Dominique. Thank you for your feedback! We’re trying hard to improve communication throughout the Church.

Happy New Year,
Carl

Thank you for the blog arena. It is nice to have information about the information systems used by the church available to us.

I am currently the clerk in a small branch in up-state NY and a student working on my BS in computer engineering technology.

So of course my curiosity was peaked when we migrated from FIS to MLS as to the nature of the workings behind the new beast.

Since I consider myself to be a little bit of a techy I was wondering if there are any plans to create a secure knowledge base that as a clerk I would be able to query for FAQ’s?

I have many other questions about church computer connectivity and usage, but I feel this is not the place to ask them.

Thank you,
David

Google maps or something alike could play a very real role when extending home teaching and visiting teaching callings, in areas of the church where travel plays a large factor.

As fuel prices raise and household budgets tighten having a clear understanding of the resources needed to complete visiting and home teaching before praying about extending these callings would be helpful.

Of course one could say that these types of issues ought to already be considered, but with the large work loads already had on members in leadership and at time the large numbers of people that need support, considerations like the distance between families or individuals to be visited gets lost to the process and frequently unnecessary hardship may result.

As in all things a good balance of accurate information and working with the spirit moves the work forward.

Thank you for the opportunity.

I find all the comments interestings and truly believe that IT has a big part to play in the work of the Lord. In theory, distance should no longer be a concern. The administrative work of church leaders should be much lighter, which in turn enables them to concentrate on ministering to the people.

Christmas wishes from a stake president:
I just wish sometimes that in remote locations like Madagascar we did not have to go through the industrial revolution before we can benefit from the IT revolution (we still do reports with pen and paper). You mention somewhere else the you want to be the best: church IT in Madagascar is archaic compared to the local businesses who are utilizing the newest of technologies.

I also wish IT would really help us bridge the grand canyon gap between headquarters and our members. We need to relate more to our prophet, to general conference, to the “Mormon culture”, to all the teachings and writings from the church. Writing this comment, I feel like I am writing from the next door office. Why can’t it be like that with all the resources the church has to offer?

This one is probably only wishful thinking: what if you made the remote areas of the church first on the list of beneficiaries of the IT technologies to be used? I asked once when we may get MLS, MIS, MFS: sometimes before the millenium… Yet those would really help our bishops who are new members still in making their load of work lighter.

Somehow, even though this is a blog, it feels a bit like I am sending a message in a bottle, which may or may not be read once day.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Ron – We have already put networks into most of the family history centers (and thus the stake centers). We’re looking into the possibility of opening those networks up for use by MLS, and also at the possibility of putting more networks into more buildings. When you look at the big number it can feel cost prohibitive. But we’re doing the analysis.

J. Lee – We plan to do a lot more with mobile devices. We’re trying to get this first big rev out and then we’ll start to do more there. Also we’re working on the content flow tools to make it much easier for us to publish content.

Chris – yes, we are looking into the possitibilities of streaming video via the Internet. First step is Internet connectivity.

Rolf – we’re treating the dev tools question very seriously. We’ve become very productive in Java (after spending much time integrating our own stack). But for quick, simple, internal applications we think that .net will make our developers more productive. We’ll see if that ends up being the case. We’re dipping our toes in the water.

Naiah – I love working here. I never thought I’d stay as long as I have (2 years). But it’s wonderful. It has its challenges. But for me the rewards far outweigh the challenges. And some day I’m sure I’ll be fired. And I’m ok with that, too.

Greg – we’re always looking for great people!!

Michael – we’re currently studying whether and how much to allow developers to extend what we deliver. The mapping stuff would certainly be something we’d consider.

Many of you have asked about involvement. More coming on that in the coming months. We want to figure out how to harness the community! There is so much great passion and energy behind this work!! We LOVE it!

Hopefully I didn’t miss any questions. Thanks for your feedback!

Many times we build fully protected paths for IP connectivity world wide, forming an Intranet that is allowed to get to authorized internal church materials, but restricted from general open Internet access unless that specific access has been authorized in advance. This may prove to be an excellent protection for Church buildings and Church members.
In networks like this, we protect all traffic on the path against tampering of any kind, giving the church network a level of confidence that would be required to allow connectivity to more of our buildings. I’d be glad to discuss how we do this for other global organizations, it’s very effective and would give us the protection you clearly described here. It’s very safe, I can share the details with you anytime if you would value that. cheers, Ron

I am glad that I served in an area where I did not have such luxuries. However, this appears to be changing. In the mission where I live, all missionaries are given an email address and are allowed to write emails. I believe the mission president told me that this is allowed 1x a week and it’s supposed to be to their families. ?? An interesting change.

I wouldn’t mind this question being addressed.

Thanks