Electronic Areabook - The Modern Missionary

The Church has done good things with computer technology. The family history effort seems to be moving in the right direction, and mormon.org is a great resource. One area that I think could still be improved is computer usage for missionaries. I'm not suggesting it would work everywhere in the world yet, but it would be nice to replace the areabook with an electronic equivalent. The mission office could update a map program every transfer with area borders, so missionaries could know exactly what their area is. Addresses of former investigators, ward rosters, and current investigators could all be stored in a database. When the companionship plans where they will be during the day, the computer could suggest addresses to check up on. It would be easy to look up what has been recorded about a particular person without having to flip through pages and pages of records that are falling out of a stuffed, three-ring binder. The biggest issue to overcome would be to trust missionaries with a computer.

MMORPGs = :( x 1000

Knowing MMORPGs are addicting, it would be foolish to play one.  There is little difference between that choice and knowingly taking drugs.  No perceived benefit of playing justifies the risk.  Certainly, alternative forms of entertainment can be found.  Of the several people I have known personally that play MMORPGs, very few do so responsibly.  I know I didn't.  Ragnarok Online almost destroyed my freshman year of college.  A friend invited me to play the game with him, and I naively walked right in.  It seems likely to me that my entrance into the game is representative of how many others have found themselves involved in MMORPGs.  More like this article should be disseminated, giving the next generation the best chance of making an informed choice on the matter.

Addiction = :(

< under construction >

Friedman and the Globalization of a Church

Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat approached the flattening of the world from many perspectives.  I would like to add a perspective.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been slowly flattening the world since the mid-1800s.  From its inception, the Church has sent missionaries to the nations of the earth, bringing the gospel to foreign lands and establishing branches of the Church.  These branches were independent in many ways, especially when communication was difficult and expensive.  However, they understood that they were part of a worldwide organization, and their perspective was enlarged beyond the narrow confines of their place and time.  As time has progressed, and new technologies have come into being, the Church has sought to stay current.  Now, the Church is connected more than ever.  General Conference is broadcast around the world in many, many languages.  Church materials are available in mp3s and podcasts.  Manuals can be downloaded onto mobile devices.  The Missionary Training Center hosts live chat on mormon.org for those curious about Church beliefs.

In recent years, the Church has begun to embrace the concept of Globalization 3.0.  The new Family Search program, for example, is built around the concept of social networking.  Collaboration with individuals around the world is made easy and intuitive.  It is the same idea as a business outsourcing a process.  Let everyone with a comparative advantage do what they are best at and collectively the group will succeed beyond the capacity of any individual.  Contributors from Ireland may have easier access to gravestones or documents not yet digitized.  I don't need to fly 4600 miles to track that information down.  Another example is the Church's distribution center.  Jim Christensen, manager of product development for Church Distribution Services, says “we ... have many, many members of the Church who are hours away [from a center] who can have products right at their fingertips—shipped directly to their door so they don’t have to travel to a distribution center."

As the world becomes more connected, and the allure of free trade opens the nations of the earth previously under political oppression, the Church will have greater access to foreign lands.  To compete in the global market, developing nations will have to foster a culture of curiosity and innovation.  This same attitude will open minds to new religious ideas.  I think in the near future we will see significant growth in church membership in places like India and China, where education, communication, and the doctrine of free trade is rapidly spreading.  These are as precursors, preparing the way.  And with more than a billion people in each country, the Church certainly has its hands full.

The Candid and the Bizarre

As a software engineer-in-training, it is interesting to read about the shifting sea of opinion concerning the future of software development.  When I entered the computer science program in 2004, I was totally oblivious to what was really going on in the industry.  My motivation to enter the department was simply that I found programming fun.  Five years later, I still enjoy the thrill of taking concept to implementation—of struggling through a seemingly insurmountable problem and finding my reward waiting for me on the other side; the program really works, and probably does something cool.  My one experience programming for an actual company, obtained this last summer at an internship, did not provide any of this satisfaction.  I thought I could sense a similar lack of fulfillment in the full-time employees.  This made me wonder: could it be that coding will lose its magic once I take off my student cap and put on my salaried, full-time employee cap?  Could it be that there is a better solution to the current model of software development that leaves project managers frustrated and software developers unfulfilled?  My recent reading of The Cathedral and the Bazaar has given me hope that there still exists the idea that software development should be fun, and a way has been found to keep it so.

DRM

Like many others, I have fully embraced the convenience of modern, digital technology.  My 80 gigabyte Zune goes with me most of the time.  I enjoy the freedom of having my entire music library available whenever I crave Rachmaninoff or The Moody Blues.  Just this morning, I bought an album of Jackson Berkey choral music off Amazon.  I use Pandora and YouTube to find new music that interests me.  For the musician and music lover, we live in a golden age.  The only threat to this amazing system will be to fail to innovate an effective, win-win solution to the questions of defining copyright and fair use.  And yes, innovation will have to be the key.  The solutions of yesteryear are insufficient, and our current stabs at copyright enforcement, like DRM and the DMCA, miss the mark.

Fiber-optic Majesty

Have you ever wondered how networks in the United States are linked with other continents' networks?  The technology to do this has actually been around since the mid-1800s.  Samuel Morse and some of his contemporaries were convinced it was possible to send telegraph messages through cables laid on the ocean floor.  Some of the earliest success came in connecting England to France across the English channel.  At the time, these wires were used to connect telegraphs.  As better insulating materials were discovered, improved lines were made and laid across the oceans.  When the telephone was invented, these same lines carried voice communication.  Now, with thick fiber-optic cables we transmit terabytes of data a second under the largest and deepest oceans.  Since I already know it works, it is easy to accept.  However, without any prior experience, I think I would seriously doubt the wisdom of laying a wire across 6,200 miles of ocean floor hoping nothing disturbs it.  Too many things could go wrong, right?  Well, it turns out my initial reaction would be wrong.  And it is a good thing; how else could rural Chinese farmers watch The Office on Hulu?