Tech Forum

I want to start a topical index for the official Church publications. What it would entail is indexing what topics are covered in each publication and what scriptures those topics use.

I'm thinking it could be html, since links would help out a lot with this project, or it could be in wordcruncher (BYU's program). It would be nice if it were available for computers or as an app though, so maybe it would be best not to do wordcruncher, but start with a web version and then make the apps.

I plan on doing it on my own if it doesn't get started here, but either way I would need help!

Are you looking for a searching engine like "google" but only for Church's resources, or what?

Not exactly. Again, it is a similar idea to the Topical Guide. Maybe a better comparison might be a combination of scriptures.byu.edu and Gospel Topics: http://www.lds.org/topics?lang=eng. It won't be a search engine. The index will be organized by topic and provide links when possible, similar to Gospel Topics. When a publication isn't online, it will simply reference that publication. The second part, which would be similar to scriptures.byu.edu is this: for each publication reference, each relevant scripture will be listed with a link to it as well.

So yp simplify what I just said, I want it to be user friendly like Gospel Topics, have a reference to the current and relevant church publications, and list the scriptures those publications refer to.

Here is why I think it will be useful. I'll give an example. Let's say you are reading Preach my Gospel and are in the section about effective study on page 17. You are studying to prepare for your mission. While you are going the the lesson you think you'd like to learn more. So you go to this index. You find the section on Scripture Study. There you find other places you can read up on the subject: "The Scriptures, the Most Valuable Library in the World" in the George Albert Smith manual, the sections in Duty to God called "Pray and Study the Scriptures," and many other relevant materials. Then for each of these publications you can also see what scriptures they referenced, in case you were simply wanting those or you wanted to click on them and go to them on lds.org.

So that's what I'm envisioning. Does this clarify?

dbp81 wrote: So that's what I'm envisioning. Does this clarify?

Yes, it hope!
So the main (and big) work will be put together all the references.
Maybe you can create something like WikiIndex, or so. This way all can add some note and reference.

Thanks! Yeah, it looks like the idea isn't picking up here, so I'll just go ahead and start the project. Anyone can join. What I plan on is making a wiki for it so anyone can contribute, and then me, and maybe a friend or two that is interested in the project will edit it and post it on a regular webpage. The thing I don't like about a wiki for a small project is inconsistency, spam, and lack of polish. But for project contribution it is fantastic.

I'll post links here to both the wiki and the html versions in this thread. The wiki might come well before the latter though, I'm not sure. I might just provide both even though the html version will say something like "under construction," "coming soon," or "prototype."

And if you want, I can contribute with Italian translation!

Sounds great to me! I actually want to make it multi-lingual, so that will be very helpful!

Okay, I have a place to work on it! It is on my personal website, and it actually uses education software. It is nice because it has chat features, wiki, and all sorts of tools. You can register here: http://www.sacredwrit.net/Subject_Guide/

If anybody else wants to be involved, please register at the website. I will have to approve it, so you won't be able to access anything immediately. You should be notified by email when it is approved though. In order for me to approve it, please post here so I know you will be working on the project. However, don't be surprised if you see a couple of my close friends added on without them posting here.

Thanks!

I filled the registration form right now.

You might want to check out the upcoming LDSTech Broadcast. See https://tech.lds.org/blog/540-next-ldstech-broadcast-the-gospel-topics-explorer-prototype. A group is currently building what appears to be almost exactly what you're describing. I wish I could send you the URL to the prototype, but it's still pretty early.