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Facebook Rumors, Religion, and the LDS Faith

Posted on August 21, 2008 by jessestay

It all started with this post today. A supposed “employee ‘close to the deal'” told blogger, Zach Klein (who doesn’t seem to allow comments on his blog) that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History division had made an unsolicited bid to purchase Facebook. Nothing else – no other background, no other resources to confirm the deal. Soon after, ValleyWag, the first to the scene and first large blog to publish anything about it, was blogging rumors they are well known for spreading. Soon after, Venturebeat and the Industry Standard were blogging about it, quoting Brady Brim-DeForest, who ironically was claiming this as news, not a rumor at all – I’m unaware of where he got it, but his news broke after Valleywag’s. TheInquisitr, while I’m sure had no ill-intentions, even made fun of the manner with some very radical and somewhat inaccurate claims that I know have offended some members of the LDS Faith that read the blog. The blogosphere seems to be a mess today in regards to regard for religion, faith, and respect for one another’s belief. It appears the LDS Church has become the punch-line of the blogosphere’s Jokes and I’m getting really tired of it.

Now, let’s talk about rumors. The blogosphere is known for spreading rumors – I’ve hated them from the get-go, but let’s face it, it’s a part of many blogs out there, and it may not be going away any time soon. (I think I could do an entire post about rumors in and of itself) I expect an occasional rumor about Microsoft trying to buy Yahoo, or Facebook employees leaving the company because they are mad with Executives, or even a crazy one like the iPhone 2.0 coming with 2 cameras and iChat video support. Frankly, I never share those (well, rarely), but they are fun to read because, well, they’re funny. But rumors like an entire Faith buying a huge company like Facebook are ridiculous, unfounded, and frankly offensive to me that anyone would take such a rumor seriously when the Faith is my own. It’s a religion, people – tell me one reason a religious Faith would need a social network like Facebook to further its mission. Do you seriously believe any religion would be so stupid as to try this? People would leave Facebook in droves if that were to happen, and a network like Facebook has no good way of building up the members of the Faith itself. The claim is absolutely ridiculous, and I can’t believe established bloggers are taking this serious enough to share with others! There seems to be a serious lack of understanding between the blogosphere and the LDS Faith and I’d like to figure out a way to put an end to it.

Let’s go back to earlier this year. You may remember my “Shame on You TechCrunch” post I wrote awhile back, calling out the writers at CrunchGear for an extremely biased, and very misunderstood and inconsiderate interview of Penn Juliette, in which he claimed Mormons had “magic underwear” (as a Mormon, I affirm to you, that my underwear is not magic), and went on to encourage him as he talked about how easy religious women were, degrading women at the same time. While I still will not read CrunchGear because of that, I have lifted my boycott of TechCrunch (just because there is no way to avoid it – I also did not know Arrington at all at the time), but as you can see, there is a blatent misunderstanding of the LDS Faith in the blogosphere. CrunchGear still stands by their article and has refused to make any statement to the contrary.

Now, to give credit to those that have blogged about this today, Eric Eldon (of VentureBeat) does have a great point in that the LDS Church does actively invest in stock to retain and increase the value of its members donations through Tithing, and Facebook employees are selling stock. Like Louis Gray, I too give 10% of my wages in the form of Tithing to the Church, and I sincerely hope they invest it wisely and don’t just waste it away. I know their investments are wise though, and even the “widow’s mite” is considered and cared for. The Church itself never publishes these investments and it would be impossible to know if some are in Facebook or some are in Microsoft or some are in Google. They take these donations as sacred, and every effort is taken to maintain the sacredness of those donations. However, an outright acquisition of Facebook would be proposterous and completely out of line with the Church’s history.

Every one of these bloggers could have done a simple Tweet in fact, and quickly gotten a response from Mormons on how ridiculous the claims are. Or they could have shot Louis Gray, or me, or Matt Asay, or Phil Windley, or other Mormon bloggers an e-mail asking us if the claims were true. It took me about 5-10 minutes to send an e-mail to the LDS church and get a response back (which, btw, said the claims are not true and unfounded), and in fact, the LDS Church CIO is even on Twitter – an e-mail or even simple dm to him may have done the trick.

Now, I’m not necessarily trying to call out these specific bloggers, but rather point out the problem in general – I respect most of them in fact and really enjoy their regular blog posts. I’m just trying to make a shoutout to the blogosphere that we’re here if you have questions! Let’s start an open dialogue about the Mormon Faith – do you have questions? We’d really like to answer them before you assume and blog inaccuracies in the first place. Please, don’t hesitate to contact me, Louis Gray, or any other Mormon blogger if you have any hestitancy before posting an article. It’s time we put an end to this nonsense, once and for all.

The Rise of the Twittering Church-Goers

Posted on July 21, 2008 by jessestay

I knew Twitter had hit mainstream when I was Twittering about speaking in Church awhile back, and the CIO of a major Church organization Twitter’d me back, wishing me luck, while he himself was in church. Both he and I some times Twitter about the current sermon or teaching going on in our individual congregations and more – it’s quite frankly, an excellent tool to share with others of like beliefs and even outside your faith inspiring things you may learn. I’ve seen this from others as well, across boundaries of many different faiths – it’s a very common thing to see on Sundays on Twitter and FriendFeed. On Sundays, Twitter often becomes, “Church Day”, at least amongst many of my friends of different Faiths on Twitter.

Many people may gasp at this idea, saying, “What? You use your cell phone to Twitter in Church?”, but I’m not so sure it could be such a bad thing for the reasons I mention above. True, some times it is easy to get distracted, check e-mail, or FriendFeed, or other things going on and that takes some control. I also have to remember to turn off the sound on my wife’s cell phone so if/when I Twitter her phone doesn’t go off in the middle of sacrament/communion because she receives my Twitters on her cellphone (true story!). I do find it an easy way to study the scriptures in church without having to bring a whole book with me. With the iPhone’s new 3G speeds it’s also a great tool to be able to cross-reference and research the topics I’m learning – I’m a stickler for ensuring only the facts are being learned!

However, as I said, without restraint, my cellphone can be a distraction. Not only that, but the mere appearance of me constantly on it can bring an irreverance to the service that perhaps shouldn’t be there. I still can’t help wonder if it may be better just to leave the phone at home. To figure this out, I asked my friends on Twitter and FriendFeed how they use their cellphones in Church. I got a variety of great responses:

jtzemp – I work with the youth, and so I don’t believe in setting a double standard. If they can’t use them to be checking sports scores, texting friends, etc. than I’m not going to either. I have five rules: 1.) It’s OK in emergencies 2.) If it is being used to enhance the experience we’re all sharing, it’s ok. (calling people to get them to activities, finding out if someone is up for a visit, etc). It’s not ok to isolate yourself from people present to have conversations with people who aren’t present. The people you are with right now are the most important people to you right now. 3.) Following up on assignments is OK. I participate in a lot of meetings, and I do text people to remind them of, and follow up on completion of assignments. 4.) It’s _not_ ok in very sacred settings. It takes your mind off the spiritual experience and leaves you spiritually distracted. 5.) If you use your PDA/iPhone to store scriptures/notes/etc. It is ok to use it for that purpose only in appropriate settings. My $0.02.

LdsNana-AskMormon – Calender items, notes and on occasion accessing the scriptures via the Internet….. but NEVER texting.

Justin Hileman – i think appropriate use of technology can be beneficial… i’m far more likely to remain engaged when i’m looking up supplementary material or cross-referencing scripture. with a phone/pocket pc/iPhone i can look up that quote that i can almost remember, i can jot down notes so i’ll remember later. and i’m far less likely to carry a pad of paper to church with me.

Louis Gray – I used to bring the Treo, to have the standard works, hymns, lessons on. Now, I leave all the gadgets at home. You know I’d be Friendfeeding during communion and on Fast Sunday.

Ontario Emperor – If I am alone at church, I will occasionally tweet and/or friendfeed the highlights from the sermon. http://friendfeed.com/e/17edcd…

LGR – Occasionally, if I have the kids on my own in the parents room I will check email, and do some RSS reading while I am watching the kids. I can’t hear the sermon in the parents room unfortunately so I play with the kids and check things on my cell.

James Hull – Never. In the past I have used it to save notes or ideas that may pop into my head, but lately I turn the thing off on the way in and back on on the way out.

the JoshMeister – I like jtzemp’s comments. I carry 3 phone/PDA-type devices with me (yes, I know it sounds silly, but there’s a reason for each device). I use my personal PDA (not a phone) for notes, scriptures, lesson manuals, hymns, and my calendar. I use my Treo (my work PDA-phone which is Internet-enabled but not calling-enabled) to look up talks on lds.org during meetings when appropriate e.g. if a particular talk is the main focus of a lesson, and also for typing notes during General/Stake Conference…

…And finally, I use my personal cell phone only before/after church, or to add a church member’s phone number.

Harvey Simmons – This will probably blur the definition of “in church,” but I’m on the AV team, so we send texts from the sound board to the video room all the time. We just turn our ringers off. At the same time, we occasionally remind people that they could be on camera at any time, so they shouldn’t text or talk on cellphones during service. Last week, the Assistant Pastor’s phone rang during communion service. It was hilarious.

James Andrews – My church is wireless and I love looking up scripture in service, though my wife says it looks like i’m checking my email. My pastor is pretty progressive and I am sure knows what Im doing

klecu – I quite often use my pocket PC in church…to read the Bible of course

Jeff P. Henderson – Maybe there is an online church you could join. Then it would be totally appropriate to use your iPhone there 😉

Akula – I occasionally check email although I shouldn’t. If I had an iPhone I’d probably use it too much at church.

This Twitter and FriendFeed Phenomena is still quite new. I’m sure as it pans out we’ll see more and better uses for it in Church. In the meantime I’m going to watch it with a close eye and see if I can figure out a middle-ground that keeps the sacredness of Church and still adds to it through use of new technology. With the new iPhone App store it could actually be quite interesting to see if any “Church-apps” come to fruition as more people use it. I’m a believer, that’s for sure!

We’re still discussing this on FriendFeed – you can keep contributing to the conversation here.

Photo Credit Peyton Knight

Jesse Stay – No, it’s Not My Name!

Posted on June 17, 2008 by jessestay

“Is your Father also Jesse Stay?”

I can’t tell you how many times in my life I have heard those words when introducing myself. Whether I was registering for school, going to church, a Boy Scout, or even half-way around the world or in multiple states in the US, it seems there was always someone that knew my Grandpa, had some story to tell about how he influenced their lives, and what a great man he was. Despite the name, they, of course weren’t referring to me, but rather my name sake, my Grandfather, Colonel (President, Bishop, and Patriarch) Jesse Eldred Stay.

Talking about his life would take an entire book to publish (you can read in detail about him here – it really is worth reading!) – he was, quite simply, a great man, and I mean great in the very sincere and large/tall sense of the word. I remember one family telling me when they met me about how he helped bring them back to Church and changing their lives as they did so. I remember stories from other families of him helping them in times of need, fixing their cars, helping them with home repairs, and more. Everywhere I have gone in life, my Grandfather’s name was recognized and honored by many. There is a very good chance some of you, my readers, have had some brush with him over your own lives.

Grandpa was a War Hero. In World War II he was a B-24 bomber pilot in the 307th, 11th, and 42nd Bomb Groups for the United States Army Air Corps (there was no air force back then, but he soon became part of the Air Force after World War II). He flew many missions, risking his life, getting shot at and shooting back, so that you and I could maintain our freedom in this world. He was a true believer and maintainer of freedom.

At the highlight of his career (if you can really call World War II a “highlight” – I know he wouldn’t), he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses, one for flying over Wake Island (he also flew over earlier at only the second time Wake Island was bombed by the US) despite most of his squadron being shot down. He literally saved the world with his own bare hands. Of the 40+ missions he flew in World War II, with five airplanes flying at his wing going down, he was only hit once, with one small 7.7mm hole in the bottom of his plane on a raid on Wake Island. In a letter to my Grandmother during the War, he shares this story:

“I found out that this ship (his airplane) will stand up, with any luck at all, against any number of Zeros. I also found out a very fine thing about the men in this outfit. As we were leaving our target in the raid, we heard one fellow say over the radio that his ship had been crippled and that he had been forced to fall behind. Naturally that meant that all the Zeros in the sky would be on him; so we turned around to give him some help. As we turned, we saw a wonderful sight. Every ship in the flight had the same plan. They had turned as one ship and soon we had the crippled ship tucked among us where we could protect him with our converging fire. I don’t believe that I will ever forget that. Every plane, without command, had turned back into the fight to help this one fellow out of a tough spot.”

These words show the integrity of this man and devotion he had to those he was fighting with. He would have done this for any one of his fellow squadron members.

Also notable, of his War accomplishments, it was one of his suggestions that led to the first recorded parachute landing. From his words:

Finally my wing man, 1st lt. Charles Pratte, had to leave also and headed for Tarawa to re-fuel. He had over three hundred holes in his airplane but didn’t have one man wounded. On one pass the Japanese machine guns had stitched holes the length of his fuselage and had blown up the oxygen tanks which had knocked down the two waist gunners in time for the machine gun bullets to pass through the fuselage where they had been standing. I later found out that his hydraulic system was also shot out and he landed at the new strip at Tarawa with parachutes tied to the waist and tail guns and which the crew men deployed as they touched down to slow the airplane because they had no brakes. We had talked about this possibility before but the crew of the Belle of Texas received a commendation from General Hap Arnold, Chief of Staff of the Army Air Corps for making the first recorded parachute landing.

Since then, every time I see a Space Shuttle land, I think of him as having had a contributing factor in allowing man to fly and come back from Outer Space.

It was said of him in his Squadron History,

“The greatest loss to the squadron was that of the Commanding Officer, Captain Jesse E. Stay. Captain Stay was with the squadron for nearly two years, beginning in April 1943, and was C.O. longer than any other man in the squadron’s history. He took part in practically every mission flown by the squadron since its arrival in Guam, either actually or in their preparation. He received the D.F.C. from Admiral Nimitz for his leadership in the highly successful but disastrous Wake raid in July 1943.

“As flight leader, he flew against the Marshalls, Gilberts, and Nauru, from the Ellice Islands. In his capacity as commander he accepted the mining project, which others had turned down, and led the unit to a superb record in its execution.

“Capt. Stay was missed by the members of the squadron who remained behind to carry on.” (p.35)

In his entire career he received 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 8 Air Medals for his service in the War. He sacrificed his all so that he could win freedom for this Country and many others.

It wasn’t just Grandpa’s military service that made him honorable. While he went on and did many things in the military, including putting an end to the United States Air Force UFO investigation program (which, to this day he still says, and I’ve asked him frequently, that they found no evidence of such), being on 24 hour notice with engines on during the Cold War, and being the first Colonel over the BYU Air Force ROTC, his Church service and devotion to God were paramount to his life. Throughout his life, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as a Bishop, Stake President, Regional Representative (over the L.A. area), Mission President, member of the General Sunday School Presidency (with Elder Russell M. Nelson, now an LDS Church Apostle) for the LDS Church, a member of the Los Angeles LDS Temple Presidency, Sealer, and Patriarch. His devotion to God came first, and as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, never ever drank a sip of Alcohol, never drank a sip of Coffee or Tea, remained faithful to his wife and 7 children, and served faithfully in his Church assignments with no pay for his service. He was also a Scout Master, and during his service in the Boy Scouts received the Silver Beaver Award. He touched the lives of many during his life of Service.

It was in Hawaii, when my Grandpa was head of Public Affairs for the LDS Church College there (now BYU Hawaii), that Judge Whitaker, a long-time friend of my Grandfather’s, invited him during the shoot of “Johnny Lingo” to come and serve as his Assistant Director of Motion Picture Production at the BYU Motion Picture Studios. My Grandfather packed up his family and moved back to Utah, and under the direction of Ernest Wilkinson (also longtime friend) and LDS Church President and Prophet, Spencer W. Kimball, produced and directed such shows as “The First Vision”, “Uncle Ben”, “The Gift”, “The Mail Box”, “John Baker’s Last Race”, and even the famous talk by Spencer W. Kimball asking members to “Lengthen [their] Stride” and “Go Ye into All the World” (Many LDS Church members may be familiar with these).

He recalled an experience with President Kimball which, to me shows the love and respect that even LDS Church leaders had of him:

“This morning I was called up to Salt Lake City to show the film “Where Jesus Walked” to President Kimball for his approval. The showing was to be in the fifth floor auditorium of the Church Administration Building. This is the room where the Council of the Twelve hold their regular meetings. I arrived early and had the film ready on the projector and was sitting alone in the room. President Kimball and Arthur Haycock, his secretary, arrived a few minutes before the scheduled time for the showing. President Kimball came over to me and took my hand in both of his. He looked up at me and smiled and told me how happy he was to see me. He then put both of his arms around me in a warm embrace and told me that he loved me. I was thrilled and touched and told him that I loved him and sustained him with all of my heart. This was no maudlin moment but the sincere expression of love between two bearers of the Priesthood. The Lord has surely preserved him for his holy calling as President of the Church and His Prophet on the earth. I am blessed to be associated with him. I know that I am nothing special to him above other men but he has the ability to make each person he meets feel that he loves him more than anyone else in the world. I felt this was a special moment worth recording.”

Through the Church movies he Directed and Produced, he also touched many lives, in and out of the LDS Church.

My Grandfather, Jesse Eldred Stay, died peacefully this morning at 7:13 am. I would not pay proper respect to him if I didn’t embrace this moment in celebration of his life, his accomplishments. At the same time I look forward to the future when he and I, and his family of 7 children, 50 Grandchildren, and numerous Great-Grandchildren, what he would consider to be his greatest life accomplishment, can be with him again. Grandpa was a Sealer in the Los Angeles temple of the LDS Church. As a sealer, he married and sealed me and my wife together like he did most of his children and grandchildren, for what we believe to be, time, but not just time – all eternity beyond this life. While I have my 3 month old son, Jesse Eldred Stay III, to continue this legacy in this life after me, my Grandfather’s greatest accomplishment is giving us hope, and knowledge that we, as a family, can be with him and each other again when we pass away, and always be able to cherish and respect the example that he gave to us here in this life. Seth Godin recently asked people to point out, celebrate, and respect the Superheroes in our lives. My Grandfather is my Superhero! He truly was a real-life Super-man. I have had the privilege to have known him longer than any other man, other than my Dad, in this life and it is my honor. It is with this respect, hope, and faith, that I honor, love, and thank him, for the life, both mortal and eternal, that he gave us.

The Mormon Church/Wikileaks Fiasco (or not-so-fiasco), A Mormon’s Perspective

Posted on May 14, 2008 by jessestay

Note that I’m not going to provide any links to the mentioned content here – you can go research yourself. Unlike Wikileaks, I respect others’ copyright.

One thing you may notice on this blog is that while I rarely pipe in with religious thoughts and my own personal religious beliefs (although I used to quite often), I will not hesitate to step in when a Social Media-related religious event occurs. An interesting Groundswell is happening today between the Headquarters of my Faith, and the controversial anonymous sharing site, Wikileaks. However, I don’t think it’s occurring in the way people think it is.

This morning on Slashdot you may have seen an article about the Mormon Church (or “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints“, which is the Official name of the Church) sending a Cease and Desist to Wikileaks for posting links to a Copyrighted, yet old version (1999) of the Church’s “General Handbook of Instructions” for others to freely download.

I don’t understand why this is news. Having been in LDS Bishoprics before as a Clerk and Executive Secretary, I am very familiar with this manual. It is simply a guide for leaders of the Church to know how to council and guide members of the Church, and according to my understanding, NOT (fully) DOCTRINE. It is simply a Policy manual, and while Bishops and other Leaders of the church may follow its council, in the end they are left up to their own judgement (encouraged by the Church “to follow the promptings of the Spirit”) to decide how to handle matters in the Church. The Church considers the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Perl of Great Price to be the Official Doctrine of the Church.

The Mormon Church is simply requesting Wikileaks remove the content because it is their own IP, not Wikileaks, and they are removing it as they would any other Church-owned and copyrighted document. Wikileaks and other sites are also portraying the contents of the manual as though it is doctrine for the general membership of the Mormon church, when in reality it was only intended as a guide for Leaders in the first place. The Mormon church has to protect the dissemination of false information as well.

In Charlene Li’s and Josh Bernoff’s book, Groundswell, she starts out with an example that happened last year on Digg.com where a user shared a blog post about how the HD-DVD Encryption standard had been broken. AACS LA quickly sent a cease and desist to Digg.com and the Digg.com founders promptly removed the link. Before Digg knew it, their own users began to backlash against them, occupying the entire front page of Digg with copies of the HD DVD encryption algorithm. Digg had a Groundswell of its own between its own users and it knew it had to do something. What did they do? They listened to their users and put the link back up, stating they would go down fighting rather than ignore their users.

I think with the post on SlashDot this morning some people may be thinking (and some hoping) a similar Groundswell is going to occur with the Mormon Church. Those that think so will be pleasantly surprised – there’s a difference between a Groundswell of your own members and those outside of your membership talking about you. How do you handle a Groundswell of people outside of your customer-base/user-base/member-base? You get in the conversation!

I want to share with you a video from Elder Russell M. Ballard, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Quorum of 12 Apostles – religious or not, I’d like to encourage you to read this not just from a religious perspective, but also a business perspective and how you can disseminate correct information about your business:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is getting in the Groundswell through its own members. They encourage their members to blog, Twitter, get on Facebook, and clarify misconceptions. The Mormon Church will overcome this Groundswell (if you can even call it one) via its own membership, correcting misinformation Socially rather than through news releases and other means and letting the general media and blogosphere say what it believes. They have a Youtube channel here. They are on Twitter. They have a Facebook Page.

I encourage other churches and even businesses to take this response – there is a lot that can be applied from a religious, or even non-religious perspective from this. When you get your own followers of any business, brand, or religion to spread correct information about your brand it can overcome any misinformation spread about it.

Wikileaks is wrong in this case – they are sharing copyrighted information, not owned by themselves, and without the permission of the owner. The LDS Church isn’t going after them because the shared links are “secret”, but rather it is copyrighted material, and Wikileaks does not have permission to share it! As a book author and software developer I don’t want people using my content without my permission (which I’m generally pretty relaxed on in my personally owned content). Why would I want Wikileaks sharing the content I personally own on their site let alone others?

SocialOptimize Announces the "We’re Protestant" Facebook App

Posted on April 3, 2008 by jessestay

Yesterday’s announcement of the Catholic vs. Protestant App on Facebook, if you didn’t try to install it, was intended to be just an April Fools joke. I’m proud to announce a new App however which isn’t a joke. I’d like to announce that we’re now launching a new compliment to SocialOptimize‘s “Holy Rolls” line of religious community applications. I’m titling the app, “We’re Protestant“, in harmony with the current Apps, “We’re Baptist“, and “We’re Catholic“. “We’re Catholic” is currently the largest group of organized Catholics on Facebook at near 45,000 users. It is my hope that “We’re Protestant” will even further exceed that with a much larger American following.

Are you Protestant? This App is intended to be your App, and should entitle you to identify yourself as a Protestant to all your friends on Facebook. We’ll continue to work to give you more ways to live your religion on Facebook and other social networks and share that with your friends. Currently, you can pick your favorite verses from the King James version of the bible, display those verses randomly on your profile, as well as list other friends who have added the application and are Protestant. Some future considerations will allow you to track churches you’ve attended and friends from those churches, as well as sending Prayers to others.

We will also be working on some complimentary applications that fit well with almost anyone who is religious. While the “Catholic vs. Protestant” App was intended to just be an April Fools joke, I think there is strong potential to enable peaceful discussion between religions, and on the other hand, allow you to test your knowledge within your own religion and compare it with others in yours and other religions to see which religions know most about their own faith. You should see that, and a few other similar apps in coming months.

The greatest feature of this launch is what we did behind the scenes. Now, the Holy Rolls suite of community applications on Facebook and other social networks is a complete, consolidated, code base. With just a simple change to the database we can now quickly, and easily launch more community apps. Expect to see We’re Jewish, We’re Islam, and maybe even We’re FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monster) soon. Even bigger news is that we can now expand this to more than just religion – imagine a “We’re Snowboarders” app, a “We’re Quilters” app, and others. If you currently run a website outside Facebook and would like to bring your community inside of Facebook, or have an existing Facebook App you’d like to integrate into our platform please talk to me. We are truly at the cusp of a huge group of niche communities we can bring together and include common functionality – contact me if you’d like to join or compliment what we’re doing!

Are you Protestant? Add “We’re Protestant!” here:

http://apps.facebook.com/wereprotestant/

Twitter as a Tool for Disasters and Emergencies

Posted on February 26, 2008 by jessestay

First, let me start by apologizing for the silence. I kind of went dark over the weekend for an all-weekend binge to finish a project developing a Facebook app for a very large client. I’m actually quite pleased with what we were able to accomplish in just a matter of 2 days! (and no sleep, I might add) When their application goes public I’ll talk more about it – I really like what we did!

Now, back to the topic. Recently, my Aunt sent out an e-mail to my extended family’s e-mail list on yahoogroups asking about how she could use Twitter in the event of a disaster, or to prepare for disasters. My Aunt and Uncle are currently in charge of the Welfare program for the entire country of Chile, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

First, I was taken back that my 60+-year old Aunt even knew what Twitter was, but secondly it got me thinking. Chile has had some of the largest earthquakes in the recorded history of this earth. It is not quite at the level of the United States in terms of mass-communication methods such as computers and the internet. I’m sure there are many areas that do not even have internet.

Because of the inability to get high-speed internet access (or even phone lines, in general) out to remote areas, the majority of people in third-world countries communicate via cell phone. It is simply easier to give someone in the middle of Chile, or Brazil, or Nigeria, or Burma, a cell phone than to run phone lines and broadband lines around to every remote village in the country. Not only that, but it’s more expensive to do so!

Therefore, I can very much see a strong benefit for these countries to utilize services such as Twitter, that have a strong Mobile, SMS platform, to communicate in the event of an emergency. I mentioned my Aunt’s desire on Twitter, and got this response from @theotherdrummer via e-mail (Please forgive the LDS terminology. For the non-LDS, a “Ward” is a local congregation. A “Stake” is a group of those local congregations. A Bishop is the leader of a Ward. In LDS culture, LDS refer to each other as “Brother”, and “Sister”, hence the reference…):

My first thought was that it can be used to notify families/stakes/wards of the status of individuals, to serve as a central hub. For example, set up a Twitter account specifically for the Chile 1st Ward. Should something happen, members of the Ward begin texting their status and location to Twitter: “Brother Martinez, at home, OK.”

The Bishop can use this as a starting point to check on people, and can also be used as a source of info for relatives and friends who might be out of the affected area worrying about their loved ones.

The Stake would also have an account to which the Bishops can pass information to.

I thought this was an excellent example of a way to bring people together in the event of an emergency. Of course, I’ve been in Hurricanes before. Having grown up in Houston, TX, and lived in Richmond, VA, I know that when emergencies happen, communication lines generally go down. In cases like that there are better communication methods such as Ham Radio to consider (I’m KC5PZP in case you were wondering…). There are still often cases where that isn’t the case, and even those that are able to get through can communicate with the world the status of their situation, and where they are.

Twitter as an Emergency Tracking Tool

After this, as an experiment, I started tracking “earthquake”. There was recently a 6.0 earthquake near us, out in Wells, NV. I even felt it in my bed early in the morning, way out in Salt Lake City, UT! This inspired me to follow the term and see where else in the world people were experiencing earthquakes.

Once I started tracking “earthquake” on Twitter I began to realize this was not at all a rare occurance! Soon I was seeing big and small earthquakes all around the world, from California, to aftershocks around Wells, NV, to Sumatra and Jakarta, Indonesia. What was fascinating is that I wasn’t only being notified of the earthquakes, but I was also seeing others’ reactions to the events! I can only imagine what I’d see if I tracked, “tornado”, or “fire”, or “storm”. It would take just a simple, “help” from someone for me to get into action and communicate via Twitter to find someone to help them.

Now, imagine a tracker that tracked all these terms, and put them on a map, such as the USGS’s earthquake tracker, and added Twitters to the Earthquake Geological alerts. Add in Hurricane trackers, weather data, and more, and you’d have quite a useful tool that could be utilized by FEMA for tracking where help is needed on an on-demand basis. FEMA could actually become the first responders with such a tool!

While communication is often disrupted in such events, Twitter can still serve as a useful resource among those that do still have communication. What suggestions do you have for emergency management and preparedness using Twitter and similar such services? Any and all comments I will forward to my Aunt for use in Chile.

The Power of the Small Community

Posted on February 9, 2008 by jessestay

It used to be, one could make a deal on just a handshake.Â People could leave their doors unlocked on their homes and their cars without worry of break in.Â A man’s word was his bond.Â Everyone knew everyone, by name.

This wasn’t the world I grew up in, but I’m told by my Grandparents, and I’ve seen stories of ancestors where this was, at one time, the way things were done in the world.Â We just trusted each other back then.

You see, back then, communities were much smaller.Â In the days when trust was in its prime, everyone did know each other by name, because they could know each other by name.Â Communities were much smaller back then and accommodated this lifestyle much easier.Â Crime was much harder to commit because everyone in the town knew you, and you knew them.Â Think, the Scarlet Letter – the worst punishment of that time was shame.Â There was no anonymity.Â There was no privacy.

Sound familiar?Â We are quickly overcoming the bonds of large society which put us in this untrustworthy time to live.Â The internet came at a time when society wasn’t ready to be exposed.Â People enjoyed their anonymity and their sheltered lives.Â They were used to contracts, and handshakes never meant what they used to.Â Society fought the internet, and it appears, finally, the internet is fighting back.

Social Media is bringing back an era which we thought we would never see again.Â People are being held responsible for their actions online, and again, communities are getting much smaller. Â Now, circles of friends can virtually know everything about each other, know each other by name, and start to trust each other again.

I argue, the lack of privacy in Social Media is a good thing.Â When you know who your friends are, you can build trust with them again.Â Contracts are no longer necessary, and back is the handshake and word as a bond.Â Small Community has been re-architected through a virtual means which no one saw coming.

Now, imagine the cell phone, when virtual lives become melded with real life.Â Virtual “small communities” become real, and back again is the small town, weaved into the fabric of a very large Society.Â Social Media is bringing back the days when man could actually trust one another!

A Very Social Farewell to Gordon B. Hinckley, President and Prophet of the Mormon Church

Posted on January 28, 2008 by jessestay

hinckley_medium-6150815 Tonight at 7:00 pm Gordon B. Hinckley, President and Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away in the company of loved ones. President Hinckley was 97 at his passing. I’ve been alive through the death of a few LDS prophets, but never has the death of one President hit the world with such force as this one. I heard of the news first through Twitter, then through the Phone, then the TV, and soon the Internet was ablaze with tributes to President Hinckley. This has been so amazing to watch! I’ve seen at least 5 Facebook Groups created, and even created an Event of my own in memorial of his death. On Twitter, I’ve tracked the term, “Hinckley”, and was already tracking the term, “Mormon”. My cell phone has been going nuts all night! The Twitter and Facebook responses themselves have been tribute enough. President Hinckley truly led a worldwide church, and spoke to a worldwide audience, something very different from previous Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. President Hinkley – we will truly miss you!

An official statement of his passing can be found at:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97

UPDATE: btw, this article is at 130 Diggs, and still hasn’t made the front page of Digg!Â Is this due to the algorithm change?

CrunchGear – That was Uncalled For

Posted on January 11, 2008 by jessestay

I’ve been straying away from mentioning religion on my blog for awhile. Partly because I deal with so many religions on a daily basis through my Catholic Facebook Application, Baptist Facebook Application, and recently sold LDS Application. I love religion, and have grown to respect all religions as I strive to make this business model flourish. Each religion has its own identity and culture, and everyone within that religion appreciates that religion as part of their lives. A Religion one belongs to is a part of that individual, something they can’t easily part from, and will stay with them to the end, whether they remain a part of it or not. There are true, sincere human beings within these religions!

CrunchGear, TechCrunch, and the Mike Arrington crew crossed the line yesterday in a bigoted article that defies and offends many of the culture Mormons and I would say even other religions and cultures hold dear. The article can be found here.

I don’t care what religion or culture you belong to (See phil801’s post where he compares their comments to “the gay person that’s interviewing after you”). I don’t care if you belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster for all I care. You were brought up in that religion or culture, you accepted that culture as part of your life. You love the religion or culture you are in and it is personal to you.

Now, imagine if instead of “magic underwear”, Devin and the crew at Crunch Gear were making fun of the “magic crucifix” that Catholics wear, or the “magic prayers” Evangelicals give to each other, or the “magic Turbans” Siekh’s wear, or the “magic yarmulke” that Jewish men wear, or the “magic Burqa” Islamic women wear. These are all very respectable symbols to their religion, part of their identity and culture that CrunchGear is making fun of by posting this interview. This interview is a symbol towards bigotry in America and we shouldn’t stand for it.

Michael Arrington and CrunchGear, I suggest an apology to the Mormons, and removal of the anti-Mormon comments on your blog. I don’t care if Penn Jillette or you guys started it. The fact is you have chosen to post an interview that is blatently bigoted towards a single faith on your site which has nothing to do with religion! As a religious person, or human being in general, I will be unsubscribing from CrunchGear, TechCrunch, abstaining from voting for the Crunchies altogether, and disassociating myself with any of the TechCrunch network. I hope my readers will as well until this is resolved.

(2008-1-11) UPDATE: Please join the Facebook Group, “Boycott TechCrunch!” here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7719689369