Wish I had time to post all that is happening here at the Internet Ministry Conference.  I’m hoping to get some of my notes uploaded in the next few days.

I don’t know how you view conferences but sometimes I question the affordability of such events and wonder about long term gains for any one ministry.  But this gathering has some unique elements that give it some distinctives.  Several things that seem ouside the norm include:

• attendance by women (of course there could always be more)
• a measure of diversity (scholars, geeks, ministers, professionals)
• a representation of Non-American ministries (Canada, France, England, Netherlands, etc.)
• good equipment / access / accomodations / atmosphere

There are a lot of really smart people here.  And I mean those who are reflecting deeply and profoundly on why we are using the internet, what for, directed at who and with what success.  There is a broad sweep of people who would argue that that online communication and real world communication are co-mingling in such a way that there are few distinctions between them.  There are equally scholarly people saying these communication experiences are totally different due to the fact that any form of communication with a technological element included differs dramatically from a real world face to face communication.  There’s also an apparent (and not surprising) distinction between generational perceptions on this topic. (Gotta remember my grad thesis was built around diffusion of innovation theory so I love that stuff!)

I enjoyed dinner last night with good conversation between a table of tweeters plus Peter Green of Agathon Group and Dr. Dave Bourgeois.

You can check out the Internet Ministry Conference blog for more.