by Larry Richman, Posted Thursday, October 30th, 2008
I’ve been feeling lately that I really need to get back into the habit of journaling. Since I’ve been called as a bishop, it seems there is never enough time to do all I need to do, let alone keep a diary of it. However, I really feel I need to record some of the great life experiences I’m having, both for myself and my posterity.
Today I found LDS Journal, a simple way to keep your journal online. It’s still in beta, so some features are still under development. They also have a YouTube site with information and user testimonials. Impressive.
I signed up for the free account and my initial reaction is that the site looks promising. I’d be intersted in your experiences with this site or others like it.
by Larry Richman, Posted Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
The growth of the World Wide Web has been phenomenal. Nearly 1.5 billion people around the world use the Internet.
As of June 2008, there were over 63 billion pages in the publicly-indexed Web. Google Search has discovered one trillion unique URLs. Most Web pages are in English (56.4%). The next most common languages are German (7.7%), French (5.6%), and Japanese (4.9%).
The growth in the total number of unique Web sites is as follows:
1991: 1 (The first web site was published August 6, 1991)
1992: 50
1993: 150
1994: 3,000
1995: 25,000
1996: 250,000
1997: 1.2 million
1998: 2.6 million
1999: 4.7 million
2000: 7.1 million
2001: 30 million
2002: 37 million
2003: 47 million
2004: 54 million
2005: 73 million
2006: 100 million
2007: 155 million
2008: 182 million (as of September)
There are many ways to count Web sites. Other measures show only about 100 million sites. There are 550 million unique IP addresses assigned a name.
by Larry Richman, Posted Monday, October 27th, 2008
Check out Testimony Tag for ideas on making blog entries that share your testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or an experience you have had with the Gospel. This Web 2.0 idea for sharing the gospel can help provide accurate and fair information about the Church.
by Larry Richman, Posted Sunday, October 26th, 2008
Neal Francom wrote a great article on LDSTech about Online Security Basics for You and Your Computer. He suggests best practices to keep you, your family, your coworkers, and your computer safer in the online world. His suggestions:
Avoid infection. Update your computer regularly, and use an Internet firewall with up-to-date anti-virus software and anti-spyware.
Don’t open files from strangers. E-mails and text messages can spread viruses and worms. Never open a file attached to an e-mail or an instant message unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the file. Don’t click on links in e-mail or text messages.
Protect your security and your identity. Use strong passwords. Don’t use the same password for everything. Don’t share your passwords. Don’t write them down.
Don’t leave your computer unattended. Power it off when you aren’t using it.
Back up your data.
Know the NO’s of social networking: no inappropriate or revealing media, no location information, and no contact information.
Don’t use a wireless network unless it is encrypted and password-protected.
by Larry Richman, Posted Friday, October 24th, 2008
Check out the new scripture mastery section of the Seminary site. It has activities that will help you become more proficient in finding, understanding, applying, and memorizing the seminary mastery scriptures.
by Larry Richman, Posted Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
The Church has launched a new podcast of the CES firesides. You can subscribe to audio podcast feeds or Web feeds via e-mail on the feeds page (rss.lds.org).
by Larry Richman, Posted Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Jesse Stay at staynalive.com reported that the Church Web site LDS.org ranks at the top of all organizational Church Web sites on the Internet. It has a current Alexa rank of 3,095, and peaked at near 2,500 at the beginning of October.
I know that Alexa ranking is not a precise indicator of Web traffic, but it is one of the more prominent means we have today to compare Web sites.
I did some sluething myself and looked up the Alexa ranking for the Web sites of all the major religions that I could find. Here are all I could find that ranked under 100,000:
I think I got all the major organizational Church Web sites. Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians didn’t rank lower than 100,000. I was surprized that the Southern Baptist Convention only ranked 204,346. Some major world religions (like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism) aren’t centrally organized, and therefore have no large Internet presence. The site for the Nation of Islam, for example, ranks 576,153. I even looked at general relgious sites not tied to a specific religious organization. The largest one I know of is BeliefNet, which ranks 3,748 - still behind LDS.org.
Why does LDS.org rank so positiviely? Could it be mere curiosity about the Church, activity of members themselves, or does the Church itself have a more technical background than others? The Church has pioneered many technologies around Family History and recently has encouraged its members to blog and use the internet for good. The Church has also created a Youtube channel. The Church’s other main Web sites, FamilySearch.org (a site for genealogy enthusiasts) at 11,342, and Mormon.org at 63,314, also rank fairly high when compared to other religious Web sites.
Besides Alexa rankings, there are, obvsiouly, other traffic measures of the success of a Web site, such as referrals by search engines and growth in traffic compared with the Internet at large.
by Larry Richman, Posted Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
eMarketer reports that October 13th was the 25th anniversary of the first commercial cell phone call. The photo to the left is the actual phone used to make that first call. It weighed 2.5 pounds, was 10 inches long, and had a battery life of 20 minutes.
Today, just 25 years later, the majority of people on this earth have a mobile phone.
In fact, some countries boast penetration rates above 100%. Italy’s rate is 154%. This is possible because many people have more than one mobile phone: one for home, one for work, a contract phone for around town, and/or a prepaid phone for the road (especially in Europe, where frequent travel across borders means juggling subscriptions to keep from paying steep roaming fees).
What do we do on all these cell phones?
Mobile users in the US are on their phones more than ever, talking, texting, watching videos and using the mobile Web.
Usage has increased 25-50% or more in the last two years.
One-third report talking on their mobile phone more than 10 hours per week.
34% aged 17 and under talk for more than 15 hours weekly.
40% of mobile Internet users surfed the mobile Web for 2+ hours every week.
80% of mobile users sent text messages. 29% of whom spent 2+ hours every week doing it. This is according to a survey by Azuki Systems. Nielsen Mobile estimated that only 53% of mobile users engaged in SMS messaging.
by Larry Richman, Posted Monday, October 20th, 2008
Did you know that LDS.org is the 3,095th most popular site on the Internet?
More precisely, it has an Alexa ranking of 3,095. Although Alexa is not a precise indicator of Web traffic, it is helpful in comparing Web sites in an imperfect world of metrics.
Other Alexa rankings:
mormon.org is 63,314
familysearch.org is 11,342
by Larry Richman, Posted Monday, October 20th, 2008
Inputting the full text (except words like it, the, and and) of the recent General Conference into Wordle created the word cloud shown below. Frequency of use determines word size.
While it seems clear that the Church wants members to use their personal Web sites, blogs and social media networks to share the gospel and clear up misconceptions about the Church, many members still have a lot of confusion regarding what they can and cannot do with the Internet. Part of this confusion is likely due to the language used by the First Presidency in their December 13, 2004 letter entitled “Authorized Church Web Sites.” In that letter, they outline how to identify official Church-sponsored Web sites, and state that unauthorized sites ”should be discontinued immediately.”
But suppose there is a Relief Society president who wants to start a blog to share information about food storage. The blog could be used to share tips and tricks, recipes and ideas. She would invite others to participate in the blog, to post comments or perhaps to be guest contributors. Would such a blog fall into the realm of those not authorized by the Church?
I cannot speak for the Church, but I certainly don’t think this type of site is what the Church had in mind when they asked unauthorized sites to be discontinued. According to my understanding of the guidelines referenced above, I think this type of blog would be appropriate, provided that the following points are followed.
If you use the blog to discuss gospel doctrines, remember you’re speaking as an individual member of the Church, sharing your personal perspective.
Remember that you’re always on the record. Everything you say or write could be on the Internet forever.
Link to videos, articles, and other resources on Church Web sites. Church sites are full of resources on food storage and many other gospel subjects and we have been encouraged to share them.
Make an effort to include all interested parties, both in your ward and outside of it, both members and non-members.
Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost. How you use the Internet to further the work of the Lord is largely a personal matter between you and the Lord. Guidance from your priesthood leaders may also be sought.
Clearly, the Church supports and encourages using the tools of the New Media (the Internet, blogs, social networks, etc.) to share the gospel. Implicit also, I believe, is the notion that New Media can be used to support other aspects of the work of the Lord such as strengthening the Saints and serving in the Church.
by Larry Richman, Posted Friday, October 17th, 2008
I’m interested to see how the Church and other organizations are using a substantial amount of video to eduate the public about Proposition 8. A few are a little corny, but most are very well done and I believe are effective in getting the message across. What do you think?
I’ve been feeling lately that I really need to get back into the habit of journaling. Since I’ve been called as a bishop, it seems there is never enough time to do all I need to do, let alone keep a diary of it. However, I really feel I need to record some of the great life experiences I’m having, both for myself and my posterity.
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