Ward Web Site

Many of you probably don't know that members in the United States and Canada have a ward web page on lds.org.

Before I go any further, let me just say that we'll be working on a version for all international units. Don't expect it until at least 2008. But in the meantime, the current version works for those in the U.S. and Canada and many people don't even know.

You get features like:

• News and information from your ward and stake.


• Ward and stake calendar (integrated with a calendar from Church HQ).


• Lesson schedules.


• Membership and leadership directories.


• Addresses for missionaries serving from your ward.

It's a great tool for your ward! The key is that the ward leadership and councils need to use it.

If your ward isn't using the ward web site on lds.org then ask them to start. Teachers should be updating their lessons plans, the calendar should be kept up-to-date, and so forth. This is a wonderful and only takes a little effort to get people using it.

One known issue is that the signup process is a little arduous. A member needs to know his/her membership number (can be found on your temple recommend if you have one) and confirmation number. Both pieces of data can be obtained from your ward clerk.

In the future, we will make this process easier.

Check it out by clicking here..

The Myth of Youth

Who uses instant messaging? Reads blogs? Publishes blogs? Uses MySpace? Who buys stuff online or downloads videos?

Kids, right? 

Piper Jaffray recently executed a survey of a sample of the 232 million Internet users in North America. By extrapolating the data, they estimate that over 100 million use instant messaging, over 100 million read blogs and almost 100 million participate in one or more social networking sites.

I assume there are close to 11 million teenagers in North America. So who is using all of these services?

You! You're coming home from work, putting the kids to bed and plugging in. It's interesting because many of you probably think about stuff like blogs as something you do, but that isn't that common. Fact is that it's way more common than people think.

[Joel: My quick assumption of 11 million teenager users was wrong. The data says there are actually closer to 30 million.]

LDS.ORG

We've begun thinking about what is next for LDS.ORG. As we do this, we'd love to get your input.

Take a minute and answer the following two questions. Our team will read each response.

1) What is the Church doing well with the Internet?

2) What is the Church not doing well with the Internet?

Feel free to forward these questions. We'd love all the thoughtful responses we can get!