Tech Talk Follow Up

I just thought I'd start a thread as a follow up to the Tech Talk.

For me, all I have to say is "Thank You!" I really enjoyed the presentation and thought it was terrific to hear all the great things the Church had to announce to the Community. I can't wait to get more involved.

Thanks again!

I am sad because the audio did not work! I am waiting the video copy for download!!!

this was great
i hope we will have much more of these

Drat...missed it. Must've been pretty short! Any idea when the archive version will be online?

There was mention of a web site to obtain an LDS Account which would someday work on all sites. I wrote the address down but it redirects to someones resume. Did I get it wrong, I wrote down:

http://ldsaccount.com

This URL works. https://apps.lds.org/sign-in/go/yourInformation.jsf

I was excited to hear about the SVN repository. I've created my LDS Account but still cannot access the repository. I'm hoping there's just some lag between the account creation process and being able to sign in. Is anyone else able to access the repository?

I loved the tech talk and felt that those of us who are not located in the Intermountain West are being included.
Great job.

GarysTurn wrote:There was mention of a web site to obtain an LDS Account which would someday work on all sites. I wrote the address down but it redirects to someones resume. Did I get it wrong, I wrote down:

http://ldsaccount.com

You did not write it down wrong. I actually sent the guy who's website it was forwarding to if he happened to know what was going on...That domain didn't go anywhere when I tried it (and I tried it the second Joel Dehlin said the name). Then like 10 minutes later, it started redirecting like that. I wonder if this individual decided to claim it on behalf of the Church...

mndrix wrote:I was excited to hear about the SVN repository. I've created my LDS Account but still cannot access the repository. I'm hoping there's just some lag between the account creation process and being able to sign in. Is anyone else able to access the repository?

I can access the SVN but it is because I helped work on an earlier project that this website tried to get going (The Ask A Question Workflow project). You have to agree to the Contributor's License. It looks like you can get to it at http://tech.lds.org/volunteer

GarysTurn wrote:Did I get it wrong, I wrote down:

http://ldsaccount.com

You wrote it correctly, it was not given correctly. The correct URL is...

http://ldsaccount.lds.org

BTW, I really enjoyed the conference. Many thinks to those who made it possible. Dual monitors was helpful with the video on one screen and the hi-res screen shots on the other.

I had no problems with the audio/video streaming through Windows Media Player 11, Firefox, and Vista.

Mikerowaved wrote:I had no problems with the audio/video streaming through Windows Media Player 11, Firefox, and Vista.

I probably should have done something when I tried the link earlier and could not keep up with the BYU-TV feed they were showing. I can get the BYU feed just fine through their system, but was never able to get it to work well through Windows Media Player (Firefox and WinXP, in my case).

It would have been acceptable, but I suspect there was an extra load for a while this evening. [grin]

Joel Dehlin and Church IT deserve a LOT of credit for hosting these tech talks! I'm very grateful to everyone who contributed. I love how they're making it possible for members across the globe to get involved and contribute their talents.

I also loved the hymn choice while waiting for the meeting to start (for those who didn't get audio, it was "The World Has Need of Willing Men.") I laughed out loud, literally, when it started to play

In case it's helpful, I did want to mention some things which I thought worked better at the live tech talk in the Bay Area some months back. I realize an online meeting will never be quite the same as an in-person one. But tonight's seemed a little rushed--I was very surprised when it ended after only 40 minutes. I would have enjoyed more detail in Joel's presentation, presentations from others, and more time for questions at the end.

Again, kudos to everyone involved! It was a great first online tech talk, and I look forward to attending future meetings and seeing how they evolve.

Kathryn

When LDSAccount was mentioned in the tech talk tonight, I went to ldsaccount.lds.org to see if my tech.lds.org credentials would be accepted. They weren't, which didn't surprise me too much, so I started to create a new account. But when I tried to create the account using my tech.lds.org credentials, it said my user name (Kathryn) was already being used. Obviously someone else may be using this name... but it raised the question in my mind: If I already had an LDSAccount but didn't realize it, would the system have told me so when it identified me from my membership information? Or is it possible to create duplicate accounts?

Also, should my lds.org logon have worked? I didn't think to try that until I had created a new account with a different user name than Kathryn.

Thanks!

Kathryn

Kathryn wrote:If I already had an LDSAccount but didn't realize it, would the system have told me so when it identified me from my membership information?

Yes. When I read about the link in this thread, I went there, entered my membership number and confirmation date, and was informed that I already had a login. Clicking Continue (or whatever it was) took me to all of the login information I have used for other accounts (LUWS, recentry, COL, TES, etc.).

lajackson wrote:Yes. When I read about the link in this thread, I went there, entered my membership number and confirmation date, and was informed that I already had a login. Clicking Continue (or whatever it was) took me to all of the login information I have used for other accounts (LUWS, recentry, COL, TES, etc.).

I'm not sure if I whole-heartedly agree...

The LDS Account login is not in any way tied to the login here on the Forums. It is a login only to the vBulletin software hosting this site. I don't think the intention is to narrow the scope of these forums to only members of the Church with record numbers and confirmation dates (and who know how to get those data items). My understanding is that these forums are open to the public at large and currently we don't want to be too restrictive or difficult for someone to join the community and participate in technology discussions involving the Church. Anyway, that's the Forums...

As far as LUWS or other logins, I was able to create the same username that I have on LUWS and on these forum without any indication that it was already taken or that I already owned it. It looked in the Membership records located at Church HQ and had me verify my full name and birthdate before continuing. Then it auto-populated my name on the next registration forms, which included full name, preferred name, and email address. Then I agree to some legal stuff. Then I verified all the info again and it sent me an email to click an activation link. To me, the whole process looked like a completely separate registration from any other current Church system. But I must clarify that I don't have any other Church profile nor login besides here on the Forums and LUWS.

So I can't say anything for CDOL or CES, since I don't have a login...Although I did notice that the things you could do with LDS Account included an Art Competition, beta.lds.org (which by the way isn't resolving for me), and accessing CES. Perhaps the CES login is what did it for you, lajackson...?

The well-earned award to Brad O. for creating Return and Report must be noted here. Especially given the long history of that project, I find a particular symbol therein about the Church being open to ideas from this community.

boomerbubba wrote:The well-earned award to Brad O. for creating Return and Report must be noted here. Especially given the long history of that project, I find a particular symbol therein about the Church being open to ideas from this community.

I must echo this as well! Congrats Brad! And thank you for your hard work and persistence that have gotten all of us this far. We will try to carry the work forward from here as a community partnering with Church developers.

I say that because I know your life just recently got pretty busy! Good luck with that and try to give us some of your input and feedback on the Wiki when you get a chance here and there.

Again, congrats!

mkmurray wrote:I can access the SVN but it is because I helped work on an earlier project that this website tried to get going (The Ask A Question Workflow project). You have to agree to the Contributor's License. It looks like you can get to it at http://tech.lds.org/volunteer

Go here for even more detail: https://tech.lds.org/wiki

Also, there is this note on the Wiki that should answer Kathryn and lajackson's questions about LDS Account and any relation to your current LUWS login:

Note: Having an LDS Account is not the same as having a login to the Local Unit Web Sites.

mkmurray wrote:Then like 10 minutes later, it started redirecting like that. I wonder if this individual decided to claim it on behalf of the Church...

Quite possible. It was created today.

boomerbubba wrote:The well-earned award to Brad O. for creating Return and Report must be noted here. Especially given the long history of that project, I find a particular symbol therein about the Church being open to ideas from this community.

mkmurray wrote: I must echo this as well! Congrats Brad! And thank you for your hard work and persistence that have gotten all of us this far. We will try to carry the work forward from here as a community partnering with Church developers.

I say that because I know your life just recently got pretty busy! ]

Thanks guys. I hope you guys enjoyed my "mini-general conference" with me reading every word from a cue card.

Yes, mkmurray is right.... My wife and I had our first baby recently and my free time to "nerd it up" has been significantly decreased. It is well worth it though! Being a parent is an awesome thing!

I will definitely check out the Wiki when I get a chance but my involvement will unfortunately be minimal. If you guys have any specific questions about the work I have done on ReturnAndReport.org, feel free to ask. I think the best way to familiarize one's self with every aspect of it is to sign up for an account and use the system.

Thanks again to Joel and everyone who supported this project. I do feel great satisfaction in the role I have been able to play (so far) in the Church's newly established tech community.

By the way, I think Tech Talk was awesome. I like that it didn't drag on too long. I think it was a perfect way for the Church to officially begin allowing Church members to assist with projects. Most of the question/answers were things that I already knew from browsing these forums, but I'm sure others benefited from them.

For the next tech talk, I'd like to see the ability for attendees to collaborate and hold discussions with each other. I was disappointed that the webinar was simply a "submit question" interface and didn't allow me to see the other attendees of "Tech Talk" or communicate with them in any way. Hopefully next time some more interaction will be available.

For the first online Tech Talk, I think everything was pretty much flawless though.

Brad O.

Thankx very much for doing the Tech Talk(s). I am looking forward to viewing last night's program and those in the future.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to follow the Tech Talk as it happened. My Windows 98 / Windows Media Player 9 setup wouldn't connect to it at all. My PCLinuxOS / Firefox / mplayer setup connected, but it was too choppy to get any useful information out of, and would disconnect periodically. After the fourth time, I gave up.

I have a 384 kB Internet connection. I thought that would be enough bandwidth for the Tech Talk, but I guess not.

Q 1. Would it be possible to have an audio-only stream for low- or moderate-bandwidth users next time?

Q 2. If I attempt to view the archived Tech Talk when it comes out, will it be a stream only, or will it be available in some downloadable form that I can play locally, presumably without the problems with streaming? (Needless to say, I prefer the latter. I can download big files overnight, and play them off-line later.)

Thank you.

I was able to view the streaming just fine, a major kudos to CHQ for this event. I look forward to many good things to come.

mndrix wrote:I was excited to hear about the SVN repository. I've created my LDS Account but still cannot access the repository. I'm hoping there's just some lag between the account creation process and being able to sign in. Is anyone else able to access the repository?

The SVN system is in place but we have yet to put any projects in it. That will change within the next few days. Look for some exciting announcements on the forum!

Tom

Kathryn wrote:In case it's helpful, I did want to mention some things which I thought worked better at the live tech talk in the Bay Area some months back. I realize an online meeting will never be quite the same as an in-person one. But tonight's seemed a little rushed--I was very surprised when it ended after only 40 minutes. I would have enjoyed more detail in Joel's presentation, presentations from others, and more time for questions at the end.

We had scheduled 1 hour of time and we learned a lot about doing a virtual tech talk. I'll post our official findings later. However two things of note:

1. It is difficult for someone untrained to stair into a camera for 1 hour and talk. So we may need to have multiple presenters if we were to stretch the length.

2. Although we had a bunch of questions queued up for Joel, it was very difficult during the event to get new questions to Joel. Therefore we will need to refine the Q&A process better.

Thanks everyone for attending!

Tom

Brad O. wrote:For the first online Tech Talk, I think everything was pretty much flawless though.

Good thing you weren't here "behind the scenes". We had a few technical glitches.

Tom

tomw wrote:Although we had a bunch of questions queued up for Joel, it was very difficult during the event to get new questions to Joel. Therefore we will need to refine the Q&A process better.

I really enjoyed the Q&A. I thought Joel did a great job of answering questions clearly and concisely.

For future tech talks, there is definitely some room for improvement. It was obvious that some questions were queued up -- you even had some images ready to show as part of the responses. And yet on the other hand, it seemed odd that several questions were repeated -- that showed that either those questions were not prepared ahead of time, or the preparation was inadequate.

There were many questions that were posted on this forum ahead of time that in my opinion were entirely appropriate, and yet did not get addressed. I was disappointed that the Q&A segment was so short, and it seems that with improved preparation, there could have been many more questions answered, while still staying within the one hour time limit. I can see how it is quite challenging to handle questions posed in real time; personally I wouldn't mind if most if not all the questions came in advance.

But all in all, it was definitely a success, and it's probably good to keep the goals for the first one modest so that we can improve and do even better with the next one. Speaking of that, is there any thought of the schedule for the next one? Will these be 2, 3, 4 times a year?

What is the SVN address?

One technical glitch that was a bit distracting, and would be worth fixing for next time:

I kept both the video stream and the webinar screens open. The webinar screen showed the presentation; the video stream switched between the presentation and showing Joel talking. The webinar display of the presentation was much clearer than the video (an obvious result, given the technologies used). Much of the smaller text on the video was quite unreadable, whereas the same text on the webinar was crystal clear.

Unfortunately, the display of the presentation on the webinar screen was significantly behind the video stream. The change of slides on the video stream seemed to occur at the right times, but the webinar presentation was several seconds behind. In some cases Joel was done talking about a point before the slide even appeared on the webinar screen.

I'm not sure of the reasons for the delay -- it may just be the latency inherent in the GotoWebinar system -- but if anything can be done to have the webinar presentation keep up better, that would be helpful.

Daniel wrote:What is the SVN address?

https://tech.lds.org/svn

Alan_Brown wrote:Unfortunately, the display of the presentation on the webinar screen was significantly behind the video stream. The change of slides on the video stream seemed to occur at the right times, but the webinar presentation was several seconds behind. In some cases Joel was done talking about a point before the slide even appeared on the webinar screen.

I'm not sure of the reasons for the delay -- it may just be the latency inherent in the GotoWebinar system -- but if anything can be done to have the webinar presentation keep up better, that would be helpful.

Actually, my guess is that it was two different people trying to keep the slides in sync. There was probably some professional team doing the slide transitions for the stream (like whoever the guys are that do General Conference slides or something), and then maybe someone like Tom on the webinar slides trying to keep pace with the professionals.

I would like to put in a request to have the slides available somehow outside of the recording of the streamed broadcast. As mentioned, they were quite difficult to see and read in the streamed broadcast. Perhaps included as an attachment like a PDF or PPT file. Is that doable? Or can the slides not be distributed?

Thanks.

mkmurray wrote:https://tech.lds.org/svn

It require authentication!

marianomarini_vi wrote:[The SVN repository] requires authentication!

Yes, the SVN repository is part of the collection of sites Joel mentioned (the wiki as well) that require the LDS Account credentials. As has been mentioned before, these are not the same as LUWS or Missionary Recommendation System credentials. You can register for this system at http://ldsaccount.lds.org.

mndrix wrote:I was excited to hear about the SVN repository. I've created my LDS Account but still cannot access the repository. I'm hoping there's just some lag between the account creation process and being able to sign in. Is anyone else able to access the repository?

I'm having similar problems logging into https://tech.lds.org/svn - I'm assuming it's not yet setup to authenticate against the LDS Account yet.

I imagine there is nothing in the SVN repository at the moment, and yes you do have to authenticate to get in; the Church isn't going to let just anyone into the repository and project wiki. Plus, I believe you have to agree to the Contributor's License Agreement found at http://tech.lds.org/volunteer

And no, I haven't been able to get into the SVN repository either yet, but I have been able to get into the Wiki.

Here is an update regarding Subversion: go to the following URL to test your subversion connection:
https://tech.lds.org/svn/test

Subversion authenticates against the LDS Account.

The Forum DOES NOT authenticate against LDS Account (it will be changed in the FUTURE to authenticate against LDS Account, but at present it doesn't.)

mkmurray wrote:I imagine there is nothing in the SVN repository at the moment, and yes you do have to authenticate to get in; the Church isn't going to let just anyone into the repository and project wiki. Plus, I believe you have to agree to the Contributor's License Agreement found at http://tech.lds.org/volunteer

And no, I haven't been able to get into the SVN repository either yet, but I have been able to get into the Wiki.

Note also that at the end of the Contributor's License Agreement it says:

Should you agree with this license, please fill out the following form. Once you have submitted the form, you will receive an e-mail confirming that you have agreed to the license. YOU MUST RESPOND BY FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THAT E-MAIL BEFORE YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO CONTRIBUTE.

That last sentence in ALL CAPS seems to indicate that there is more to SVN access than simply having an LDS Account login.

Does anyone know if the Tech Talk will be available for those than could not view it live?

If it will where will it be?

I did try http://stream.lds.org/techtalk but it just had BYU TV programming.

Thanks!

daddy-o wrote:Does anyone know if the Tech Talk will be available for those than could not view it live?

If it will where will it be?

I did try http://stream.lds.org/techtalk but it just had BYU TV programming.

Thanks!

There are a few posts on other threads that have this answer...

But yes, it was recorded and will be posted to the site. As far as where and when, I'm not sure, but I know the announcment will probably come from Cassie right on the homepage of the LDS Tech website. If you subscribe to the RSS feed of the homepage news and announcements, you will be notified very quickly after it has been posted.

As far as the streaming link, it points to the BYU TV stream when not in use by the ICS department for Tech Talks.

mkmurray wrote:I was able to create the same username that I have on LUWS and on these forum without any indication that it was already taken or that I already owned it. ... Perhaps the CES login is what did it for you, lajackson...?

I don't have a CES login. I wonder if it might have something to do with nFS? And I never saw a screen showing me all the things I could do. I will go looking and see if I can find something for which I already had a login.

lajackson wrote:I don't have a CES login. I wonder if it might have something to do with nFS? And I never saw a screen showing me all the things I could do. I will go looking and see if I can find something for which I already had a login.

From the http://ldsaccount.lds.org page, there is a button for "Can't Sign In?" This will give you a variety of options for recovering your username, password, etc.

Alan_Brown wrote:From the http://ldsaccount.lds.org page, there is a button for "Can't Sign In?" This will give you a variety of options for recovering your username, password, etc.

Also, on the right panel of that first page is the list of things you can do with your LDS Account.

mkmurray wrote:Also, on the right panel of that first page is the list of things you can do with your LDS Account.

Well, I guess I already had a login for one of the "many online LDS Church resources". But I did not have a login for any of the three listed. It is a connected world.

I think it was not clear to some people that they needed to tune into the Video stream. I think some people logged into the webinar and expected audio there. I read some comments from some participants who said they could see the graphics but there was no sound. I think they had just tuned into the webinar portion and not the video stream.

GarysTurn wrote:I think it was not clear to some people that they needed to tune into the Video stream. I think some people logged into the webinar and expected audio there. I read some comments from some participants who said they could see the graphics but there was no sound. I think they had just tuned into the webinar portion and not the video stream.

That's probably it. I didn't connect the dots until you mentioned it. The beginning slide did say to be sure to connect to the stream at *named* link, but if you missed the first 5 minutes or so, you would have missed that info on that first slide.

mkmurray wrote:That's probably it. I didn't connect the dots until you mentioned it. The beginning slide did say to be sure to connect to the stream at *named* link, but if you missed the first 5 minutes or so, you would have missed that info on that first slide.

There was also a small mention of the stream on the GotoWebinar interface (not just on the slide) that would have persisted throughout the entire webinar. But it was fairly small and easy to miss or misunderstand.

I think this does account for a fair number of the people who said there was no audio, although other technical issues (particularly on non-Windows machines) could also be involved.

Alan_Brown wrote:There was also a small mention of the stream on the GotoWebinar interface (not just on the slide) that would have persisted throughout the entire webinar. But it was fairly small and easy to miss or misunderstand.

Wow, I missed that.

I also missed the live stream at first. I was rushing to finish up a brake job on my wife's car and get cleaned up and made it with 3 minutes to spare. I sat down and quickly logged in using the webinar link I received. At that point I relaxed for the final two minutes thinking it would start shortly. If I remember right, the webinar screen being displayed prior to the event showed users how to submit questions. It would have been VERY helpful if that screen told users how to tune into the live broadcast.

After it started I got a little worried, but managed to catch the one screen displaying the link for the stream and was able to open a browser and get it going. I just caught the last part of the invocation. I can easily see how others could have missed a whole lot more, or the whole thing.

Mikerowaved wrote:If I remember right, the webinar screen being displayed prior to the event showed users how to submit questions. It would have been VERY helpful if that screen told users how to tune into the live broadcast.

It actually did. The screen that showed how to submit questions also told you that you needed to tune into the broadcast at *named* link (it was above the instructions for the Q&A).

With that said, it's obvious that many people missed that instruction. It must not have been made clear enough.

I had my mind on other things and didn't join until 20 minutes into it. I don't remember a webinar page, but I found the video and audio with no problems. I was surprised at how big the video screen was. That might have caused problems for people with slower connections.

RussellHltn wrote:I had my mind on other things and didn't join until 20 minutes into it. I don't remember a webinar page, but I found the video and audio with no problems. I was surprised at how big the video screen was. That might have caused problems for people with slower connections.

When I maximized Windows Media Player, it actually was pretty small (like 20% of the screen at most). But if I pulled it out to a window that I could move around and resize, it scaled to whatever size the window was at.

mkmurray wrote:When I maximized Windows Media Player, it actually was pretty small (like 20% of the screen at most). But if I pulled it out to a window that I could move around and resize, it scaled to whatever size the window was at.

It defaulted to something like 75% of my screen. I never run it that large.

If you're using Windows Media Player, the window size vs picture re-size, and what happens when maximized, are all user adjustable settings.

rhusted wrote:Here is an update regarding Subversion: go to the following URL to test your subversion connection:
https://tech.lds.org/svn/test

Subversion authenticates against the LDS Account.

The Forum DOES NOT authenticate against LDS Account (it will be changed in the FUTURE to authenticate against LDS Account, but at present it doesn't.)

All is Ok but sign out. Just close the page.

marianomarini_vi wrote:All is Ok but sign out. Just close the page.

What you are saying is that there is no way to "sign out" from the SVN page? The only option is to close the window/tab?

mkmurray wrote:What you are saying is that there is no way to "sign out" from the SVN page? The only option is to close the window/tab?

You make me happy! That's exacly what I mean.
Or you are very smart o my English is not too bad|!

Alan_Brown wrote:Note also that at the end of the Contributor's License Agreement it says:

That last sentence in ALL CAPS seems to indicate that there is more to SVN access than simply having an LDS Account login.

SVN Access will be open to anyone with an LDS Account but commits will be limited to those who sign the agreement. Some special project may even require more vetting of a user's skill set but that has not firmly been set yet.

Tom

Alan_Brown wrote:One technical glitch that was a bit distracting, and would be worth fixing for next time:

I kept both the video stream and the webinar screens open. The webinar screen showed the presentation; the video stream switched between the presentation and showing Joel talking. The webinar display of the presentation was much clearer than the video (an obvious result, given the technologies used). Much of the smaller text on the video was quite unreadable, whereas the same text on the webinar was crystal clear.

We learned a lot during this process. Thanks for the great feedback.

Tom

Alan_Brown wrote:I really enjoyed the Q&A. I thought Joel did a great job of answering questions clearly and concisely.

For future tech talks, there is definitely some room for improvement. It was obvious that some questions were queued up -- you even had some images ready to show as part of the responses. And yet on the other hand, it seemed odd that several questions were repeated -- that showed that either those questions were not prepared ahead of time, or the preparation was inadequate.

Yes, we queued some questions pulled from the forum up. The problem is that we did not queue enough up and quickly ran out of questions because Joel was answering them so fast.

Alan_Brown wrote:There were many questions that were posted on this forum ahead of time that in my opinion were entirely appropriate, and yet did not get addressed. I was disappointed that the Q&A segment was so short, and it seems that with improved preparation, there could have been many more questions answered, while still staying within the one hour time limit. I can see how it is quite challenging to handle questions posed in real time; personally I wouldn't mind if most if not all the questions came in advance.

Here is the problem with many of the questions. They were not "inappropriate" but were "unanswerable". For example we could not answer many questions about MLS because Joel does not make product decisions for MLS. So many questions like "when are you going to add additional phone numbers to a member record" simply could not be answered by Joel. Also, Family History questions fall into this same category. So the take away we learned is that we need to have representatives from the different departments available for the Q&A section.

We need to have more questions queued up because it was very difficult to moderate all of the questions coming in and filter them, reword them as necessary, and feed them to Joel. That takes time. We had about 8 QA moderators filtering and then sending them to me. I then had to pick from that list and retype them on the screen Joel could see. So we will revise this process to make it much more streamlined.

Alan_Brown wrote:Is there any thought of the schedule for the next one? Will these be 2, 3, 4 times a year?

We don't have the next one scheduled yet but will be meeting soon to discuss.

Thanks!

Tom

avskip wrote:Have they posted the recording of it? I can't seem to find it.

Skip

The recording will be posted within the next two weeks. Watch LDS Tech for an announcement when it is posted.

In post #22 on August 29, I asked:

champted wrote: Q 1. Would it be possible to have an audio-only stream for low- or moderate-bandwidth users next time?

Q 2. If I attempt to view the archived Tech Talk when it comes out, will it be a stream only, or will it be available in some downloadable form that I can play locally, presumably without the problems with streaming? (Needless to say, I prefer the latter. I can download big files overnight, and play them off-line later.)

I have not yet received an answer to either question. The remainder of the post contains background information for both questions.

champted wrote:If I attempt to view the archived Tech Talk when it comes out, will it be a stream only, or will it be available in some downloadable form that I can play locally, presumably without the problems with streaming? (Needless to say, I prefer the latter. I can download big files overnight, and play them off-line later.)

Although I personally would not suffer from this problem I do agree it would be useful for many people. The problem is not only with people who have low bandwidth but also with people whos connection go through several countries ie the connection is fine within their own country but slows down massively on sites outside and further away.

If for some reason the provider of the video clip can only provide it as a stream then another way around it would be to provide the stream in a format that the Real Player supports such as Flash because the Real Player has the nice option to download video clips.

Its an option I often use so I can watch these while I am travelling etc but it would also serve those whos connection might struggle to cope with a stream.

champted wrote:In post #22 on August 29, I asked:



I have not yet received an answer to either question. The remainder of the post contains background information for both questions.

I don't think that we have made any decisions as to what we will do in the future for streaming but we will definitely take your comments into consideration. Our intent is to include as many people as we can cost effectively do our tech talks.

Tom

mkmurray wrote:I'm not sure if I whole-heartedly agree...

The LDS Account login is not in any way tied to the login here on the Forums. It is a login only to the vBulletin software hosting this site. I don't think the intention is to narrow the scope of these forums to only members of the Church with record numbers and confirmation dates (and who know how to get those data items).

So I can't say anything for CDOL or CES, since I don't have a login...Although I did notice that the things you could do with LDS Account included an Art Competition, beta.lds.org (which by the way isn't resolving for me), and accessing CES. Perhaps the CES login is what did it for you, lajackson...?

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I am the product manager for LDS Account and appreciate your questions/discussion. LDS Account as a service is still in its infancy. Currently there are only a handful of public applications/sites that use LDS Account (CES Student registration in Logan, UT and St. George institutes, an application for Temple and Stake presidencies, and LDS Art.) Familysearch.org, LDS.org stake and ward websites, and several other large sites/applications are currently in the process of moving over to LDS Account. When this happens customers with a user name and password to these other sites will be migrated to an LDS Account.

As an FYI, i believe the beta.lds.org site is currently only available to those with access to the internal Church network.

Ben

Can we get SSL enabled on tech.lds.org at least for the wiki and SVN?

https://tech.lds.org/svn/
https://tech.lds.org/wiki/

I am uncomfortable submitting my LDS Account credentials in the clear over plain HTTP. Especially since so many Church apps are going to start using LDS Account.

betteridgejl wrote:Can we get SSL enabled on tech.lds.org at least for the wiki and SVN?

https://tech.lds.org/svn/
https://tech.lds.org/wiki/

I am uncomfortable submitting my LDS Account credentials in the clear over plain HTTP. Especially since so many Church apps are going to start using LDS Account.

Yes, we are working on it.

Tom

You asked for feedback on the broadcasted Tech Talk. Here is my feedback:

I appreciated Joel’s open and honest approach especially on issues such as a Linux/Windows/.NET/Java and many others.

I can also understand why Joel didn’t elaborate on other issues such as “MLS via the net” or LUWS for outside North America but a little more explanation of “why not now” is always helpful. If language was only issue then all English speaking countries could be enabled but since there might be legal issues regarding privacy laws stopping immediate rollout then I believe people can understand and appreciate “why not now”.

The Tech Talk has now set the tone for what will happen in the nearest future and where the focus will be (HT/VT Reporting) in relation to us in the “community”. That was good to hear so we don’t think too much outside the planned scope.

I enjoyed getting a brief insight into what else the church is looking at and what will or may come in the future. E-Learning has interesting potential and more would be welcome.

I also enjoyed the Q&A session to get a feel for what others might have of questions and feel is important to ask about.

The bright moment of the Tech Talk was Joel’s reaction to the rumour the church was buying Facebook because like him I must admit I too laughed when I read it.

Future Tech Talks could include:

1. Overall introduction by Joel
2. Community Projects Presentation by Tom (update and future)
3. Internal Team/Project Presentation

On point 3 I could envisage presentations from the various teams under Joel about the technology projects they are involved with from church video broadcasts to lds.org, to familysearch.org and various IT systems as well as future ideas and technologies being explored. If explained in the right way I trust we can all, as professional IT people, appreciate that any future ideas might not come forth but from a technology point of view it would be interesting to hear about them as well as the experience gained. I personally like the “LifeBrowser” done in Adobe Flex so could be interesting to hear more from those involved and what pro’s and con’s found with the technology.

And last, for future Tech Talk events it would be nice to see the downloadable version on the following working day of the event so people in other time-zones can watch it nearer to the real event. It makes it much easier to participate in the immediate discussions in the tech forum.

dkjorgi wrote:And last, for future Tech Talk events it would be nice to see the downloadable version on the following working day of the event so people in other time-zones can watch it nearer to the real event. It makes it much easier to participate in the immediate discussions in the tech forum.

The wait time could possibly be reduced as the Church gets used to doing these Tech Talks; however, you have to remember that the ICS Deparment isn't the one who recorded or even streamed the broadcast. It was the A/V Deparment. Then when they are done with it, it has to be reviewed by the Church's legal group (the Coorelation Department) for approval.

hutchinsbb wrote:----------------------------------------------------------

I am the product manager for LDS Account and appreciate your questions/discussion. LDS Account as a service is still in its infancy. .... When this happens customers with a user name and password to these other sites will be migrated to an LDS Account. ...

Ben

Ben, Thanks for the reply.

If the Church continues using userids for logins many will have conflicting userids. For example, user johndoe on the stake and ward websites would conflict with john doe on family search, etc..

The simple remedy is to switch to logins based on email addresses.

Is the Church sticking to userids? If so, how will the conflicts be resolved? If not, will it be email addresses for login ids?

What's the scoop?

daddy-o wrote:If the Church continues using userids for logins many will have conflicting userids.
The simple remedy is to switch to logins based on email addresses.

The challenge there, of course, is that e-mail addresses change.

GarysTurn wrote:There was mention of a web site to obtain an LDS Account which would someday work on all sites. I wrote the address down but it redirects to someones resume. Did I get it wrong, I wrote down:

http://ldsaccount.com

http://ldsaccount.lds.org

lajackson wrote:The challenge there, of course, is that e-mail addresses change.

Also, creating userids based upon email addresses make it MUCH easier for hackers to obtain userids. A while back, much of CES changed to the "NetID" style of system now used by CES partly for the specific reason of not having userids that are similar to the person's email address.