October 1st, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 5 Comments »
The Church has released a new web site dedicated to stake technology specialists.
Click here to peruse.
We will be improving it over time. The next big feature will be forums where specialists can ask and answer technical questions.
August 31st, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 3 Comments »
Over at LDS Tech, Tom Welch has posted an article on some of the power features of the online scriptures. Check it out.
August 22nd, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 4 Comments »
I received a number of thoughtful responses to my last post (Digital Media Peril) which discusses the dangers of having all of your pictures and movies on your computer rather than in shoe boxes in your closet. Folks should feel free to keep posting comments there, but I’m going to summarize some principles I see emerging in the thread and some additional thoughts I’ve had.
1. Start now. Some solution is better than no solution. The risking losing your pictures and videos is a very real danger. Get it fixed now. There is a risk that if you implement a sub-optimal solution with the intention to “fix it” later that you’ll get complacent and never get around to fixing it. Or that the solution won’t work in 10, 20, 50 years. It’s better to do something instead of nothing and to continue evaluating your solution and looking for something better.
2. Redundancy. Implement multiple solutions to cover yourself in case one goes awry.
3. Online backup. I think online backup is a great way to go: Flickr, Mozy, .mac, whatever. You get the added benefit of easy photo sharing. There is a risk that you’ll put all of your content up on some web site and that it will close down. 1) I think the likeihood that a mass storage web site will disappear with no warning, without someone purchasing the assets & customers, etc., is very low. 2) Create a redundant solution. I think this is a great solution.
4. Share, share, share! Share your media with as many friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers as you can reasonably do without irritating people. The more you spread your media out, the easier it will be to re-create your photo library if digital medial disaster ever strikes.
5. CD/DVD. CDs and DVDs aren’t great long-term solutions, but they’re fine in the short-term. You can buy software which will make them easier to recover if they fail, but you’ll still want to make sure this is a backup, not a primary measure. Make sure you have a place to send discs that is away from your home (work, family home, etc.) Try to re-create your discs every few years as the long-term failure rate of this media is high.
6. Hard Disk. Some people just use hard drives in their home to back everything up. This is a quick solution which is easy to automate. It doesn’t give you offsite archival, and hard drives can fail, just like discs can. But it’s a great backup plan or redundancy strategy.
7. Prints. Pictures are still wonderful! Just because you’re saving everything digitally, doesn’t mean you can’t make prints! If you make prints of your favorite pictures, you’re no worse off than you were before you started this digital craziness.
Feel free to add your thoughts!
August 19th, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 20 Comments »
In one of our wards in Seattle, a family’s house burned down. Of all the needs that family had, the one that I remember was a request for people to come up with pictures of the family members.
This prompted many discussions in the ward and community about how to protect pictures, journals and keepsakes in the event of a fire.
We’re faced each day with a growing, and increasingly more dangerous, threat to our personal memories: digital media. Digital media isn’t just for techno-hobbyists anymore. billions of pictures are being amassed on the hard drives of people all over the globe. The only trouble is that too many people aren’t being careful.
If we were to do a straw poll of ten individuals who have computers in their homes, I would wager (if I were a wagerer) that nine of the ten are taking digital pictures and that only three of those nine regularly backs them up. Remember, I’m talking about normal people now, not just nerds. Whatever the exact numbers, there are many, many people who are not backing up their digital pictures and it’s scary.
My daughter had the chance of a lifetime to play the young Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker at probably the largest, most successful theatre in Salt Lake City. It was a big deal. We took many pictures before and after the shows: the cast goofing around, people getting their makeup on, actors posing for the camera, etc.
Recently we went back to look at the pictures, and they were gone. Somehow they had disappeared from the computer and I hadn’t backed up since those pictures were taken.
The ending is a happy one–I found digital copies of the pictures on an old laptop I had copied them to for some reason, but the episode (and my near-death experience when I told my wife I couldn’t find the pictures) reminded me to make regular and frequent backups of our digital pictures and videos.
I hope you are doing the same!!
Spread the word…
(Feel free to share your methods for archiving media in the comments section.)
July 16th, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 65 Comments »
Having talked to many parents about their approaches to managing Internet usage in their homes, I’m confident that despite the potential dangers of the Internet many families aren’t doing anything or are doing far too little to protect their families.
I’d like to open this post up to you:
Have at it…
NOTE: Nothing that you read in this post should be construed as an endorsement (or condemnation) of any product by either myself or by the Church. This is an opportunity for you to share information with each other. You should do your own research and analysis before purchasing any product listed here.
July 16th, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | No Comments »
It’s easy to find advice. Consultants, trainers and authors offer more than we can consume. This book by Pfeffer & Sutton, authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap, attempts to teach us how to know what advice to accept.
July 5th, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 5 Comments »
I’ve adopted a management technique which I feel adds significant value to my direct reports. I’ve been doing this for many years, both in my current job and also at Microsoft before this.
360 reviews
This is hardly a new or novel tool, but I think it’s worthwhile to explain the approach.
Twice per year I talk to all of my direct reports. I ask them for feedback on me and I ask them for feedback on each other. I explain very carefully that all feedback will be kept confidential, but I strongly urge each to take issues with their peers directly to their peers. Still, there is a place for confidential feedback and this is an appropriate venue for that.
I then meet with each of the direct reports of my direct reports. I typically set this up in 15 minute increments. These are obviously much more effective when I send an email explaining what I’ll be doing. I request that the individual come prepared to discuss both the strengths and weaknesses, not only of their boss, but also of their boss’ peers.
Often, an individual won’t say anything meaningful. I ask probing questions to try to bring out feedback, but I’m very careful not to “lead” the discussion to arrive at some pre-conceived notion I have in my head. Questions I ask include the following:
These are just a few examples, but it’s important to ask these probing questions as people initially feel uncomfortable with this approach. They feel like they’re “squeeling” on their boss. It’s critical that you make it clear to people that this is a way to help these people improve; it’s not punitive. I try to enlist my directs to get the message out that they want hard feedback.
Once I’ve gathered all of the feedback, I synthesize it, roughly categorize it and then put it into summary form. I then give it back to the employee to whom it’s directed. It might look something like the following:
As I go through this with them verbally, I will paranthetically add my own comments: I agree with this perception, I don’t agree with this perception, I’ve noticed this example, etc. Examples of those are italicized above.
The last time I did this, I tried it via email. It was good and bad. It was good because I think people prepared more. However I didn’t like losing the interactivity.
One last thing. If you’ve never had your boss do this for you, ask him/her to do it! It’s a lot of work, but it’s a great tool for your own personal development.
July 5th, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | No Comments »
And now another leadership book by Arbinger Institute. Can’t get enough of the stuff.
June 30th, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 18 Comments »
Many of you probably don’t know that members in the United States and Canada have a ward web page on lds.org.
Before I go any further, let me just say that we’ll be working on a version for all international units. Don’t expect it until at least 2008. But in the meantime, the current version works for those in the U.S. and Canada and many people don’t even know.
You get features like:
It’s a great tool for your ward! The key is that the ward leadership and councils need to use it.
If your ward isn’t using the ward web site on lds.org then ask them to start. Teachers should be updating their lessons plans, the calendar should be kept up-to-date, and so forth. This is a wonderful and only takes a little effort to get people using it.
One known issue is that the signup process is a little arduous. A member needs to know his/her membership number (can be found on your temple recommend if you have one) and confirmation number. Both pieces of data can be obtained from your ward clerk.
In the future, we will make this process easier.
Check it out by clicking here..
June 5th, 2007 | By Joel Dehlin | 14 Comments »
Who uses instant messaging? Reads blogs? Publishes blogs? Uses MySpace? Who buys stuff online or downloads videos?
Kids, right?
Piper Jaffray recently executed a survey of a sample of the 232 million Internet users in North America. By extrapolating the data, they estimate that over 100 million use instant messaging, over 100 million read blogs and almost 100 million participate in one or more social networking sites.
I assume there are close to 11 million teenagers in North America. So who is using all of these services?
You! You’re coming home from work, putting the kids to bed and plugging in. It’s interesting because many of you probably think about stuff like blogs as something you do, but that isn’t that common. Fact is that it’s way more common than people think.
[Joel: My quick assumption of 11 million teenager users was wrong. The data says there are actually closer to 30 million.]
Joel Dehlin is the father of seven delightful children and the husband of one patient, wonderful woman. His primary love is being with his kids, but he doubles as the Chief Information Officer for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More about Joel...
Subscribe to Joel's RSS Feed
Follow Joel on Twitter
