Ron Howell said...

This is a proven approach to true interactive design and should generate solution methods that have the potential to scale to the level the church needs to solve todays and tomorrows information handling challenges. The ideas and concepts with the most induring value will stand up to tought sessions such as these and go forward to the next level of scaleability and proof of concept testing. This is good design practice.
I applaud the iniative. Will there be a moderator or agenda for the sessions ?

January 2, 2007 11:05 pm #

Chris Hathaway said...

Anyway to get a recording of these after they happen; kind of a podcast sort of thing?

January 3, 2007 12:05 am #

Richard said...

Are there any plans to do this outside the US some time?

January 3, 2007 2:34 am #

Scott Raffensparger said...

NOTE: This will NOT be a discussion of MLS features.

Is there a discussion of MLS features ?

January 3, 2007 6:53 am #

Scott Mattes said...

I hope that you will also address customer response. I have reported problems with ebooks offered on the main site twice - I understand that they can’t respond to every report, but after more than 6 months the same problem is still there (the link to the plucker file for New Testament Students points to the Old Testament file, I just reported it again yesterday).

Also, for some ‘out here’ the PAF 5 refuses to export, making it hard to take files to the FHC to run through Temple Ready.

January 3, 2007 7:01 am #

Louise Rains said...

How about some kind of 2-way video/audio feed for those of us in the mission field?

January 3, 2007 7:18 am #

Don Martindale said...

I am an I.T. professional and am very interested in this discussion, however I live far away from the Wasatch Front. Would you please consider placing these discussions online in the form of a “webinar” so that everyone with interest and Internet access could participate?

I suggest having this a live, streaming discussion with a phone or fax number to submit questions that can be answered in a live Q&A session at the end of the program.

At a minimum, please tape this event and place it online as a streaming archive.

Thanks!

January 3, 2007 7:40 am #

jrj said...

Looking forward to those possible “Bay Area” dates!

January 3, 2007 7:46 am #

Sandi Tavolario said...

WOW! I think it is fabulous that you are having tech talks and will post excerpts so we can learn more about the technologies used to support the Church. As a new convert, one thing that added to my testimony, was the awesome use of technology to bring the inspired programs to the world. I especially like that we can view conference worldwide in so many languages, all at the same time, live as it is happening. And then anytime of the day I can search on any topic and learn and grow as well as prepare for teaching and sharing with others. I will enjoy learning more about the technologies that help make it all possible.

January 3, 2007 8:57 am #

Connor said...

I’ll be there! This sounds great, I’d love to get a sneak peek into the Church’s development practices.

January 3, 2007 10:07 am #

Daryl B. said...

Looking forward to the possible Seattle event!

January 3, 2007 10:22 am #

Chad Petty said...

Have you considered doing a session in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina? (Raleigh/Durham area). As home to IBM’s Software Group (and one of IBM’s largest sites), Lenovo, SAS, Cisco, and other tech companies, I think there would be a great deal of interest.

January 3, 2007 11:01 am #

Dale said...

I’d just like to second the idea of recording the entire event if possible and posting as a podcast or mp3. I understand there may be some concern over recorded content being more “set in stone” or being later taken out of context. But, for those of us in locations you’re not likely to visit (although Winter Quarters is nice this time of year ), the recording would be quite welcome. I assure you we’re as interested in the content as those who can attend in person. Thanks for the consideration and great idea with the tech talks.

January 3, 2007 12:09 pm #

More Good Foundation Blog » LDS Church Tech Talks said...

[…] ldscio.org View blog reactions Categories: Mormon, The Church, Technology, Posted at 12:20pm […]

January 3, 2007 12:20 pm #

Pete Arnett said...

A webcast, net meeting or just a one way video stream for those of us in the mission field would be great

We could even use Windows Media Player from Microsoft

January 3, 2007 5:28 pm #

Matt McGhee said...

A wonderful idea! Thanks for the info!

January 3, 2007 5:35 pm #

Justin said...

I think one of the most beneficial aspects to the prior tech talk I attended in the bay area had to do with a description of the problem - in this case, how to handle the HUGE volume of data associated with the digitizing and data mapping/association building of the data on the microfilms in the church’s vaults.

Too often we think “too small” with the problems faced before us in our callings. Or we “jump to solution space” in our efforts to solve the problem.

But it would be WONDERFUL to have a presentation of such challenges, and then have people break out into different groups/interests to later discuss (over time) how to tackle such problems.

You get many more eyes looking at the problem. You leverage the experience and expertise of so many more people out there to maximize your gains and minimize the pitfalls. Sometimes it stimulates conversation in other professional areas that ends up producing an answer to the problem, but from a non-LDS source (inspiration comes from many areas).

It takes some special project management skills as well as good communications channels, but I truly believe there are many, MANY saints out there who feel like they could contribute their time, technical talents and everything that the Lord has blessed them with in building up the kingdom. There just aren’t that many opportunities at the “leaf nodes” of the church, especially when you don’t live in the Wasatch front.

I’m willing to bet that what could come of this is similar to the vision I had read about many years ago (I can’t remember the name) from a leader in Idaho who saw people from many places working together on issues to build the kingdom.

They simply need to be shown a “big picture” or “pie in the sky” goals, and turn them loose to seek inspiration as they mull over the problem.

January 3, 2007 5:48 pm #

Albert Clawson said...

So how does one go about making requests - even offering to be the guinea pig for trial systems? Far from the Wasatch Front my chance for attending these types of meetings is { }…. with whom can we communicate?

January 3, 2007 7:26 pm #

Michael Steele said...

I live in NY. mp3’s would be helpful. Thank you.

January 3, 2007 7:37 pm #

Larry A. Peterson said...

For a number of years I served as a “User Representative” for a major IT organization. Although I have done some limited programming my job was to see that the user was getting what they needed. Brain-storming sessions involving users was valuable.

I understand that there are time / travel limitations. An interesting meeting might be a group who are actually serving as Ward website administrators. See what they have to say.

You could have a focus group for YM / YW of individuals in those organizations on why, and why not do they use the Ward Web site, and what it would take to really fill their needs, and even their appraisals of what are their needs.

We have an amazing number of members with great and creative ideas. I think some individual, targeted, face-to-face and even some repetitutive ones could be very productive to the long term benefit of the Church.

I think Ward web sites have lots of potiential. Some changes need to be elevated on the priority list! I would even drive to Salt Lake to participate in several sessions.

January 3, 2007 7:55 pm #

Mike Jones said...

Wow. I’ll put the Provo one on my calendar and hope for a good discussion. Love the blog and love the open approach to finding best practices and best technologies.

January 3, 2007 7:58 pm #

Lynn Watson said...

I have long thought that a forum of this type would be appropriate for the tech community in the Church. I appreciate your willingness to step out by sharing and moderating such.

I’ll plan on coming down (from Boise) to the session in SLC. Thanks in advance for sponsoring it.

========

My comment for your consideration –

Is there a potential for a Church-wide collaborative effort in your development efforts? To clarify: the development world is familiar with and embraces the success of OpenSource projects. There are large and widely accepted tools for remote management, Q/A, etc. to harness the power of collaborative work.

The model is not without precedence in the Church. Look at the way extraction and genealogy work is being done today. In some ways, it’s a distributed, albeit low-tech, version of open-source-like contributions of various languages, cultures, information collection, etc. I believe there could be found a large set of gifted programmers, developers, even testers who have spare bandwidth to dedicate to IT and other key Church projects. I know that I personally would love to be able to use some of the talents developed over decades towards furthering the Kingdom. Talents that really can’t be tapped in a typical Stake/Ward calling structure. Talents that co-exist with faithful, dedicated saints all over the world.

While it would take some management infrastructure and oversight, my contention here for your brief consideration is that there really could be a huge benefit and net gain from voluntarily contributed, but remote, efforts.

January 4, 2007 10:07 am #

James W. Anderson said...

I’d like to see the tech talks or important excerpts from them in mp3 format so I can download them and listen on the bus to Salt Lake, during breaks on other projects I’m doing, etc. There are times when video is not practical to watch, so doing both an mp3 and video format version after these are over will help both preferences.

I think you’ll find that there will be things said in both meetings that are different from each other and may need to be included in the mp3 and, if taped for video, the video version, after both of these tech talks are held. Just like takes done on a movie set, you never get the same thing quite exactly twice in a given meeting either.

And if the ‘webinar’ idea goes on in the future, making an mp3 and if practical a video available afterward might be great as well. .

Obviously separate from the tech talks, I would love to work on/in focus groups for things like lds.org and its pages and departments, the MLS software, and the other things that are the end result of all this that will be widely used by the members and leaders. That’s another day, but wanted to register my interest in participating in those.

I’ll most likely see you in Provo.

January 4, 2007 10:43 am #

Dan Hilton said...

Do you have any plans to discuss what types of metrics the church collects on its sites, how it uses the metrics to make the web sites better and what programs it uses to analyze the data? I do web metrics for a living so I would love to see how the church uses data to improve the user experience on its web sites.

January 4, 2007 12:08 pm #

Ben Habing said...

Hi,

Very cool blog… My stepmother led me on to it just before Christmas. Needless to say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your thoughts and the comments of others. And whether or not the Church supports it I’m glad to see that there is a senior tech voice out there somehow connected to the Kingdom.

I too would be very interested in listening/reading/viewing any notes you might have available from these techtalks. I have such a passion for Technology and love to hear how other companies/organizations are solving their own IT related issues.

Please let me know if you’re ever in the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada area. I’d love to attend! In the meantime any notes/slides/mp3 you might have is appreciated.

Kind Regards.

January 4, 2007 12:36 pm #

Richard said...

Personally, I’m not so much into sw development but I think I could get you a chapel full of people who would be interested in learning about the church’s general approach to IT and its role in the mission of the church. Would be a great idea for a fireside type of thing next time you’re in Europe.

BTW, noticed you use MS Project - enterprise version or stand alone?

January 5, 2007 2:32 am #

Mark Mathson said...

I am in the same boat as Don Martindale, and others I presume. I am approx. 10 hours away and would love to be involved, however, will not be able to physically attend. Have you considered having this or other discussions in a Webinar style meeting?

January 5, 2007 12:37 pm #

Gary Dusbabek said...

This might be a silly question, but I notice the event in Provo is at a chapel. What kind of dress is expected?

I don’t plan to come in jeans or cut-offs, but I typically reserve my shirt and tie for Sundays.

January 5, 2007 1:52 pm #

Nathan said...

On such short notice, I couldn’t possibly make the Utah dates.

Any consideration for coming East with the information/presentation?

Looking forward to what ever additional information you maybe posting.

January 5, 2007 1:54 pm #

Jeff VanDrimmelen said...

Great idea. It’s tempting to arrange trips out to SL just for a seminar like this. I second Chad Petty’s idea for a it talk in Raleigh, but since I know that is probably not going to happen (after all, you aren’t here to give us talks), please post as much info as possible for us living far away (which seems like a majority of users on here).

Love the blog. Thanks for the updates! I also love the idea of a community of church members contributing in any way we could to an any projects you are working on. I certainly have some time and a few technical skills. Anything for building up the kingdom of God!

January 5, 2007 2:14 pm #

Mark Bell said...

I don’t know if this is the right place to speak up and I am unable to attend, but have a suggestion:

I often cut and paste verses of scripture from lds.org and send the verses to friends who I feel will benefit from the words.

It takes me a while to strip out the cross reference links. Along with:

PRINT LISTEN

can another option be included to “Remove Cross Reference” or can the little cross reference letters when “Print” is selected be removed?.

January 5, 2007 2:15 pm #

Dave - Southern CA said...

Dear Joel,

I was one of the first beta testers for Family Search Indexing after years of receiving CDs of images from the Church, and what I found was the lack of communication capability back to the appropriate people in Salt Lake was the major problem that the development department had. I am so glad to see that you’re using the technology of blogging to get feedback directly to you.

May I suggest you set more of these blogs for the appropriate departments, and or people, so they can get direct feedback from Stake Directors and other interested people.

Please remember that we are all going to have to return and report some day, so I see this as very important that you create an easy two way communication method for the appropriate departments, so that we can all magnify our callings.

I look forward to seeing the excerpts of the two programs and be ABLE TO GIVE FEEDBACK to the appropriate people/departments.

I have design improvement suggestions for Family Search Indexing that I would really, like to get to the right person.

Thanks again for the starting of using a blog. . .

January 5, 2007 3:01 pm #

Chris Rowan said...

Thank you so very much for this initiative.

I come from and engineering background and have been in SW/database development accros numerous platforms for over 15 years. I trust that these sessions may highlight the need to “assimilate” the many “islands of information” held in many departments of the church (Membership, CES etc). As an “end-user” of this information I find that the slogan “one church” does not seem to ring true at times.

Personally, I am not concerned where you are having these sessions only that you are, in fact, having them.

Good luck

January 5, 2007 3:58 pm #

Diego said...

A good number of Brazilian church members are IT professionals. I believe that the response is no, but you have interest in make one Tech Talk here in Brazil? São Paulo Caxingui Meetinghouse (near the Temple) is one good place.

OK… Its a hard possibility, I know…! But we can dreaming too, hehehehe

January 5, 2007 7:27 pm #

George Fewell said...

I am extremely interested in knowing if the Church has a standard for telecommunications infrastructure. I have been designing copper and fiber infrastructure (pathways and spaces) for many years. I worked for a company in Seattle a few years ago that did the copper and fiber pathway design for the Conference Center (I did most of the design) and look forward to the discussion on wireless and building connectivity as well as infrastructure and data center issues.

January 5, 2007 9:31 pm #

Gregor McHardy said...

Like Justin and Lynn, I too am very interested in discussing the possibility of open source development where folks who live outside the main population centers of the Church could devote their time and talents to developing software solutions that would enhance the effectiveness of all of us that labor in a worldwide kingdom.

I can’t help but relate a story frim my Mother that illustrates how us non-Utahns feel about well-meaning, but centralized development. She was converted to the Church in Minnesota, and was soon called as the Trailblazer teacher in Primary. One of the first lessons she read in the manual told her to “take the boys out into the canyon” for an activity. There are few canyons to be found in Minnesota.

Heaven knows we all want to be more cosmopolitan, but until we actually get out in the world, we will not see where we fall short. You have dozens if comments here from people around the country (and perhaps around the globe) who desperately want to be a part of software development in the Church, be that in design, development, or testing. Perhaps, instead of considering how to bring your ideas physically to a few, you might want to consider how to virtually contact, manage, and harness the many.

Through the technology of webinars you could teach us your design environments and testing standards. Who knows? With as many of us as are out here ready to help, and the collective experience we bring to the table, you might ask for a solution and get fully developed modules practically ovrtnight.

Yes, I can hear now the queasiness brewing in your stomach as you consider allowing a bunch of us hackers to muck up your work. But that is what we do every week in ward council; what stake presidents do when they send high council out to speak. There is too much work in the kingdom than can be done by just a few. Let us in! Let us help. Yes, you’ll spend more time managing than developing, but your end product will have fewer “canyons” for all of us.

January 6, 2007 2:45 am #

Carl W. Filiaga said...

As an I.T. professional and Priesthood leader I’m very interested in participating in these tech talks. I hope you can use some type of webinar in the future. American Samoa is a long way away from Church Headquarters.

January 6, 2007 2:47 am #

ldsit said...

I think you should also consider The Great State of Texas (Dallas/Austin/Houston). There’s a huge IT community here.

January 6, 2007 12:47 pm #

Michael Damron said...

Great site. Just subscribed?

* Tech talks webnar/podcast/skype callins?
* “Open source” church software — so non Utah residents can help…. I’m not moving back to Utah anytime soon, but I’d like to help if possible…
* Suggestions to “fix” ward web sites… features get sent where? My request die at the Stake level. (Non techy Stake Admin?)
* More? Probably….

January 6, 2007 2:33 pm #

Chris Johnson said...

Oh that is soo fun!! I wish I could attend, or contribute in some way. I work as a Quality Assurance Analyst for my company 2000 miles or so away from Salt Lake City. I would love to help in any way I could.

Anyways… You mentioned you will not be recording it? Could you reconsider?

January 6, 2007 7:22 pm #

Evan Child said...

Amen to the Houston/Dallas/Austin option for a tech talk. There are many of us IT folks out here. I would love to participate in a “tech talk” with the technology leaders of the church.

January 7, 2007 8:47 am #

David Carter said...

Where will the tech talk “nuggets” be posted? I’m in California, unfortunately I can’t attend.

January 7, 2007 8:50 am #

Joel Dehlin: Tech Talk Agenda said...

[…] We’ve finalized the tech talk agenda and are pretty excited about it. […]

January 7, 2007 4:06 pm #

Nate Niederhausern said...

Great blog. Looking forward to a Seattle Tech Talk.

January 7, 2007 9:44 pm #

Herbert Munguia Canales said...

It looks great, but unfortunately for us in Central America is just good news, we will
enjoy everything that you can post to get to know what you do, I’m interested about
open source, I only work with Microsoft, Oracle and DB2 and don’t know much about that, Thanks for let us know

January 8, 2007 9:24 am #

Gordon said...

Will this focus on church related software? For example Family History Software? If so, will this be focused towards the user level, or for those of us supporting it?

[Joel: Hello Gordon. Neither. It will be focused on how we build the software.]

January 9, 2007 11:12 am #

Joel Finlinson said...

Only those local to SLC and Provo have input that is valuable? I don’t see why these meetings can’t at least be shown on the Church’s satellite system and sent to any interested parties at the corresponding Stake/Ward buildings throughout the world…. You keep saying that it’s not possible, yet each General Conference it happens with live on-the-Internet feeds, satellite, etc. The Training departments are using technology to “broadcast information to the world”. Is it not ironic that the technology department of the Church can’t use it too?

Come on now, let’s get as many people involved and as much input as possible.

[Joel: Hello Joel. It’s difficult to get input via a one-to-many satellite broadcast. We’ve considered doing a broadcast as you suggest but more as an information sharing tool as opposed to a feedback gathering tool. We’re going to try a couple of these where its convenient and then determine whether or not to expand further. Thanks for your interest!]

January 10, 2007 11:59 am #

Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People » Nerdly Nerding This Thursday said...

[…] The Church’s CIO is going to be giving his first Tech Talk this Thurdsday at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in SLC. […]

January 15, 2007 10:06 pm #

matt harrison said...

I attended the tech talk. Good job guys. Here’s my blog report

January 19, 2007 10:50 am #

Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People » LDS CIO Tech Talk said...

[…] I attended the Salt Lake edition of Church’s Tech Talks last night. It was well attended, with the keynote pretty much filling up the chapel on the mezzanine level of Joseph Smith Memorial Building, so I would guess there were about 200 people there. It was an older crowd than I was expecting. I had no idea that there were so many geriatric nerds. Note that there will be a similar gathering in Provo on the 23rd. Follow the link for details. I was going to do a full write up but my brother has beat me to it on his blog. So go visit his site now and then come back. Since we attended the same sessions it would be redundant for me to do the full write up, but I’ll add some comments on things that I found interesting. […]

January 19, 2007 11:21 am #

Mike St. Clair said...

For Joel:

Thanks for your outreach. It’s greatly appreciated by those of us who are watching and appreciating the way the Church has been exploiting technology.

For Scott Mattes:

Regarding your problem getting PAF to export for TempleReady, I haven’t heard of that problem and I communicate extensively with PAF users world-wide. I’d love to help you with your problem. You can contact me via my website. Note that a new process to replace TempleReady is already being rolled out and is implemented in some temple districts.

January 23, 2007 1:27 pm #

Connor’s Conundrums | Tech Talk said...

[…] Last night I had the awesome privilege of attending the Provo LDS Tech Talk spearheaded by the Church’s CIO. It was a great opportunity to rub shoulders w/ some of the Church’s designers and developers. Among others, I was able to meet Joel Dehlin, Tadd Giles, Gilbert Lee, Jason Lynes, Randy Hall, and Aaron Barker. […]

January 24, 2007 8:41 am #

James Francisco said...

Joel,

I’m also sure that we could get a good crowd together here in the Phoenix area for a round of tech talks. My company is a large IT consumer and we have a lot of experience working in a mixed .Net framework/Java environment. I personally would love to see how another big organization handles content delivery.

January 24, 2007 6:12 pm #

Karl Greenwood said...

I think it would be great if the Tech page could be added to the Links on this blog.

[Joel: Will do. Thanks!]

January 25, 2007 12:11 pm #

Stephanie Barry said...

Although I did not attend the TechTalks, I have been anxiously awaiting them so that I may participate in the discussions. As a future instructional designer, interaction design interests me, especially as it relates to the Church’s youth and young adults on the web. Thank you for the chance to see where the Church is going with technology.

To the out of area bloggers, we’re all techies here! We know how to participate vicariously in these TechTalks without feeling bad about their physical locale, right?!

January 26, 2007 4:25 am #

Richard K Miller said...

I attended both sessions of the tech talks, so I have notes on 6 of the 8 classes for anybody that couldn’t make it:

http://blog.moregoodfoundation.org/2007/01/report-on-lds-church-tech-talks/

January 26, 2007 9:18 am #

Kathryn Grant said...

Mark Bell wrote, regarding the online scriptures,

“Can the little cross reference letters when ‘Print’ is selected be removed?”

Yes, just check “Hide footnote indicators” at the top of the Print screen.

Kathryn

January 27, 2007 8:55 pm #

Doug Thomas said...

Hi Joel - I am involved with the New Mexico Chapter of the BYU Management Society. I was wondering if you would be interested in coming and doing one of your tech talks to our group! We would love to have you. Please contact me if you would like to do so.
Thanks very much
Doug

January 29, 2007 6:30 pm #

bambino said...

Interesting comments..

February 17, 2007 9:35 pm #

dizionario said...

Nice site you have!

February 22, 2007 12:19 pm #

bambini said...

Lavoro eccellente! ..ringraziamenti per le informazioni..realmente lo apprezzo: D

[Joel: You’re welcome!]

February 24, 2007 10:04 am #

Kim said...

I need to find free software to manage our ward library. Are there any such programmers in the Chruch that can provide a basic inventory tracking program? Many times our people ask for library material and we are not sure if we have it or where to look for it. I have tried the OpenOffice Base but it is a bit awckward to sure and does not sort the way Excell does. Surely as much as the Church uses technology there are a few programmers willing to develop a simple library inventory and search program.

January 6, 2008 9:51 am #