austraLasia #1946
The world is flat - maybe he fell off!
ROME: 27th September 2007 -- Readers may well have read and if not have certainly heard, of Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat", an interesting look at globalisation and digital culture. Well, if the world is flat, there's a good chance that venturing near the edge is dangerous; one might just fall off! So if readers had concluded, after three week's of silence, that austraLasia's coordinator had done just that, let me assure you I am safe and well!
This number, #1946 follows on from #1945 three weeks ago - but there's a good chance it did not get through. Basically I was in places where any attempt to send blocks of emails (groups, needed to send out austraLasia) failed. And the only place where I do have a range of email groups, in GMail, was blocked by policy of one or other of the places I was in! It is a problem needing resolution for the future. #1945 was a news item about the inauguration of a statue of Mary Help of Christians in the new and as yet uncompleted Shrine in Port Moresby - the item was eventually published through ANS.
'The world is flat' is one perspective on today's digital culture. 'Digital Virtues' of course is another. Your coordinator found himself in Bogotá at the invitation of CELAM, the Latin American Episcopal Conference, looking at the contribution that a 'virtuous' approach to digital culture might have for that continent. A week later in Quito, where the Universidad Politecnica Salesiana (UPS) wishes to publish the book in Spanish and distribute it in that part of the world, then a third week in São Paulo where representatives from Salesian Formation Centres for Communication were gathered - there are about 30 such centres worldwide, 16 of them at university level, and the rest through non-formal education. Most of these were represented in SP where they looked at increasing cooperation amongst themselves, and at the interface between media education (often termed educommunication in the 'Latin' world) and open source approaches. Interestingly enough, other than in South Asia, there are very few if any of these centres in English-speaking Salesian areas, and the SP meeting looked at ways of offering some courses in these places, by providing both course information and personnel on a 'mobile' basis. If any of our formation centres in the EAO Region are interested in that possibility, they might make contact with the SC Department here in Rome.
Ironic, then, that in three weeks of meetings regarding digital culture, the one thing that was not possible was to send out austraLasia! The world might be flat, but I found myself on the rougher, pitted side of the coin!
Correspondents are urged to get back to work, now they can be assured their news will get through. I look forward to items arriving.
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