Google has a channel on YouTube called Google TechTalks. Google regularly brings in special speakers to deliver lectures to their employees (kind of like chapel but at work). Then they put these lectures up on YouTube for the rest of us to enjoy. Right now they are up to 674 videos.

Ars Technica calls TechTalks perfect for the "chronically curious." Lifehacker says they will "improve your brain power." If you're the type of person who enjoys NOVA on PBS or watches the Discovery Channel, you will love TechTalks. Don't let the name "TechTalks" or the fact they're produced by Google fool you. TechTalks covers a wide array of topics. The intro of each video proclaims:

Quoted Text

Google TechTalks are designed to disseminate a wide spectrum of views on topics including Current Affairs, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Business, Humanities, Law, Entertainment, and the Arts.

Of course, some of the lectures are better than others. Yes, Google brings in experts within these fields to deliver the lectures--sometimes "the expert" on that topic. It doesn't matter how much of an expert someone is, some speakers are simply more interesting than others. And Google does bring in many speakers who are not only brilliant but also great communicators. Your enjoyment of a video will also depend on how interested you are in that topic. I'm sure you'll love videos I'd fall asleep during and vice versa.

I know it may be difficult for our multimedia-infused, 30-second clip junky culture to watch a 45-60 minute lecture. I'd encourage you to check a couple out though. Most of them are genuinely interesting, and you are becoming more knowledgeable. That's not something you can say about most of the video clips people watch on YouTube. I wouldn't recommend trying to watch through all the lectures. That's not going to be beneficial, and at 674 videos, I'm not even sure possible. Pick a topic that interests you--that you want to learn more about.

Now why did I post this under "Creative Ministry"? I think this is an excellent idea for a church. A church could bring in theologians, church leaders, and biblical scholars to deliver lectures and then post the lectures to YouTube.

Matthew Recommends:

Computer Science Unplugged by Tim Bell, Ph.D, Senior Lecturer in the Computer Science department at the University of Canterbury (October 18, 2006)

Tim Bell's research interests include compression, computer science for children, and computers and music. His Google lecture centers on his interest in teaching computer science to children. To that end, he has founded a program called Computer Science Unplugged. It primarily consists of a website with 20 free activities educators can use to teach general computer science principles to children as young as 4. He also conducts conferences on computer science for children at schools and museums.

The 20 activities currently on the website have all been developed by reputable computer scientists from universities around the world and extensively tested with children. They continue to develop and test new activities. The name of the program, Computer Science Unplugged, is derived from the fact that the activities teach basic underlying principles of computer science without the use of computers at all. The activities are geared for large groups and allow the children to be physically active.

You don't have to be knowledgeable about computer science to understand or enjoy this lecture since the activities are geared toward children. He doesn't get into the specific activities as much as I'd like since he is mainly focusing on the program as a whole. I enjoyed his New Zealand accent nonetheless.

Spiritual Computing by Warren Smith, Harvard professor, Buddhist, and one-time consultant to Bill Gates (September 28, 2006)

I am immensely interested in the topic of the intersection of religion (or spirituality) and technology (or computing) as I'm sure many of you are, but I was extremely disappointed by this lecture. First, Warren Smith is simply not that great of a communicator. He sat the entire lecture. He encouraged audience participation, which normally would not be a bad thing, but because of how the mics were set up for recording, while you can hear Smith's lecturing, questions and comments from the audience were almost inaudible.

Second, Smith never seems to present a clear thesis of how religion and technology intersect. Although I'm a Christian, I wasn't expecting him to explicate how Christianity and technology intersect. I'm interested in how religion (even Buddhism) and technology intersect. The few examples Smith gave seemed better suited to technology at the dawn of the personal computer age 20-30 years ago when he says he began his study of Spiritual Computing. They seemed to have little relevance even to 2006.

Third, the vague definition of Spiritual Computing that emerges from Smith's lecture is unsatisfactory at providing programmer's an achievable objective. The definition as best as I can determine seems to be the notion of software that goes beyond "merely enhancing productivity" to assisting the user in "achieving happiness" in the same way Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed provided ways of achieving happiness.

In the spirit of complete honesty, while I am interested in the relation of all religion (not just Christianity) to technology, it may be Smith's Buddhism that prevents his views on that relation being satisfactory to me. As a Buddhist, he is more interested in spirituality, the experiential aspect, if you will, of religion, rather than institutional religion. He is interested in technology so far as it can produce or contribute to a spiritual experience. As a Christian (and as I believe the more institutional religions such as Judaism and Islam would agree), I am interested in the relational and institutional aspects of religion. Thus, the question I am interested in is how is technology related to the systematizing, studying, and spreading of religion.