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Why Is the Vatican at a Tech Conference? (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader shares a BBC report: As Bishop Paul Tighe sat down for our interview, he joked that not only is he probably the only priest at South by Southwest, but also the only person with grey hair. His presence here marks the first time the Vatican has attended the South by Southwest Interactive conference, and their panel - titled Compassionate Disruption - is one of this year's most talked about events. "In a world where increasingly [we're] not invited to part of conversations, I think if people are interested in having us, we're delighted to be here. "I want to learn and get a feeling for what are the things that are driving a generation of people who are in many ways shaping the world as we know it. He glanced around the room. "Really deep down, I see a lot of people looking for some sort of connectivity." That's certainly true -- though I get the sense for delegates here that means good wi-fi, rather than a strong sense of faith. So Bishop Tighe's mission is to get this industry to find real value in both.
The Catholic Church is a huge global organization with millions of 'employees' and 'customers'. Like any similarly large multinational organization, be it a corporation or an aide group or a supranational governmental body, it will have significant information technology needs. Of course they'll have an interest in technology and tech conferences.
I thought it was more of an arts/entertainment conference. The Wikipedia page says it focuses on "music, film, and interactive."
Or am I the only one that wouldn't call that a tech conference?
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Speaking of whoring karma for the afterlife, here's the talk itself (missing from the reliably crappy article summary):
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2017/events/PP67508
When your community numbers over 1.2 billion people and you’ve been in operation for over 2,000 years, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to integrating new media and technology. The Vatican's iterative engagement of the "Digital Continent" stands in contrast to the velocity of mainstream technology adoption. Yet its unique approach to Twitter, Instagram and digital video have helped make the Pope the most influential world leader online.
This first-of-its kind SXSW discussion will shed light on how the world's oldest and largest community is adapting to and leveraging new media to encourage a new form of disruption: one guided by understanding, empathy and compassion.
MAR 12, 2017 | 12:30PM – 1:30PM
Primary Access: Interactive Badge, Platinum Badge
Secondary Access: Film Badge, Music Badge
Format: Panel
Event Type: Sessions
Track: Brands & Marketing
Level: Advanced
"I want to learn and get a feeling for what are the things that are driving a generation of people who are in many ways shaping the world as we know it. He glanced around the room. "Really deep down, I see a lot of people looking for some sort of connectivity." That's certainly true -- though I get the sense for delegates here that means good wi-fi, rather than a strong sense of faith. So Bishop Tighe's mission is to get this industry to find real value in both.
Translation: He's proselytizing or laying the groundwork to do so.
I didn't think catholicism was popular in the south. Not psychotic or literal enough.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
For anyone who's been paying attention, the new pope has been working hard to put the service and social commitments back to the front of the Church's mission... Reaching out to people who can and do make disruptive waves can mean a lot. There's so many cases where an app with the right niche in mind has revolutionized life for remote communities, and so many places where even small incremental changes can mean life or death for people...
They have a lot of skepticism to overcome, but I would like to believe they're trying to help the right people reach the right needs.
In the tech area, I get the feeling that a LOT of computer scientists and engineers don't contemplate the moral implications of the software/hardware they are designing. Weather its GPS apps designed so badly using them while driving would definitely cause a crash, programmers working on data mining analytics for credit card companies, or smarter and smarter cars that are increasingly insecure and easy to hack, I think more thought about consequences needs to be done by the people making this software/hardware and not just pushing moral authority/decisions on middle or upper management. I'm not saying I want these designers to convert to a particular religion, studies show that just talking about the ten commandments can effect peoples decision making minutes later.
So maybe having a member of the congregation in the corner will subtly influence people in good ways
It's not unusual for large religious organizations to send representatives to tech conferences. As other have mentioned, they have technology needs too.
I remember having a nice chat with a priest from the Vatican Observatory when we attended an astronomy conference, At a conference on human-computer interaction, I spoke with a gentleman from the Mormon church's genealogy arm.
These were actual technology conferences with peer-reviewed publications, unlike the more arts and entertainment focused SXSW.
Sorta off topic, but sorta related...
I see a lot of people on the left angry about accusations of fake news directed at the media, but the Pope is a good example of that.
As a victim.
I am a Protestant and don't have heaping doses of respect for this Pope (his predecessor was significantly better IMO), but come on. The media frequently deliberately misquotes this Pope to make him sound like the Pope they want him to be.
We're entering a point where the state will have to start prosecuting the media directly for the content of their speech because they are damn near demanding a right to do stuff like this:
Headline: Mr. Smith and so hates $GROUP
His quote: I can see why some might want to harm them, but I don't believe in killing them.
Their summary: Mr. Smith said "[I]... believe in killing them."
Vatican does *not* deny evolution: it actually stated it doesn't conflict with chatolic faith in 1950 and accepted it as "more than hypothesis" in 1996.
Slashdot was founded by students at a Christian college on a Christian college campus ... Hope College in Holland, MI.
The Vatican uses GNU/Linux both for their library servers,
as well as some info terminals.
“The philosophy of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is based on cooperation, common good and mutual benefit, and is in many ways consistent with the Catholic Church’s preferential option for the poor.”