not, here is one more great visual explanation:

It’s part of the Plain English Series:

Wikis in Plain English

If they are not already, wikis are the wave of the future in many settings because of their collaborative ability. While most organiziations (i.e. businesses, churches, etc.) are still only using email, many others have embraced the power of the wiki and are really harnessing it’s power in creative ways.

As I’m still fairly new to wikis (I have 2 that I have created, 1 that I’m a part of, and I joined Wikipedia as a user–though still too nervous to create content yet, or correct).

But let me give you just one example of where I didn’t use it, and how I wish I did and why.

Continue Reading…

Responses to a Commenter

May 23, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

Ryan at Tilling the Soil asked me a couple of good questions related to my post below, so I want to give them proper attention in a post, and not just leave a comment for him.

I had the chance to talk with Ryan by phone last week and I enjoyed our conversation, and I’m looking forward to connecting with him when we move to Dallas this summer.


1. Ryan Says:
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 am e

Rhett,
Hey man, I’m really enjoying this series.
I have two concerns:
1) With all of the networking that is going on, is it realistic to ask people to go to another site (your church’s site), even if you are farming out all of the content to facebook, flickr, etc.? In my world if I can’t RSS it, then I probably won’t see it.
2) How do you deal with students who want this before the church authorizes it, and so they create their own facebook groups, mychurch.org pages, etc? (i.e. how do you maintain control in such an environment?)

-ryan

Response to Question 1

Ryan, I don’t think it really is realistic. In fact, I know for certain based on traffic, that our college webpage’s traffic decreased dramatically after our Facebook group was launched, and it has pretty much decreased to no traffic. I think most church’s will have this problem and may not realize it. They design sites that have forums, videos, photos, links, etc., but people aren’t going to leave their networks to do those activities on a church’s website. One, people already have enough committment to a site like Facebook, and to ask them to commit to your church’s website in the same way is unrealistic. Second, church website’s just can’t compete with the social tools out there.

Continue Reading…

Romans 8 Movement: Harnessing the Self-Organizing Creative Power of Church Community

May 21, 2008 in Uncategorized with 7 Comments

Back on Wednesday, April 23 I wrote a post called This Isn’t Your Parent’s Prayer Chain. The post was about a young woman in our church, Katherine Wolf, who was one of the volunteer leaders in the Young Marrieds ministry, and who went through an unbelievable 13 hour emergency brain surgery at UCLA.

There are a lot of amazing things that are coming out of this story, such as the unwavering faith of family and friends. The huge network of people praying for her and her family. God’s continued grace, presence, support and protection during this very difficult time, etc.

But what has really, really impressed me as well is the way that Katherine Wolf’s circle of friends have self-organized in a powerful way, and created amazing avenues and opportunities for people to be involved.

It’s probably cause I read The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations a few months ago.

And maybe it’s also cause I just finished Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

And last night I was reading through Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.

What do they all have in common? Basically, people are organizing themselves in powerful ways that thwart the traditional means of organization through leaders in authoritative, hierarchical positions. No longer do people need to go through an institution to achieve their end goal. Many churches already know this, and still, so many other don’t. Those who recognize the shift will be in positions to harness the unbelievable creative power of a church community. Those who don’t will find themselves struggling to carry out the vision for their church community.

Continue Reading…

Collaborative Resources

April 28, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 3 Comments

I think most of you know by now, I have become a huge fan of the New Media and Web 2.0. But there is one aspect of it that I am most excited about: collaboration. With immediate access to amazing and simple tools we are able to collaborate more rapidly and effectively with one another than before. Collaboration is not only taking place amongst friends and co-workers in the same office, but is happening on larger scales both locally and globally.

To get some perspective on this aspect of the New Media and Web 2.0 there are a few books that I have been reading, and that I highly recommend. They are all varied to some degree, but they are saying essentially the same thing: people are now able to collaborate on a mass scale like never before.

Check Them Out

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom.

  • Amazing book on the power of mass collaboration, and how it is creating and sustaining organizations that are leaderless. They give good examples of leaderless organizations, as well as looking at hybrid organizations that have some structure in place, but are pretty much led by the leaderless communities that support them.

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky.

  • This book I’m still working on. But I’m particularly intrigued by his chapter “Publish, Then Filter.” In an instant world with mediums such as blogging, people publish first then go back to filter and edit, but through the help of the community. In the collaborative conversation, the community does the filtering, editing, and correcting. This is so upside down from the old media which only publishes after tons of edits, corrections, etc., if it publishes at all. Many are uncomfortable with this new mentality, but in the new media, what were once perceived as big mistakes are no longer big mistakes, but are easily dialogued about…and if needed, forgiven by the public (some of this is my own commentary).

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

  • Great book. Very in depth. This really gets technical about mass collaboration and explores many aspects from economics to science, and how mass collaboration is revolutionizing these fields and others.

Facebook for Pastors: How To Build Relationships And Connect With People Using The Most Popular Social Network On The Internet by Chris Forbes

  • I love Facebook, I am a pastor, and I love ministry. So this book is a must read. Very quick and free. How can you beat that. My chapter in The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging, and Podcasting for Christ is “Navigating the Evolving World of Youth Ministry in the Facebook-MySpace Generation.” I didn’t really touch on collaboration which was sort of new to me when I wrote it. Now if I could go back, I would talk on this more.

Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application by 37 Signals.

  • Awesome, awesome book. Really a manifesto. Short and is free online. This really changed my views about the necessity for simplicity and less is more attitude in the onslaught of new media and design. They are some real nuggets in there.

Wikinomics is blowing my mind…

March 17, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 9 Comments

One of the things on my mind most recently is the concept of collaboration, and how the Church can better harness this synergy within its congregations and in its communities. But my biggest fear is that many churches will continue to maintain hierarchical structures out of fear of losing power and will be unable to adapt to the emerging online world (for lack of a better phrase). Many church structures are steeped in polity, organizational styles, etc. that often don’t allow them to adjust.

In their book, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams state that the Net Generation, born between 1977 and 1996 will dominate the 21st century, and I think that many churches will look around at their age demographics and fail to take this into consideration. Instead of seeing thousands of young people who are wanting to contribute and participate in the Church, seeking a voice to make change, many churches and organization instead will continue to reinforce power and status through hierarchy, outdated ordination requirements, etc. Tapscott and Williams reiterate again and again that those organizations, companies, etc, who fail to adapt and change to this generation will do so at their own peril, because this generation is different.

I wish I had read this book before I wrote my chapter in the soon to be published book The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging and Podcasting for Christ. It seems like I’m gathering more information and finding more sources after my chapter already went to print, but I make the case that youth culture who has been raised in the world of Facebook and MySpace will no longer go through the traditional channels in the Church (i.e. pastors, directors, etc.) to accomplish tasks, get permission or initiate change. Rather, they will see those traditional structures as hindrances to what they can do already online and in their networks. So churches must learn to adapt and innovate along with this generation, and if they do, they will harness a generation that can bring great life and innovation to the Church both locally and globally.

All generations in developed (and increasingly, developing) countries use the Web. Seniors, for example, have time to spend and new motives for going online–communicating with their grandchildren may be the most important. However, a new generation of youngsters has grown up online, and they are bringing a new ethic of openness, participation, and interactivity to workplaces, communities, and markets. For this reason, they merit special investigation. They represent the new breed of workers, learners, consumers, and citizens. Think of them as the demographic engine of collaboration and the reason why the perfect storm is not a flash in the pan but a persistent tempest that will gather force as they mature…

Rather than being passive recipients of mass consumer culture, they Net Gen spend time searching, reading, scrutinizing, authenticating, collaborating, and organizing (everything from their MP3 files to protest demonstrations). The Internet makes life an ongoing, massive collaboration, and this generation loves it. They typically can’t imagine a life where citizens didn’t have the tools to constantly think critically, exchange views, challenge, authenticate, verify, or debunk. While their parents were passive consumers of media, youth today are active creators of media content and hungry for interaction…

They are also a generation of scrutinizers. They are more skeptical of authority as they sift through information at the speed of light by themselves or with their network of peers. Though they have great self-confidence than previous generations they are nevertheless worried about their futures. It’s not their own abilities that they are insecure about–it’s the external adult world and how it may lack opportunity.

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, (pp. 46-47)