Open Source Religious Resources

We have a name! After MUCH deliberation, and a lot of searching (because so many good names are already in use), we have chosen “feautor.org” as the primary name of this site. It’s a word we’ve made up, but we hope it will come to mean “fe” + “autor” for faith author. And also that it reminds people of “future.”

Esta página es el sitio web inicial de un nuevo proyecto que busca crear un espacio en internet para compartir y desarrollar recursos religiosos, desde materiales curriculares a elementos para usar en celebraciones, incluyendo música y todo lo que sea necesario. La idea fundamental de este proyecto se encuentra en una descripción narrativa (in English) que estamos haciendo circular para que realicen comentarios. Para recibir más información comunicarse con Mary Hess o Fabio Botelho Josgrilberg.

This page is the first, very initial web home for a new project that seeks to create a webspace for sharing and developing religious resources — everything from curriculum materials, to worship elements, to music, and so on. On January 28, 2006 a meeting was held at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota to begin to develop the site and build a community for its implementation. A further meeting was held on April 29 and 30 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Details are linked below. The basic idea for this project is contained in a narrative description that we are circulating for comment. For more information contact Mary Hess or Fabio Botelho Josgrilberg. In late November of 2006 our request for proposals in Spanish or in English was circulated and proposals received. In March of 2007 we chose the Carlos Rubén Jacobs group of Argentina to build the site. We anticipate having a full public launch late in November of 2007. Until then you can follow the project via the blog noted below.

Project blog

You can follow some of our ideas in the Project blog, and contribute via the comments function.

Working groups

These groups are made up of people who’ve become interested in this project, and want to focus on particular aspects of it. They include a group that is focusing on supporting people who want to create and share content on the site, a group which is focusing on how to energize and educate people who will use the site, a group interested in theological issues raised by this project, a group focusing on technical infrastructure, and a group that is trying to manage administrative tasks associated with the project like grant writing, and so on.

January 28, 2006 meeting resources

Agenda . Participants . Questions to ponder . Working ideas for the site . Map of Luther Seminary . Meeting blog

April 29-30, 2006 meeting resources

Pictures . MORE pictures . Technical Issues .

Reference papers

Stephen Downes on “Open educational resources” / The book (available via audio device download for free) Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig

Websites to visit for ideas

Selah . The Disseminary . The Creative Commons . Cchost . DSpace . Connexions . The Open Knowledge Initiative . The Open Educational Resources Archive . Open Content Initiative . Wikibooks . Slashdot . Merlot . World Council of Churches . The ELCA Resource Finder . The Alban Institute Congregational Resources Guide . The ELCA Resource Centers Open Files . FaithandWisdom.com . Faithstreams . Textweek . Servicios Koinonia . CLAI .

Some examples

We are imagining a site that could include religious education materials, worship resources, hymns and songs, materials for supporting catechetical leadership, and much more! Towards that end, some of us have begun to collect student projects — developed within various classes — with which to “seed” the site. For instance, here is a bibliography on children and worship, a lenten service with creation themes, an adult forum on earthkeeping, a bibliodrama on the story of the father and two sons, etc. For now we’ve been posting these students projects on Mary’s site, but eventually they will join what we hope will be many, many more on the open source site we’re planning.