Liveblogging GodBlogCon - First night - Thursday
I am liveblogging the GBC, check back
often for the latest updates
Got here a bit late, but still in time to get my
registration packet and get into the room before the
introduction.
Away we go.....
5:05 - Matthew Anderson opened us with a word of prayer and began the introduction. He's currently going over the background of GodBlogCon. Basic intro type stuff - who to thank, where to find info, etc. Speaking of thanks - The DeMoss Group, Crossway Bibles, Grace Hill Media, Multnomah Books, and The Biola Bookstore.
I'm going to try posting this and see if the wireless network is up and running... it is!
Matthew is done speaking, Seth Cutter is now on stage. He is going to tell us what's in the packet and has some good news and bad news. Going over schedules right now... Tim Ruchti was unable to make it, so Breakout Session 3 that he was teaching (Pro-Life Blogging) is cancelled. Thats the bad news. Good news is that Hugh Hewitt will be here broadcasting live from Biola from the GodBlogCon! It will be from 3-6pm tomorrow (Hugh's normal show time slot). Those are the only two announcements he has for us.
Hugh broadcasting is good news, should help really publicize the conference. They are going to be tapping some of us to actually speak on the air! Hopefully I can get on there and plug the blog and JTTCO if I can.
Going over questions now.
What about next year? "you're pre-empting our announcement" They will have some news for us later
One attendee encourages writing your blog name on your name tag. Good idea, I'll have to do that.
Someone is asking about Biola's wireless network and the wired network. Apparently wireless access is just about everywhere - definitely is working here as all of you can read.
If you write a post about your time at GodBlogCon, they are collecting all of the posts about the conference and will be highlighting from the GodBlogCon Blog. They won't be editing them at all, someone jokingly asked "How do you spell Anderson?" (the speaker's last name). So we're done with the intro, and we're off to dinner. I'll check back in afterwards.
6:00 - Dinner was good - Biola cafeteria food is definitely a cut above almost all other colleges. Even back when Nat was here (and of course, he and Josh SHOULD be here this weekend, but sadly, are not), I remember him bragging about their food. Our cafeteria at dear old Cal Poly Pomona was effective at feeding us, but it hardly compares.
I had the pleasure of eating dinner with a few fellow bloggers -
Travis Fell of Austin Voice
Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost
Matthew Eppinette of 2bHuman
John Karmelich of BibleStudyEmail.com
6:50 - I'm currently sitting in Mayer's Auditorium with Travis Fell, grabbing some power for the laptop and awaiting John Mark Reynolds' talk at 7:15. Currently I'm also wrestling with the Biola wireless network, so hopefully I'll succeed in that and be able to throw this up in a few.
7:05 - Just struck up a conversation with Steve Cox of North To Alaska. He's a recent addition to the blogosphere, who's been blogging just for the last two months. He's from here in CA, but up in the Sacramento area. It's very interesting to meet all these different bloggers here at the GBC and especially to see the different takes people have on their blog - some are political blogs, some are devotional, some are local, etc. I'm looking forward to trading links and making some friendships while I'm here. My RSS feed is definitely going to be gaining quite a few new sources.
7:30 - Just went back and added some times to this post to give you some more context as to when some of these things were happening. John Mark Reynolds is about to speak... Matthew Anderson is introducing him - and giving us the bad news.... the wireless is not working here in Mayer's Auditorium. so this may not make it up for a bit. John Mark Reynolds
John Mark Reynolds is speaking. They will be announcing a followup conference to GBC - Biola (wireless notwithstanding) is a great host for this conference. He is self-deprecatingly joking about his being a philosopher speaking on blogging - "the difference between a philosopher and a pizza is a pizza can feed a family of four." His topic will be a playful amusement on blogging. "When we talk about blogging, we need to be careful that we really mean new media - things like podcasting" and vlogging, etc. "In philosophy, blogging takes part in the long running tension between Live versus Preserved Performance" There are good things about live concerts, which you can't replicate and yet there is also many good qualities of being able to listen to music on your iPod. "Blogging is going to right an imbalance between live and preserved performance," and this is what we need to be excited about when it comes to blogging. He quotes Socrates, quoted by Plato in Phaedrus. There is something lost in the preservation of a performance. This also means
Blogging can be seen this way - "Great! The culture that makes the Da Vinci Code a best seller now can produce more stuff!" In other words, blogging is a great way of making a ton of junk easily and forever accessible.
Possible Limitations to Preserved Discourse
- "Performance is 'frozen'": There is no such thing as a perfect performance. It will always have subtle differences depending on the performers, the audience, etc. As a listener to a performance, we have no way of interacting with the performer - they can't see the audience's reaction.
- "No way to monitor access to information that may be harmful.": Sometimes we have a responsibility to monitor. We have to acknowledge that some of our blogging would definitely be inappropriate for a specific audience. Sometimes we will write something that will hurt someone because we have no way of knowing who is in our audience.
- "Text or Performance cannot defend itself": Michaelangelo's David recently had a chunk of it chopped off because some insane man decided to attack it and David is not able to defend himself.
Advantages to Preserved Performance
"Permanent: allows an argument or community to 'build' over time.": We can watch a film for decades, and our children can watch it, and it carries the argument forth into the future.
"Allows original argument to be extended": Due to the fact we can read Plato, C.S. Lewis, etc. we can stand on their shoulders as the arguments have been refined over time.
"Allows a community of 'experts' to create amazing works (films or newspapers) that are greater (potentially) that the sum of their parts.": One single talent by himself cannot create a great work - Gene Roddenberry by himself is not Star Trek. Preserved Performance allows for an accumulated structure to develop.
For most of history, there was a balance between Preserved and Live performance. The printing press and other technology has tipped the vastly in favor of preserved performance.
Implications in the rise of preserved performance
- "Rise in power of the university or seminary over the parish priest": The priest's live performance (sermon) cannot compete with the power of preserved performance by the University or seminary professor. He told an excellent story about an old lady in the church - unfortunately I can't do it justice trying to recreate it here.
- Rise in power of an aristocracy of information and performance. The local community theater could not compete with Hollywood. The local paper could not easily compete with the national news service. Though we definitely believe in the free market, something was lost and thats not necessarily good. We just don't think we need government to stop this - "otherwise we get French film"
- Rise in mass "orthodoxies"
- There was a splendid growth in those areas best served by "preserved discourse" (science, high arts), but at a cost to those areas best preserved by "live" discourse ("human" things, folk culture).
Christians have a stake in both Live and Preserved performance
- We are a community of believers. The living body of Christ cannot be captured, only experienced. This reminded me of something in the Basement Tapes - we tend to think so abstract in our theology that we miss truth. We think "God has a strong right arm" is imprecise and anthropomorphic, rather than the inspired word of God.
- We are people of the Book (and of Creed, centuries of literature, art and music)
- Because of this balance, Christian "orthodoxy" cannot survive without the life of the Spirit. It dies. What made possible the easy spread of "orthodox" teachings (at first a seeming advantage) also made difficult any life within them. John Mark Reynolds' grandpa, "Some people are so straight, they lean a little."
- While part of a heirarchical faith (Trinity, Apostles), we also accept the importance of each individual human created in the Image of God.
- By and large, those parts of the Church that are "live" have suffered (attendance at MAss) whiole "preserved things" (theology) at first prospered.
- However, our commitments to both "live" and "preserved" culture made it hard for the Church to thrive in a culture that came to be about a "preserved" discourse. We either became dry as dirt, or emotionally insane.
Oddly, New technology may moderate the trend to preserved speech
- Expected decline in the "religious left" and the rise of the "religious right" (of a sort) as blogs begin to reflect the folk. Blogging opens up the floodgates to the normal people actually being able to join in the conversation. For too long bishops who didn't believe the creeds could voice opinion and the folk who largely disagreed were powerless to speak. But woe to the bishop who tries to hide something now (think Dan Rather)
- Blogging is a "preserved" discourse more like a Platonic dialogue than an Aristotelian thesis. Blogs are constantly linking to each other in a progressive discussion which can't really be preserved.
- Blogging is permanent, sort of. The best blogs are sometimes worth keeping, but only if one kept the best of all the other blogs to which they respond. A blog is a living book - like a book, but so much quicker in the exchange of ideas.
- New technology will allow for living film (theater as film), art and music
- Since some human things are more interesting live, these areas will fall to the blogosphere. Now that the cost for participating is mostly nil, it is so easy to participate in the discussion. Video games that are networked are kicking Hollywood's butt right now.
- Other areas (sciences, technology) will be improved by blogging mostly in the areas where humanity impacts the practice. (Ethics and the temptation of hierarchies to suppress information). The big elites will mostly be disincentivized to speak falsehoods from the podium they own.
- Wide spread Oxbridge style education. Questions are important, and will now be raised.
- More power to the masses and less to the elites. (There will always be an elite - which is actually a good thing)
- Rise of a new elite that learns to lead in community and with their "whole soul" Dante is our model. (All the creation is our field and all our interests should be integrated). Christian Republicans used to be defined by the five people old media lets on TV - and all of them are insane. Not so in the new media, where new voices can rise up based on their acceptance by the community. We need to be Christians first, but live an integrated life like Dante (astronomy, politics, poetry, etc)
- Decline in "orthodoxies" and a rise in orthodoxy (living doctrine)
Because Christians must by nature embrace Living and Orthodox faith, they are uniquely placed to benefit. We are heart and head people, we are live and preserved media people, we are living yet orthodox people - and this makes us unique. Blogging forces us to do both, if we do it well. Both the Old Right and the Secular Left are overly propositionally focused - preserved media.
What Should Be Done?
- Community, Community, Community: a religion of the incarnation cannot stop at blogging. Blogging is not false community, but it cannot substitute for face to face meetings.
- John Paul the Great put it best: "Be not afraid!" Times are changing, but we shouldn't fear.
- Err on the side of liberty and embrace dialogue. (Allow "closed" communities, but also move outside those groups to broader communities)
- Don't be afraid of propositions and preserved discourse. You cannot escape questions, embrace them.
- Refuse to choose! (We need an elite and mass culture. We need theologians and pastors). Dr. Reynolds is thankful both for his PhD and his grandma.
Dr. Reynolds is done, and Elizabethtown is starting very soon. Gotta run.
Away we go.....
5:05 - Matthew Anderson opened us with a word of prayer and began the introduction. He's currently going over the background of GodBlogCon. Basic intro type stuff - who to thank, where to find info, etc. Speaking of thanks - The DeMoss Group, Crossway Bibles, Grace Hill Media, Multnomah Books, and The Biola Bookstore.
I'm going to try posting this and see if the wireless network is up and running... it is!
Matthew is done speaking, Seth Cutter is now on stage. He is going to tell us what's in the packet and has some good news and bad news. Going over schedules right now... Tim Ruchti was unable to make it, so Breakout Session 3 that he was teaching (Pro-Life Blogging) is cancelled. Thats the bad news. Good news is that Hugh Hewitt will be here broadcasting live from Biola from the GodBlogCon! It will be from 3-6pm tomorrow (Hugh's normal show time slot). Those are the only two announcements he has for us.
Hugh broadcasting is good news, should help really publicize the conference. They are going to be tapping some of us to actually speak on the air! Hopefully I can get on there and plug the blog and JTTCO if I can.
Going over questions now.
What about next year? "you're pre-empting our announcement" They will have some news for us later
One attendee encourages writing your blog name on your name tag. Good idea, I'll have to do that.
Someone is asking about Biola's wireless network and the wired network. Apparently wireless access is just about everywhere - definitely is working here as all of you can read.
If you write a post about your time at GodBlogCon, they are collecting all of the posts about the conference and will be highlighting from the GodBlogCon Blog. They won't be editing them at all, someone jokingly asked "How do you spell Anderson?" (the speaker's last name). So we're done with the intro, and we're off to dinner. I'll check back in afterwards.
6:00 - Dinner was good - Biola cafeteria food is definitely a cut above almost all other colleges. Even back when Nat was here (and of course, he and Josh SHOULD be here this weekend, but sadly, are not), I remember him bragging about their food. Our cafeteria at dear old Cal Poly Pomona was effective at feeding us, but it hardly compares.
I had the pleasure of eating dinner with a few fellow bloggers -
Travis Fell of Austin Voice
Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost
Matthew Eppinette of 2bHuman
John Karmelich of BibleStudyEmail.com
6:50 - I'm currently sitting in Mayer's Auditorium with Travis Fell, grabbing some power for the laptop and awaiting John Mark Reynolds' talk at 7:15. Currently I'm also wrestling with the Biola wireless network, so hopefully I'll succeed in that and be able to throw this up in a few.
7:05 - Just struck up a conversation with Steve Cox of North To Alaska. He's a recent addition to the blogosphere, who's been blogging just for the last two months. He's from here in CA, but up in the Sacramento area. It's very interesting to meet all these different bloggers here at the GBC and especially to see the different takes people have on their blog - some are political blogs, some are devotional, some are local, etc. I'm looking forward to trading links and making some friendships while I'm here. My RSS feed is definitely going to be gaining quite a few new sources.
7:30 - Just went back and added some times to this post to give you some more context as to when some of these things were happening. John Mark Reynolds is about to speak... Matthew Anderson is introducing him - and giving us the bad news.... the wireless is not working here in Mayer's Auditorium. so this may not make it up for a bit. John Mark Reynolds
John Mark Reynolds is speaking. They will be announcing a followup conference to GBC - Biola (wireless notwithstanding) is a great host for this conference. He is self-deprecatingly joking about his being a philosopher speaking on blogging - "the difference between a philosopher and a pizza is a pizza can feed a family of four." His topic will be a playful amusement on blogging. "When we talk about blogging, we need to be careful that we really mean new media - things like podcasting" and vlogging, etc. "In philosophy, blogging takes part in the long running tension between Live versus Preserved Performance" There are good things about live concerts, which you can't replicate and yet there is also many good qualities of being able to listen to music on your iPod. "Blogging is going to right an imbalance between live and preserved performance," and this is what we need to be excited about when it comes to blogging. He quotes Socrates, quoted by Plato in Phaedrus. There is something lost in the preservation of a performance. This also means
Blogging can be seen this way - "Great! The culture that makes the Da Vinci Code a best seller now can produce more stuff!" In other words, blogging is a great way of making a ton of junk easily and forever accessible.
Possible Limitations to Preserved Discourse
- "Performance is 'frozen'": There is no such thing as a perfect performance. It will always have subtle differences depending on the performers, the audience, etc. As a listener to a performance, we have no way of interacting with the performer - they can't see the audience's reaction.
- "No way to monitor access to information that may be harmful.": Sometimes we have a responsibility to monitor. We have to acknowledge that some of our blogging would definitely be inappropriate for a specific audience. Sometimes we will write something that will hurt someone because we have no way of knowing who is in our audience.
- "Text or Performance cannot defend itself": Michaelangelo's David recently had a chunk of it chopped off because some insane man decided to attack it and David is not able to defend himself.
Advantages to Preserved Performance
"Permanent: allows an argument or community to 'build' over time.": We can watch a film for decades, and our children can watch it, and it carries the argument forth into the future.
"Allows original argument to be extended": Due to the fact we can read Plato, C.S. Lewis, etc. we can stand on their shoulders as the arguments have been refined over time.
"Allows a community of 'experts' to create amazing works (films or newspapers) that are greater (potentially) that the sum of their parts.": One single talent by himself cannot create a great work - Gene Roddenberry by himself is not Star Trek. Preserved Performance allows for an accumulated structure to develop.
For most of history, there was a balance between Preserved and Live performance. The printing press and other technology has tipped the vastly in favor of preserved performance.
Implications in the rise of preserved performance
- "Rise in power of the university or seminary over the parish priest": The priest's live performance (sermon) cannot compete with the power of preserved performance by the University or seminary professor. He told an excellent story about an old lady in the church - unfortunately I can't do it justice trying to recreate it here.
- Rise in power of an aristocracy of information and performance. The local community theater could not compete with Hollywood. The local paper could not easily compete with the national news service. Though we definitely believe in the free market, something was lost and thats not necessarily good. We just don't think we need government to stop this - "otherwise we get French film"
- Rise in mass "orthodoxies"
- There was a splendid growth in those areas best served by "preserved discourse" (science, high arts), but at a cost to those areas best preserved by "live" discourse ("human" things, folk culture).
Christians have a stake in both Live and Preserved performance
- We are a community of believers. The living body of Christ cannot be captured, only experienced. This reminded me of something in the Basement Tapes - we tend to think so abstract in our theology that we miss truth. We think "God has a strong right arm" is imprecise and anthropomorphic, rather than the inspired word of God.
- We are people of the Book (and of Creed, centuries of literature, art and music)
- Because of this balance, Christian "orthodoxy" cannot survive without the life of the Spirit. It dies. What made possible the easy spread of "orthodox" teachings (at first a seeming advantage) also made difficult any life within them. John Mark Reynolds' grandpa, "Some people are so straight, they lean a little."
- While part of a heirarchical faith (Trinity, Apostles), we also accept the importance of each individual human created in the Image of God.
- By and large, those parts of the Church that are "live" have suffered (attendance at MAss) whiole "preserved things" (theology) at first prospered.
- However, our commitments to both "live" and "preserved" culture made it hard for the Church to thrive in a culture that came to be about a "preserved" discourse. We either became dry as dirt, or emotionally insane.
Oddly, New technology may moderate the trend to preserved speech
- Expected decline in the "religious left" and the rise of the "religious right" (of a sort) as blogs begin to reflect the folk. Blogging opens up the floodgates to the normal people actually being able to join in the conversation. For too long bishops who didn't believe the creeds could voice opinion and the folk who largely disagreed were powerless to speak. But woe to the bishop who tries to hide something now (think Dan Rather)
- Blogging is a "preserved" discourse more like a Platonic dialogue than an Aristotelian thesis. Blogs are constantly linking to each other in a progressive discussion which can't really be preserved.
- Blogging is permanent, sort of. The best blogs are sometimes worth keeping, but only if one kept the best of all the other blogs to which they respond. A blog is a living book - like a book, but so much quicker in the exchange of ideas.
- New technology will allow for living film (theater as film), art and music
- Since some human things are more interesting live, these areas will fall to the blogosphere. Now that the cost for participating is mostly nil, it is so easy to participate in the discussion. Video games that are networked are kicking Hollywood's butt right now.
- Other areas (sciences, technology) will be improved by blogging mostly in the areas where humanity impacts the practice. (Ethics and the temptation of hierarchies to suppress information). The big elites will mostly be disincentivized to speak falsehoods from the podium they own.
- Wide spread Oxbridge style education. Questions are important, and will now be raised.
- More power to the masses and less to the elites. (There will always be an elite - which is actually a good thing)
- Rise of a new elite that learns to lead in community and with their "whole soul" Dante is our model. (All the creation is our field and all our interests should be integrated). Christian Republicans used to be defined by the five people old media lets on TV - and all of them are insane. Not so in the new media, where new voices can rise up based on their acceptance by the community. We need to be Christians first, but live an integrated life like Dante (astronomy, politics, poetry, etc)
- Decline in "orthodoxies" and a rise in orthodoxy (living doctrine)
Because Christians must by nature embrace Living and Orthodox faith, they are uniquely placed to benefit. We are heart and head people, we are live and preserved media people, we are living yet orthodox people - and this makes us unique. Blogging forces us to do both, if we do it well. Both the Old Right and the Secular Left are overly propositionally focused - preserved media.
What Should Be Done?
- Community, Community, Community: a religion of the incarnation cannot stop at blogging. Blogging is not false community, but it cannot substitute for face to face meetings.
- John Paul the Great put it best: "Be not afraid!" Times are changing, but we shouldn't fear.
- Err on the side of liberty and embrace dialogue. (Allow "closed" communities, but also move outside those groups to broader communities)
- Don't be afraid of propositions and preserved discourse. You cannot escape questions, embrace them.
- Refuse to choose! (We need an elite and mass culture. We need theologians and pastors). Dr. Reynolds is thankful both for his PhD and his grandma.
Dr. Reynolds is done, and Elizabethtown is starting very soon. Gotta run.
Posted: Thu - October 13, 2005 at 05:15 PM | | | | | | |
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Published On: Oct 14, 2005 07:41 AM
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Published On: Oct 14, 2005 07:41 AM
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