facebook indexing application

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ldsaaronb
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facebook indexing application

#1

Post by ldsaaronb »

It seems to me that the eyeballs of the world are turning towards facebook. And I don't feel that the LDS community is any different. The young people are especially dialed in to facebook and spend much time there.

What if we stopped trying to get people to move their attention and eyeballs to another site or a desktop app and we simply allowed them to index directly within facebook? It seems to me that the odds of people actually doing the work is much higher there than anywhere else.

We could take it a step further and give them a running count of the amount of names they have indexed. You could even turn it into a game and allow friends to 'Challenge' eachother to do 'x' indexes in 'y' time. You could also do ward or group challenges and manage it through facebook.

Then the basic things like every time a person indexes some names it can show up in the feed and say 'Thomas has just indexed 5 names...start indexing now!'

Any feedback on this idea?
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#2

Post by russellhltn »

abylund wrote:You could even turn it into a game and allow friends to 'Challenge' eachother to do 'x' indexes in 'y' time.
I dislike that idea. I would be concerned that when you make "numbers" the end goal, the quality of the work goes down. The work should be it's own reward so everyone does the work to their personal standards.
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greenwoodkl
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#3

Post by greenwoodkl »

I wonder if this thread merits a moderator move to the Family History area of this forum or more discussion on the FH forum?:confused:
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#4

Post by lajackson »

abylund wrote:What if we stopped trying to get people to move their attention and eyeballs to another site or a desktop app and we simply allowed them to index directly within facebook? It seems to me that the odds of people actually doing the work is much higher there than anywhere else.

We could take it a step further and give them a running count of the amount of names they have indexed.

While this is an interesting idea, I am not sure that the Church would be able to get the indexing "app" approved under Facebook, which seems to be totally open in distributing information to the world, as opposed to the Family History Department, which still seems to have an interest in maintaining some control over the information available.

From my experience in having indexed and arbitrated more than a few names, and watching how the program operates, I do not even believe that the overall program is suitable as a Facebook application.

At FamilySearch Indexing, you do get a count of how many names you have indexed or arbitrated. But again, as Russell said, the real objective is not numbers, and I think the FamilySearch site is more in line with the objectives of the Church than a Facebook site ever could be.

Just my opinion, of course.
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#5

Post by russellhltn »

kgthunder wrote:I wonder if this thread merits a moderator move to the Family History area of this forum or more discussion on the FH forum?:confused:
It could work there, but it is also an "idea", so it's not inappropriate here.

But, I suspect it would have a better chance of catching the eye of the Family History types if it was over in their forum. (But moving it there is outside of our domain since it's a completely different forum.)
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ldsaaronb
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#6

Post by ldsaaronb »

RussellHltn wrote:I dislike that idea. I would be concerned that when you make "numbers" the end goal, the quality of the work goes down. The work should be it's own reward so everyone does the work to their personal standards.

Yeah, I thought about that too. I suppose it is something that could be at least tested. If it works and the quality doesn't go down then run with it!

I was enticed about the idea more because of the 'challenge' aspect than anything else. I know that many stakes have done this....in fact our singles ward has recently been challenged to do 500 indexes over the next couple of months. The family history guy in our ward came in to PEC and said, "We need to get on this....I don't want to be the only ward in the stake that doesn't hit the goal." I suppose anybody can make numbers the goal, but in my opinion there is nothing wrong with having a goal or a challenge that is measurable. And if friends can encourage one another....why not?
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ldsaaronb
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#7

Post by ldsaaronb »

lajackson wrote:While this is an interesting idea, I am not sure that the Church would be able to get the indexing "app" approved under Facebook, which seems to be totally open in distributing information to the world, as opposed to the Family History Department, which still seems to have an interest in maintaining some control over the information available.
What aspect of facebook's guidelines would be contrary to an indexing app and all of the privacy that the church would require? I am familiar with the guidelines and do not see an issue here:

http://developers.facebook.com/policy/
lajackson wrote:From my experience in having indexed and arbitrated more than a few names, and watching how the program operates, I do not even believe that the overall program is suitable as a Facebook application.
Agreed, it would have to be redeveloped/redesigned
lajackson wrote:At FamilySearch Indexing, you do get a count of how many names you have indexed or arbitrated. But again, as Russell said, the real objective is not numbers, and I think the FamilySearch site is more in line with the objectives of the Church than a Facebook site ever could be.
I understand the concern. I know that many wards and stakes challenge their members to reach a certain number of indexes in a specified time. Why not allow friends to challenge one another with a measurable goal?
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#8

Post by russellhltn »

abylund wrote:in my opinion there is nothing wrong with having a goal or a challenge that is measurable.
Just as long as it doesn't become "Numbers is job 1".
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atticusewig
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How about Twitter, CAPTCHAs, and TV ?

#9

Post by atticusewig »

Facebook is popular, but why not also put the indexing
app on Twitter - The images would have to be small enough
for people to fit the 140 character limit, but it could be done.

Another thing that could be done is to link individual words/names
from the indexing project and use them for any church-related
CAPTCHAs.

Also why not have an indexing television commercial with a toll-free number attached.
Press "1" if you think the first letter is an A, "2" for B, "3" for C,...

Sure is fun brainstorming different ways the indexing project can be
shared with a wider audience.

- Atticus
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ldsaaronb
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#10

Post by ldsaaronb »

atticusewig wrote:Facebook is popular, but why not also put the indexing
app on Twitter - The images would have to be small enough
for people to fit the 140 character limit, but it could be done.

Another thing that could be done is to link individual words/names
from the indexing project and use them for any church-related
CAPTCHAs.

Also why not have an indexing television commercial with a toll-free number attached.
Press "1" if you think the first letter is an A, "2" for B, "3" for C,...

Sure is fun brainstorming different ways the indexing project can be
shared with a wider audience.

- Atticus

Atticus, it seems you are just mocking the concept. Do you have any relevant data to suggest that facebook would not be a good place to have an indexing application, or is your purpose to simply express your assumptions about the potential utility of facebook?
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