Help the Church Develop Software

Interested in developing, designing, and testing software applications for members of the Church around the world as well as at Church headquarters? We’re looking for software developers, designers, testers, technical writers, translators, security experts, architects, and project managers to get involved in our community projects. To get started, follow these three steps:

Pick a project you are interested in. See all of the projects currently in development.
Follow the steps found in the Requirements for Participation.
Find tasks associated with the project of your choice and get to work.


For more information, visit the Getting Involved with Projects or Current Needs wiki pages.

 
Design Patterns
Written by Mark Tebbs   
Tuesday, 19 May 2009 12:32

Software has been written and rewritten to solve the same problems, in a number of programming languages. In an effort to reprocess solutions to commonly occurring problems, design patterns were created. Design patterns provide a way to reuse experience rather than creating new code. Design patterns are simple ways to use proven experience to create higher quality software, regardless of the programming language.

Design patterns fall into four categories: creational, structural, behavioral, and concurrency. Five examples of design patterns include:

  • Adapter
  • A design pattern that allows one system to adapt to another system that is not compatible without changing the interface of either system

    Description

    Example
    Result
    Client Interface = new Adaptor(Old Interface)Enumeration enumeration = hashtable.elements();
    Iterator itr = new EnumerationAdaptor(enumeration);

    Calls made on the Iterator object will be translated to the Enumeration object.

     

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The Evolution of the Church's IT Department
Written by Tom Johnson   
Friday, 15 May 2009 11:05

Length: 24 min
Download MP3

In a recent poll on podcasts, at least 25% of you reported that you listen to podcasts more than twice a week. Because of this interest, we thought we should expand our content to include podcasts (in addition to article posts).

For those new to podcasting, podcasts are audio shows that you can download to your MP3 player and listen on the go, usually while you’re driving or exercising. Podcasts allow you to listen to content relevant to your niche interests -- at the exact time and location you want to listen.

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Automation of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library Using IT Service Management Suites
Written by John Irwin   
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 13:10

What Is Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)?

IT service management (ITSM), a discipline for managing information technology (IT) systems, evolved naturally as IT services required support. At first, IT focused mainly on application development. To incorporate the benefit of these new technologies, the focus then shifted to delivering the created applications as part of a larger offering, supporting the business.

The help desk was developed to help people as they used IT serve services in their business. The U.K. government embarked on a project to discover and document how industries approached service management, thus creating the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), containing over 40 books about ITSM. In 2004, Version 2 of ITIL was created, releasing nine books that bridged the gap between technology and business with a strong focus on the processes that effectively serve the business customer (see Figure 1).

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Teaching an Old Dog New Technologies
Written by Aimee Smith   
Thursday, 07 May 2009 07:55

Fetching the paper was once a useful and impressive skill for a dog to have. To keep pace with technology, though, Fido now needs to be able to get online, create a registration, subscribe to a news feed, and download a podcast. Fido has his work cut out for him—as do we—to keep pace with the increasingly diverse and complex technologies available. We must not only maintain our current service levels, but remain as appealing to our customers as that new puppy in the window. The trick is to identify and manage the gaps between the technologies we have, the technologies we are developing, and technology trends.
 
Old dogs have been trained until we are comfortable with them and they meet our needs. Working with old dogs is like working with old technologies and platforms. They require an investment in time and resources to ensure that the environments are operationally efficient, that we have skilled staff, and that documented processes are utilized by those who build and maintain the applications running on these environments. We develop a good relationship with old dogs; we know what to expect, and we understand what we can deliver through these environments.

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FamilySearch Facebook App Developer Wanted
Written by Cassie McDaniel   
Tuesday, 05 May 2009 08:15

FamilySearch is searching for a volunteer developer to help create a Facebook application that will read the FamilySearch API. This individual will work with FamilySearch in discussing, designing, and developing the application. Anyone who has experience creating Facebook applications and is interested in this project is encouraged to contact Gordon Clarke by phone at 801-240-0770 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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LDSTech on Twitter
Written by Cassie McDaniel   
Friday, 01 May 2009 13:48

You can now receive updates from LDSTech by following us on Twitter.

Twitter is a free service that allows users to send and receive short updates.

We will be using Twitter to inform you about featured articles, opportunities to help with Church projects, hot topics in the LDSTech forum, and job positions.

Read Tom Johnson’s article about Twitter and LDS General Conference for more information about how members of the Church use Twitter to communicate.

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What is LDSTech?

With the global reach of the Church, members from around the world are curious about the type of technical work we do. This Web site is designed to give you a glimpse into that work and how you can get involved.