Open Source Developers Wanted for Mormon Community Development Efforts
May 20, 2009 | By Joel Dehlin | 19 Comments
If you’re a developer or a tester or a designer, and you’re Mormon, or even if you’re not, come play!
The Church has been working to figure out a way to allow folks who want to contribute to its missions to do so. We’re ready for help!
We now have applications you can work on, a sandbox with web services, source control, bug tracking and even a requirements for participation. 
The most immediate need is the re-write of the stake and ward web site. We are working on an International web site (10 languages to start with) which will allow members to log in, and view or print their stake/ward directory, see a list of ward leaders, read the ward/stake blog, edit & view the ward/stake/Church calendar, and so forth.
Interested?
Read more here.
The first component you can start on immediately is the calendar portion. It’s built on our Java stack, which you can read about here. You can also read up on our “community development best practices.”
Tom Welch is our “community development” manager. His contact information is on the web sites.
Come join us! We’re ready for your help!!
Joseph Scott said...
I went looking for Tom Welch’s contact information on the wiki, proved to be a bit more work than I expected. So here’s a direct link to his contact info:
https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/User:Welchtc
May 20, 2009 3:56 pm #
Mike Heath said...
This is really cool and I’m really excited about the community development going on at the Church. So, I don’t mean to sound too pedantic when I say that you need to careful about what terminology you use because describing this endeavor as ‘open source’ is not accurate. It clearly doest not follow the open source definition, http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php.
That being said, is there any reason for not licensing these community projects and the LDS Java Stack under an OSI approved open source license? There is a lot in the Java Stack that I would like to use in my own projects but cannot because the Church hasn’t granted me permission to do so.
May 20, 2009 4:44 pm #
Joel Dehlin said...
Mike, you’re right. We’re actually calling what we’re doing “community development” and not open source.
Ping Tom on your licensing questions.
We’re excited about the community involvement. Spread the word!
May 20, 2009 6:17 pm #
Rich Wilcox said...
At last! As a developer and a frequent user of church software such as ward websites and MLS, I’ve been hoping for a chance to contribute and improve church software. It drives me nuts when I use the software and see improvements that could be made, but am unable to do anything about it. Thanks for finally making this available!
May 20, 2009 10:26 pm #
Doug Brockbank said...
Having worked at the Church previously, I welcome the opportunity to participate. How refreshing to have a CIO and management team which recognizes the “we are smarter than me”!
May 21, 2009 7:01 am #
LDS Tech » Blog Archive » LDS IT executive requests help for internal IT projects said...
[...] They need help with project management, design, development, and testing (QA). From the blog of Joel Dehlin, the LDS [...]
May 21, 2009 10:08 am #
Joel Dehlin said...
Glad for your interest everyone! To be clear, the stake and ward web site will primarily be written in JScript, talking to web services on the back end.
Jump in and put your shoulder to the wheel!
May 21, 2009 12:08 pm #
Mark Glossop said...
Hi Joel,
First, good to see that the Church is starting to engage the general membership in these projects: there’s a wealth of knowledge out there just waiting to be tapped into [albeit some of that knowledge is a dangerous thing for certain members I'm acquainted with that also work in IT
]
Having said that – overall, there are some things I’m a little disappointed about:
* the tacit acceptance of JEE as the “preferred” development stack [https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/LDS_Java_Stack]
* in the same vein, https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Community_Database – looking at some of that Hibernate/SQL code made me want to stab myself in my eyes. Some things can’t be unseen.
* Oracle _or_ MySQL? Right now, there’s an ongoing discussion on the SAGE-AU lists about Oracle and PostgreSQL compatibility. Was Postgres even considered as an option? Particularly when the “merits” of a DB-agnostic ORM tool (Hibernate, in this case) are being extolled?
* using Subversion as the SCM tool of choice. Seriously? You’re proposing _distributed_ development across the face of the planet, yet options for DVCS such as git or mercurial (or even bazaar or darcs) aren’t even mentioned. Again – disappointing.
In case it wasn’t obvious, I jumped off the Java bandwagon some time ago
I think for now I may just limit my potential involvement to the https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/IPhone_Scriptures_Application for now, and see what the future brings. Besides, I’ve got little enough time as it is
Let me reiterate that it is great to see the Church engaging in this sort of collaborative effort – I do think it’s overdue, but I understand that the Church is not generally regarded as being at the “leading edge” of tech, let alone the “bleeding edge”. I hope that the future brings more attention to innovation in LDS Tech, and I look forward to ongoing developments.
May 21, 2009 1:57 pm #
Daniel said...
I follow this blog as a technology licensing attorney, not a developer, but I just wanted to chime in to say I think this is a cool way to harness talents of Church members. I look forward to seeing what comes of this and other IT projects in the works.
May 21, 2009 3:28 pm #
Kent Larsen said...
I’m also interested in the answer to Mike Heath’s question.
Why not license the software developed for anyone to use?
Even if this doesn’t fit the definition of Open Source exactly, couldn’t you get it as close as possible?
I am sure that there are many other organizations and people, including many LDS Church members, who could benefit from the software produced by these efforts.
May 22, 2009 10:04 am #
Going Social and Open Source | Times & Seasons, An Onymous Mormon Blog said...
[...] Church’s Chief Information Officer, Joel Dehlin, called for help Wednesday in a post titled Mormon Open Source Open for Business. The project seeks help with a number of LDS Church projects, including, first on the list, a [...]
May 22, 2009 2:52 pm #
Mark Hansen said...
I’m certainly not a developer, but I’ve got a hint for those working on stake and ward websites. Make them a little easier to get into. Finding your membership numbers or baptismal dates before you can even get access? No wonder I never log in…
May 22, 2009 11:19 pm #
A Very Experienced true open source developer said...
Joel, you ARE using the term “Open Source” to describe your work, and improperly at that despite your denial. Read your own title to this story! Your use of the term Open Source is specifically what brought me here!
People can read about what Open Source TRULY and unambiguously is and is not at opensource.org and fsf.org.
Very disappointing but not surprising that Mormons would try to redefine critical terms from other communities for their own use, if you know what I mean!
PS – What’s with the call for secrecy in your “Individual Contributor’s License Agreement”? Once someone contributes to your project, that are not allowed to say under what terms they did so? Huh? How do you call that Open in any sense whatsoever?
May 27, 2009 6:54 am #
Joel Dehlin said...
This is an effort to get those in the community who so desire to help us develop web sites.
We’re calling it “community development” internally. You’re right. “Open source” is a total misnomer for what we’re doing it. I’ve changed the title to be more explicit and less confusing.
Thanks!
May 27, 2009 7:20 am #
A call for help improving Lds.org | A Soft Answer said...
[...] message should disappear at your next visit.Thanks for visiting!The Church’s CIO has issued a call for anyone interested in helping develop and test “Mormon community development efforts… (I suppose that means stuff on the website). Sounds like some promising updates in store for the [...]
May 27, 2009 12:13 pm #
Robert B said...
I think this is a great idea. I got to work in the office a bit during my mission and found great satisfaction in being able to volunteer my specific technical talents to the Work.
Given that the Church isn’t planning on monetizing the IP here, I think it would be really great if the code in question were truly Open Sourced. (The term Open Source is what brought me to this blog.) I’m a big fan of DVCS and Java isn’t my language of choice, but one can’t have everything. Looking forward to what happens and maybe I’ll even find the time to contribute.
June 24, 2009 9:18 pm #
Judith A. Cryts said...
Joel: Unrelated to the present topic. However, I am looking for information and hope that you or someone else can help me out. I am a member of the Jamestown, Williamsburg, VA Ward. I am trying to find out information about the proposed new construction of a church in Louisa, VA. Can you put me on to the proper person to contact. Any information you can offer will be appreciated.
Much luck with your Mormon Community Development Project. Is there some way I can contribute here from Virginia? Please let me know.
Thank you and have a pleasant day. Judith
July 2, 2009 5:35 am #
CT said...
I’m certainly not a developer, but I’ve got a hint for those working on stake and ward websites. Make them a little easier to get into. Finding your membership numbers or baptismal dates before you can even get access? No wonder I never log in…
October 5, 2009 2:07 pm #
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