W
whosebob
Guest
JMJ + OBT
Dear everybody,Does anyone here know of a Catholic religious community that develops or is directly involved in the development of computer software for use within and/or without the Catholic Church?
I wonder who, for instance, helps the Vatican Library in the development of computer software and machine and network infrastructure that it uses now or plans to use in the future.
I imagine that some of the work is done by commercial vendors and that some of the “solutions” adopted are commercial or proprietary in nature. But as the Vatican Library moves into the 21st Century and beyond (I realize that’s a bit of a cliche, but I’m being quite serious), what a great opportunity and context exists therein for an implementation of the open source model of software development!
The idea being that the software which is created to tackle the complicated and multi-faceted problems associated with making the VL’s assets available on-line – including tools for searching, translation, and scholarly collaboration – is itself likewise made available to the public as a set of tools which can be freely studied, adapted and implemented in various other contexts.
And there are many other areas too in the life of the Church where a need for easy-to-use and targeted software solutions is readily apparent. Consider the following commercial product – Church Community Builder.
It would be great if a tool like that was actively developed and made freely available by a group of men or women dedicated to studying and “solving” the problems and needs of the Church in the area of electronic information and communication infrastrcture.
I’m not envisioning something along the lines of an official “IT department” for the entire Catholic Church. No, I have in mind something smaller, more independent – a group that focuses on particular apparent or presented needs, and makes the solutions available as free software downloads (for example, OpenOffice.org and Gentoo Linux) and, when possible, free services (for example, Hotmail and the on-line Catholic Encyclopedia).
Obviously, such a community would have to depend on donations if it doesn’t charge for its “products” and services. But there have existed healthy and thriving mendicant orders in the Catholic Church for centuries!
Your (name removed by moderator)ut is welcome and requested.
In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
IC XC NIKA