The Church has been working to figure out a way to allow folks who want to contribute to its missions to do so. We’re ready for help!

We now have applications you can work on, a sandbox with web services, source control, bug tracking and even a requirements for participation.

The most immediate need is the re-write of the stake and ward web site. We are working on an International web site (10 languages to start with) which will allow members to log in, and view or print their stake/ward directory, see a list of ward leaders, read the ward/stake blog, edit & view the ward/stake/Church calendar, and so forth.

Interested?

Read more here.

The first component you can start on immediately is the calendar portion. It’s built on our Java stack, which you can read about here. You can also read up on our “community development best practices.”

Even though the Stake and Ward Web Site project will be using Java, there are other projects mentioned on the site which are architected around web services for more flexibility in the actual implementation of the project.

We are pleased to announce that the Church has launched an official radio station called the Mormon Channel. The channel originates from Temple Square in Salt Lake City and broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Content for the station comes from the vast audio archives of the Church along with 20 new series created specifically for the station. The Mormon Channel also features programming from various partner organizations, including Deseret Book, Bonneville International, Deseret News, LDS Business College, and the campuses of Brigham Young University.

You can listen to the Mormon Channel live online anytime at radio.lds.org. There are also downloads and podcasts of content available at the same address.

In addition to online delivery, the channel is available on HDRadio in every Bonneville International radio market. Among those markets are Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Phoenix, and Seattle. Additionally, you will soon be able to listen via an iPhone application and a Mormon Channel widget. Other distribution options are currently being explored, including satellite radio and other mobile devices.

For LDS Church members who don’t live in areas where traditional Church broadcasts have been made available, this is a great new service and an excellent option for those who don’t have bandwidth which supports the streaming video during General Conference broadcasts.

Google Maps was also used with tracking disasters such as earthquake and forest fires. Like any emergency preparedness pursuit, are you prepared to integrate disaster data with a mapping service such as Google Maps or Live Search Maps? A little time to prepare now opens whole realms of possibilities that wouldn’t be available without that preparation.

The LDS Newsroom has also published a statement regarding this episode and documented other instances when negative publicity regarding LDS Church practices have proved to have little impact on Church affairs.

I attended the conference last year which proved to be quite interesting, particularly to see the first generation apps written to interface with the new FamilySearch APIs. I have since been able to use products from Ohana Software http://www.ohanasoftware.com/ (Family Insight) and PHPGedview http://phpgedview.net/ which have both been written to take advantage of this new data source. Both are still relatively immature in their functionality but promising in what will soon be available to genealogists.

This year, FamilySearch will discuss version 2 of the web service APIs which promise to expand on the basic functionality available in version 1 but which proved to be limiting to 3rd party apps which attempted to provide full functionality to their users.

From Google Blog,

We were joined at the Academy by many of the dozens of ocean scientists and advocates who helped make this project a reality: friends from National Geographic, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the US Navy, Scripps Oceanography, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, to name just a few. Above all, I would like to acknowledge the work of Dr. Sylvia Earle, who cornered me at a conference three years ago and told me that Google Earth was great but that it wasn’t finished (you can read more about that encounter on the Lat Long blog). As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. We on the Google Earth team had been working hard to build a rich 3D map of the world, but we had largely ignored the oceans — two thirds of the planet. Inspired by Sylvia, the team got to work. I hope you are as excited as I am to explore our new Ocean and all of the fascinating stories and images our partners have contributed.

Some computers have been compromised by just visiting compromised web sites.  Recently Microsoft published warnings that Internet Explorer was particularly susceptible to attack, prompting a massive migration to other browsers.  In some cases the trojan software won’t even prompt you for confirmation to installation.  If you discover that your PC is running slower that it has in the past even without you installing new software, you may have a virus or be hacked by a trojan.

Here are a few resources:  (anyone out there have other favorites?)

Trend Micro online virus scanner

Do You Run Antivirus Software?

Avast (popular virus checker… a free version is available)

AVG (another popular free virus checker)

What am I trying to say?  Take an opportunity to make a difference, even if it is very small.  Don’t wait for someone else to do it. 

• Are you passionate about a political issue?  Make a stand, start a blog, contribute to political causes, research and vote!  Do something other than just let the other guys make the decision for you.  (Find your polling location at http://maps.google.com/vote)
• Have some talent or interest in software?  Set aside some time in your busy schedule to contribute to the community in whatever cause you feel to be important.  (Check out the LDSTech or FamilySearch Dev communities, if you are so inclined)
• Enjoy reading or writing but tired of all the graphic or immoral material out in the market?  Join an online community to share what you have learned and to learn from others (LibraryThing is a good one, but be careful about some of the discussion groups).  Even if you haven’t ever written a novel before, now is a good time to start.  November 1 starts the National Writing Month and there are whole support communities to help you write.  My friend, Ty, got me interested and even though I wouldn’t call myself a "writer" I’m going to give it a shot this year.  Wish me luck!

This is just a start.  There are a whole multitude of areas where good people can make a difference for themselves, their families, and their communities.  If you have any ideas or links, share them in the comments!