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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.)

I finally decided to write (and I wrote) my testimony about the Gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon Church) and post it online.

I decided to do it in two parts. The first part is mostly the story of what happened in my life that prepared me to accept the Gospel. I was an Italian Catholic and the Mormon Church over there was, and unfortunately still is, not well known. To become a Mormon in Italy still requires a lot of internal and external struggles and perhaps a certain amount of time to prepare. I can say with confidence that the Lord prepared me over many years until I was ready to understand and accept the Restored Gospel. This is the link in case you are interested in reading it: Before my testimony

The second part deals with the period of my conversion and according to a couple of friends, it is the best part, because it is shorter and really contains my testimony. This is the link: My Testimony: Why I do believe

It was a great experience for me to write these two blogs-testimonies. I remembered many important things of my life and it actually was a spiritual experience. I invite all of you to do the same: write your story and testimony and publish it on the Internet. If you don’t have a blog and you don’t know where to post your testimony, just contact us and we will help you with that, but we need your testimonies. In fact, the world needs your testimony! You never know who will read it and be touched by the Spirit!

Jacob at AllAboutMormons.com recently added several new features to his site for engaging the online Mormon community:

• Questions and Answers — Mormons or persons of other faiths may submit questions and Jacob will do his best to respond. This is similar to AskGramps.org.
• Testimonies — Read testimonies from Church members on why they believe. Submit your own testimony. (Look to Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen for a good example of explaining why you believe.) There are already more than a dozen.
• News — Read and submit news stories about the Church, similar to LDSNewsWatch.com
• Site Directory — Find and submit links to good web sites about the Church, similar to MormonCentral.com.

As many of you know, the Church launched a new version of its main website, www.lds.org, just two weeks ago. Then last week the Church launched a new version of its site for News Media, newsroom.lds.org. We’ve produced a short tour of these two sites in the form of a video screencast. The screencast gives an overview of the new sites and highlights some of the new features found on lds.org.

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”?

Mi ricordo che molti anni fa quando vivevo in Italia (e lo stesso succedeva quando vivevo in Brasile) i membri della Chiesa aiutavano i missionari scrivendo le loro testimonianze in copie del libro di Mormon che poi davano ai loro amici e ad altre persone che erano interessate alla Chiesa Mormone.

L’ idea era che una testimonianza personale aiutava i non-membri a capire che i missionari non erano gli unici membri della Chiesa e che molte persone “normali” credevano che il libro di Mormon fosse un libro sacro e cercavano di seguirne gli insegnamenti nella loro vita quotidiana.

Probabilmente molti rami e rioni organizzano ancora questo tipo di attivita’. L’ ascesa dell’ internet nella nostra vita quotidiana ci offre una nuova opportunita’ di condividere i nostri sentimenti e convizioni riguardo il libro di Mormon e la Chiesa di Gesu’ Cristo. In questo caso, pero’ possiamo raggiungere molte piu’ persone. Abbiamo l’ opportunita’ di diventare missionari nell’ Internet. Tutto quello che dobbiamo fare e’ usare un po’ del nostro tempo e desiderare di condividere la nostra testimonianza con altre persone.

Come puoi farlo ? Puoi sederti davanti a una videocamera e registrare la tua testimonianza. Non c’ e’ bisogno che sia lunga, infatti una testimonianza di due o tre minuti e’ sufficiente. Dopodiche’ puoi caricare (upload) la tua testimonianza usando uno dei video servizi online come YouTube cosi’ che altri potranno ascoltarla.

Quando carichi il video hai la possibilita’ di dargli un titolo e di scegliere parole chiave (keywords) per il tuo video. Cerca di includere un titolo e parole chiavi che siano rilevanti, come Libro di Mormon, Tempio Mormone, Gesu’ Cristo, Profeti moderni, o testimonianza della Chiesa Mormone. Pensa in quei termini che possano essere significativi per non-membri, cosi’ loro potranno trovare il tuo video piu’ facilmente quando cercano quelle parole nei motori di ricerca.

Quanto tempo dovrai spendere per fare questo video? Non molto. Probabilmente meno di un’ ora a meno che tu non decida di fare un progetto di ramo o di rione! Questa semplice idea, se attuata, potra’ eventualmente piantare un seme che produrra’ molti frutti.

Se decide di caricare un video con la tua testimonianza, fammelo sapere usando la forma do contatto. Sarei contento di vederlo.

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)

Years ago, several wards I lived in back in Ohio and Indiana used to help the missionaries by writing their testimonies in the front of a Book of Mormon, and then either giving the book to a friend or giving it to the missionaries so that they could give it to an investigator. The idea was that a personal testimony helped a non-member understand that there were real people who held the book to be sacred, and they weren’t afraid to share their conviction with others. Missionaries would report back that the “personal touch” was very helpful in their efforts to spread the gospel.

I don’t know if wards still do these types of missionary projects; I suspect that there are some that do. I’ve also heard of youth groups doing this as a project. Such projects are commendable, as they help both members and non-members to understand the depth of conviction that people have about the gospel.

I was reflecting the other day that with the rise of the Internet, we have a similar opportunity to connect with other people and share the gospel. We have the opportunity to, in effect, become “Internet missionaries.” All it takes is a few moments of time, and a desire to share your testimony with others.

What’s the idea? Why not sit down, in front of a video camera, and record your testimony. It need not be long–in fact, anywhere from ninety seconds to three minutes would be ideal. Then, upload your testimony to one of the video services, such as YouTube, so that others can share your feelings. Just like when people would read your handwritten testimony in the front of a Book of Mormon, they can begin to understand that real people (like you) have strong feelings about the gospel. If you know a language other than English, you could also record your testimony in that language, giving you two videos that will hopefully reach a more diverse group of people.

When you upload the video, you are given a chance to provide a title and keywords for the video. Make sure that you include a title and keywords that are relevant to what you are saying in the video. Perhaps keywords like Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ, Living Prophet, or Mormon Testimony could be relevant. (Just include what you think would be helpful terms to those who are not members of the Church.) The title and keywords help people search for and find your video more easily.

How long would all this take? Not long at all; you could probably do everything in less than an hour. It might take a little longer if you use these “video testimonies” as an idea for a youth project or ward project. What is the benefit? Someone may see your video testimony and you could “plant a seed” that will later produce fruit.

If you decide to upload your testimony, drop me a line (see our contact page) and let me know where it is; I’d love to see it.

Videos podem ser uma maneira muito boa de compartilhar bom conteúdo sobre a Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias (Igreja Mórmon) na internet.

Muitas pessoas podem pensar que videos precisam ser muito bem feitos e requerem muito tempo para ser produzidos para ser eficaces, mas isto não é sempre verdade.

Dois exemplos de videos seguem.

O primeiro é sobre o Templo de Recife. É muito curto mas tem o valor de um sincero testemunho da importância do templo mórmon para um membro da Igreja que o filmou. Este tipo de video pode ser feito facilmente por muitos outros membros da Igreja mórmon.

O segundo é já mais elaborado e foi feito pela Igreja, mas vale a pena divulgar o link, é sobre o programa Mãos que Ajudam.

Como membros individuais da Igreja é quase impossível criar um video come este, mas este vídeo pode dar boas idéias para criar outrs mais simples e curtos sobre vários assuntos relacionados à Igreja.

Precisamos fazer mais nesta area e seguir o exemplo do nosso amigo que filmou o Templo de Recife e com suas palavras deixou um testemunho sobre a sua fé.