A Modest Distributed Labor Proposal

Down yonder, a reader writes:

Ever consider doing a list of questions asked in a particular
Q&A show for the whole set of shows on Catholic.com Sometimes I
want something fun to listen to so I’ll pick one at random. Othertimes
I’d like to hear an answer to a question I have, and having a list of
the questions asked as a pop-up or heads-up display would be really
keen.

I don’t have the time to do this, I’m afraid. I can make up question lists for all of my shows from here on out, but I’m not able to go back and do the whole run–for my own shows, much less everybody else’s. (Among other things, I have a blog to write.)

That being said, I recognize the value of doing this and I’m not opposed to the idea–if I can get some help doing it.

Tell ‘ya what:

  • Y’all can see the level of detail and way I’m describing the questions.
  • If anybody wants to volunteer to do a block of shows, e-mail me and I’ll let you know which ones to do (this way we won’t have people duplicating efforts by picking the same shows).
  • Each block would be a month on the calendar (typically three to six shows of mine).
  • You tell me how many blocks you’d like to volunteer for (mininum commitment = 1 block; assinging individual shows rather than blocks would be a bookkeeping nightmare).
  • Then you do the question lists (which only takes a few minutes per show since you can jump forward once you get the sense of a question–unless you want to listen to the whole show ’cause you’re interested), e-mail them back to me, and I’ll post them.

If we can work through the backlog of my shows, that would show that there are enough people out there interested in doing this that it would make sense to do it for the rest of the shows as well, at which point I would propose it to the folks in the Web and Radio Departments at Catholic Answers that we get this all done via volunteers and then post it all on Catholic.Com so everyone can benefit from it.

If they say yes, we do it. (If they say no, we don’t do it, but I’m pretty sure they’d say yes if the data is offered to them and I’ve already proven that there are enough volunteers by doing my own shows, which are about a fifth of the total.)

Whadda y’all think?

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

8 thoughts on “A Modest Distributed Labor Proposal”

  1. Thanks, Mike! I’ve sent you an e-mail about what block to do. Most people are contacting me by e-mail, so the comments box doesn’t have an up-to-date list of whose taking what.

  2. Jimmy,
    I sent you the whole 11/04 list…I suppose I’ll begin work on 11/03, and just do all the Novembers. I’m announcing this so we don’t get wasted duplication.

  3. Hi Mr. Akin,
    I am a calive listener and a blog reader. I´ve been reading about the Volunteer
    Radio Program you have stablished in your blog and thought this might be of
    insterest to your growing community.
    I´ve been listenning to Calive for almost 3 years now, and sometimes I´ve had the need
    to consult this or that particular topic presented in a show and catholic.com´s search
    engine is not very useful :D. As we say in spanish: “La necesidad es la madre de la
    inventia”.So…what I´ve developed a small MS Access data base with the particular
    data of a given show (date, guest, show name, etc), plus a key words field.
    Since it is sometimes dificult for some of your listners to give a straight forward
    question ;).
    Even though I´ve downloaded every show and heard almost everyone of them, so far I´ve
    entered 365 in my DB, 150 of those have you as the guest. This is mostly because (1)by the
    time I thought of this I´ve heard a lot of shows, and (2) I do not enter in the database
    some of the spiritual/emotional shows…most of the shows in the db are Q&A and Scholarly
    shows (e.g. “The Tenets and principles of Islam”).
    Any how…I you think this can help I can sent it to you…I now It´s not as good as having
    the question itself in the DB, but it´s searchable an it is useful.
    Saludos,
    Miguel Carranza

  4. Everyday at work I listen to 3 or four of your shows. It would be easy for me to write down the questions if you wish. Just let me know.
    Mat

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