Open Source Idea

Discussions around miscellaneous technologies and projects for the general membership.
russellhltn
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#21

Post by russellhltn »

In case nobody noticed, the originator of this thread, Joel Dehlin, is the Church CIO. This wasn't some half-baked idea from the rank and file. This was tossed out as a Open Source project, and yet none of the responses seem to run with it.

Personally, I'm still interested in the "idea behind the post". If it was serious, then I think there's probably more to it and we need to know that to construct the workflow properly. Or it could have been a practice run to see if the troops would rally around the Open Source flag. I don't know. That's why I'd like to hear the rest of the story.
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nbflint
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#22

Post by nbflint »

I think the community is more than happy to rally behind Open Source, but not every idea can be acted on. Before delving into a project it's best for the community to look at all to determine need, usability, and appropriateness.

If Joel is presenting an idea from an official church capacity, that's one thing. If the church wants to do it I'm sure the community would support it. But if he's asking for feedback on a personal idea, he's gotten it from both sides of the isle.

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WelchTC
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#23

Post by WelchTC »

nimebe wrote:I think the community is more than happy to rally behind Open Source, but not every idea can be acted on. Before delving into a project it's best for the community to look at all to determine need, usability, and appropriateness.

If Joel is presenting an idea from an official church capacity, that's one thing. If the church wants to do it I'm sure the community would support it. But if he's asking for feedback on a personal idea, he's gotten it from both sides of the isle.
What we are looking for is a project that 1) technology minded folks can get behind to develop so that 2) non technology folks can participate. Both would require the "community" for participation.

Tom
KathrynGZ
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Giving Feedback

#24

Post by KathrynGZ »

RussellHltn wrote:In case nobody noticed, the originator of this thread, Joel Dehlin, is the Church CIO. This wasn't some half-baked idea from the rank and file. This was tossed out as a Open Source project, and yet none of the responses seem to run with it.
Yes, I was aware that the idea came from Joel, whom I heard at the recent Bay Area tech talk and whom I admire a great deal.

He asked for our assessment of this idea. I know from reading his blogs that he's not looking for yes-men (or women :) ). So my response was thoughtfully considered. I was trying to give him the kind of feedback I thought he was looking for.

Hope that helps clarify!

Kathryn
KathrynGZ
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Collaboration on the Gospel Topics Page

#25

Post by KathrynGZ »

JamesAnderson wrote:The idea of working as a worldwide community on the Gospel Topics pages could really make them useful.

Take the category 'Divorce'. Right now I don't think it has Elder Oaks' talk on that subject referenced. So lets say one is looking for talks about that subject and it's not there, so he/she goes to the search page nad finds Elder Oaks' talk. If it were possible to submit that for inclusion in the topics page listings for the subject, it could make that more valuable. It would only have to be submitted once maybe twice to get all the relevant topics cross referenced.
Building on this idea... this morning I was working on Primary Sharing Time for Sunday on the topic of the sacrament. I looked up the topic on the Gospel Topics page... and realized the materials there are only geared toward adults. Those materials are helpful for my personal preparation, but Sharing Time itself needs to be at the children's level. So I thought...it would be nice to have a section for Children's Resources on the Gospel Topics page. This is something the community could help build by contributing links to past articles in The Friend or other lds.org resources.

I also noticed the Scripture References section for this particular topic didn't include two key citations (3 Nephi and the NT). These citations are mentioned in the introductory paragraph, so perhaps that was the logic for not including them in the Scripture References section. But if someone is just reading the Scripture References section, they might not notice the citations in the intro (which, incidentally, aren't hyperlinked). So there could be benefit in allowing users to contribute scripture citations as well.

This is fun stuff! I can really see some possibilities here.

Kathryn
atticusewig
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#26

Post by atticusewig »

Kathryn wrote:Building on this idea... this morning I was working on Primary Sharing Time for Sunday on the topic of the sacrament. I looked up the topic on the Gospel Topics page... and realized the materials there are only geared toward adults. Those materials are helpful for my personal preparation, but Sharing Time itself needs to be at the children's level. So I thought...it would be nice to have a section for Children's Resources on the Gospel Topics page. This is something the community could help build by contributing links to past articles in The Friend or other lds.org resources.

This is fun stuff! I can really see some possibilities here.

Kathryn
This is a great idea. Taking it further, it would be neat to see
an ldskids domain (similiar to pbskids but with a church slant).
Computers are being used by younger and younger people
each year- it would interesting to see specific audiences
being addressed via domains or even "sections" on the main site.
And the community could easily categorize and even create
content (subject to a review process, probably).

- Atticus Ewig
kennard
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honest opinion

#27

Post by kennard »

RussellHltn wrote:In case nobody noticed, the originator of this thread, Joel Dehlin, is the Church CIO. This wasn't some half-baked idea from the rank and file. This was tossed out as a Open Source project, and yet none of the responses seem to run with it.
Like Kathryn, I also recognized that the idea was presented by the Church CIO before I responded with my honest opinion. Now, if the idea were more along the lines of people sharing ideas and materials that they felt could be beneficial and that could be considered by Correlation as they prepared, updated, and approved curriculum, then that is something I would be less uneasy about. Or even for personal study and family use, in the "prepare a talk" or "Gospel Topics" sections of lds.org, or the like (but again, going through some sort of committee to verify doctrinal accuracy and appropriateness before being approved to go "live" on the site). My particular concern was that it seemed the idea was to create a "sharing place" for all the teachers that feel like the approved curriculum is "not good enough" for their lessons at Church. That is an idea I would not support, and to be honest, I doubt it would fly.

(Joel or Tom, please correct me if I am wrong on the following):

I think that Joel and the others are working hard to come up with good ideas that would be useful and beneficial, and that will allow people to contribute and become involved. They are doing a great job of doing that. But that does not necessarily mean that every idea that is proposed by them on this forum (or that they ask for our input and ideas about) is already sanctioned/approved by the Church any more than the ideas posted by others of the "rank-and-file", nor that it necessarily will be. I think they really do want our honest input on the ideas or they wouldn't bother asking.

Doug
JamesAnderson
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#28

Post by JamesAnderson »

Yes, I do feel that as long as the submissions to the proposed 'lesson exchange' site are passed somehow through correlation to ensure the doctrinal concepts and quotes or whatever are correct, the idea could really be beneficial.

Joels idea is the next logical step in my opinion of development for the 'prepare a lesson' area on lds.org, Enhance it maybe with some of the other ideas myself and others have put forward in this forum thread as well.
The_Earl
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Lesson colaboration

#29

Post by The_Earl »

Hmm, Doctrinal WIKI, doesn't strike me as a good idea.....

I understand the desire for lesson resources, but I don't see where LDS.ORG fits the problem. I do not think it is a fundemental problem with a repository for lessons, I have even debated such a thing for myself, but I do not think the IMPLEMENTATION would work.

I see two implementation extremes:

1. LDS Wiki
People come to post their lesson ideas, resources, links to whatever. Peer review or moderation weeds out the bad.


2. Correlated published lesson resources.
People submit ideas to a correlating body (existing church dept, or community panel). Good ideas / lesson plans are published. Bad ones get a nice email back to the submitter.

The problem I have is that the wiki would never work. We on the technical forum have to work really hard to keep threads here from turning into doctrinal debate. Opening a forum or wiki to such is almost guaranteed to become either a horribly apostate resource, or a flame-war. The only benefit of such an open implementation would be the short cycle between submit and publish.

A correlated publishing group would work, but how is that different than the current published manuals and periodicals? If I send you my happy tithing story, and you publish it on LDS.ORG, how is that different than putting my story in the next months Ensign?

So I have a few ideas:

1. Put printed church materials online. Make submitting suggestions easy and fluid. It would be great for me to be able to print my lesson materials from LDS.ORG, and get references to Apr. conference. I could even suggest a few references or corrections for existing church publication depts. to include.

2. Allow peer reviewed lessons consisting of existing LDS.ORG resources.

I thought an interesting social project would be to allow people to footnote scriptures. It would be great to build a topical guide of community provided scriptural references. If you limited posts to short comments and a scriptural reference, it should be easy to moderate. It would also be difficult to pull information out of context, since the verse would always appear in context. This would kind of be like de.lico.us for scriptures. (http://del.icio.us/)
This idea would work well for other published works, like the Ensign, and online talks. This would allow 'Lesson Plan' type resources, but keep things from straying to far from the original source's intent.

3. Unofficial resource.

Try the wiki. Do not endorse it at all. See what happens. If it works out, make it official.

I would think that an unofficial wiki would at some point or another cause heartburn at CHQ. I worry that even percieved hostility to the community or the site admins would disenfranchise people. For this to work, I think an amnesty period to get the site working, and a clear purpose and exit strategy for the admins would be needed.
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WelchTC
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#30

Post by WelchTC »

dougk wrote:(Joel or Tom, please correct me if I am wrong on the following):

I think that Joel and the others are working hard to come up with good ideas that would be useful and beneficial, and that will allow people to contribute and become involved. They are doing a great job of doing that. But that does not necessarily mean that every idea that is proposed by them on this forum (or that they ask for our input and ideas about) is already sanctioned/approved by the Church any more than the ideas posted by others of the "rank-and-file", nor that it necessarily will be. I think they really do want our honest input on the ideas or they wouldn't bother asking.

Doug
I think you are correct. We are shooting ideas off of you as the community. We have not gotten these ideas approved yet.

Tom
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