Missionary Work and Metadata-The Final Paper!

Here is the link to my final paper discussing Missionary Work and Metadata. Obviously this paper is not inclusive of all possible platforms using metadata, or all forms of metadata. My goal was to discuss ways in which descriptive metadata could be used more effectively, from an official church point of view, as well as with members.

As I wrote this paper I gained a greater appreciation for the creativity that metadata allows us, and what an amazing tool this is for all organizations and denominations, and especially as a tool for sharing beliefs that are personal and important with others.

I'd love to hear any feedback and your thoughts as to what could be done to more effectively use metadata!

Working Outline

Below is a rough working outline that will form the basis of my paper regarding metadata and missionary work in the LDS Church. 

1. Intro-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.
2. The need for personal connections and sharing in the online community-a lot of this will be backed up by Jeff Jarvis’s Public Parts
3. What this means for the LDS online missionary efforts-especially how analyzing metadata could allow them to in part analyze the growth of online missionary work (see below study)
4. How metadata through various platforms will enable them to do this-Case study Folks in Folksonomies: Social Link Prediction from Shared Metadata
5. What the LDS Church could do to support this-altering their Sharing the Gospel and Sharing via Social Media pages, suggesting appropriate labels for each platform, links on Mormon.org to pages already created by users.
6. What members of the Church need to be doing-appropriate tagging, reference to each other in posts, etc.
7. Conclusion

Missionary Work by Digital Means - for Kelsey

I decided to do the altruistic scholar assignment for Kelsey. It seems like her posts have been revolving around using digital means to do missionary work, so I wanted to help find some sources for her that show what the Church is doing in terms of an online presence and online outreach.

I know that you have to be pretty careful when finding websites regarding the Church because there is a lot of anti literature out there that is less than helpful. However, here are a few resources I found that might help:

1. Forums: LDS.net contains a lot of forums of people discussing beliefs. I searched through a few of them, and most of them seemed to be conversion stories. There were a few that had something to do with investigating the church in the title. Kelsey might use this to analyze the use of forums for investigation. It is much less threatening to pose a question online and view responses than it is to meet face to face with the missionaries, for example. It might not always be as effective, and there is always the risk of getting biased and incorrect information, but I think we have to recognize that it is definitely a major way that people are finding out about the Church. There is also, of course, Mormon.org and the profiles there. I think observing the way people are asking questions and what questions they are focusing on could really help in your research.

2. Blogs: In this post, Kelsey mentioned that she wanted to explore some blogs that were branded LDS and see how they were received by those who are not LDS. Whenever we start talking about Mormon blogs, naturally Mormon mommy blogs come up. There are so many aspects to explore here, including DIY culture. This article is a young feminist atheist who loves reading Mormon mom blogs, one reason being that they portray motherhood with respect. I found it incredibly enlightening, especially seeing it through a nonmember's eyes. Here are a few blogs that I found that you might want to look into:

• Stephanie Nielson's blog http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/. This woman was mentioned in general conference and is one of the most well-known mommy bloggers that I am aware of. She has a very wide readership, LDS and non-LDS alike. 
• Another pretty popular one, C. Jane Kendrick http://www.cjanekendrick.com/. The unique thing about this blog is that she is very open about her LDS faith, highlighting the brand you were talking about when discussing Public Parts. 
• This Deseret News article lists some more Mormon mommy blogs and talks about why they are so prevalent and popular.

3. News Articles: At the very least, these articles can get you familiar with what is being publicized about the changing rules for missionaries and some researchers on the subject. I really liked what these articles had to say about how the world is changing, so missionary work must adapt to the changes and move along with it. 

• Here is an article I found in the Religion News Service that talks about the changing nature of missionary work in the LDS church.
• This article is probably the most comprehensive overview of the recent announcement. 
• This Wall Street Journal blog post about the announcement notes the radical change from missionary policy. It also mentions Dr. Burton, so that's pretty cool! What I also think could help would be to read through some of the comments on the blog post and see how these changes are being received. Maybe there will be some leads to some other sources for you. 

I hope this helps at least a little bit! Good luck with your research. 

Conference Counsel

After reviewing my notes from the Sunday sessions, I came across the talk given by Elder Kevin S Hamilton of the Seventy from the afternoon session. He gave some specific counsel relevant to internet use and digital media.

• Good, Better, Best: Good activities are too often substitutes for better and best.  Satan can cheat us by having us focus too much on a good thing and ignoring the better and best. While he was specifically referring to online hobbies such as social media and games, I also see a way that his counsel can be applied not just to what we do on the internet but how we use the internet's resources.  Do we spend our time liking other people's statuses and entertainment posts without contributing material of our own--this is not just spiritual stuff, but also secular posts as well--that can uplift others and contribute to online discussions?  Do we use social networking to literally "network" in order to connect with other people and resources to find specific information and share ideas, as we would if we were doing a research project? In other words, are we optimizing the resources at our disposal for the benefit of others, or do we take these resources for granted? 
• Simple Decisions have Eternal Consequences:  This applies very much to decisions we make online as well as offline, including how we spend our time, what media we use and how, and what materials we share.  Why has the Church invested so much into online proselyting?  Because offline, it is often simple conversations or events that lead to people finding the Gospel and joining the Church, or in some cases becoming active again after a period of inactivity.  Likewise, with online proselyting, missionary work doesn't have to take a lengthy online chat session to convince someone to meet with the elders in person. It can be as simple as a tweet, text, status, or a shared link, video, or picture. You don't even have to be doing it intentionally!  As Dr. Burton mentioned in class today, sharing Gospel-oriented materials on social media sites can be as easy as sharing a post about watching conference in your pajamas to get the attention of someone outside the church--because it has your personal stamp on it and not the mark of the corporate Church. If the people who are seeing your status are your friends, they will recognize something you post easier than something blasted all over the net by a strange religious organization.  In the Saturday Session, Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela quoted Alma 37: 6-7. In the context of Elder Hamilton's address, this scripture has a double meaning: the simple things we do each day either draw us to Christ or pull us away from him.  Likewise, the small things we do to share our testimonies online--or to find answers to our own questions--can make a huge impact on the people who observe our example. 

 And here is a meme: conference is not complete without the memes, right?