by Larry Richman, Posted Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used to distribute regularly-updated Internet content (such as news headlines, blogs, and wikis). People subscribe for free to RSS feeds to automatically receive content from a Web site or service without having to constantly visit a Web site to see what is new.
Below is a short video that describes RSS in plain English. If you want to learn more, see the RSS entry in Wikipedia.
If you don’t want to use an RSS reader, or have a MyYahoo page to view the feeds, you can sign up at Bloglines as a place to collect and read all your online news, blogs, comics, newsgroups, e-mail newsletters, podcasts, weather forcasts, etc.
by Larry Richman, Posted Monday, August 18th, 2008
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds (subscriptions). These media files can be audio, video, PDF, text, or other formats. You can then play, watch, or read these files on your computer or other device. The term podcast (like broadcast), can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated. This syndication is also called podcasting. The author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. Learn more about podcasting on Wikipedia.
Here is a short video that explains podcasting in plain English:
The Church has created a number of podcasts that you can subscribe to at rss.lds.org. You can also find many other Church-related podcasts at the iTunes store. Just search for “mormon” or “lds.”
Pornography on the Internet is a blight. In this post I asked for feedback on what people are doing in their homes to educate and protect. The comments are worth a read.
I believe, however, that in many homes the Internet isn’t the worst portal for inappropriate content.
For some, the TV is even worse–and many don’t know it.
Movie channels like HBO have content you’d be horrified to see your kids watching. Nudity, inappropriate language, violence. It’s all there in abundance. Even stations that come with the basic packages (like MTV) have content I’m not comfortable with my kids watching. Pay-per-view channels are awful. If you’re not careful, your kids can order movies which not only ring up your monthly bill but, much worse, bring content into your home that you don’t want there. Commercials can be the worst. I’m embarrassed at some of the commercials I see in prime time.
What can you do? First, be careful ordering movie channels like HBO and Showtime. We don’t order them at all. Second, block channels you don’t want the kids to see. You can use the parental controls on most cable and satellite services to completely remove certain channels from the list of channels that your family can even see in the channel guide. We do this with MTV and others which have content that we don’t like and we also do it with the channels that allow pay-per-view movies. If you want to allow pay-per-view movies then make sure they’re password-protected. Most importantly, P-A-Y A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N. My kids have friends whose parents don’t have any idea when the kids watch TV. I don’t allow my kids to go their houses. And we always try to pay attention when the kids are watching TV. It may sound severe, but if the kids (even the teenagers) want to watch TV, they have to ask permission first. And if they don’t, they lose TV priveleges. This helps us gauge how much TV they’re watching. Many have chosen the solution to disallow TV in their homes altogether. If your family has a problem, it’s a thought. We’re not big TV watchers in our family, and when we do watch it’s typically as a family. But occasionally we just pull the plug altogether for a few months and we notice a difference.
It’s easy to think that your kids “don’t have a problem.” But ask the Bishop in your ward how many kids are able to see inappropriate content on TVs in their homes. He’ll tell you that most of them can. Most couples I talk to feel like their kids don’t have a problem. Most of them are wrong.
Online social networks are communities of people who share common interests and activities. Social networking sites provide the ability to create a personal profile and various ways to interact with other people, such as messaging, e-mail, video, text or voice chat, file sharing, blogging, and discussion groups. Social networking has revolutionized the way many people communicate and share information with each another. Social networking Web sites are used by millions of people everyday on a regular basis. For many people, online social networking has become a part of everyday life.
Most social networking services contain directories of categories (such as former classmates) and methods for connecting with people (usually based on some system of referral and trust).
Three very popular social networks:
MySpace has 120 million registered users who create their own profiles (Web pages) for the purpose of linking to friends, posting their interests, photos, music, and videos. MySpace is very popular in the United States and moderately popular worldwide. It is open to people 14 and older; most of the users are under 30. MySpace was purchased by News Corp. in 2005 for $580 million. It is now valued at over $65 billion.
Facebook has more than 80 million users worldwide. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can add friends and send them messages and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. Recently, Facebook opened its platform to anyone to develop applications within Facebook. The site was initially limited to Harvard University students as a way to get to know other people on campus, but was later expanded to other colleges, and now is open to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook was started in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. Today, at age 24, he is at the helm of this privately-owned company, turning down billion-dollar purchase offers. Facebook is valued at $15 billion.
LinkedIn is an on online social network that connects people with their friends, family, and business associates. It is primarily a business networking site that lets you post resume information and connect with other people in your profession. It currently has about 23 million registered users in 150 countries, with another 1.2 million signing up each month. LinkedIn started just 5 years ago, and is already valued at $1billion.
At the Web 2.0 Conference in April this year, I saw a presentation by Clay Shirky about where people find the time to participate in Wikipedia, blogs, and other new media.
He estimates that 100 million hours have collectively gone into Wikipedia. He compares that to 200 billion hours of watching TV each year in the U.S. alone–the equalent of 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year. We spend 100 million hours in the USA every weekend watching just the advertisements–that would permit the creation of an entire Wikipedia in just one weekend if we just skipped the ads!
His point is that people have the time, but they waste it watching TV. How you use your time is a choice: good, better, or best.
A wiki is a collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content. Wikis are often used to create collaborative Web sites, such as many community Web sites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets and for Knowledge Management. There are also specialized wikis about various topics. MormonWiki.com is specialized wiki about Mormonism.
by Larry Richman, Posted Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
What is a blog? Blog is short for “web log.” A blog is a Web site, maintained by an individual or organization, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other media such as graphics and video. You can start a blog about anything that interests you. For example, LDSMediaTalk is a blog by several authors who talk about the wise use of technology and media for LDS parents and youth. LDS CIO is a blog written by a technology geek to other technology geeks. Other blogs are simply a collection of thoughts and ideas, such as Richman Ramblings. You can create a blog that is open to anyone to read, or you can restrict who can read your blog.
Why should you start a blog?
To share your ideas and wisdom, to have an archive of interesting things you’ve discovered, or to share your beliefs with the world or with a targeted corner of the world. You don’t have to be an expert on a topic to blog. Blogging is a great way to share your own personal testimony and to teach people about the Church by telling them what it’s like on the inside. It’s also a lot of fun.When speaking to students at BYU-Hawaii, Elder Ballard said, “Most of you already know that if you have access to the Internet you can start a blog in minutes and begin sharing what you know to be true.”
Is blogging difficult? It can be as easy or hard as you want to make it. Setting up a blog is very easy. Writing regular blog posts is the tough part. You’re most likely to enjoy blogging if you enjoy writing on the topic of your blog. It you really want a high-quality blog, you need to be committed to post often to keep people reading. If you decide to begin a blog about the gospel, schedule regular times each week. Every Sunday evening you could write about what you learned in Church that day and every Wednesday evening you could write about one thing you are thankful for, related to a specific gospel principle.
Where do I begin?
You can sign up for a free blog at LDS.net or on blogging sites like WordPress.com and Blogger.com. If you’re interested in starting a blog using your own domain name (your own Web address), you can get one at those sites, or contact the More Good Foundation for help.
Below is a short video in plain English about blogs:
87% of parents of teenagers are online–that’s 17% more than average adults. And those parents check up on and regulate their teens’ media use, not just in terms of the Internet, but with television and video games as well. Family rules on such media use lean slightly more towards the content of the media rather than the time spent with the media device.
Teens and their parents use the Internet, cell phones, iPods, digital cameras, and other technology devices in a similar way, but teens (89%) are more likely than their parents (71%) to say that this technology made their lives easier.
While a majority of parents with online teens still believe the Internet is a beneficial factor in their children’s lives, there has been a decrease since 2004 in the number of parents who believe the Internet is a good thing for their children. However, there has not been a corresponding increase in parents who think the Internet has been a bad thing for their children; they are simply neutral about whether their children have been positively affected by the internet.
by Larry Richman, Posted Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
We think you’ll like this new feature on LDS Media Talk. At the end of every post is a series of social bookmarking icons you can use to store, organize, search, and rate the posts on LDS Media Talk.
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Teenagers typically feel they know much more about technology than their parents. But do they really understand the issues of security and privacy on the Internet?
It goes way beyond identity theft. What about computer ethics? What should your children do if they stumble across an adult site? Do they understand the risks of Internet predators? Youth often have to learn about the pitfalls of the Internet on their own because parents and schools tend not to know how to address the subject of security and privacy on the Internet.
“Every kid, when they reach a certain age, [should] have ‘The Talk’ with their parents,” said one16-year-old. “We need to have the same sort of discussion in terms of privacy. The majority of teenagers know about the sexual diseases out there because of this conversation that they have with their parents or because they have the talk in the school in sex ed. I think [security] needs to be addressed the same as well.”
A major problem for kids is that they are, in general, far ahead of their parents in terms of internet usage. Teenagers blog regularly, use instant messaging to keep up with their friends, and are usually able to circumvent any computer security measures at school, said a recent panel of five teenagers.
“I think it is hard for the parents and educators because we are moving at a different pace than they are… no offense,” said one teenager. “It feels like we are done and on to the next thing by the time other people are aware of it.”
Some students are still not aware of the dangers of an open blog under their real names that include many real life details. “If you want to give out your first name, then go ahead, nobody is going to stop you,” said one 17-year-old. “But you should know that there are [dangerous] types of people out there.”
The teenagers had mixed opinions on how much should be taught at school regarding Internet safety. Some believed that ethics in the digital world should be a required topic, while others thought that only basic safety should be taught. However, they did agree that parents and schools should be talking about the Internet with their kids far sooner than they do today – by the age of 10 at the latest, they said.
Sometimes it is tricky for parents to balance their fear for their children’s safety with what teenagers may see as violations of privacy.
“My mom has blocked the TV, the computer and I’m not allowed to listen to a lot of radio stations right now,” said one teen. “I really feel like she doesn’t trust me anymore. She hasn’t demanded my password, but I know that she knows it, and I’m pretty sure she has gone onto my computer.”
Many teens easily find ways around their parents’ security measures. Some have e-mail accounts that the parents don’t know about in order to protect their privacy. “My parents wanted to check my computer, so I stopped using that computer,” said a 17-year-old boy. “I use the computers at school. There are things that they don’t need to know.”
The general feeling among the teenagers, however, was that parents should talk about the issues with their kids. “The most important thing is don’t talk down to us,” said one young man. “For the most part, we are not dumb.”
by Larry Richman, Posted Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
“As parents, we have to figure out where to draw the line between encouraging and allowing our teens to have autonomy, to experience their separate culture, and when we need to monitor their use of media,” says Kathryn Montgomery, author of Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce and Childhood in the Age of the Internet. She says it is especially important to help young people understand that social networking is often more public than they think. Sometimes monitoring them is the best way to do that.
Sample Child-Tracking Technologies
Software: Various programs can track Web activity and record online chats, instant messages and e-mail. Parents can receive reports and alerts by e-mail and, in some cases, by phone or text message. Prices range from $40 to $100 in one-time or annual fees.
Cell phones: GPS enables parents to locate a child’s phone on an online map. One service will text message parents if the phone leaves a predetermined zone. Monthly services typically cost $10 to $20.
Car: Devices can record distance, speed and driving behavior, such as hard braking and sharp turning. Some pinpoint a car’s location using Global Positioning System technology and alert parents if a teen driver exceeds a certain speed or leaves a defined geographic area. One, the CarChip, costs $139. Monthly services cost $20 and up.
Consider
If you are going to monitor your kids’ activity, it may be best to tell them you are doing it. If they know you’ll be monitoring, they may be more apt to be careful. Better to avoid problems altogether than to catch your kids in the act.
“This is about parents being given tools to better protect their kids. That’s not Big Brother. That’s parenting,” said Jack Church of Teen Arrive Alive, a Florida company that offers Global Positioning System-enabled cell phones that allow parents to go online to check the location and speed of a car their child is driving or riding in.
In addition to monitoring activity, consider easing your children into new technology. If a younger child asks for a MySpace page, consider starting them out on Imbee.com, a social networking site for children that allows parental monitoring.
I am a huge movie buff. I love most types of movies–action, comedy, drama, science fiction, fantasy, historical, mystery, even romance if I am in the right mood. The only problem with this love of movies is that I also feel very strongly about not inviting content into our home that will offend the Spirit. Sometimes, it is difficult to know what you will see in a movie you haven’t seen before. There are many times I have debated with myself whether or not to watch a certain movie based on my prediction of what it might contain.
I have found two solutions that have helped make such choices easier for me personally. The first is a website called kids-in-mind.com. This free site provides information about potentially offensive content in movies. It promotes this as information for parents to know what their kids may be watching, but I believe that adults should be watching what they watch as well. I often use this site to see if I or my family members are “walking into a trap” when we go to the theater. Sure, there might be a few spoilers in the descriptions that give away a minor part of the movie but, to me, the knowledge of what to expect in terms of content is worth the risk. The real spoiler would be to subject myself, my wife, and my children to inappropriate content that doesn’t come out of the mind very readily.
The second solution that I have discovered is a really cool product called Clearplay. This solution consists of two elements: 1) a special DVD player and a USB thumb drive that plugs into your PC and the DVD player ($80) and 2) a subscription to the Clearplay filter list ($7.95 per month). To use this product, you go online and select the movie(s) you want to view. The appropriate filter(s) are downloaded onto the USB thumb drive which is then inserted into the DVD player. This automatically loads the content filters into the DVD player’s memory. You can then customize the level of content filtering desired based on several settings:
Violence
Sex
Nudity
Vulgarity
Bloodshed
Substance Abuse
Blasphemy
These settings allow you to create a customized viewing experience based on what you want to filter out and how intense you want that filtering to be for each area. The thing I like best about Clearplay is that it literally takes the power to control what I view away from Hollywood and gives it back to me and my family. The other thing I like is that the movies are carefully edited to remove offensive content, but also to make certain you can still follow the storyline. This is not an easy task when editing some movies.
One caveat is that the filters cannot always remove all potentially offensive content, but there are always clear warnings on the menu screen when this is the case. Also, I have found that removing all offensive language, violence, nudity, and sex does not necessarily make a movie an uplifting, worthwhile, or positive experience. There are many movies that, even with these things removed, can still offend the Spirit with the message(s) they portray. So this product is not a panacea and good judgment and inspiration are still required.
However, for myself, I have found that these two solutions (kids-in-mind.com and Clearplay) have helped me to take better control of the media I view and have allowed me to enjoy watching movies once again without worrying so much about what I am going to encounter. If you are aware of other solutions for reviewing or filtering out negative content from movies, I would love to hear about them.
by David Frischknecht, Posted Monday, June 16th, 2008
Ensign readers will find the cover of the July issue unique, even unusual.It draws attention to Elder M. Russell Ballard’s article “Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet” (p. 58), which is adapted from his talk at BYU-Hawaii in December 2007.Many Church members have read this talk on the Internet.Printing it in the Ensign gives non-Internet readers access to Elder Ballard’s instructions on using new technologies to share the gospel.In addition to the unique cover, readers will find something novel about the sidebar, “Helps for Home Evening” (p.61).It invites families to view Elder Ballard’s video clip at www.youtube.com/LDSPublicAffairs and discuss ways they can share their testimony of the gospel using the Internet.
The LDS community is vibrant, smart and willing to give. Web 2.0 technologies (and mindsets) are providing opportunities for people to contribute.
“Community tagging” is one example. Unstructured information (blogs, emails, articles, and so forth) is harder to search than structured data like addresses, phone numbers, names, debits, and credits. One way to make unstructured information more searchable (and thus more accessible) is to “tag” it.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say I write a blog post that tells a story of a time when I was young and I learned by watching my father serve a widow on Christmas day, even though he wasn’t sure he’d get done in time to take care of the preparations for the holiday. If someone goes into Google and searches the Internet to find a story for a talk or a lesson then they will likely not come across this story.
However, the Internet (and this blog) allows the author to “tag” articles. Tagging is just assigning words to an article which describe it and thus make the article more likely to show up in searches (whether on a blog or on the Internet).
For the story I listed, I might use tags like faith, story, service, father, dad, christmas, and lesson. Notice that some of these words don’t show up in the story, but they still capture the essence of the story. If people then searched on any of these words, they would be more likely to find the story.
This approach is good, but the problem is that a) it presumes the author knows the right tags for an article and b) it takes time.
“Community tagging” is a phenomenon where people on the Internet collectively tag other people’s content. This happens on web sites like Flickr and Facebook. People upload pictures and others can tag the pictures. This spreads the workload out and can make it more precise.
How might we use “community tagging” for Church-related content?
RSS
