- What is NerdComm?
- NerdComm is the "information services" group of the Cross Products, a collegiate Christian a cappella singing group at MIT .
- Huh? Why on earth would a Christian singing group need/want an "information services" group?
- Aside from the fact that we're from MIT and are therefore geeks at heart, NerdComm exists because there's a lot of neat and important stuff that can be done with computers in support of a collegiate Christian a cappella group.
- What kind of stuff has NerdComm done?
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The first services that NerdComm provided to the Cross Products were a couple of internal emailing lists, an online "locker" directory for file storage, a "zephyr" instance for easy communication on the Athena multi-user system, and a message of the day for Cross Products when they logged on.
And then came the World-Wide Web. Web pages turned out to be very handy for collegiate a cappella groups (just look at all the groups that have pages). The Cross Products were actually the third collegiate group in the country to have a home page on the Web. We found the Web very useful for promoting upcoming performances, finding new members, and "getting the Word out."
After about the first year of Web-presence, NerdComm created a list of collegiate Christian a cappella groups page. In so doing, we broadened our focus (and workload!) to include supporting not only the needs of the Cross Products but also the needs of the general collection of collegiate Christian a cappella groups. Inter-group emailing lists were created, intergroup communication grew (and continues to do so), and eventually a whole lot of other online services were consolidated under a large single collegiate Christian a cappella web site.
- Okay, you're nerds and you do nerdly stuff. How does God figure into all this?
- NerdComm is a ministry, and the members of NerdComm perform their nerdly tasks as servants of the Lord, particularly with a focus on reaching out to those who need to know Him (i.e., all of us). Sure, NerdComm isn't "where the rubber meets the road," as far as outreach goes, but the work that NerdComm does supports the good work that collegiate Christian a cappella groups are doing, enabling those groups to do more and reach more people for Christ. No, we don't always see the end results for ourselves, but that's just the way some ministries are, and that's just fine.
- Can I be involved in the NerdComm ministry?
- Just ask, I'm sure we can find something for you to do. We've got a token member from outside of MIT, maybe you can help make it a trend.
- So what are NerdComm's future plans?
- We'll let you know when we do.