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A new analytics program called Woopra allows website operators to not only see who is visiting their website in realtime but to initiate a conversation with them. This has interesting implications for online missionary work since it means that investigators could be offered help as they search online.

Here is a 3-minute video demonstrating Woopra on MormonWiki.com:

This strikes me as the online equivalent of the store clerk who asks, “Can I help you find anything?” You usually answer, “No, I’m just looking around.”

Elder Cook has touted privacy as one of the great benefits of learning about the gospel online:

“There are a lot of people today who would like to know more about our faith but they are concerned about having their privacy invaded. They want to look at things in their own time and in their own way. They do not want to feel like they have any pressure…. We feel that the Internet and the privacy that it affords people is a wonderful way to do that….” (Internet to find, Missionaries to Teach)

I suspect that most people will prefer not to be interrupted while searching for information about the Church. However, I wonder if a small handful of people would appreciate being offered some help?

In celebration of its 10 year anniversary, Google has released a tool for searching its oldest search index, from 2001. A search for “Mormon beliefs” or “Mormon missionaries” returned a very different set of results 7 years ago.

Due to the efforts of the Church and many Church members, people looking for information about Mormonism can now expect to find a wide variety of stories, testimonies, and experiences from Mormons living their faith.

And there’s still more to do.

Tags: Google, history

At Have you born your testimony on YouTube yet? Jane shares a concern about sharing the Gospel online:

I am ready to put a link to the church under “what I believe” on my About page, and to swear less (never, I think) online than I do in real life. I talk about our family reunions and about odd things that occur to me in church. I post videos of my seven-year old practicing her primary talks. But I’m not sure I’m the best example.

Sometimes I worry: will people judge the church by my words and actions…? Will they think I’m hypocritical for drinking Mountain Dew and oppressed because sometimes I hate being a mother?

Is this a problem?

I don’t think so. Jane’s authenticity should be considered a strength, not a weakness. Our friends of other faiths aren’t anxious to discover that all Mormons are alike. I think they’d be glad to discover there’s a Mormon out there just like them, with the same background, education, tastes in food, skin color, and hair color. Maybe they’re even from the same area. (Maybe there’s a Mormon out there for everyone!)

In the comments below Jane’s post, several women say that Elder Ballard’s talk inspired them to start blogs.

Sharing the Gospel online doesn’t need to mean posting your testimony on YouTube or necessarily sharing your testimony, in the traditional sense, at all. While speaking in Washington, D.C., Elder Ballard explained it this way:

Clearly, in this context I am not talking about declaring your testimony of faith in the traditional sense. Naturally, you can and should do that where the setting is appropriate and the audience is receptive, such as a church meeting. Rather, I am talking about taking part in everyday conversations in an unforced way, where your values and your religious beliefs will arise naturally. No one likes to have religion thrust down their throats. Instead, allow people to see how your beliefs lift and shape your life for the better.

• How does the gospel help you as a parent engage with your teens?
• How do your values encourage you to participate in civic affairs?
• How has your experience as a home or visiting teacher enlarged your compassion or care for the sick and needy?
• How has your Church life helped you to avoid such things as pornography and immorality?
• How have family councils or home evenings helped you resolve differences of opinion with members of your family?
• How has your experience in speaking in church helped you address large public groups?
• Where did you learn to respect and not to criticize other faiths?
• And so on.

I recently did a Google search and saw the following notice above the search results:

Customized for Salt Lake City metro area, US

Google can determine — by my IP address — that I am searching from a location near Salt Lake City and attempts to make the search results more relevant to my location.

When our friends of other faiths look for information about our faith, Google may present them with local search results. Perhaps this might include a blog post from a member in their city or a picture of the temple in their area.

This is good news!

1. Instead of feeling discouraged, thinking “Why should I blog? It could never make a difference,” online member missionaries should understand that by sharing authentic, local experiences, their blog may be preferred over a more general source.

2. If a searcher discovers the blog of a local Church member and becomes interested in the Church, the member can be involved in the teaching process with the full-time missionaries.

If you have a blog or website, consider writing about the Church in your area. Here are some example titles you might use:

• “What it’s like to grow up as a Mormon in Las Vegas, NV”
• “How I feel when I visit the Las Vegas Mormon Temple”
• “Where can I visit a Mormon chapel in Las Vegas, NV? What will it be like?”
• “Why I was a Mormon missionary in Tulsa, Oklahoma”

Testimony Tag is an idea for sharing your beliefs on your blog and encouraging your friends to do the same. You may have seen these viral games of “tag” in which one blogger writes, for example, “5 things you didn’t know about me” and then “tags” others to do the same.

If you have a blog, you can participate in a Testimony Tag by
1. Creating a blog post about a Gospel topic
2. Linking to another positive website or resource about the Church
3. Encouraging (”tagging”) your friends to do the same

For more information, read Testimony Tag.

Thanks to David for sending this in. I thought this was a great idea.

By the way, for an example of being a missionary online, see Matt Asay’s post “Five things you don’t know about me”. In the course of explaining five things about himself to a business and technical audience, he mentioned both his high school seminary class and his mission to France. He wasn’t preachy; he simply mentioned elements of his beliefs and practices that were a part of his life. This sort of transparency and openness helps build bridges and dispel myths about the Church.

Last week we attended the FAIR Conference. Among my favorite talks were the conference opener by Mike Ash and the conference closer by Dan Peterson.

Mike Ash presented concepts from his new book, Shaken Faith Syndrome. He explained the idea of “inoculation” — introducing members to doctrinal or historical points that might be unsettling if received from unfaithful sources which intend to shock or confuse. For example, we might better inoculate Church members by linking to the relevant FAIR Wiki article on Joseph Smith and polygamy when discussing Joseph Smith or polygamy.

Dan Peterson spoke of softening and broadening the field of apologetics. Apologetics is meant to provide plausibility for faith, not prove anything. We need not debate. If our faith is rational, or based in things we consider plausible, the Spirit can testify of truths. Apologetics can help provide this plausibility, for those who want it, by clearing the thorns so the seeds of faith can grow.

Dan’s vision for broadened apologetics is making the Gospel more “attractive” (or more remarkable) by sharing our experiences, telling our stories, and encouraging others to experiment for themselves. This kind of sharing of beliefs is central to the mission of the More Good Foundation and seems to be what Elder Ballard has asked for.

Earlier this year, Dave Keller suggested that Church members who participate on the Internet should engage in a “vigorous self study program” so they’re prepared to discuss any issue that might arise online. Here I see an interesting convergence: Dan and Dave seem to be implying, respectively, that the apologist and the online member missionary ought to be more like each other.

See also: Dan Peterson on Humble Apologetics at MormonTimes.com.

Speaking of websites launched by Church employees, Brian Hansbrow has recently launched LDSTeacher.com. LDSTeacher.com is a social network with the goal of “improving teaching and learning in the … Church.”

At LDSTeacher.com you can discuss such topics as how to invite the Spirit into lessons, how to increase student participation, and how to prepare to teach. In a Church with no paid ministry, teachers may find these resources helpful.

LDSMediaTalk.com is a new blog created by several Church employees to share “technology ideas for LDS parents and youth.” While this blog is not an official publication of the Church, these bloggers are experts in their fields and are close to the issues. Anybody interested in how the Church uses and will use technology to fulfill its mission should subscribe to this blog.

Participants include the following individuals, as well as occasional guests:

• Larry Richman, LDS.org Product Manager
• Joel Dehlin, Church CIO
• David Nielson, Managing Director, Church Audiovisual Dept
• David Frischknecht, Managing Director, Church Curriculum Dept

A recent MormonTimes.com article quoted Larry Richman relative to the launch of this new site:

Richman said the principal writers for LDSMediaTalk.com will glean technology information useful to families based on each author’s area of expertise. The curriculum director will focus on teaching the gospel. The audiovisual director will focus on Hollywood, movie-watching and music. The CIO will dig into technology issues. “I’m somewhere in the middle of all of those,” Richman said.

The Church Newsroom has a good article about members of the Church who are using YouTube and other websites to share the Gospel.

The article includes references to MormonHunnies, the three Mormon college students who’ve shared their beliefs on YouTube, and youth in Las Vegas who recorded their testimonies at Youth Conference.

“Speak on what you know,” Las Vegas youth leader West Allen says. “Make it personal. They [members] should share how the Church or the gospel has personally benefitted them and their families.”

Source: Mormons Make Their Voices Heard — Digitally

Youth of the Las Vegas Nevada Redrock Stake shared their beliefs on camera at a recent Youth Conference, answering Elder Ballard’s call to share the Gospel online. The production was beautiful, and I see several good things coming of this:

• Youth can tell their friends about the video and link to it from Facebook or MySpace pages.
• Parents can share the video with their co-workers and friends of other faiths. It may be less intimidating, for giver and receiver, to share a video of one’s son or daughter.
• The public at large can see what Mormon youth are like.
• Youth gain experience being missionaries, before serving full-time missions.
• When they grow up, youth can look back and recall the beliefs they formed while young.

Read more: Youth answer Elder Ballard’s challenge with video
Watch video: Youths in Las Vegas record testimonies