5. Context This study focus is: UK research Producers Church attendance Internet access US & Asia Online church NRM
6. Research Questions How are churches using websites? Variation by denomination Web 2.0 Decision makers and gatekeepers Theological influences
7. First Year Aims & objectives Identifying sources academic & non-academic Initial literature review Size & method for longitudinal study Planning future work Training
8. Actions from year 1 Justification Terminology Objectivity Sampling Catholicism Second Life
9. Research (1) Longitudinal study: All English churches 400 churches Will proportions change over time? Second phase completed January 2010 Number of sites
10. Research (2) Content analysis: East Anglian churches Category definition Categories piloted Defined sampling frame Sample n
11. Training & writing Meeting training requirement 7 days’ equivalent training Vitae workshop Library conferences Draft methods chapter Draft literature review updated and reassessed
Update on the previous years’ workExplain major progress in 2009Show thinking about where I am heading next
congregation based around a buildingactual meeting in person at some point in timetraditional churches, houses, megachurch auditorium or afloat
Based on the 2005 church censusShows the breakdown in EnglandFour ‘mainstream’ denominations are 75% of the total.NO NEED TO SAY MORE THAN THAT
Why am I doing this research? ONS says broadband at 70% in the UK Church uses internet at higher levels e.g. C of E site, Baptist Union and seem to be successful in engaging with ‘new’ media. Comparable to any other major organisations’ site. Local groups: not so much. ONE SMALL CORNER OF ENGLISH LIFE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE UK focus. Producers.Lessons for other hierarchically organised groups like charitiesBest practice on disseminating information through distributed & essentially independent network
Laid out fully in the report this is a quick summary of the RQs To what extent are individual churches using websites to publish information for their local communities as well as their congregations? (Objectives 2.1 & 2.2)In what ways do the existence, content and currency of church websites vary by denomination? (Objective 2.5.1)Do individual churches embrace the use of email, websites and other online collaborative tools to explicitly invite multi-way communication: within their congregations; between church leaders and congregations; and to the wider public? (Objectives 2.4.3 & 2.4.4)What are the decision making processes, and who are the people making decisions, on what and how to publish information via websites or the level of interactivity permitted? (Objective 2.4.1, 2.4.2 & 2.4.4)To what extent is the willingness of these decision makers to use internet based communication influenced by theological arguments? (Objective 2.5 & 2.6)
blank slate: defining boundaries; aims & objectives took some time;Red herrings and blind alleys e.g. usability; e-commerce, new religious movements and online community Also exploring existing non-academic work such as National Statistics, grey literature from religious organisations
Detailed in report e.g. ‘online communication’ not ‘web’ and ‘internet’ as interchangeable terms. Renamed as ‘All England’ and ‘East Anglia’ to clarify the different samples of churches. Catholicism, as you can see, has been included in the work. Second Life has not. This is because the focus of the research has shifted very definitely from online church as a separate phenomenon and to the online presence of actual churches based on a physical building.
NOT REALLY COMMENTING ON THE RESULTS AT THIS TIME RAW DATA ONLY 42 % t1. Rate of change over time
Attempt to relate categories to objectives and from existing literature – context also validity of measures listed where most have come from on p33 of literature review. In progress is piloting interactive categories from the McMillan work Also McMillan has a very detailed coding scheme which I intend to adapt.Category list has been trimmed and piloted and trimmed again. First thing is that items were regrouped around their topics and where they appear on websites to make the actual analysis flow more smoothly; not switching back and forth between home page and second level pages. Expecting to start data collection proper in March and that it will take until September recognising that I need to maintain momentum on the work so that I don’t start changing my mind about how to interpret the coding scheme. Will re-code some of the sites after 4-5 weeks to ensure that I am arriving at the same conclusions. Will recode the first sites at the end of the collection period for a robust inter-coder measure.
SLA conference in Washington DC Internet Librarian in NovemberLeicester with Vitae
Diagram of timeline as laid out in report in Appendix 6End of March begin data collection proper on the CA. 6 months till September, June and July all-English sample. n=270ish - works out at one website analysed a day. By late autumn -run some exploratory analyses with the target of having a draft for the year 3 report. Also contacting church authorities regarding finding likely interview candidates; update the literature review (particularly deciding what to do about the health literature) and finding what training I can relating to data analysis.
