Kester Brewin

Interesting piece of research out today from Pew Internet and The American Life Project which shows that longer forms of online writing are giving way to micro-blogging and status updates:
Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher for Pew and the lead author of the study, told the Associated Press that the ability to do status updates had [...]

There have been some heated exchanges on Pete Rollins’ blog and Mark Van Steenwyk’s ‘Jesus Manifesto‘ site, sparked off by Mark’s critique of Pete’s forthcoming ‘Insurrection’ pub tour. To summarise: Mark – who has now fully apologised – made some too-hasty remarks about Pete’s financials, and then had some pretty nasty responses shot at him for [...]

Very interesting conversation last night between Steven Johnson – author of brilliant books such as The Ghost Map, Emergence (for which I owe him a huge debt) and The Invention of Air – and Brian Eno – who defies description or categorization.
They covered a lot of ground over the evening, but perhaps the best line [...]

“In the digital age, everything we say, do and write is preserved forever, including antics most would rather forget”
Fascinating piece in today’s Independent on the problem of the net never forgetting. So much of what we do is trackable online now, and as more RF devices are linked in to gadgets, vehicles – our bodies [...]

Just finished Pynchon’s new novel, Inherent Vice. I’d highly recommend it – one of his more approachable books, though retaining the bawdiness, comedy and inevitable excursions into song that have become part of his trademark style.
One subtly done, yet highly effective strand of the narrative is that of Fritz, who is hooked into ARPAnet, the [...]

Interesting article here about those who simply refuse to engage in any online activity. Will they suffer ‘digital poverty’?
“There is growing anxiety that those who choose to remain offline will pay a price. One woman living in sheltered housing had noticed all the discounts being given to those paying electronically. She speaks of a “curtain [...]

“I would love to live like a river flows,
carried by the surprise of it’s own unfolding.“
These words of the late John O’Donohue have been on my mind recently, perhaps because of an awareness of my distance from this life-place he describes. If my life were a water-course, it sometimes feels like a concrete channel, hard, [...]

Oh dear, things don’t get any better for this calamitous administration. Seems like he didn’t understand how Twitter works – replies are viewable by everyone.
The account is now deleted, and we can probably assume that date in the diary has been too. Oops.
HT ToryBear via DizzyThinks.

Nic and I have been having some good exchanges recently around issues of our relationship with technology. It’s something that’s prominent in the forthcoming book, but I wanted to introduce a few of the ideas here and hopefully provoke some debate to sharpen my own thoughts.
My view is that while we do create tools, our [...]

Ben has an excellent and honest post here outlining his doubts about the ‘missional entrepreneur’ that is in popular parlance.

I’ve posted a comment outlining some thoughts on how the role of the artist might help us imagine this in a new way.