The future of communication

Tyndale Tech tries to keep you up to date with electronic resources for Biblical Studies.
I've now moved it to a blog-style site where you can add your comments on the issues.
All the old posts are there, and new ones will be posted there as well as appearing in email.
This means you can add your wisdom on the various topics to share with other scholars.
It also means you can hear about new posts using RSS as well as or instead of emails.

Previous posts have been quite good at predicting the future.

I predicted:
* an important new search engine called "Google" (when it was still just a funny word)
* viruses will be used for advertising (when they were still mostly used for malicious pranks)
* laptops will be made with flash memory instead of hard drives (they are appearing now)
* everyone will carry a pocket computer (when phones were still just for phoning)
* Unicode fonts will take over publishing (when hardly anyone had heard of Unicode)
* Perseus has important hidden treasures (when it was known merely as a picture collection)

Some of the oldest posts are still very useful.

* Indexing a book automatically - I've just used it again for my latest volume.
* Using styles and macros to save time in word processing
* Installing free original-language Bibles and translations on a Palm
* Finding the treasures among all the trash on the web

Some warnings I gave:

* I warned against Word XP (an unstable dead end. Word 2003 is much better)
* I warned against Word on a Mac (they STILL haven't made Hebrew work properly!)
* I warned against Word Perfect (without unicode, all its wonderful features are useless)
* I warned against investing in the dollar (no, not really - but I wish I had)

My next warning: Email is dying (though I hope I am wrong)

* Email now looks like postal letters did a few decades ago
* Remember the excitement you first had when an email arrived for you?
* now a huge percentage of email is spam, and most real emails are business related
* it is like the old days when paper post was full of adverts and business letters

The mext generation have abandoned email for newer ways of communicating

Blogs (originally Web Logs) are diary-style dated entries posted (mostly) in public
* they can be used as ways to stay in touch with a group of family and friends
* some have become spectacularly successful news or gossip columns, rivalling newspapers
* readers can often add comments, which can be moderated, allowing limited interactively
* they are now often used as an easy way to write web pages with pictures and links
* the posts are permanent (until the owner deletes them) so they are a true part of the web
* RSS feeds help people keep up with a large number of blogs by collecting changes

Instant messaging is a way to 'chat' online. Messages are transmitted instantaneously,
* these messages are private and they are wiped when you log off (though Google is changing that)
* different sites are deaf to each other - you have to sign up with MSN, Yahoo, Google or AOL
and then you can talk to any individual or groups you choose, but only on that platform.
* to talk to them all, use meebo or digg - you hear everyone, but they still can't hear each other.
Social Networking is a way to share friends and make new connections 'safely' online
* they tend to be based round communities such as schools (Bebo) colleges (Facebook), professionals (LinkedIn), over 50's (Sagezone) or general (Flickr, MySpace etc)
* individuals share a great deal about themselves because more details gains them more 'friends'
* these pages are permanent, and it is worrying how much people reveal about themselves in them

Personally I still prefer emails.

* they are private (unlike blogs), and produce permanent searchable copies (unlike chats)
* and they allow me to reply when convenient to me, giving me time to think, and to live a bit
* and they are not kept at Archive.org (where anyone can see deleted web pages and blogs)

But the future is phones

Phones now have operating systems more powerful than the computers which took men to the moon
* the fact that we use this amazing computing power for photos and crazy ringtones merely shows that
increases in the intelligence of phones has not been matched by the intelligence of phone users.
* we can send email as a speech file attachment rather than as text using Speak-a-Message (free)
* now you can listen to your text emails with a realistic artificial voice phonecall using VoMail
* and you can speak a reply on your phone which is then sent as a text email - use Vemail.
* our phones will soon have enough power for voice recognition, so these functions will be built-in
* voice phones will be as small as hearing aids and, like them, will only come out when we sleep

Personally I will be avoiding some of these technological revolutions
* I carry a WiFi Palm for picking up email, but I do not carry a phone
* I read emails, and reply after thinking for a moment. I don't chat online or post my life on a blog.
* perhaps I'm a luddite, or perhaps I am someone who has seen the future and knows better.

Transporting theology from Academia to the Pew

I've recently had a brush with notoriety. It wasn't completely nice.
Being criticized for what you didn't say is difficult to respond to.

Still, it resulted in an interview in Time magazine about my research on divorce,
and my research was, for a while, the most 'popular' story on Yahoo News.
Hopefully more people will read my work than they would have done otherwise,
though more people will also dismiss it, because they think they know what it says.

This experience has made me think about publicity and how to get noticed.
The web has now made publicity and publishing truly democratic,
so here is a guide to how I used the internet and what I would recommend now.

1) Publish on the internet while you are writing.
2) Get people interested
3) Publish an academic book on paper
4) Collaborate on a 'popular' version
5) Publicize the popular version
6) Communicate with pictures


1) Publish on the internet while you are writing

I wrote my book on divorce in several drafts.
The first was for my friends and family, and it was terrible.
The second was published on the web, chapter by chapter, and then edited.
The web version wasn't very well written, but it was very well read,
because search engines love text which changes and which has a wide vocabulary.
It meant that people were interacting with my ideas before
the first book came out, which created a head of steam for it.

Creating a web site is now very easy by using GooglePages.
- create a free Google account, and sign in, then click on Page Creator
- now you have a home page which you can edit like a simple word processor
- pictures, links, layouts, etc are very easy to add and change
- if you wish, you can add simple html and javascript programming
- you can chose when to publish, and can edit pages at any time

Or, use a Blog and publish each chapter or a sub-section as a post
- create a free Google account, and sign in, then click on Blogger
- there are others, but Blogger is easy to use and has powerful facilities
You probably want to make this look like a book rather than a diary so:
- in the Template, remove the "Blog Archive" which lists posts by dates
- instead, add "Labels" as a list, and use these as your section headings
A very good feature of blogs is that you can invite feedback.
- this is valuable both as encouragement and to help you see
what people don't understand, or to find out want to know more about.

2) Get people interested

I like to stay at home, so I work mainly on the web, but if you like to get out,
you might concentrate more on public speaking and going to conferences.

Offer papers at conferences and to journals
- when you find interesting topic within your subject, write it up as a paper
- this means tangential topics which don't really fit into the book are still useful
- and you can refer to conclusions from your papers in the book

Get permission to publish papers on the web as soon as possible
- some journals demand a year or two before you publish it
- many journals allow immediate publication on a personal website
- though most journals do not like papers on the web before they publish them

Build up an email list of people interested in your work
- invite people to email for irregular updates on your work
- or set up a Google Group or Yahoo Group which provide facilities for sharing

Don't put your main email address on a web page - it'll get spammed
- if you know javascript, you can protect it (like we do on the Tyndale site)
- or create a free Google address and make a filter to copy email to your main address
- then, when spammers find this address, create another Google address

3) Publish an academic book on paper

For credibility, a traditional publisher is still essential,
but it is becoming increasingly possible to do this yourself.

Use the tips from previous Tyndale Techs to save yourself time
- tips on writing multi-chapter documents with Styles, Contents, etc are here
- instructions for quickly creating semi-automatic indexes are here
- resources for Greek & Hebrew Unicode fonts are here

You can print and sell a 'real' book at publishers like www.Lulu.com
- they help you create a PDF document of your whole book and design a cover
- they provide free webspace, an online shop, and publish on demand
- their printing is remarkably cheap and produces real published books
- you can set the price at the printing cost or above (and you keep the profits)
- you can allow free download of a PDF eBook, or you can make a profit on that too

Publicize your book.
- even if you use a traditional publisher, they expect you to help with publicity
- make a list of as many journals as you can think of for sending review copies
- write some blurb both for them and for your website (and don't be modest)
- if you self-publish, offer review copies as widely as possible (the cost is worth it)


4) Collaborate on a 'popular' version

Most scholars can't write easily readable prose, but they think that they can.
Communication is a difficult skill, and people who think it is easy don't know much about it.
You can test your writing for readability here - it calculates the Gunning-Fog index

The trick is (apparently - I'm not much good at it either) to know your audience.
I found that the only way I could do this is to pretend I was writing a sermon.
This meant I wrote with lots of illustrations and less complicated language.
But then I swallowed my pride and let someone else turn it into prose.
She rewrote almost all of it, and even moved whole paragraphs or cut them out. Painful !
The 'popular' book which resulted was wonderful - as easy to digest as chocolate.

How do you find a collaborator? Ask your contact list for help.
- ask for proof readers (you need them too) and offer them a chapter each
- pick those who make the most dramatic changes, then ask someone else if the changes are good
- if you find a good editor, you must be prepared to trust them when they change your work!

To collaborate, use the Tracking function in Word
- double-click on "TRK" in the bottom bar, or click on Tools: Track changes
- now, when you or your editor make changes, they are highlighted and reversible
- use the Reviewing tools found by clicking on "View", "Toolbars", "Reviewing"
- email the documents to and fro, and keep old copies to make you more adventurous
(you probably won't refer to the old copies, but having them gives you courage to make bigger changes)

Or use the collaborative tools in GoogleDocs
- create a free Google account, and sign in, then click on "Docs"
- upload a Word document or create a new document which lives on the web
- click on "Share" to allow both you and your editor to change the same document
- it has a built-in rollback so you can rescue an older version if necessary


5) Publicize the popular version

You can wait for publishers to do this, but most are not much good at it,
though IVP USA were great, getting me radio interviews and other publicity.

Visit blog sites and join in, pointing to your stuff when relevant
- this is time consuming, and admittedly I have done little of this
- although your text soon disappears from the blog front page, search engines will continue to find it

Send press releases to any newspaper or news agency which has an email address
- provide a page of prose & facts from which they can put together a story without much editing
- include "quotes" from yourself so they can pretend they interviewed you
- include contact details and web links in case they want to do research or check facts

Offer articles to magazines and newspapers
- hopefully they will come to you, but don't be shy. They're always looking for copy.
- make sure you read them from your detractors' point of view, to make them unambiguous
(that's where I've fallen down, so that detractors were able to exaggerate what I didn't mean)

Admittedly I haven't followed my own advice about publicizing. I should have, but I'm lazy.

6) Communicate with pictures

The world is full of pictures, and they can help you communicate complex ideas.

Provide some talk or sermon outlines with pictures for powerpoint presentations
- see an example at VisualSermons.co.uk

Put pictures on your blog site or web site
- I asked my daughter to find pictures on the web and get permission from the artists
- she found an artists' community with wonderful pictures, and most artists were
keen to have their work used for a good cause if it included a link back to their site.
- see examples at DivorceRemarriage.com

Publishing on the Web

It is now very easy to publish your courses, papers, books and journals on the Web. This email will tell you how.

My own experience:
I've been amazed at the number of people who have read my unfinished book while I write it on the web - see http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Brewer/divorce.htm I get about 700 visitors per month (that's visitors, not visits - if they read every chapter or come back 100 times a month, they are only counted once). About 1/5 of these look through every chapter. As a result, the latest book published on divorce (Stephen Clark: "Putting Asunder") spends a great deal of time interacting with me, even though I haven't published on paper yet. To protect myself from plagiarism, I have omitted my footnotes, and I have put a copyright sign on each page. Strictly speaking, neither of these is necessary, because any written work is automatically copyrighted under UK and USA law as soon as it is published, even without the copyright sign. Several publishers now publish books free on the web before selling them in paper form. They do this for publicity. If you are going to use it seriously, you will need to buy a copy so that you can quote the page numbers. This is a trend which can only grow. For examples see: http://www.books.mcgraw-hill.com/betabooks.html

Why not publish your next book on the web?
Free web space and free publishing tools Most firms offer 5Mb of free space, which is large enough for a book the size of the Bible. Many offer much more space. For 100 Mb of space (and more if you ask for it) go to: http://www.free-online.co.uk/
Some also offer free web-construction tools so you can just paste in your text from your word processor. Eg http://www.tripod.co.uk/

If you get more ambitious, there are good free web-publishing tools such as Arachnophilia: http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/

Lecture courses and student interaction on the Web
You can publish anything on the web, including your lecture courses. Blackboard.com even makes it possible to interact with your students, protect pages with a password, and conduct seminars and class tests online. Everything is already set up, except the course which you can paste in. It is free unless you charge for your course. http://www.blackboard.com/

Online Journals
In the science world, people are used to reading journal articles before they are published and used to reading whole journals online which are never published on paper. In the Biblical Studies world we have only a few examples, the best of which is TC: http://scholar.cc.emory.edu/scripts/TC/TC.html
The editors of this journal are very helpful with regard to fonts and style if anyone is trying to set up their own.
If you publish your research on the web, I will be happy to link to your site from your entry in the Tyndale pages, if you send me your web address.

Updates Mar. 2000
Quite a few Tyndale Fellowship members have responded to my mailing about publishing on the Web. Some of their examples have been instructive:

David Gill produces PowerPoint presentations which he puts on the web in this format. If your computer has PowerPoint (part of Microsoft Office), they will run within your Browser. When you click on a link you may be offered a choice between running the file or downloading it. Run it, and you will view it in your browser. Click on each page to move to the next. Examples at: http://www.swan.ac.uk/classics/modules/level1/clh107.htm
He does the same thing with RTF files, eg: http://www.swan.ac.uk/classics/staff/dg/bsa/marshall/marshall.rtf

John Montgomery edits the online GLOBAL JOURNAL OF CLASSICAL THEOLOGY. It is found at: http://www.trinitysem.edu/journal/journalindex.html He has also produced some pages incorportating video clips from an interview, which is played back by Quicktime. See http://www.id.ucsb.edu/fscf/index.html

Chrys Caragounis is on the editorial board of a new online journal, the JOURNAL OF GRECO-ROMAN CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM at http://www.jgrchj.com/ Their layout is impressive, and you can choose from a variety of Greek fonts. This has only just started and there are very few articles yet. Articles will only remain online till the printed copy is on sale at the end of each year.

Chris Forbes puts a lot of his teaching on the web, along with weekly reading lists for his students, and he uses the Macquarie University online forums for interacting with his students (similar facilities are available at blackboard.com). See Chris' teaching homepage at http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/cforbes/default.htm
His use of frames for displaying footnotes is not new, but it is a nice uncluttered example of how to do it. See http://www.anchist.mq.edu.au/251/ThieringFrames.htm

John Capper has created a few courses using Blackboard.com. Normally they require registration and a password to view them, but he has opened up one of them for us to look at. Click on "Guest" at: http://www.blackboard.com/courses/TWB282/