CiD

More Catholics embrace online social networking

In this Our Sunday Visitor article, CiD member Dr. Sebstian Mahfood offers netiquette tips for Catholics involved in social networking:

• Remember the human. That sounds basic, but is often forgotten. “All technologies are extensions of the persons who use them,” Mahfood told OSV. “Behind every communication is a real human person who is not only an individual substance of a rational nature, but is also a being created in the image and likeness of Christ.”
• Keep Christ at the center of any social network that is developed. Mahfood explained: “The temptation exists in our social interactions to bracket Christ when we perceive a good or a value that we would like to pursue in the satisfaction of our own desires. The advice is traditional, but meaningful for online interactions — never do anything or say anything online that you cannot share with the Eucharist.”
• Begin all real-time chats with prayer “for the good of the community gathered and the participation of the Holy Spirit,” he continued.
• Apply established “netiquette” rules to the social networks that are created. “People who find themselves the hosts of very large social networking sites will not only want to follow established standards but promote them actively as a form of evangelization and prayer,” Mahfood said.

For those in the St. Louis area, Dr. Mahfood will address CYBERETHICS:
Our Relationships in Cyberspace on Thursday, February 19, 2009.

Tags: cyberethics, evangelization, events, internet, technology

Cyberethics for Seminarians

In this series of videos Dr. Sebastian Mahfood addresses the subject of cyberethics for seminarians.

Tags: cyberethics, internet, technology

CYBERETHICS: Our Relationships in Cyberspace

Dr. Sebastian Mahfood,
Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies,
Kenrick-Glennon Seminary

CYBERETHICS:
Our Relationships in Cyberspace

Thursday, February 19, 2009, 7-8 pm
Main Auditorium, Cardinal Rigali Center

20 Archbishop May Drive, Shrewsbury, MO 63119

$5 suggested donation — RSVP

Cyberbullying and Other Ethical Excesses in Cyberspace

ST. LOUIS, MO — Last Summer, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill outlawing cyberbullying. The action followed the suicide death, two years earlier, of a 13-year-old Missouri girl jilted by an imaginary, online boyfriend created by a neighbor.

On Thursday, February 19th, at the Cardinal Rigali Center in St. Louis, Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, associate professor of intercultural studies at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, will present a lecture on “Our Relationships in Cyberspace.” Dr. Mahfood is an authority on “cyberethics,” the application of moral standards to the internet and other virtual reality arenas. Mahfood contends that technology is an extension of our selves and that we need to remember that we are interacting with real persons when we engage them via websites, blogs, videos, and other online forums. Cyberbullying is one of several specific cases he will address.

In his presentation, and the question-and-answer session to follow, Dr. Mahfood will also discuss internet courtesy or “netiquette,” internet slander, anonymous blogging, plagiarism in cyberspace, software piracy, humorous and harmful hoaxes, etc.

Dr. Mahfood is a founding member of Catholic Internet Developers (CiD), a networking and support group for St. Louis-area writers, artists, and programmers providing content for the internet.

To schedule an interview with Dr. Mahfood, please contact: Bob Duplantier, Chairman
Catholic Internet Developers

Tags: Children and Electronic Media, CiD event, communication, cyberchastity, cyberethics, internet

The Revolution Will be Brought to You by Text Messaging

During the 2007 protests in Myanmar, the media reported that the opposition was coordinating their protests by text messaging and getting video out of the country through wireless internet connections. These tactics were so successful that the government limited international internet access; it later shut down all wireless connections for a period. Eventually the government was forced to restore service, as the shutdown incapacitated government forces as much as the opposition. We have now seen similar such phenomena in Tibet, China, and Kenya.

Article by Garrett Jones, Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Tags: internet, revolution, text messaging