GodBlogCon 2008 began in earnest this morning after a
fantastic opening dinner last night. Andrew Jones of Tall Skinny Kiwi was first up with the topic "The
Missional Church in the Internet Age." He urges us all to move our lives away from being wells (a place where
information is stored) into springs (active creators, givers, spreaders of the Kingdom of God).
He gave some interesting tips for moving your blog up the
Google search page. The first piece of
advice: Don't leave your blog
platform. You're building up your
history as you create archives and people from other sites link to your
posts. When you leave your platform, you
lose history, links, and credibility. He
also suggests making sure the URLs for your posts contain the key words that
people will be looking for. (You can do
this by first publishing your post with a title containing the key words and then
immediately changing it to the title you want.)
Jones noted that just as the printing press revolutionized
the use and distribution of information, the internet is turning people into
participators rather than spectators--turning readers into writers. I have some mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it's a great opportunity for
us to be able to create rather than to just consume. On the other hand, when it's
easier for everyone to contribute, we end up with a lot of junk we all have to sift through. And one troll can
easily ruin everyone's day and lower the quality of what you're trying to put
out there. My hope is that the bloggers
out there will not settle down at the lowest (and possibly most numerous) common
denominator, resorting to simplistic name-calling. In the end, perhaps the sheer quantity of
information being produced will push the quality of some (who are willing to
put in the work) to a higher level than they may have reached otherwise.
thanks for coming along and your kind thoughts here on the blog.
Posted by: andrew jones | September 21, 2008 at 05:38 AM