Disaster Relief Outsourced

Check out this free open-source platform that aggregates twitter, texts, internet feeds, etc. on a map to display real-time disaster relief related information. The platform was used most recently for the Haiti quake and has been found useful in multiple applications like voting, public works, roads, etc.

Call For Photos

Visit the Church’s official Flickr group to submit images for use in web and traditional media publication. Member submitted photos were selected for the new.lds.org temple site! Excellent way to involve members in the work. Do you have a way for the Church to harness abounding member talent? Do share!

Big Tech Firms Settle on Not Allowing Anti-Poaching Deals

Article on TechCrunch about DOJ's involvement in an investigation into recruiting practices at Silicon Valley firms and on the resultant settlement.

iPad to Open Newstand

Bloomberg reports that Apple is apparently working on an iPad "digital newsstand," similar to its book reader, but for magazine and newspaper publishers.

Hans Rosling - Health Expert & Datacaster

Data is fascinating!

Well, at least when Hans Rosling presents it. Dr. Rosling is a professor of global health and has worked around the world to fight hunger, HIV and other problems which plague developing nations. When he speaks, he presents data in a visual, creative way that engages the viewer in a way we're not used to. He is asking the world to serve up data in a way that would allow us all to build queries and present them like this.

Here is his talk at Ted and here is a web site with many more of his presentations. Are there uses for this type of data visualization in your enterprise?

Google Realtime Search

Google recently announced a dedicated page of tools for its realtime search functionality. According to Google, the new search capability lets you search/view real-time updates from social sites, blogs, and news articles. Check it out!

new.lds.org Now Available!

new.lds.org is now available!

Some new features:

• Great new search (try out the facets!)


• Prophets and Apostles Speak Today


• Church News and Events


• Church Organization


• Temples


• Humanitarian Service


• "Our Heavenly Father's Plan"


• New e-store


• New Ward Calendar (with Google Calendar integration) and Ward Directory


• My Notebook (this is amazing and will sync with your mobile device in about a month or so). To try it out, login and go to scriptures or general conference. When you mouse-over a paragraph, you can tag and mark stuff and type in your own notes.


• And so on, and so on...

The team was up all night against harrowing opposition and went live at 5:00am or so. Conference, magazines and manuals go back to 2002 or so, but we'll be loading more content each day, eventually reaching back to the 1970's. We will have Spanish and German versions available before October conference.

We're finding and fixing bugs so please give us feedback.

Enjoy! (And spread the word...)

Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR)

MAR apps are becoming more popular ever since Yelp snuck in a hidden feature for iPhone 3GS users  which combined GPS overlayed markers for businesses on the camera view of the phone. Layar, one such platform lets users build custom layers atop the camera view for a mobile device.