A Working Post: The Increased Need for Metadata within the Online LDS Community

Main Purpose/Thesis: With the increasing focus on online missionary work within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members need to be aware of the benefits and use of metadata in order to truly establish a reputable online community.

Preliminary Exploration: In my blog posts Moby Dick and Metadata and Magnificence of Metadata, I began exploring the idea of the necessity of metadata, and began thinking about how this could impact the LDS missionary efforts. However, these posts were really inspired by my previous post on Curating with Diigo, as I discussed the discovery that much of the discussion and content being created by members of the Church regarding online missionary work is getting lost, due to a lack of metadata.

Relevance: a. to digital culture metadata is the way in which the online community remains connected. Through labels, hashtags, shout-outs to other bloggers and tweeters, communities become developed and ideas are able to spread.
b. to a specific audience this research is of particular interest to members of the LDS faith, as Church leaders are urging members of the Church to actively participate in missionary work by digital means.

Format: A short academic article as well as a brief wiki-page detailing the need for metadata and links to current effective labels, hashtags, etc.

Outlet: Meridian magazine and the conferences discussed in this post.

Curation: a. of content for analysis the content I have been curating through outlets such as Diigo has mostly been blogs, articles, etc. on how to do missionary work online.
b. of secondary texts the main secondary text I have been working from is Public Parts by Jeff Jarvis. I have also been studying talks by apostles of the LDS Church, in particular those of Elder Ballard.
c. of community I have been keeping tabs on the Church's official social media platforms, as well as following #hasteningthework #ldsmissionary etc. on twitter and instagram.

Social Proof: I have not had much outside social proof, but in discussing these ideas within my own circles and my own online community, I have received a lot of positive feedback and interest.

Next Steps: The next steps I have to take is to reach out to the PR reps for the LDS Church and get some feedback from them on my ideas. I also need to begin to create the content for my wiki page.