Allen just posted a great article on the More Good Foundation’s blog about using video to share the gospel on the Internet. He said, “Many people think that videos, in order to be effective, need to be very polished or take a lot of time. In browsing through some of the online video services, I’ve run across some good amateur examples of using video to help spread the word.” He then gives references to several.
Worth checking out.
This post describes the file naming convention for audio, video, PDF, PDA, and other files provided on Church Web sites for download. (Note: This post replaces my previous post MP3 File Naming Strategy.)
The purpose of this file naming approach is to provide users with a consistent experience as they manage files that come from Church sites, and at the same time, provide Web site managers and databases with both flexible and consistent elements for file identification.
Basic principles:
Details:
Date-based Products Files for date-based products like magazines, general conference, and other broadcasts should be named in a way that sorts by product first, then date, and then item. See below for a typical magazine example:
1. Product – The product in this example is Ensign, using the abbreviation ENSN.
2. Product Description 1 – year of publication.
3. Product description 2 - month of publication.
4. Track – In this example, the track is 02 (the second file in this hypothetical Ensign).
5. Track Descriptor 1 - author or speaker (last name and first initial).
6. Track descriptor 2 - title of the talk or article.
7. Item - the 5-digit item number printed on Church publications.
8. Language - the ISO alpha language code indicating the language of file.
9. Segment - segment number from the XML file. (This is meaningless to the user, but assists in the production and management of the files.)
10. Extension – the file extension type. (doc, pdf, wma, mp4, vob, brf, etc.)
Additional Examples:
ENSN_2006_10_01__WelcomeToThisIssueOfTheEnsign_26910_eng_003.pdf
ENSN_2006_12_02_MonsonTS_FirstPresidencyMessage_26912_ase_004.mp4
GC_2006_10_40__ CompleteSession_26991_ase_022.wmv
GC_2006_10_65_HinckleyGB_WeBearTestimonyToTheWorld_26991_eng_035.mp3
Chapter Products
Files for chapter products like manuals and study guides are named in a way that users can easily recognize. See below for a typical example:
1. Product – The product in this example is the Preparing for Exaltation manual. Since there is no standard abbreviation for this product, the full name is used.
2. Product Description 1 – This example uses Teachers Manual. The system will sort all teacher manual files together and separate from the student manual files.
3. Product description 2 – This example does not require further sorting at the product level, so this element is left blank. (Notice the two underscore delimiters together.)
4. Track – In this example, the track is 17. This will cause this file to display 17th in the list.
5. Track Descriptor 1 - 16 in this example, because it is chapter 16 in the manual.
6. Track descriptor 2 - Chapter title HoldToTheRod.
7. Item - the 5-digit item number printed on Church publications.
8. Language - the ISO alpha language code indicating the language of file.
9. Segment - segment number from the XML file. (This is meaningless to the user, but assists in the production and management of the files.)
10. Extension – the file extension type. (doc, pdf, wma, mp4, vob, brf, etc.)
Additional Examples:
BM_GospelDoctrine_StudyGuide_01__Introduction_00000_eng_002.mp3
DutiesAndBlessingsOfThePriesthood_PartA__01_1_Introduction_31111_eng_004.pdf
TPTC_2007_SpencerWKimball_01__Introduction_36500_eng__.wma
YW_PersonalProgress__00__Complete_ 36035_ase_000.mp4
Simple Items
Simple products are typically stand-alone items with no subdivisions or chapters, such as feature videos, pamphlets, guidebooks, and so forth. See below for a example:
1. Product – The product in this example is the Family Guidebook. Since there is no standard abbreviation for this product, the full name is used.
2. Product Description 1 – This example does not require further sorting at the product level, so this element is left blank. (Notice the two underscore delimiters together.)
3. Product description 2 – This example does not require further sorting at the product level, so this element is left blank (notice the two underscore delimiters together).
4. Track – In this example the track is 00, which indicates that it is a file containing the entire product.
5. Track Descriptor 1 - This example does not require further sorting at the track level, so this element is left blank. (Notice the two underscore delimiters together.)
6. Track descriptor 2 - “Complete” in this example to keep file name consistent across product types.
7. Item - the 5-digit item number printed on Church publications.
8. Language - the ISO alpha language code indicating the language of file.
9. Segment - segment number from the XML file. (This is meaningless to the user, but assists in the production and management of the files.)
10. Extension – the file extension type. (doc, pdf, wma, mp4, vob, brf, etc.)
Additional Examples:
YW_GuidebookForParentsAndLeadersOfYouth__00__Complete_ 36415_eng_001.mp3
BetweenHeavenAndEarth___00__Complete_56666_eng_000.wmv
TheLivingChrist_TheTestimonyOfTheApostles__00__Complete_00000_ase_000.mp4
TheFamily_AProclamationToTheWorld__00__Complete_00000_eng_000.pdf
Scriptures (this section was added February 15, 2007)
The track for the scriptures is in the 2 field, rather then the 4th. It follows the book identifier, and is before all other elements unique to the chapter. We do not pad with underlines to make the track the 4th element.
The new LDS.org is live! The cut-over last night went very smoothly, thanks to a very dedicated team of hard-working folks.
We invite you to browse the new LDS.org site. For a helpful guide to the site, read What’s New. You may also wish to look through the A-Z index, experiment with the search tool, or just click some of the main navigation menus. As always, we welcome your feedback.
For background on what we’ve done and why, see:
We have developed a consistent file naming convention for audio MP3 files available on Church sites for download. This will allow users to:
I have retracted the rest of this post, realizing that I posted the old standard. Please see my post Web Files Names for the current standard.
The Church recently released an upgrade of the scriptures program at scriptures.lds.org. The following information explains the logic of the URLs to assist those who have referenced scriptures on their Web sites.
Example: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/1/13-14,16#13
Domain name: scriptures.lds.org
Language: In the example above, en stands for English. The language codes for other languages currently available at scriptures.lds.org are as follows: en for English, de for German, es for Spanish, fr for French, and it for Italian. We use the ISO 639.2 language codes. If the language is not specified, it will default to English.
Reference: In the example above, 2_ne/1/13-14,16 is the book, chapter, and verse, patterned after printed references, with a forward slash separating each element.
You can also reference a footnote in a scripture as follows: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/9/51b
In this example, 2 Nephi 9:51 has footnote b for verse 51 which is Eccl. 1:3.
Jill Larsen just posted a great blog about The Book of Mormon and DNA.
She refutes the claims by some people that DNA studies conclude that Book of Mormon can’t be what it claims to be. This is based on the false premise that the Book of Mormon is the complete history of all people who lived in the Americas. If you believe that the Book of Mormon is the entire history, then, the argument goes, DNA studies show that demographics are too diverse to be the complete history of the American continents. Therefore, they claim that DNA proves the Book of Mormon is false or is just an ordinary book.
Jill’s blog shows that the Book of Mormon is only a partial history of a particular group of people in the Americas; the book itself shows that other peoples also inhabited the Americas at the same time. Therefore, the entire basis of the argument is null and void. The Book of Mormon never claims to be the entire history. It’s exactly what it claims to be.
For more information about the Book of Mormon and DNA, refer to:
BELIEVE IT OR NOT….
Tuesday morning (Jan 30) from 2:00am-3:00am, we will replace the existing LDS.org with the new site (what you see today at beta.lds.org).
Please note that beta.lds.org still points to many pages in the old design (and old Vignette 6 content management system), and that will still be the case when we cut over. Over time, all these old pages and sites will be rebuilt with the new designs in the new Vignette 7 content management system.
Beta.lds.org
For a few weeks, we will leave the beta site functional, although there will be a redirect on the home page to send users to the new site at LDS.org. If you have bookmarks to pages within beta.lds.org, they will still find the beta pages for those few weeks, although you should change them to refer to the new site (usually just by removing “beta.” from the URL).
Gospel Library
The new site will use the new Gospel Library (as you see it today at beta.lds.org) which is a completely new database of XML text (with links to associated PDFs, audio files, etc.). If you have links on your sites to content in the Gospel Library, you will need to update those links to the new URLs. To prevent your links from breaking immediately, we will keep the old Gospel Library functional for some time (at least six months). In a future article, I will post guidelines and helps on how to update your links.
Feedback
We welcome your feedback on the new site. Just click “Feedback” at the top of any of the pages of the new LDS.org.
The Washington Post has a blog On Faith. They post a question and invite their panelists to respond. One of the On Faith panelists is Michael Otterson of the Church Public Affairs Department.
I invite you to read the blog and post comments on Michael’s writings.
Friday morning, a subcommittee of the Utah State Legislature unanimously passed a Resolution (H.C.R. 3) Urging Congress to Stop Interent Pornography to Children and Employees. This resolution would put the US Government on notice that the people of the State of Utah want something done about Internet pornography.
The resolution will go to the floor for a vote some time in the next two weeks. If you want to help stop Internet pornography, please call your state representatives and let them know you want them to approve H.C.R. 3: Resolution Urging Congress to Stop Interent Pornography to Children and Employees.
In several previous posts, I’ve commented about very low-cost mobile phones for the world.
If you weren’t at the Consumer Electronics Show that ended Thursday in Las Vegas, you probably didn’t see Motorola CEO Ed Zander ride onto the stage for his keynote speech on a bike armed with a mobile phone battery recharger. Motorola’s answer to developing nations’ power problems: a recharger people can use while riding a bike to the market or to work.
Zander also announced plans for a new online music initiative, a mobile e-mail service that syncs with Microsoft Outlook, and plans to put Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 software on Motorola handsets.
While other mobile companies are focusing on more and more expensive handsets with cameras and music players, Motorola is targeting emerging markets with cheap handsets with fewer frills. Motorola won the first contest from the Global System for Mobile Communications to supply a low-cost handset under $30 to emerging markets. But they have a HUGE market. India adds 6 million new mobile users a month, and China adds 5 million a month.
“We’re now 2 billion subscribers out of a world population of 7 billion,” Zander said. “It took us 20 years to reach the first billion. It took us three years to get the second billion, and it’s only going to take us two years to get the third billion.”
Read more at Infoworld.
Yesterday, I blogged about the revived proposal to create a .xxx domain for pornography. This article lists several LDS resources that may be of interest to you:
For several years, there has been an effort to establish a new .xxx domain for online pornography. It has been shot down several times, but it is back in the news again. The Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet’s nonprofit body with authority for development, has issued a revised proposed agreement for establishing a .xxx domain and has invited public comment until February 5, 2007.
The Florida company pushing for the .xxx domain thinks it’s a great idea to create a virtual red-light district on the Internet. And even those who oppose pornography might at first glance think it would be helpful to put all the porn in one .xxx area so it would be easy to block for those who want to block it. However, the creation of a .xxx domain would not require pornographers who are on the .com domain to move to the .xxx domain. Any efforts to coral pornography into a corner of the Internet has been fought voraciously by the ACLU under First Amendment rights.
The Family Research Council warned on its Web site that “pornographers will be given even more opportunities to flood our homes, libraries and society with pornography through the .xxx domain.”
Even the Bush administration intervened in the process in August 2005 by sending a letter to ICANN saying: “The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children.”
There is no easy answer to the pornography issue on the Internet. Tomorrow, I’ll blog about community efforts to clean up pornography or at least attempt to corral it on the Internet.