John Lagrou and Len Hjalmarson are editing a book and are accepting proposals on the changes in the church due to technology.
banner.jpg
Here’s the post from John Lagrou’s site:
I recently participated in writing a collaborative e-book called The Conversation Age. One-hundred authors, one-hundred chapters – a collective exploration of our emerging virtual connectedness. The book will be available soon, with all proceeds going to a great charity. Huge kudos to Drew McClellan and Gavin Heaton for an idea whose time has come.
Following their lead, Len Hjalmarson and I are launching Wikiklesia: Voices of the Virtual World – a collaborative / ecclesial e-book – virtual, self-organizing, participatory. From purpose to publication in four weeks. A collective and chaordic conversation on how technology is changing the church. Voices will be available as a PDF e-book on Amazon, and will include MP3 audio of each chapter in the author’s own voice. All proceeds from the Wikiklesia Project will be contributed to the Not For Sale campaign.
Here’s the best part. You can write a chapter for the book. We’re inviting 33 & 1/3 writers to share their perspectives and experiences on the intersection of technology and faith – an exploration on how emerging technologies are shaping the church. Send us a short proposal ASAP. We’ll read them all and invite the most visionary and intriguing ideas to be fleshed out for inclusion.
Finished chapters are due June 4 and may range between 1000 and 2000 words. Images, diagrams, photos – all good, but if you add visuals, reduce your word count accordingly. Creativity is encouraged. Free verse? Acrostic sonnets? A Vikram Seth style short story in rhyming tetrameter? It’s all good.
To kick start the Wikiklesia Project, a few guest authors have already been confirmed, like Peter Rollins, Scot McKnight, Andrew Jones, Jo Guldi, Rex Miller, and Tom Hohstadt. Join these creative thinkers in making virtual-ecclesial history.
One goal of the Wikiklesia Project is sustainability with minimal structure. We want to see virtual self-organization and cooperation permeate the global church. The improbable notion of books that effectively publish themselves is one of many ways in which we can move closer towards authentic community.
Can a publishing organization thrive without central leadership or a board of directors? Is perpetual, emergent book publishing possible? Can literary quality be maintained in a distributed publishing paradigm? We’ve created the Wikiklesia experiment to answer these kinds of questions.
There have been other attempts at collective | publishing, but nothing like this. Immediately after this first book is published, Len and I will “pass the mantle” to two new facilitators to oversee the second e-book project. Immediately after the second book is published, those facilitators will pass their commission to a new pair of facilitators for the third book, and on it goes.
We think Wikiklesia may be the world’s first self-perpetuating nomadic business model – raising money for charities – giving voice to emerging writers – generating a continuous stream of new books covering all manner of relevant topics. Nobody remains in control. There is no board of directors. The franchise changes hands as quickly as new projects are created.
Will it work? That’s up to you.
If ideas are the currency of our times then this is, undoubtedly, the age of conversation, for without the art of dialogue, the cut and thrust of debate and discussion, then the economy of ideas would implode under its own heavy weight. Instead, the reverse is true. Far from seeing an implosion, we are living in a time of proliferation — ideas build upon ideas, discussion grows from seeds of thought and single headlines give rise to a thousand medusa-like simulations echoing words whispered somewhere on the other side of the planet. All this — in an instant.
Technology in the guise of social media is giving rise to not virtual connections, but real conversation. The human desire to reach out, meet, share and converse is tapping into digital networks in an effort to transcend and obliterate the tyrannies of time, geography and, in some instances, culture. And the resulting explosion in content, commentary, activism and community is causing academics, marketers, advertisers, politicians and social commentators (amongst others) to call into question many of the demographic standards that have been relied upon for years. – Gavin Heaton, Sydney, Australia
In a few days, the Wikiklesia blog (http://www.wikiklesia.org) will be on-line with updates and stories. There will also be a resource page for project authors. C’mon! Join the conversation.

More from Beliefnet and our partners