FamilySearch announced today its second annual conference for software and Web application developers and its inaugural FamilySearch Software Awards. The 2009 FamilySearch Developers Conference will be held on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, in conjunction with the Brigham Young University Computerized Family History and Genealogy Conference in Provo, Utah. Attendees can register online at familyhistoryconferences.byu.edu/familysearch.

The 2009 FamilySearch Developers Conference provides a unique forum and opportunity for developers of genealogy-related desktop and Web applications to meet with other professionals who use similar development technologies to confront common technical challenges and share effective solutions. Conference attendees will learn about new and updated FamilySearch web services from FamilySearch engineers and best practices from current community developers.

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Copiers have long been useful in enabling local units to communicate with and inform members of necessary things, such as programs, lessons, minutes, talks, certificates, phone number and address lists, and roles. All of these would either disappear or become far more time-consuming and expensive if not for today’s copiers and multifunctional devices (MFD).

Since 2005, for the U.S. and Canada, the Church has instituted a copier purchase program. Purchased copiers have been placed in all authorized meetinghouse locations in the United States and Canada. Under the direction of the Presiding Bishopric, this new program replaced the former leasing program, and is administered cooperatively by the Materials Management Department (Purchasing Division), and the Physical Facilities Department (facilities management groups). These groups work with the Headquarters Copier Administration team to set standards, develop guidelines, choose vendors, and negotiate prices. Better and faster copiers or MFDs have been purchased at a much lower cost than would otherwise be possible.

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Processes are an important part of every business. A well-defined process can help the security, quality, and cost savings of a product or service rollout. However, some ugly side effects can result from even the best-planned processes. I've identified three general problems that creep up in many processes. I hope that we can come up with innovative solutions to make our processes run smoothly.

Square Peg, Meet Round Hole

One of the biggest problems with many processes is that they take a “one-size-fits-all” approach. For example, if your business is used to handling large projects, and a small one comes along, you may end up spending much more time, money, and effort forcing the small project through the large project process – an ugly side effect. This has happened recently on one of my projects. It took months of effort before we could even start the development. The process effort far surpassed the amount of work the project required.

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Welcome to the official technology web site for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are excited to share with you information about our culture, process, and projects. Most importantly, we want you to get involved! Read about the purpose of this site.

The new LDS.org web site was launched on January 30th. This new website is the result of a lot of research and development in an effort to make the site more usable. 

Gospel Library 

According to Larry Richman, the Director of the Internet Coordination Group, the new site will use the new Gospel Library which is a completely new database of XML text (with links to associated PDFs, audio files, etc.). If you have links on your sites to content on the Gospel Library, you will need to update those links to the new URLs. To prevent your links from breaking immediately, we will keep the old Gospel Library functional for some time (at least six months). 

Feedback

We welcome your feedback on the new site. Just click the "Feedback" link at the top of any of the pages of the new LDS.org Web site.

My background is in software development so my first inclination in solving a business problem is to turn to custom software. I have to fight that urge as off-the-shelf applications are often more cost effective than custom-developed ones.

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications are wonderful if they match your business process. Many of these applications incorporate process models which are based on industry best practices and thus if you can match your business processes to industry practices, you can benefit from an industry’s collective wisdom. Plus you have many more users testing “your” code for you. Your company may use a small percentage of the available features of a given solution, but the economies of scale a vendor leverages in creating a COTS application make a 10% value proposition worth the full investment in the product.

Note I said “if they match your business processes.” If they do not then you have two choices. You can change your business process to match the tool (much easier said than done) or you can customize the tool.

According to a January 2007 study of 500 adults ages 18 and older conducted by InsightExpress, the following are the types of content that U.S. consumers say they are likely to watch online:

It is wonderful how a community can come together to share information and to assist people.  I thought that I would take a moment and share with you some of the things that I have learned since this Web site was launched.

FamilySearch Indexing

In a forum thread discussing genealogy transcription, I recently learned that the Church has a program in which volunteers from around the world extract family history information from digital images of historical documents to create indexes that will assist others in finding their ancestors. You can read more about it and even sign up to volunteer by visiting http://www.familysearchindexing.org. I'll be talking more about this program in the near future.

The following are the standards for all new audio and video we provide on Church sites. (Not all current media files meet these standards, but all new media we create will meet these standards.)

It has often been said that "a goal not written is only a wish." To that end I'd like to share with you a couple of the goals that we have set for 2007 for this Web site and for the LDS technology community.

In an address given to the young adults on October 18, 1981,  Elder M. Russell Ballard said:

"I would suggest that if you want to have success in the goal-setting process, you learn to write your goals down. I would even put them in a prominent place—on your mirror or on the refrigerator door" ("Go for It!" New Era, Mar. 2004,4). 

I can't think of a more prominent place for me to put these goals than on this Web site. I realize that in order for us to achieve these goals, we will need everyone's help and support.