IMC 2007, at the Calvin College Prince Conference Center in Grand Rapids, MI, runs Wednesday evening, September 19 through 12:30 p.m. Saturday, September 22.

This fall's IMC will feature a special Internet Evangelism track that will serve as the Internet Evangelism Coalition's (IEC) Annual Meeting. The Internet Evangelism track will include speakers, workshops and networking with others involved in online evangelism.

Register online today: www.internetministryconference.org.

IEC members receive a reduced IMC registration rate of $300 now through July 15, a savings of $150 off the general registration rate. IEC members may also be eligible for additional registration discounts or for a free conference registration.

Contact Wendy Walker, IEC Program Assistant, (mailto:iec@webevangelism.com or 630.752.5156) for the IEC Member registration code you'll need when registering online or for more information about additional discounts.

IMC registration includes some meals, but does NOT include lodging. Participants are responsible for their own hotel reservations. Information on hotels near the conference center is available at www.internetministryconference.org/venue-and-travel.

Speakers at this year's IMC Internet Evangelism Track include:

• Debra Brown, Brown Governance - Evangelism in Second Life
• David Bruce, HollywoodJesus.org - Exciting Opportunities within Our Changing Culture
• John Edmiston, CyberMissions.org - Internet Evangelism, Shoe-string Start-up
• Karen Schenk, TruthMedia Internet Group
• John Sorenson, Evangelism Explosion - Effective Models for Evangelistic Testimonies
• And other leading Internet Evangelism practitioners and visionaries!

If you're not currently a member of the IEC, or need to renew your membership, join now and you'll still receive the discounted registration rate for this fall's meeting. Learn more about IEC membership at www.webevangelism.com (click on Membership) or email iec@webevangelism.com.

The website also provides submission forms for prayer requests and praise reports, as well as resources for pastors and lay persons. "We want to help strengthen peoples' personal prayer lives and develop prayer ministries in the local church," states James Meredith, assistant director and resource development coordinator for the NPC.

The NPC was established in 1994 to provide a call center for people seeking help through prayer. Since its establishment, millions of calls and requests have been received by phone and through the Web site, email, fax and mail.

That's exactly what's happening all over the country. Regardless of how private you may feel your pages are, the fact is, if you're online, you're in public. And college admissions counselors are keenly interested in what you have to say on your site.

"Posting on the Web is like standing next to someone and wondering why they hear your conversation," says Nate Mouttet, assistant vice president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) in Washington, D.C. "Because Web sites are public information, it is something admissions offices can and sometimes do use. If it contradicts the way you present yourself in your application or interview, the admissions office will probably take that into account."

It's not that you shouldn't be involved in social networks online, Mouttet says, but you just need to be conscious that what you post is open for all to read.

"Conversations we've never had time for are coming together online. The profiles and pictures are revealing things about us that might take years to come out," says Pastor Dan Beasley. His Calvary Community Church in Maryland has 100 members in its MyChurch.org community.

Pastor Beasley adds, "We're seeing folks show their true gifts. People we didn't know as teachers are emerging in the blogs, and encouragement and mercy are shown in the comments."

Social networking can also empower missionaries and travelers to stay connected with their home church. "I love it that MyChurch makes it possible for our members in Sri Lanka and Dubai to participate in the life of our community," comments Pastor Jim Somerville of First Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Pastor Somerville uploads his sermons onto First Baptist's MyChurch page for members who missed his Sunday preaching, or for congregants who want to comment and discuss afterwards.

Videos are flooding the Net, from first run movies and classic TV shows to user-generated, amateur videos. TV networks and local TV stations and magazines, offer shows online, either ad-supported or as for-pay downloads. Britain's ITV says it will stream all its TV channels over the Internet.

Amazon and AOL joined Apple, CinemaNow, Movielink and Starz to sell movie and television show downloads. Microsoft turned the Xbox 360 videogame console into a networked entertainment device, offering over 1,000 hours of downloadable movies and TV episodes. Sony is reportedly following suit with its PlayStation 3. Apple TV lets consumers watch the movies and TV shows they downloaded from iTunes to their PC on the TV.

General Video sites include: YouTube; AddictingClips; Blip.TV; Metacafe; and AOL Video. BitTorrent launched with content from studios, uses P2P technology to deliver large video files fast. Netflix makes titles available for instant streaming for those who don't want to wait the day it takes for a DVD to arrive. The start-up Joost promises "the best of TV and the Internet in a TV-like experience" that offers the social networking and community features of a Web 2.0 site.

There is a fee charged for the full report from Rider Research.

The report finds that nearly half (47%) of all adult Americans now have a high-speed Internet connection at home, according to a February 2007 survey conducted by Pew. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 42% in early 2006 and 30% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the Internet at home, 70% have a high-speed connection while 23% use dialup.

The 12% growth rate from 2006 to 2007 trails the 40% increase in the 2005 to 2006 timeframe, when many people in the middle-income and older age groups acquired home broadband connections. Those groups continued to show increases in home broadband adoption into early 2007, but at lower rates than in the past.

FORBES.COM: Staying Plugged In At 30,000 Feet 

BBC: Online Auction For Security Bugs

CNN: Cats In China Saved In Part By Internet Activism