Coming Soon: A Facebook for Your Faith?
Posted by Anna Belle on 03 Apr 2007 at 06:09 pm | Tagged as: Technologies to Watch
Can you imagine combining the technological genius behind Facebook and Napster with belief-based organizations? I’m trying hard and find the possibilities jaw-dropping. Actually, it had never occurred to me before reading this a recent story in Techcrunch.
But it makes such sense. As the article notes: “Charities, political parties and affinity groups all rely on participation from people who share the same beliefs and ideals. But recruiting and fundraising are largely stuck in the pre-Internet era.”
It could be a reality very soon. Project Agape is a priority for Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and Plaxo and founding president of Facebook. According to Techcrunch, his goal is “to apply the same ideas around virality that worked so well on his previous projects to the idea of altruism and activism.”
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A few denominations are taking small but significant steps toward engaging social-networking sites. The United Methodist Church has launched UMC.org Community, perhaps the least sexy social networking site ever, and the United Church of Christ launched i.UCC. Both sites are interactive community sites, but they’re not really set up on the viral-marketing/Web 2.0 model of YouTube or Flickr. Denominational organizations are cautious about things posted to “official” sites; they also prefer institutionally-controlled marketing initiatives rather than peer-to-peer outreach. That makes true social-networking models a very hard sell, but obviously elements of the model are being adapted for use by church groups.
P.S. Welcome back to tech-blogging!
Philocrites — What a nice surprise that you have found this blog already! I’m delighted that you are the first to make a comment on it. It seems an auspicious start.
I think (perhaps incorrectly) of these as niche compared to what I imagine Project Agape to be. One other for this list: mychurch.
It’s funny you should bring up how marketing prefers institutionally controlled initiatives. You are spot on. It’s not only denominational organizations. Just today I was reading this in MHS, a healthcare marketing magazine: “The rapid dissemination and acceptance of Internet-based pull technologies … will probably require a substantial rethinking of marketing priorities. As consumers increasingly create their own online experiences with organizations, marketers should expect that greater opportunity for social networking in other areas will transfer to user expectations for their organizations. Those organizations that do not proactively support this evolution … will likely suffer.” [Dale Boylston, Spring 2007, p.35]