Tech Forum

How would all you ward/stake clerks out there like to interact with MLS on the Microsoft Surface platform? Or maybe do genealogy?

NOTE: I am a moderator for these forums, but I do not actually work for the Church nor represent them in any official capacity. I also have no knowledge of any future projects or undertakings the Church may be planning. I just thought this was a cool technology I would share with you all.

Hmm that would be cool though I don't think the church is going to upgrade just yet... Though I need a new living room table.

Imagine a Bishopric using Surface to look at photos of members and assign them to callings or committees - a bin for possible candidates, etc. An elder's quorum presidency doing something similar with hometeaching beats...

Actually I saw a German company demoing this technology last year, so I sense this isn't a Microsoft creation but a buyout of an innovative company.

According to MS they have been working on this since 2001 which is understandable since in large companies new products are usually in the works for 5+ years just to make a good impression. Anyway I don't support MS and just giving my personal opinion on the matter.

My finger got tired just watching that demo.

mkmurray wrote:How would all you ward/stake clerks out there like to interact with MLS on the Microsoft Surface platform? Or maybe do genealogy?

NOTE: I am a moderator for these forums, but I do not actually work for the Church nor represent them in any official capacity. I also have no knowledge of any future projects or undertakings the Church may be planning. I just thought this was a cool technology I would share with you all.

I'm not a clerk, but I do have to use MLS to enter home teaching visits, assignments, etc. For that purpose, I'm glad those who make decisions about administrative computers are more interested in function than they are about deploying the "latest and greatest" eye candy user interfaces.

I liked Forbes' description of Surface as a "$10,000 lava lamp" in a web news story. With what I have read and seen of Clippy and Bob, I'd consider myself somewhat skeptical about this new thing.

Well, you asked for opinions?

mbsteed wrote:Imagine a Bishopric using Surface to look at photos of members and assign them to callings or committees - a bin for possible candidates, etc. An elder's quorum presidency doing something similar with hometeaching beats...

While I agree with the comment about "eye candy", there's no reason that can't be done with the existing technology and interface - and I think it would be a significant improvement. I don't know about the rest of you, but my brain tends to do a better job of connecting faces to the person rather then text (name).

Way back in the MIS days, I used to use a Polaroid "card file" to help match names to faces in my student/singles ward. It was a great help in leadership meetings. It sounds like a number of others have been doing their own photo directory. If MLS could accept a photo for each name that would be great!

mbsteed wrote:Imagine a Bishopric using Surface to look at photos of members and assign them to callings or committees - a bin for possible candidates, etc. An elder's quorum presidency doing something similar with hometeaching beats...

The same thing can be done today with paper photos at massively lower cost. The elders quorum in which I serve as counselor manages home teaching assignments with a portable white board and a bunch of name labels on pieces of magnetic sign material cut to about a half inch high by two inches wide. The labels were originally printed by computer, but later incremental additions have been done with a marking pen. We enter the changes into MLS and print them out for bishop review. An alternative would be to let the bishop review the board before entering the changes into MLS.

I would expect the funds required to buy a Surface machine would be better spent digging a water well or two to keep a village from dying from thirst.

mbsteed wrote:Actually I saw a German company demoing this technology last year, so I sense this isn't a Microsoft creation but a buyout of an innovative company.

That's most likely, given the history of such things.

rmrichesjr wrote:I would expect the funds required to buy a Surface machine would be better spent digging a water well or two to keep a village from dying from thirst.

Yes, I think I would have to ultimately agree with that. :rolleyes:

thedqs wrote:According to MS they have been working on this since 2001 which is understandable since in large companies new products are usually in the works for 5+ years just to make a good impression. Anyway I don't support MS and just giving my personal opinion on the matter.

Yes, I saw that too. I was skeptical at first too because I saw a YouTube video where some guy was demoing the technology almost a year ago. But according to Microsoft, they have been working on it since 2001. So perhaps it wasn't a buyout...perhaps...