Skype

I just finished a good dialogue with Dr. Cotton and Mrs. Cotton using Skype. If you don't know (I just learned about it), Skype is a free online (video)phone service. Mark and Dr. Cotton sent out a few feeler emails about this a number of weeks ago, so we thought we ought to run an experiment: it was successful: fun, easy to do, edifying. The sound quality was great. We talked for about forty minutes, about school, spirituality, poetry. We shared a book recommendation or two. Talked about our families a bit.

Skype also facilitates conference calls, so the ultimate goal is to hold (occasional? regular?) community prayer meetings (lectio divina). We think that this resource may be important for the "non-geographical" part of our community. Please download it and experiment some. If you have the equipment (the minimum is a speaker and microphone, which are often built into computers), the process is very simple. Go to Skype.com. On the first page there is a button that says "download." I found that it practically set itself up from there. If you need help, though, I'm sure Mark would love to talk you through it.

You'll need to create a user name. That's how you contact people. If you're ready to give it a try, send one of us who've already done it an email and we'll set up an appointment to test it.

--Paul Corrigan