social media

I'll be attending the 2012 Catholic New Media Conference in Dallas/Fort Worth from August 29-31; will I see you there? This year will be the largest CNMC yet, with a ton of great speakers and separate tracks for different days of the conference.

This year's theme is Marketing Your Message, and the main track of the CNMC Professional Day will be filled with keynote speakers talking about this theme. At the same time, Matthew Warner and I will be leading a Tech Summit, meant for Catholic app and web developers, designers, and Catholic development companies, talking about apps, APIs, web development, and collaboration.

I'll probably talk a bit about the Catholic Diocese App (with some great new news on that front to be announced!), Open Source Catholic, and some other projects and topics near and dear to my heart.

If you can make it, we'd love to see you. There's more for everyone, as there will also be two more days jam-packed with great speakers and opportunities for growth—Thursday is the Celebration and Networking Day, and Friday is the International Bloggers' Summit.

Hope to see you there!

See my notes and presentations from last year's CNMC in Kansas City.

I've maintained social pages and accounts for the more popular business ventures and websites I run on Facebook and Twitter for a few years now. These pages and accounts have driven a good amount of traffic to my sites (and they would drive more if I put more time into making them more relevant/personal).

When Google+ announced pages similar to Facebook's, I quickly set up a page for each of the same sites. But since I don't have time to manually post and manage each of these pages, they sat dormant since the day I set them up.

Plus, nobody 'circled' any of them.

Plus, nobody's really on Google+ anyways, besides the regular early-adopter crowd that, like me, jumps from new service to new service just to test it out and see what's neat and what's not.

Plus, Google+ doesn't have a real API that provides any value to me. Heck, I can't even have my site post an update to a Google+ page automatically... that's like feature #0 that should be in the API.

Like a rotary telephone, Google+ is not really relevant.

So, anyways, I haven't really posted much on Google+ in the past few months, and I'll probably end up not posting at all sooner or later. You can still find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Maybe if Google+ becomes relevant, and builds a useful API, I'll come back. As it is, the only neat thing about Google+ that provides any value to me over Facebook or Twitter is the Hangouts feature.

Found: An interesting article from Gladden J. Pappin on Liberty, Technology, and the Advent of Social Networking. It's a bit tl;dr, but I've read through once, and hope to sit with it a little longer sometime.

The article (and many like it) makes me think a bit about the theme of personhood on the Internet, and how our use and overuse of social media, blogging, etc. in building our own self-image is something about which we must always be cautious.

I recently watched the Star Trek TNG Episodes 'Booby Trap' and 'Galaxy's Child', and while I'm no supporter of the strange philosophies that guide Star Trek morality/ethics, I wonder if we are becoming like Geordi LaForge, who fell in love with a projected image of a person on the holodeck.

One of the keys to using social media effectively is to keep a proper separation between one's true self-image and the image one projects on the 'holodeck' of the Internet (and make sure you know that others are not defined by tweets and avatars).

Sean Patrick Lovett

This presentation was given at the 2011 Catholic New Media Conference. Below are my notes on the presentation:

Marconi & Vatican Radio

• Nobel prize winner contacted by the Pope (Pius XI) to help with Vatican communications.
• He was the inventor/innovator (Steve J.) of the early 1900s.
• He helped Pius XI set up Vatican Radio (more than 80 years old).
  • VR broadcasts in 40 different languages.
• VR continues because:
  • Courage and flexibility, no matter what!
  • Only radio station in the world that was denouncing the Nazi regime.
  • Shortwave, to medium wave, to satellite radio, to podcast, etc.
  • Collaborates with Vatican Television (youtube.com/vatican). Live information, news.va integration, etc.

Iconic Images

• BXVI using iPad to send the first Papal Tweet.
• JPII sending the first Apostolic Letter via a laptop.
• "If the Pope can do it, so can we."
  

Progress and Adaptation

• 1995: Vatican went online with three servers (Archangels).
• JPII was the most media-friendly Pope in history; question is still out how much he used media and how much media used him...
  • Last letter: "Rapid Development" - hails the new advances in Internet.
  • Church beginning to realize there's a brave new world (Digital Continent) being built within this world.
• "Is it good, and is it useful."
  • These are the two questions the Vatican asks when considering new forms of communication.
  • (These are the questions Rev. Lombardi asked about the iPod)
  • Does it further the Kingdom of God? Does it improve the human race?
  • Paul VI: "What use is it having a magnificent instrument if you don't use it or put it to magnificentuse?"
    • It is up to us to use these instruments magnificently.
• Vatican Bloggers Conference (2011) - good to meet...
• Document on technology use in seminaries is still under progress.
• Vatican istrying.
  • Vatican is a pyramid (one to many, monologue, slow) / Internet is a sphere (many to many, fast)
  • How can the Vatican compete with 'the social network'?
  • Vatican.va, News.va, Pope2You doesn't do what new media does: The Pope isn't going to respond...
    • It's not that we don't care, it's that we don't dare.
    • There are no 'like' options.
  • The Vatican has the identity of an organization that is part of a network, but it is not theNetwork.
    • Vatican will always choose quality over quantity, technique over technology, understanding over knowledge.
    • "Never before have we known so much and understood so little."
• The Pope
  • One of the few leaders in the world today who has so much worth listening to.
  • The Vatican tries to make sure that everything the Pope says can quickly reach the most people in the fastest way possible.
• Vatican Player
  • Go to vaticanradio.com to get the Vatican Player (7 languages).

The Bad, the Good, and Hope - by Matt Warner

This presentation was given at the 2011 Catholic New Media Conference. Below are my notes on the presentation:

The Bad News

• The Catholic Church is out of control ... of our message.
• Being overly cautious about our message has been detrimental to our image.
• Catholics aren't really using Catholic new media; they're not really using old media either...
  • 2% of Catholics follow religious/spiritual material on Facebook.
  • 11% listen to Catholic radio.
  • Reason? Catholics aren't 'not interested in Catholic media' – Catholics aren't interested in their Catholic faith.
• Technology is not going to bring people back to the Church. YOU are. People are. Needs meaningful relationships.
• Online Search (we stink)
  • Examples: Jesus (nothing Catholic on the first page), God (nothing Catholic on the first page), "Who is God?"

The Good News

• Good examples: Catholic Channel, CatholicTV, CTT, CatholiCon, DivineOffice.org, blogs, etc.
• Pope Benedict gets it.
• We are slowly rekindling a missionary spirit.
  
• There is less blaming others and more doing our part.
• Recruiting talent and leaders.
• Entrepreneurial Evangelization: Where is the Catholic Silicon Valley? Who will incubate great Catholic ideas?
• Idea: Turn the parish's annual financial report into a statement of mission, success.
  • "Donors don't want to support a spreadsheet. They want to support movements. We need to tell our stories."
• We live in exciting times!

Sr. Anne Flanagan

This presentation was given at the 2011 Catholic New Media Conference. Below are my notes on the presentation:

"Go teach the gospel. We have all been commissioned. What is the next step?" (Sister's introductory haiku).

Blessed James Alberione

• Has so much to teach us about being evangelizers in a culture of media.
• He was constantly connecting media ministry with vows in the orders he founded.

Looking at media apostolate in the light of the Angelus

"And she conceived by the Holy Spirit"

• Everything comes from God.
• Networks of collaborators (the Pauline family). "The mystical body of St. Paul."
• Always begin from Bethlehem. (Humble roots).
• We need to use our imaginations, our hearts and our minds.
  

"Be it done to me according to your Word"

• Chastity ≠ Sterility, but spiritual fruitfulness. It is an engine of creativity.
• We should be forming a new mentality in society; we must be receptive (let it be done to me).
• From the tabernacle, Jesus instructs; "I am your light and I will use you to enlighten..."
  • Let everyone be a beacon, an evangelist, a secretary of St. Paul.
  • Your life should be transformed by the message.
• "Saints are needed for these yet untrodden paths." This is a universalcall to holiness.
  • The laity must complete/supply what is lacking in the heirarchical apostolate. This is our baptismal priesthood.
  • The Church needs life apologists today—not necessarily people who can explain theological realities.
  • How does Church teaching intersect with life? In marriages and family life?
• Your faith is something grand and glorious, that you should parade down the road!
  • Don't hide behind too many words of the Catechism and teaching.
  • We need the ability to detect needs and respond.
  • Where shall we get our strength? From the Eucharist: "Light, comfort, nourishment, victory over evil."

"And dwelt among us"

• Obedience: makes receptivity to the Word manifest. Not a passive obedience.
• If you remain in step with the Church, you will continue to be dynamic, successful, and effective. Not just starting with the Church; staying with the Church.
• Don't speak only of religion, but speak of everythingin a Christian manner.
  • Penetrate all thought and learning with the Gospel.
• Every communications development has sparked a 'New Evangelization'
  • That's what's happening among us today: A new culture is rising up—a young, global culture. It has the effects of human sin, and the seeds of the Gospel.
  • These are new means of divine providence.
• bit.ly/autobiog - Alberione's writings.