5th International and Ecumenical Seminar
The Churches, Vidéotex and Telematics
Montréal (Canada), 10-13 octobre 1986
APPENDIX
- I -
Description of past and present Church activities,
in videotex and related fields,
involving the participants
• BELGIUM
The “Centre Informatique et Bible (Maredsous)” in collaboration with C.G.T. Bordeaux, France, is distributing complete (French) versions of the Bible and a “Bible and Religions of the Book” (Judaism, Christianism, Islam) dictionary. This service has been accessible via Teletel-3 (called Dextel) since December 1985.
Telecommunications authority of Belgium inaugurated public videotex service with the Prestel-CEPT standard in March 1986. The C.I.B. (Maredsous) will develop videotex service for the church of Belgium, through its daughter association “Probitel”. It will be available through the ORDAB service (Louvain) in January 1987 in four different languages.
• CANADA
United Church
The United Church of Canada began an experiment with microcomputer users in 1984. Twenty users, having their own hardware and modems, were linked together on “Envoy 100” (a commercial electronic mail system) with the church paying the costs, about $4,000 for four months.
Conferencing over micro-computers is now performed using the UNISON network in Denver (Colorado, USA) where individual pastors and lay people carry on daily discussions about biblical texts, pastoral issues, and ethical issues. The annual costs for the national church to support the grassroots microcomputer users total $21,000.
The United Church of Canada and some of the large Protestant churches in the U.S. are engaged in ecumenical discussions over the UNISON computer network with the hope of even greater cooperation and coordination of their microcomputer networks in the future.
Roman Catholic Church (french sector)
In 1982, the french-speaking Canadian Catholic church gave itself the means to be an information provider in the public Canadian videotex system “Telidon”. At that time it was believed that there would be a rapid diffusion of terminals in the domestic sector. But the lack of a firm political determination to sustain the development of this media as well as technical and economical problems had the effect that none of these projections actually happened. The Catholic national “Office des communications sociales” will now have to set new orientations for the pastoral applications of the new information technologies.
Atlantic Provinces
1. College courses in videotex page-making are given at Holland College, Charlottetown, P.E.I.
2. A local facility for preparation of pages was formed and continues to operate as a commercial enterprise.
3. Public education workshops on the value of videotex were held.
4. Training in videotex hardware and in preparation of pages at University College of Cape Breton, N.S., was available to technology students.
5. Videotex pages as teaching aids were prepared and used at the University of Moncton, N.B.
6. One priest participated for five years in the Canadian Department of Communication advisory committee for educational use of videotex.
Searchers Christian Information
A small interdenominational group, “Searchers Christian Information”, provided 153 Gospel selections on the Tele-Guide videotex network in Toronto and Ottawa from January 1984 though June 1986. The Searchers group has also encouraged the development of a network of Christian information centers.
• UNITED STATES
Church use of videotex focuses on computer bulletin boards at the local level and “computer utilities” (The Source, CompuServe, Newsnet, etc…) at the national level. Both uses are growing rapidly. The groundwork has been laid for an ecumenical network that could include a database, electronic mail, and conferencing. Fragments of such a system exists already. Rapid full development of such a system may be delayed because of costs and the fact that key church leaders are inexperienced in computer communications. Leadership in developing such systems comes from church communications specialists, with some interest from those involved in Christian education.
• FRANCE
In France, videotex has become a medium on its own. At the end of 1986, about three million terminals were already linked to the telephone network. Many different services providing information and communication on the life of the church and of the Christian communities and on matters of faith are now available to a large audience.
• LUXEMBOURG
October 86 marks the beginning of commercial videotex in Luxembourg. Among the various information providers, the most important, with six programs, is the Diocesan Publishing House. This does not yet include religious information, although a set of 600 pages have already been prepared and used in various demonstrations.
• FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
Protestant Church
The German protestant Church is still an information provider in the interactive videotex system (Bildschirmtext) although the system has not been as successful as predicted. In October 1986, it had 54,000 participants. This church engagement will provide experience and practice about adequate religious and ecclesiastical content, about its acceptance and its cost. About its acceptance and its cost. Said one of the editors: “We found out that Bildschirmtext is just one form of electronic publishing and we are now working with broadcast videotex (teletex)”. Two million teletext television sets are in use. The Protestant Church is also working with Kabeltext (in a cable project in Fortmund) and with electronic mail by running its own bulletin board on a host computer connected to a public data transmission network (Datapac). The future will tell which one of the different systems of public and internal electronic communication will become the major one.
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church of the Federal Republic of Germany took part in the field trials with Bildschirmtext from the very beginning (1978). The first experiences showed that interactive videotex is complementary to other media. It allows broad and diversified application and makes everyday information more readily accessible. Interactive videotex was thought to be, for the Church, an appropriate medium for public information as well as for internal communication.
By 1985, the expectations of the pioneers had not come to be. Therefore, the German Catholic Bishops' Conference decided to reduce the already available program. The exact form in which this work is to continue has not yet been established. The administrative application of videotex and its use for communication within the Church is being considered.
• UNITED KINGDOM
The Christian Viewdata Project
This was an ecumenical project, based in the theology department of the University of Durham from 1981 to 1984. One hundred pages were placed on the Prestel Viewdata System and a survey of users of these pages was undertaken. Fifty per cent of those responding were not church goers. Users were broadly enthusiastic about the educational material available. The project was ended because : a) it was very expensive to provide pages; 2) there was not big enough domestic market.
• SWITZERLAND
On the basis of the ecumenical document “L'évolution des moyens de communication sociale - Thèses des Églises” (1983), the Swiss churches have followed and studied very carefully the development of videotex. To date, they do not see the necessity to participate actively in this medium. Priority is to establish possibilities for education, mostly for leaders in churches, schools and adult education.
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POSSIBLE RESEARCH PROJECTS
1. Development of computer communications networks for the handicapped.
2. Exploration of ways in which computer systems might be used in literacy programmes for adults.
3. Development of an international data base of information on church related uses of computers, computer communications and videotex.
4. An international and ecumenical research programme to report on present church projects in this field, to evaluate existing projects and to develop new projects.
5. Exploration of the possibilities for bringing computer literacy in to media education systems.
6. Training of adult users in the keyboard skills necessary to make full use of computer systems.
7. Reflection on the impact of computers on privacy and on other aspects of social life with a view to building greater social awareness of such issues.
8. Development of interactive computer-based experiments (e.g. certain kinds of video games) which can help young people express themselves, ask questions about issued that trouble them and begin to develop a sense of their own worth and identity.
9. Development of projects to improve access to computer communication networks for “marginalized” groups in society and on the global level to improve access for the Third World to international networks.
10. Reflection on the place of the churches in the information society.
Published in Canada by:
Office des communications sociales
4005, rue de Bellechasse
Montréal QC Ca H1X 1J6
March 2, 1987