For example, let’s say you want to mention the restoration of the priesthood in one of your posts. You want to find a page on the web that describes how the Aaronic Priesthood was restored and link to this page from your blog.

As Larry mentioned in a previous post (Answering Questions About the Church), the Gospel Topics section contains authoritative, yet brief explanations to many Church doctrines and practices. Using the example above, you could provide a link to the Aaronic Priesthood page since a description of the restoration of that priesthood is included under the “Additional Information” tab.

Other sources on Church web sites include:

• Leader Biographies contains the official biographies of the leaders of the Church. These are useful when referring to a present Church leader.
• Core Beliefs: How and Why Are Mormons Different? contains answers to basic questions concerning the restoration of the gospel, the plan of salvation, the purpose of temples, the missionary program, etc. Although this page is geared to “newsmakers”, it provides concise information on basic beliefs.
• The General Conference page contains archives of general conference addresses. This section is helpful when you want to cite a specific general conference address in a blog post.
• The Scriptures section provides online access to the four standard works of the Church and includes helpful study aids such as the Guide to the Scriptures, the Bible Dictionary, the Joseph Smith Translation, and others. These are particularly useful when you want to cite a particular scripture or need to provide additional context for a scripture reference.
• The Presidents of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints section provides “basic facts” about each Church president in this dispensation. This section is useful when you want to refer to any Church president and it also includes a section on President Thomas S. Monson.

Some of my favorite non-Church web site authorities include:

• MormonWiki by the More Good Foundation which contains a lot of good content since its stated purpose is to act as an “incubator of content” about the Church.
• The General Authority Pages provide useful information about all the general authorities of the Church in this dispensation.
• The online version of the Encyclopedia of Mormonism provides a wealth of information about the restored gospel in almost 1,500 articles. Although this is not an official publication of the Church, it does cover a wide-range of subjects.

These lists are by no means exhaustive. Many more sections could be cited, but it does provide a starting point. What are your favorite sites or sections of web sites that contain useful information about the Church?

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Today, more than 3/4 of consumers in Australia, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. say they watch video on their PCs.

In 5 years, the number of online video viewers is expected to grow to 941 million (from 563 million in 2008). That will represent just over half of the 1.8 billion consumers expected to use the Internet that year.

Source: eMarketer

Bookmark:

• E-mail. Whenever you get an e-mail, determine if you can delete it, delegate it to someone else, defer it, or respond immediately or take needed action right now to solve the issue. If you don’t need to take action, archive the e-mail. Don’t try to sort, categorize, or tag your archive. Just move it into a single folder. If you ever do need to access it, you can search for words or phrases. Read Inbox Zero, a series of articles from 43 Folders about the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your e-mail inbox and keep it that way. (You can also view Merlin Mann’s presentation about Inbox Zero.)
• To-do List. Maintain a to-do list and reference it often. Put everything on the list or better yet, schedule it in your calendar so you will have the time to get it done.
• Feeds. Use feed readers, like Google Reader or FriendFeed. Just read the titles, and pull out what is important to you. Separate your feeds into “must-read,” “maybe,” and “everything else” folders with tags. Hit the most important folder first. Consider using Feed Rinse to automatically filter out syndicated content that you aren’t interested in. It’s like a spam filter for your RSS subscriptions.
• Minimize incoming information. Be selective in what you consume. Your time is valuable, so only subscribe to the best of the best. Don’t get on too many social networks. It can drain your time checking them all. Limit yourself to 1-3 major networks. Keep the “noise” out of your life as much as possible.
• Prioritize. Where you spend your time says a lot about who you are. Click fast and read only what’s new and ignore rehashing what’s been covered somewhere else. Manage your actions to reflect what you say is most important to you. Stay focused. At the beginning of the day, write down the 1-2 things you really want to accomplish that day.
• Pace yourself. Take on information in approachable chunks. Check e-mail and feeds on a regular schedule so it doesn’t pile up. But don’t check them too often.
• Minimize distractions. Don’t be too connected. If you’re checking your Blackberry every minute, then you’re too distracted. Sometimes, you need to turn off your e-mail application and get work done.

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Go to the Web site A Brand New Year.

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Thanks to MormonTechie for finding this. I haven’t tried it nor can vouch for how well it works. But it’s a very clever use of technology!

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This index page on LDS.org is a handy compilation of scriptures, articles, hymns, and messages from general authorities that will be helpful to anyone who is preparing a talk or family home evening lesson or would simply like to be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas.

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