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Today we attended the eBusiness Day at BYU. Thanks to Steve, Jeff, and Dan for letting us come. We talked to several people and passed out flyers on 12 Ways to Share the Gospel on the Internet.

1. Answer a Question at Yahoo! Answers
2. Blog your testimony in your mission language
3. Blog what you learned in Sunday School
4. Edit Mormonwiki.com or Wikipedia.org
5. Link to good websites (not just lds.org)
6. Podcast your parents and grandparents
7. Post mission and wedding photos on Flickr
8. Post your testimony on mormontestimonies.org
9. Post your video testimony on YouTube
10. Share your beliefs in a Facebook Note
11. Tell someone in Second Life about the Church
12. Volunteer with the More Good Foundation

There’s also a PDF version for printing (thanks to Connor for the design.)

We’re going to do all of these ourselves, and hope you will join us.

Amazon and Google employ complex algorithms that generally deliver, respectively, relevant book recommendations and relevant search results. Here are a couple of exceptions:

1. On Amazon.com, the Doubleday version of the Book of Mormon is being advertised in tandem with a book about Freemasonry, as if they were related. (See screenshot.)
2. If you search Google.com for the term “Jew”, you’ll see a disclaimer explaining that you may find unpleasant results. (See screenshot.)
   

   If you recently used Google to search for the word “Jew,” you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google…. A site’s ranking in Google’s search results is automatically determined by computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query. Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted.

   The page goes on to explain that “Jew” is often used in an anti-Semitic context, while Jewish organization are more likely to use the term “Jewish,” so search results for the former are generally more negative than search results for the latter. Sound familiar?

Plenty of sites that Google considers relevant for “Mormon” are full of doctrinal inaccuracies. Google, can we get a disclaimer too?

(Hat tip to Will F. for noticing the Amazon.com issue.)

I wrote previously about Tim O’Reilly’s vision of “harnessing collective intelligence” and stated that it may not always be ideal. Presumably, the more that people connect with each other and collaborate on the Internet, the better off we are. There are a few new web sites where you can vote for or against something, the idea being that if enough people participate then they’ll arrive at a definitive answer. If most people say cold pizza is great for breakfast, then it must be true, right?

The first problem is that these sites don’t represent the masses. If the people with the most life lessons under their belt (read: old) are not participating on the Internet, then results will skew towards immaturity, naivete, and inexperience. Likewise, if faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Christians aren’t participating, the Internet will skew towards secular notions instead of Gospel principles. That’s okay when discussing food, but not okay if people are expecting to learn and feel spiritual things. Good people everywhere need to participate on the Internet to counteract online trends toward secularism and faithlessness.

The second problem with “collective intelligence” is that it may leave out God and his authorized servants. That is, we (even all of us collectively) “[don't] comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend” and no one has a better grasp on “moral and societal issues” than God’s prophets.

Interestingly, one of these group voting sites is called Convince Me, the same tone used by Korihor when challenging the prophet Alma.

(I must mention parenthetically that I greatly admire Tim O’Reilly’s insight and vision. I’m being a bit facetious here, but the issue of online reputation is a real concern. To be truly useful, our online “collective intelligence” must include experienced and virtuous voices, and must not overshadow the divine.)

This morning I received an email about one of our sites, referring me to the Church’s style guide:

I was surprised to find numerous references to “the Mormon Church” on your website, seeing as the Church discourages the use of that term.

This is a fair question. Why wouldn’t we more closely follow the Church’s media style guide in referring to the Church?

We see it like the story of Ammon with King Lamoni. The missionary Ammon asked King Lamoni if he believed in God. When Lamoni didn’t understand, Ammon changed his vocabulary to “Great Spirit,” a term that he would understand.

24 And Ammon began to speak unto him with boldness, and said unto him: Believest thou that there is a God?
25 And he answered, and said unto him: I do not know what that meaneth.
26 And then Ammon said: Believest thou that there is a Great Spirit?
27 And he said, Yea.
28 And Ammon said: This is God. …
Alma 18:24-28

If the King Lamonis of today are typing “Great Spirit” into Google, we need to create websites and blog posts that mention the “Great Spirit”. Later we can explain that “this is God.”

Instead of requiring the handcart companies to arrive in the Salt Lake valley alone, Brigham Young said “go and bring in those people now on the plains.”

For an interesting comparison, search “Mormon church” and “LDS church” on Google. You’re certain to get better results for “LDS church”, but Overture stats suggest that “Mormon church” is searched almost 3 times more than “LDS church”. Are we doing what we can to “bring in those people”?

In this current “age of participation,” we (you and I) are forging the Web. Anyone can write a blog, create a video, post a photo, ask or answer a question, or vote on a story. What you contribute (and even what you consume — web sites are getting better at noticing what we pay attention to!) shapes what others find on the Internet.

With each word you read or write, each sentence, each page, and each link, each of us are helping to shape the web every day. (Seobook.com)

To describe the various projections of ourselves into cyberspace, I use the following metaphor: we’re cells, and we’re growing the surface area of our cellular membranes. Every time I write a blog item, or post a Flickr photo, or tag a resource in del.icio.us, I enlarge the surface area of that membrane. (blog.jonudell.net)

Believing that many are “kept from the truth because they know not where to find it,” we consider participation on the Internet by faithful Mormons to be extremely important. (We’ve previously discussed good things you can do on the Internet.)

Mormon church members with blogs or websites commonly link to the lds.org home page when talking about the Church. Sometimes Church members mentioning their faith don’t link at all. What would be ideal? If you talk about not drinking coffee because you’re a Mormon, link to a page about the Word of Wisdom. (This is a gentle request, Josh.) It’s usually better to link to a specific page at lds.org or mormon.org or any other good site rather than simply linking to the www.lds.org home page. Link to something relevant. Link to some obscure gem of a page that no one else has found. Link to something good. What you link to will shape what others find.

If you need help finding good web pages to link to, try ldsfind.com or ldssearch.com.

There’s also an interesting, though slightly technical, video about how we are shaping the Web. (source via)

Video is a great way to share good Church-related content on the Web. Many people think that videos, in order to be effective, need to be very polished or take a lot of time. In browsing through some of the online video services, I’ve run across some good amateur examples of using video to help spread the word.

The following are a few videos that are concerned with temples. These are just a few; there are actually a good number of these on the Web.

• Tour of Las Vegas Temple grounds. Someone shot some videos as they walked around the Las Vegas Temple grounds. The natural audio accentuates the peace and quiet of the area. (4:06)
• Spain Madrid Temple. Basic slideshow made from still images, with music. The video has a title and prologue in Spanish. (1:40)
• Los Angeles Temple Travels. A couple visits the Los Angeles Temple. Great slide-show shots and music express the feelings they experienced as they visited. (2:48)

Another good topic for sharing good information about the Church (and one that is often related to temples) is the subject of temple marriages. These two videos were shared by couples who were happy about their temple marriages. (They do a good job of pointing out that temple marriages are not weird, strange, or totally secret. These are normal, average couples getting married in a way that they choose.)

• A Temple Marriage. Video shot after a temple marriage at the Salt Lake Temple. Shows happy family and friends, celebrating the marriage. No voice; just two popular songs played in the background of the video. (6:52)
• Courtship and Marriage at the San Diego Temple. This is a couple’s wedding video, shot at the San Diego Temple. Nice video with incidental music background. (2:59)

Some people are directly trying to share information about missionaries, mission life, and the fruits of missionary work. I thought the following were very good examples of this genre of shared video:

• Temple Square Mission. A documentary clip about missionaries on Temple Square. (1:47)
• Provo MTC. Documentary clip about what goes on in the MTC as missionaries prepare to serve. (2:31)
• BJ’s Conversion Story. A recent convert tells why he decided to join the Church and the happiness he has found in the Church. (3:14)
• Mike’s Conversion Story. Another recent convert tells why he decided to join the Church. (12:15)
• Finding Lost Sheep. Nice video montage (with background song) that shows pictures of LDS converts and missionaries. (4:32)

One thing I was surprised about is that there aren’t more videos online about visiting Church history sites. There are many such sites around the world (and especially in North America), and it would seem a natural for sharing information about the Church. I did find one short (0:36) video clip about the Sacred Grove.

How can you encourage such videos? Link to them from your blog or Web site. You can even embed them, if you desire. (Most of the above videos have embedding code available at the video’s site.) It could be even better if you were to share some of your own videos. Just upload them to places like YouTube or Google Video, and then they can be shared around the world.

Drop us a line (or leave a comment) sharing how you’ve used video to help put good LDS-oriented content on the Web.

-Allen

My friend Brian recently spoke in church about positive things you can do on the Internet. The talk was aimed at “regular” church members that happen to use the Internet — including parents and children — not Internet experts. There’s something for everyone. Here are his notes:

1. Share your talents online with photos, music and videos

   • Upload your photos of temples and church history sites
   • Records mutual skits and post them to video sharing sites
   • Be sure to use their “tagging” service and use words like “mormon, mormon history, temples, families, etc”

2. Keep Your Standards Online

   • If you use sites like Myspace or Facebook, keep your standards high
   • Talk about church activities you’ve enjoyed
   • Put photos of Temples in your photo streams

3. Link to true principles

   • If you have a popular site that you run, be sure to hyperlink words like faith and mormon to the true teachings
   • If you have a high pagerank, be sure to link to the church’s sites

4. Start a family/ward blog or website

   • Don’t be administrative in your posts, but talk about your beliefs and give information for readers
   • Be a ward blogger and write about sacrament meeting each week
   • Have a weekly FHE activity to add your testimony about different principles of the Gospel. Point to those principles in the scriptures

5. Maintain a site about a Church doctrine or interest

   • If you have a special spot in your heart for your local temple, start a website that gives information and history of the building
   • Use resources like the More Good Foundation (http://www.moregoodfoundation.org) They will give you the tools and help you need.
   • Find similar sites and link to them

A few weeks ago I left the following comment on MormonMentality.org in response to a post about the “do’s and don’ts of LDS blogging”:

I think there’s a natural tendency among Mormon blogs (and the blogosphere in general) toward marginal topics, i.e. topics that are new or exciting or controversial. This means new readers don’t get any context or background, which could deprive them of some of the core beliefs we all share and take for granted. I’d like to see every Mormon blog and blog post contain a small link entitled “get more info” or “about this religion”. It could direct the reader to a page by the author that explains his or her beliefs and gives links to other good resources about the Church. Seth Godin has talked about this (a phenomenon unique to blogs) and even suggested that sites uses cookies to distinguish between new readers and returning readers. New readers could receive a message that says “in case you don’t know anything about the Mormon church, here is some basic info that will set the stage….” (Comment #19)

Farther below, BRoz gives a possible explanation and caution:

I wonder if bloggers are a bit biased against “basic beliefs.” We like the Athenians spend our “time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” Do we build up blogs “to become popular in the eyes of the world?”

Just yesterday, Danithew (who, incidentally, wrote the original post) used a footnote in a blog entry to give context and explanation to his writing. After the phrase “General Conference” — a term that non-Mormons may not be familiar with — you’ll find a footnoted link to the bottom of the page where Danithew explains what General Conference is. What an awesome way to give context to the blog post! I believe we LDS bloggers should all take up this practice.

Source: Hermana Soto

Glenn Beck is the 3rd most listened-to talk show host in the U.S., has a new TV show on CNN, and is also a Mormon. In the following video he talks about how the friendship and example of Mormon friends helped him decide to convert, what honoring the Sabbath means to him, and how he loves his wife. We need more videos like this.

It would be great to hear from Steve Young, Gladys Knight, and other famous mormons. Donny Osmond has several Gospel presentations.

But you don’t have to be famous to share the Gospel online. If you’d be okay with sharing your thoughts about the Church for a few minutes through video, please contact us.

Via: LDSWebGuy.com

David of MormonConverts.com recently shared with me a good idea: Ward Bloggers.

The Church already allows ward members to share a (private) site with the news and members of their ward. If (public) blogging software were added, each bishop in the Church could call a local person to be responsible for writing about happenings in the ward — upcoming Sunday School topics, with links to the readings for that week, or who spoke in sacrament meeting and what they spoke about.

I’d love to read the ward blogs of areas in my mission — to know that someone I taught had spoken in Church, or that a member I knew had sent a son on a mission. I’d also want to read the blog of my “home ward” to stay connected with the many good people that influenced me as a youth.