Monasticism and Technology--
today (S. Diana Seago OSB) and tomorrow (Br. Richard Oliver OSB)8 February 1997
S. Diana and I judged the Forum to have been a great success. It concluded with the assembly drafting and approving a proposed resolution that some of the participants took to the Conference of Benedictine Abbots and Prioresses meeting in Mexico City, February 1997. The Conference supported the proposal and included Monastic Interreligious Dialog (MID) and the American Benedictine Formation Conference as participants in the Benedictine Internet Commission.
Contents: Topics | Reactions | General Resources | Previews for 1997 and beyond
Possible Topics considered in preparation to the Forum. The following links have not maintained.
- Internet/Intranet
- Data vs. Information
- Meta-Information
- Browser/Platform Wars
- MAC/UNIX/PC/VAX
- Netscape Navigator
- MS Internet Explorer
- Lynx
- SGML and HTML
- Publication
- Authoring and conversion tools
- Copyright
- Law
- Validation
- Platform- and browser-independence
- HTML standards (W3.org)
- HTML Writer's Guild
- Style Sheets
- WWW/Database Interface
- Retrieval
- Searching
- Multi-media
- Audio
- Broadcast
- Graphics
- Video
- WebTV
My confreres thought the list above to be too technical and removed from the typical monastic Internet-user's experience. I do think, however, it would be helpful for me to speak about the difference between Cyber-consumer and Cyber-producer.
The wide-spread print and TV coverage of the economic and artistic success of Christ in the Desert's www site and the disputed economic benefits of monastic data entry via low tech computers and the managerial acumen of the Electronic Scriptorium, Chicago, might suggest to some communities a desire for more active engagement with the Internet and electronic communications.
Any community that creates and maintains a www site via a simple homepage or a suite of pages and directories is a content provider/producer and should know something about universal accessibility, standards, etc. Some of the early Trappist sites began purely as commercial enterprises, produced by the marketing departments of the distributors of their products. Often the monastic community had little opportunity for input, but that issue has been effectively addressed by concerned members of the Order. The Liturgical Press and St. Bede's Publications are good examples of Bendictine commmercial websites that retain a monastic or apostolic emphasis.
I would like also to mention current monastic projects: The Liturgical Press's CD ROM version of the Rule of Benedict, edited by Scott Rains (due for release in 1999), the Order of Saint Benedict website and its continuing development, the possibility of a "Retreat for WebWeavers" at Collegeville or elsewhere, the role of Oblates (lay associates), global education and "Learnscape," international collaboration, and other projects as I learn about them.
Comments or suggestions? Write.
- Resources:
- General
- Bradley sfcc, Ritamary. "Religion in Cyberspace"
- Computers and Texts 12, Oxford
- CSB and SJU Scriptorium. Internet Resources for WWW Content-Providers.
- Electronic Commerce
- John L. Gresham, MLS, PhD. Finding God in Cyberspace, 1995.
- Gregory R. Gromov. Internet History and Statistics
- Heather Millar <hmillar@aol.com>. "Electrosphere: The Electronic Scriptorium." Wired (August 1996) 94-104. (Overview of monastics and monastic sites on the 'Net; condensed version in Reader's Digest November 1996, 129-31.)
- James O'Donnell (U Penn). "Pragmatics of the New: Trithemius, McLuhan, Cassiodorus"
- Religion and the Internet (Deolog, Feb. 96)
- SisterSite
- The Future:
- John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine
- Bill Gates, Microsoft
- and beyond
- The Future of the Internet, © 1996 Church of Scientology
- State of the Internet (Dublin newsletter surveys)
- The [Technological] Future of the Internet
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