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 = :(

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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?

CS class now prereq for graduation

I recently read an article that claims only 28% of computer science graduates are female.  Only?!  That was a curious word to my eyes.  If I had to guess the national percentage based on my perception of the BYU computer science program, I would peg the number closer to about 4%.  I don't pretend to know why this is the case, but it seems clear from the people that I have talked to that few really know what computer science is.  I had a guy knock on my door yesterday asking if there were any computer science majors in our apartment.  When my roommate and I proudly offered our services, he gladly stated his need.  "Do either of you have a Windows XP installation CD?"  He clearly did not have a sound understanding of what computer scientists do.  At the university there are classes required for graduation.  I had to take Chem 105, English 115, and American Heritage.  I've studied biology, astronomy, calculus, music, religion, cooking, atmosphere and weather, bowling, tennis, music history, physics, dance, psychology, choir, and statistics.  I'm sure I'm not different than the normal student.  In light of the world in which we now live, I think CS 142 should be a required class for graduation.  Maybe when everyone gets a look at how cool programming can be, there will be a more even distribution of the sexes in the field.

Is it Time to Release Our White-Knuckled Grip on Windows XP?

Today, Microsoft releases its new version of Windows, and the initial reactions seem to be positive.  According to CNN's article "Windows 7 born from Vista's frustrations," Microsoft approached the creation of its latest operating system with a new business model.  Instead of building the entire system from the bottom up by themselves, they have turned to the big PC producers for input and suggestions.  Doing so has helped them create a product to compete with new Apple computers, whose advantage lies in having both hardware and software built and synchronized in-house.  Still to be seen is whether the great many who currently use Windows XP will make the migration to the new operating system.  It will also be interesting to observe the release of Google's Chrome OS and the effect this will have on Microsoft's dominance of the PC world.  For now, Microsoft should be pleased with the positive noise about their new OS, and glad they took the time to consult PC makers.  It turns out two brains are still better than one.  

Guns and Keyboards

I recently watched the movie Becket, a movie staring Peter O'Toole as King Henry II of England struggling to govern the Saxons in the mid-1100s.  There is a scene in the movie depicting King Henry and his chancellor, Thomas Becket, hunting on horseback.  It seems to have been the mark of aristocracy back then to be able to go hunting.  What began as a matter of survival became a sport, and it continues to this day.  When I lived in Colorado, I saw firsthand the modern manifestation of this ancient tradition.  It is a ritual of preparation, with guns, bows, camouflage, maps, and vehicles.  Though I have not personally been hunting, I believe I understand what draws man to the hunt.  There is a thrilling emotion that the activity evokes in a person.  Should it surprise us then that in the complexities of modern society, many new avenues are found and traversed to induce such adrenaline?

Cliff Stoll, a PhD recipient in astrophysics and a self-proclaimed remnant of the 60s hippie movement, is far removed from any trait that could be linked to the stereotypical hunter.  He came to work at LBNL as a computer network support employee.  This would have been the sum and total of his work life, but things changed when a routine error correction lead him to the trail of what turned out to be a German hacker.  His natural-born instincts kicked in, and he joined King Henry and a thousand others as man on the hunt.  Though the pursuit lasted many months, he kept detailed records and worked tirelessly, even at times against his boss's wishes.  He interrupted his personal life and in all things gave precedence to seeking out the elusive hacker.  The enemy.  With ingenuity beyond expectation he sought to capture his prey.  Why did he care?  What made him act the way he did?  What we can conclude from this story is perhaps obvious, but it is still interesting.  There is deep within the human psyche a natural desire to triumph, to overcome.  To identify the enemy and defeat him.  We seek to pit our intelligence against the odds and come out victor.  This was the case for Cliff Stoll, and unless I have missed the mark, it is the case for all of us.

The Internet, a Common Language

My great-grandfather was a translator on the USS Missouri as Japanese officials surrendered to the United States.  His knowledge of the Japanese language had been acquired while serving as a missionary in Japan prior to the war.  Without translators, communication between countries would be impossible.  In our day and age when "the world is flat" and by all appearances will continue to flatten, who will provide the communication link among the nations?  For now, the work rests on the shoulders of professional translators case by case, as my great-grandfather in Japan; but other options are emerging.  Enter two familiar names: Facebook and Google.  They both have their own ideas of how the work of translation should proceed.  Facebook says volunteer translators will bear the burden of bringing their website to far-off lands, with the supervision of hired professionals.  Google, as befits their custom, is determined to create a solution using software ingenuity.  Both companies tote signs of success.  For both, the future is translation of user-generated content.  What are the implications?  Do I want the scope of readable blogs to increase several factors?  I don't pretend to have the answers, but one thing is clear.  Whatever side effects of nationality that exist because of common language may soon become null and void.

Family History

It certainly is no trivial task to identify every soul belonging to the human family.  The pursuit is difficult on many levels.  There are thousands of records to pore through.  There is the issue of deciding when two references in two different documents refer to the same person.  How is this information best stored and manipulated?  How do you make a system simple enough to provide functionality to those not familiar with computers, and yet supply ample tools to the more experienced?  I don't claim to have any great knowledge in this field.  As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is a responsibility I assume to become fluent and able in the topic.  I know I should be doing more than I am doing.  One frustration I have experienced, though, is that every time I have tried to get a start into family history, I have not been well guided; I quickly get lost, irritated, and give up.  Now, it's probably my fault.  But, it seems that if the church is going to really get the membership of the church involved, it needs to have a way of bringing on board all who approach with even a modest interest.  Those who can no more than desire to believe.  Those who exercise a particle of faith.  I guess my question is, where is the "Hello, World!" equivalent in family history work?

Facebook must increase, privacy must decrease

Think on the bright side: once Facebook has acquired a faithfully-updated account for every person on the planet, we will finally have an indisputable answer to the "six degrees of separation" question. For those of you who feel this is a cheap consolation prize when compared to the potential dangers of the ginormous social network, too bad. Facebook is here to stay. According to the following CNN article, Facebook is not only huge, it's now making money. As long as Facebook is profitable, it will survive, while making every attempt to increase its popularity.  Now would be a good time for any interested in personal privacy to make some serious decisions about what is appropriate for them to post in such an unprotected environment.

To Be Truly Tech Savvy

I feel some irony in producing this blog entry. My goal is to comment on our world of evolving technology, particularly on some of the dangers and challenges inherent to technological growth, and to do so I am in fact using that technology. I feel like the parent who obtains a World of Warcraft account that he might lecture his son in-game about its dangers. However, my goal is not to convince you that technology is bad, for I do not believe that myself, but to help raise in you an awareness that may not have previously existed. In so doing I champion the same cause that Neil Postman took up in his article, "Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change." Simply put, it is an error to suppose that all man has or will create is a universal good, brought down from the peaks of Mount Olympus to improve the quality and substance of life. Far from this naive view is the reality that every invention comes with a cost, and it should only be with prudence and good judgment that any new creation of man be unleashed on the world. Now let me personalize this message. Because I cannot control "the world", I will protect "my world" by only incorporating new technologies that I can see have a greater perceived benefit than cost in my personal life, and I suggest you do the same.