Paradigm shifts in communication and the Vincentian Family
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FlipVideo, Wikipedia, Podcasts, Blogs... These are but a few of the buzzwords and tools that are reshaping how we communicate in an Internet Age.
The time seems to have come to begin to catalog what is actually going on in the Vincentian Family.
So the question for discussion in this week’s featured post is “How have you used these new forms of social communication to serve our ministry?”
This is an invitation for all of you to share your experiments, success, failures in an attempt to be “creative unto infinity”. It is also an invitation to ask questions of people who will share what they have tried.
So please click on the comment” link above and lets have a discussion about how the internet is changing the way the Vincentian Family serves.
- Do you “Twitter”? Can it be a tool of our ministry?
- What is the most creative use of Facebook?
- Have you used YouTube in your ministry?
- Do virtual meetings have a place among us?
- Etc…
Tags: blogs, Facebook, Featured, FlipVideo, Twitter
After our wonderful Vincentian gathering at the Sydney World Youth Day our team tried to think of how 300 people from all over the world can maintain contact and keep building on these wonderful friendships just formed. Facebook has been a wonderful tool to do this. We have used facebook for people to post and share their photos, to advertise events, and to try out a ‘virtual conversation.’ Every few months we post a quote from a Vincentian Saint on the discussion board and invite people to share their responses to the quote. While responses have been from a small number of people, it is a different way to use facebook. FAMVIN Australia would like to use facebook and you tube particularly, more to be able to be able to share the Vincentian story. We have also used Skype for meetings as some of our team are separated by distance. Providing all internet connections and hardware is in good working order these type of meetings can be very effective. Have a great day! Lisa (FAMVIN Australia) Certain aspects of web 2.0 can be of great assistance to evangelizers. The quick distribution of information, especially about issues of interest to servants of the poor, can prompt immediate advocacy or the building of networks of concern. Those of us who predate the “multi-narrative” generation often find this fast-paced twitter-youtube-facebook world quite daunting. But imagine the power of events like Blog Action Day — an annual advocacy and awareness event that uses blogs, webmedia, webconferencing and most of the web 2.0 platforms to muster a 12,000 strong cadre of advocates around a single issue? And how about the use of Facebook and other social networking platforms like MySpace to advocate, educate, network and fundraise? The possibilities are endless! Right now, we use Facebook for Vincentian Vocations, a “Vincentian” Blog Action Day, and we’ve just launched a “by invitation only” Vincentian Seminarians Worldwide connection site on Facebook with its own related social network. It’s so easy, and can connect people from all over the globe. Twitter, Facebook et al allow me to get the word out to an an otherwise impossible degree. I could not imagine creating the sense of intimacy which they allow over the distances involved without these tools. However it is a virtual intimacy and the encounter with Christ has to be real world, else we are only creating the ‘net alternative of the drive-in cathedral. As a tool for evangelization social networking has its uses, but, especially for people motivated by a belief that one encounters Christ in the poor, I suspect the real benefits are as a secondary, supporting tool rather than a primary one. Here’s how the Archdiocese of Boston is using web 2.0 The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth are currently using many of these tools in getting the word out about their ministries. SCNs shoot video using FlipVideo cameras traveling with Sisters in the field. We then host the edited videos on Vimeo, and publish them onto the website blog. All of the website news, videos, immersion stories and obits are syndicated through RSS (FeedBurner) and coupled with an AddThis button to help push the stories to email, Digg, Facebook or where ever the reader would like to distribute the story. The Diocese of Buffalo Twitters too! Cardinal Sean Brady (Ireland) is encouraging Christians across Ireland to use modern technology to form groups of prayer, to share petitions and build solidarity through this type of network according to a report on Zenit.7 Comments
After our wonderful Vincentian gathering at the Sydney World Youth Day our team tried to think of how 300 people from all over the world can maintain contact and keep building on these wonderful friendships just formed.
Facebook has been a wonderful tool to do this. We have used facebook for people to post and share their photos, to advertise events, and to try out a ‘virtual conversation.’ Every few months we post a quote from a Vincentian Saint on the discussion board and invite people to share their responses to the quote. While responses have been from a small number of people, it is a different way to use facebook. FAMVIN Australia would like to use facebook and you tube particularly, more to be able to be able to share the Vincentian story.
We have also used Skype for meetings as some of our team are separated by distance. Providing all internet connections and hardware is in good working order these type of meetings can be very effective.
Have a great day! Lisa (FAMVIN Australia)
Certain aspects of web 2.0 can be of great assistance to evangelizers. The quick distribution of information, especially about issues of interest to servants of the poor, can prompt immediate advocacy or the building of networks of concern. Those of us who predate the “multi-narrative” generation often find this fast-paced twitter-youtube-facebook world quite daunting. But imagine the power of events like Blog Action Day — an annual advocacy and awareness event that uses blogs, webmedia, webconferencing and most of the web 2.0 platforms to muster a 12,000 strong cadre of advocates around a single issue? And how about the use of Facebook and other social networking platforms like MySpace to advocate, educate, network and fundraise? The possibilities are endless!
Right now, we use Facebook for Vincentian Vocations, a “Vincentian” Blog Action Day, and we’ve just launched a “by invitation only” Vincentian Seminarians Worldwide connection site on Facebook with its own related social network. It’s so easy, and can connect people from all over the globe.
Twitter, Facebook et al allow me to get the word out to an an otherwise impossible degree. I could not imagine creating the sense of intimacy which they allow over the distances involved without these tools. However it is a virtual intimacy and the encounter with Christ has to be real world, else we are only creating the ‘net alternative of the drive-in cathedral. As a tool for evangelization social networking has its uses, but, especially for people motivated by a belief that one encounters Christ in the poor, I suspect the real benefits are as a secondary, supporting tool rather than a primary one.
Here’s how the Archdiocese of Boston is using web 2.0
The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth are currently using many of these tools in getting the word out about their ministries. SCNs shoot video using FlipVideo cameras traveling with Sisters in the field. We then host the edited videos on Vimeo, and publish them onto the website blog.
All of the website news, videos, immersion stories and obits are syndicated through RSS (FeedBurner) and coupled with an AddThis button to help push the stories to email, Digg, Facebook or where ever the reader would like to distribute the story.
http://www.scnfamily.org/news/
http://www.vimeo.com/scn
The Diocese of Buffalo Twitters too!
Cardinal Sean Brady (Ireland) is encouraging Christians across Ireland to use modern technology to form groups of prayer, to share petitions and build solidarity through this type of network according to a report on Zenit.