Updates from Ed Ross

I've had a relatively interesting weekend (plus Friday), so I'd like to record it in this blog entry.

Winner

On the Coke Zone web site, you can enter codes placed on the sides of Coke bottles. These codes amount to points, and the points build up and can be converted into gifts. So far my wife and I have already converted 200 points into a Coke branded Skoody.

We get through quite a bit of Diet Coke (mainly at the weekends), as per this photo, taken during one of the mass-code-entering times that I set aside to input more codes in to the site:

Occasionally, Coke also give you the chance to enter a competition when entering the codes. The most recent one was for an Xbox and Kinect bundle, and on Friday I got an email telling me that I had won! So some time in the next 28 days, I should be the happy owner of another bit of gadgetry.

The funny thing is, when I got married, I'd agreed with my wife that I wasn't going to buy a games console: the only way we would have one in the house is if I won one, and she didn't think I ever would actually win one. So there you go.

I think we'll mostly use it as a media playing device rather than a games console: we don't have a working DVD player any more, so the Xbox will easily fulfill that role. Additionally I should be able to use the Xbox as an Extender for Windows Media Center to view content from my PC on the TV (which is good as the Xbox will take up the second and final HDMI slot in our TV, which would otherwise be used with for my laptop).

I am thinking of getting Fifa 11 and my wife is interested in the Zumba Xbox game. Apart from that, I'm not sure what other titles we would want to get. If you have any suggestions (of games or anything else we can do with the Xbox/Kinect), please let me know in the comments. Please note, we won't be buying any violent games.

Things I like the look of, I'll add to my Amazon Wishlist (once we actually have the Xbox in our house - until we actually have it, I don't want to start getting extras for it).

Loser

On Saturday I inadvertently lost my identity!

The first thing I knew about it was when I saw a Tweet by @digitalmaverick claiming that I was about to present a taste test of different types of milk, associated with the #boring2010 hash tag. I didn't know what any of it meant.

After a Tweet by @seany85 it turned out that there was someone else with my name giving this presentation (@wowser). A Tweet by @thenewbrunette provided a link to an article in The Independent about the #boring2010 event, organised by @iamjamesward. It would have been nice to know about this event before the day it took place, as it sounds the like the type of thing that might have been quite fun to go to. Hopefully there will be a #boring2011.

A little later, a Tweet by @shadowdaddy revealed that my home page was listed as the address for @wowser, which is where a lot of this confusion seems to have come from. By then, I had decided to take matters in to my own hands, and contribute a milk taste test via video. Here is that test:

It has been quite an odd couple of days. The world of social media and online marketing really did collide in front of me in quite unpredictable ways!

Has anything like this ever happened to you? What did you do about it? Please let me know in the comments.

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Update 13/Dec/2010:

A very good round up of #boring2010 is now available for those who want to know more about the event.

I've recently discovered the blog "Social Christ", which "is about helping individuals, churches, and ministries to communicate better and take advantage of the latest trends in social media", and that sounds good to me. Recently they published an article: "Please No Tweeting", and I've got a few things to say in response, so here I go:

My gut reaction is a mixture of surprise, non-surprise, upset and a hint of understanding.

Surprise

In a way, I am surprised because Christians have often been at the forefront of modern information technology:

When the Codex came out, Christians used it to spread the Gospel;
When the printing press was developed, again the Bible was among the original publications;
Some churches are even on the forefront of HD video production;
The Lifespring! Family of podcasts brings God's word to the net connected generation in fun and novel ways.

All over, the church does adopt new technology, so I am slightly surprised that there are examples of technophobia like the ones in the Social Christ article.

Non-surprise

On the other hand, I'm not actually too surprised that there are churches that have such an anti-technology view. Churches are run by people, and many people are not interested in accommodating anything new in their lives, or helping other people use new things either. As the stories in the article go to show, some people just don't get it, or don't want to understand that there can be some benefit from technology related activities.

Upset

I'm slightly upset by the article: it reminds me of the Pharisees of the times of Jesus, who added (life limiting) extra rules around the (life affirming) ones God had laid out.

To my knowledge there is nothing about not using technology at Church in the Bible. Ok:

"I have the right to do anything," you say—but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"—but not everything is constructive. (1 Corinthians 10:23)

but in the cases in the article, constructive things were happening, so the anti-technology people really didn't have a right to complain. It isn't like reading the Bible on a phone is a sin (as far as I know anyway, and even if it is, Jesus has forgiven me for it anyway!)

Understanding

I kind-of understand where they are coming from though. My wife (who is au fait with technology) gets annoyed at me quite a lot at the moment for the amount of time I tend to spend on the computer rather than with her (to help with this, I've brought my computer into the lounge to write this and still be with her (and she is on her laptop too). I do have some sympathy for these technology un-savvy people: They may just see these new technologies as distractions to "real" life, and not see how they can be used to connect with others and enhance people's "real" lives. Maybe they have had bad experiences in the past, or maybe they are actually struggling with something technology related and they can't come to terms with it so they are hitting out at others instead of addressing their own issues.

Where to go from here?

Whatever way you look at it: technology is becoming more and more a part of the modern church experience.

Just a couple of weeks ago in my Cell Group, I noticed there were people reading the Bible on their mobile phones than on paper;
Pastors such as Mark Driscoll, Mike Pilavachi and Rick Warren are using social networking sites, such as Twitter, which can only lead to encouraging their congregation to do the same;
The Geeks & God podcast (which I am a co-host of), exists to help churches and ministries with their IT needs, and we aren't planning to stop any time soon!

Jesus said:

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15)

The Internet is part of that, so we need to be preaching the gospel to people on the Internet too. People who choose not to understand the new technologies are only slowing down the progress of the gospel they would profess! They might not understand that is what they are doing, so it is up to the technologically "literate" to help them understand what is really going on.

What do you think? Why not post your responses to the article "Please No Tweeting" in their comments section too.

(My wife and I video-chatting to each other from the same room)

A less than boring weekend

Please No Tweeting - a response

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