Over the past couple of years – ever since I discovered the glories of SKYPE I’ve been interested in how OC/IC communities, and projects (like our own Indie Voices Archive) can use various new media to reach out beyond the small groups we work within. I’ve done a bit of blogging on it in the past – which you can view here.

I’ve been concentrating on video – using my camcorder, webcam, and camera, to create and edit videos then upload them to ourmedia, the Internet Archive, and Blip.TV (I prefer Blip.TV to YouTube – its . . . classier). The upside of this method is that we can place various projects (interviews, documentaries, reflections, theology, teaching, etc.) before a wider audience. But they also have their limitations (beyond the technical and mechanical) for example they are not live feeds, responses can be days, even months after the original project is finished, which means that the experience, the inspriation for that particular video is no longer fresh in your mind – possibly inhibiting your ability to engage as thoughtfully as you might have liked, since your community have “moved on” to more developed projects.

It is possible via SKYPE for example to do live, real time conversations in large groups, as well as live video (face to face) converstaions with another person. Two years ago, we experimented with a weekly Evening Prayer via SKYPE which allowed a rotation of “leader” and community time afterward. Now I’ve seen a “new” (to me) project called UStream.TV which enables a live feed and . . . it would appear (I’ve not finshed exploring this yet) a capability for real-time reactions (via a chat feed) from the audience.

Recently I’ve discovered a nifty “thing” I’ve know idea how to classify it yet other than to describe it as “video email plus” called seesmic – with nothing more than a webcam it allows you to record messages, and participate in conversations. There is also a plugin (for wordpress users) to enable you to generate both quick video posts, and video comments. I’ve been experimenting with this for the past two weeks, and its been fun. Also I’m currently using it in an “audiance participation” experiment on my other site – you can see that post by clicking here. I’m about to activate that plugin here too.

Used in combination with image and textual resources – PDF’s, dynamic web pages, and even self published material such as from LULU – there is nothing hindering our various communities and projects expanding their ability to become a spiritual resource for others, and to come out from underneath the shadow of other, larger, “better resourced” traditions.

I’ve got an idea list as long as my arm for various projects – right now I’m focussing on mastering the technical and mechanical (see my “other” site for examples). And there is the small matter of finishing the Thesis from Hell (sigh). But I’m interested to know about what projects your community is developing using new media forms, what have you already done, and what was the response? What would (will) you do differently in the future?

Moreover, I would really like to make some space here to highlight those projects, and would appreciate your sharing the links to them.