Religion Online

During tonight's class, Daniella and Elizabeth led us through some of the layers of Roman Catholic and Episcopal websites. I will post their presentations in our Blackboard site under Course Documents for your review. I will also open a few threads for continued conversation. Some of the elements that you may want to consider that I wrote on the board include:

Daniella's five-point lens from Our Hearts are Burning Within Us
* Community
* Prayer
* Education
* Relationship
* Active Service

Elizabeth's lens drawn from Massimo Introvigne's article, A Symbolic Universe: Information Terrorism and New Religions in Cyberspace, in which he combines Jordan’s definitions of virtual space with Gackenbach’s psychological categorization of the Internet:
* individual, social and imaginary
* intrapersonal, interpersonal and transpersonal

Other elements to consider for intent and impact include:
WHY? (purpose for going online)
- information sharing
- gateway (to church)
- conversation starter/venting location
- "evangelization" and/or outreach
- prayer/worship
status - "official" vs "unofficial"
priority - funding, staffing, time
authority
creation - volunteer vs professional
maintaining - updating
languages - across whole site or in part
denominational and faith-group differences (Sacrament/sacrament, etc)

I'm sure you have others to add as well. Please do so on Blackboard.