austraLasia 1633
Firing up the (Salesian) Family - and the third passion
EAO/AS: 23rd August 2006 -- For the uninitiated, (EAO is clear enough) AS is the usual abbreviation for the Asia South Region. austraLasia has traditionally gone to both regions, since it began when there was not EAO but the Australia-Asia region which included the provinces which now form a separate region.
Today's item is about some evident signs of life - in both regions!
Yesterday, austraLasia received a simple request from a member group of the Salesian Family in EAO, providing a host of email addresses and asking that the entire province be added in to the mailing list! After some work typing in each of the new addresses, that has now been accomplished, and your 'Coordinating Correspondent' will now of course be awaiting a degree of interactivity with its new members, as they take up the role not only of receiving but also of being 'citizen reporters' for their new link to the Salesian Family world of EAO/SA.
Interactivity is not something that comes easily to anyone over 50, though it is just everyday activity for the younger set born with a mouse in hand. I would have to say too, that at least from my reading of all the Church documents on Communications (or 'social communications' as they are wont to call it, quaintly enough), the word 'interactivity' is mostly if not completely absent. It would appear that at least up until now, ecclesial thinking is the traditional one-way street of active transmitter to passive receiver, despite frequent mention of 'new technologies'. The gap between that language and actual practice, especially where young people is concerned, is a challenge we have to confront. Enter Boscowiki. It is taking time, but it is working! Gradually, receivers of austraLasia are working out that they can be interactive - step one has been taken. Quite a number are availing themselves of the 'click here' down below and offering comment. We thank them, including the SIHM Sisters in Thailand. It is not my practice to go in and comment likewise on each comment in Boscowiki - that would only reinforce the idea that it is interaction with a single centre. No, step two will be when someone else comments on what someone has commented - then we will be really interacting! Step three will be when people create their own interest areas within the wiki - all of which they can do; it's their electronic shared notebook, after all.
Your Coordinating Correspondent at the moment is in New Delhi, meeting many of the other correspondents from SA. Which is where I come to 'the third passion'. Imagine a provincial house community which claims that other than the two 'passions' often spoken of by the Rector Major (for God and for humanity) they have a third which binds them - dominoes! Not the toppling kind; this is not about feats of manouvering - like the sparrow last year in the Netherlands that accidentally set off a tumble of 4 million dominoes set up to beat the Guinness world Record! A lucky break at 23,000 saved the day - but not the sparrow. They shot it. At ND provincial house, dominoes is a daily ritual and relaxation, indeed a community passion, saving them from the boredom of tv or more work after supper. And it brings about a degree of lively interaction, with a simple rule: no discussing results the following morning at breakfast! That was good fortune for the visitor, who won both games the previous night without cheating.
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
Firing up the (Salesian) Family - and the third passion
EAO/AS: 23rd August 2006 -- For the uninitiated, (EAO is clear enough) AS is the usual abbreviation for the Asia South Region. austraLasia has traditionally gone to both regions, since it began when there was not EAO but the Australia-Asia region which included the provinces which now form a separate region.
Today's item is about some evident signs of life - in both regions!
Yesterday, austraLasia received a simple request from a member group of the Salesian Family in EAO, providing a host of email addresses and asking that the entire province be added in to the mailing list! After some work typing in each of the new addresses, that has now been accomplished, and your 'Coordinating Correspondent' will now of course be awaiting a degree of interactivity with its new members, as they take up the role not only of receiving but also of being 'citizen reporters' for their new link to the Salesian Family world of EAO/SA.
Interactivity is not something that comes easily to anyone over 50, though it is just everyday activity for the younger set born with a mouse in hand. I would have to say too, that at least from my reading of all the Church documents on Communications (or 'social communications' as they are wont to call it, quaintly enough), the word 'interactivity' is mostly if not completely absent. It would appear that at least up until now, ecclesial thinking is the traditional one-way street of active transmitter to passive receiver, despite frequent mention of 'new technologies'. The gap between that language and actual practice, especially where young people is concerned, is a challenge we have to confront. Enter Boscowiki. It is taking time, but it is working! Gradually, receivers of austraLasia are working out that they can be interactive - step one has been taken. Quite a number are availing themselves of the 'click here' down below and offering comment. We thank them, including the SIHM Sisters in Thailand. It is not my practice to go in and comment likewise on each comment in Boscowiki - that would only reinforce the idea that it is interaction with a single centre. No, step two will be when someone else comments on what someone has commented - then we will be really interacting! Step three will be when people create their own interest areas within the wiki - all of which they can do; it's their electronic shared notebook, after all.
Your Coordinating Correspondent at the moment is in New Delhi, meeting many of the other correspondents from SA. Which is where I come to 'the third passion'. Imagine a provincial house community which claims that other than the two 'passions' often spoken of by the Rector Major (for God and for humanity) they have a third which binds them - dominoes! Not the toppling kind; this is not about feats of manouvering - like the sparrow last year in the Netherlands that accidentally set off a tumble of 4 million dominoes set up to beat the Guinness world Record! A lucky break at 23,000 saved the day - but not the sparrow. They shot it. At ND provincial house, dominoes is a daily ritual and relaxation, indeed a community passion, saving them from the boredom of tv or more work after supper. And it brings about a degree of lively interaction, with a simple rule: no discussing results the following morning at breakfast! That was good fortune for the visitor, who won both games the previous night without cheating.
___________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm A separate service entirely is called F/OSSERVATORE to help us keep abreast of trends in the digital world.
