12/09/99

Scripts and Scripture

People who are so-called "Internet Professionals," meaning they more or less make their living doing things to and on the Internet, tend to get stereotyped by those other folks with a more casual interest in all things online.

You know. We're geeks.

It's no longer such a bad stereotype. We're more popular at parties than doctors, for example. Lines form. "Why can't I open the pictures that my son emails to me? My browser toolbar disappeared. Where did it go?" Unbeknownst to many acquaintances, however, many geeks have actual lives. (Perhaps "many" is too strong a word.) *Some* geeks have actual lives. We, um ... have non-Internet, non-computer interests. OK, we *do* tend to find ways to pursue our interests in the context of a hyperconnected world ... I'll shut up about that, seeing as how I was about to type a sentence that could only be dreamed up by a very stereotypical geek.

But take ... Jimmy Forsyth, for example. Jimmy is a Senior Web Developer at SNET Internet, a job that generally has him up to his elbows in server logs and scripting languages.

Geek.

But Jimmy is also a second-year student at Yale Divinity School, having obtained his undergraduate degree in religious studies at Hope College in Holland, Mich. He is presumably as at home sifting through scripture as he is Perl scripts, and frequently has to do both in the course of days that are far too short for full-time work, full-time study and his marriage to Rachel, a North Haven schoolteacher.

Not surprisingly, Jimmy has a focus on how the Internet is developing as a resource for religious study. "What interests me is what sites people are visiting, how they're using those sites, and what is lacking from those sites that would make them more likely to use the 'Net for their Bible-resource needs," he commented in introducing me to one of his class projects, an online survey that seeks the answers to his questions.

"I don't need to tell you how difficult it is to try to get real information from users of the Internet, but I thought I'd give it a whirl," he said. "What I'm going for is to get an idea of what sorts of sites people find most useful in their personal and professional lives ... I wanted to do an even more broad 'sacred texts' survey, but for now, the concentration is on the Bible."

He hopes that anyone with at least a casual interest in the subject will visit http://survey.jimmydot.com and fill out his survey. Jimmy has sought survey participants from Bible newsgroups and mailing lists, and is doing a mailing to 200 churches in Connecticut, but he's looking for a larger response from a broader population.

"The 'Net can be a terrific resource for biblical and religious scholarship, but there is very little data on what people actually would like to see available," said Jimmy. "I'd like to contribute what I can in that area."

The survey address, again, is http://survey.jimmydot.com. Jimmy can be reached via email at jimmydot@snet.net.

Please send questions or comments to web.editor@snet.net.