New Emerging Technologies

Well friend, A new feature in Google Earth, the company's satellite imagery-based mapping software, allows users to view the sky from their computers. The tool provides information about various celestial bodies, from stars to planets, and includes imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources. It also allows users to take virtual tours through galaxies, including the Milky Way, from any point on Earth they choose. & what's unique about this is you have all of the imaging data over the whole of the sky actually streaming. So I can look at something that covers most of the sky, say our Milky Way galaxy, and I can zoom right into a tiny galaxy that's in the formation cycle

This will be great for our members on other planets. They can easily draw stake boundary maps between galaxies.

Just kidding, This is exciting.

I geocoded every household in our ward so that home teachers could be assigned by geography. I have a google map with push pins for every family. I think having geocoding lat long attached to the membership records would be very helpful.

I use this feature (Skyview) of google earth all the time to communicate with my stake president in the Andromeda galaxy.. I needed to see exactly where he lived so I could make my way there in 2.5 billion light-years.

in all reality the 2 best features I have found with google earth is the geocoding and also the streetview pictures of the houses. it is not as much a big deal in utah wards seeing as how all the members live in the same small neighborhood. As for places like North Carolina and other cities where there is a smaller population of members this view has really helped find the members houses from the view I see while driving

Enigma1 wrote:in all reality the 2 best features I have found with google earth is the geocoding and also the streetview pictures of the houses. it is not as much a big deal in utah wards seeing as how all the members live in the same small neighborhood. As for places like North Carolina and other cities where there is a smaller population of members this view has really helped find the members houses from the view I see while driving

The geocoding feature of Google Earth, like the Google Maps web site and its competitors, is very handy for one-at-a-time plotting interactively. But the geocoding of batches of address records in Google Earth is deceptively error-prone. For better or worse, Google is taking Google Earth Plus (which allowed geocoding of small batches for $20/year) off the market, leaving only the Google Earth free version (with no batch import for geocoding) and the Google Earth Pro version. So now a customer must spend $400/year on the "Pro" version to get the error-ridden geocoding.

Regarding Streetview, I believe that is a feature of the Google Maps web site, not Google Earth. But GE does have the satellite imagery that can be zoomed and tilted to give a pseudo 3D view.

For most mapping purposes of local LDS units, a key advantange of Google Earth is its architecture. As a standalone, local application, it keeps all the private data on the user's computer. Using the Google Maps web site for similar purposes would violate the Church's policy guidance against uploading membership data to third-party servers. Too bad, because the web site does have superior 2D street maps, and is much better for printouts.

boomerbubba wrote:Regarding Streetview, I believe that is a feature of the Google Maps web site, not Google Earth. But GE does have the satellite imagery that can be zoomed and tilted to give a pseudo 3D view.

Actually it is a feature of both. The Google Maps implementation is better than the Google Earth implementaion, IMHO. The Google Maps street view stitches the 360 degree photographs together to create a view that can move along the street. The Google Earth street view uses the same photographs but they have not yet been stitched together. Therefore to move from one photograph position to another requires a user to click on the camera icon from the view position they are in to move to another position while in the street view bubble.

In Google Earth a user must have the "Street View" layer selected for this feature to be available.

jdlessley wrote:
In Google Earth a user must have the "Street View" layer selected for this feature to be available.

You are right, of course. I forgot that one of the first things I did with Google Earth was to turn that feature off. It's all part of my love-hate relationship with the product.

Although these discussions are interesting, please keep the topic of the thread in line with technologies as they relate to the Church.

Techgy wrote:Although these discussions are interesting, please keep the topic of the thread in line with technologies as they relate to the Church.

While I see that the original post from 2007 was a little far removed from that mission, I honestly think that most of the comments today in the resurrected thread were not. They discuss two functions: geocoding members' addresses for mapping, and viewing members' homes via Google imagery.

boomerbubba wrote:While I see that the original post from 2007 was a little far removed from that mission, I honestly think that most of the comments today in the resurrected thread were not. They discuss two functions: geocoding members' addresses for mapping, and viewing members' homes via Google imagery.

It was simply a reminder to keep the thread on topic

I recently completed a Master's in Instructional Design and Technology and chose for my thesis integration of an Intelligent Tutor (or agent, or digital librarian) to facilitate online/ mobile learning. I recently have been considering this in the realm of missionary work and learning in all aspects of the gospel. Basically a digital librarian would get to know you (build a profile based on your preferences, choices, rejections, responses to input), and the "companion" would assume a user-defined personality and voice (Avatar); rather than as demonstrated by Google Goggles (raw feed of unconnected information about your surroundings), you would have a digital Avatar that would engage you as you walk though life experiences each day. Periodically the digital companion would engage you about your surroundings (knows where you are based on your GPS in phone), and ask you questions: "Say, isn't that building like the one Professor Jones talked about in class yesterday? What was that architectural type?" Based on your input verbally, the companion would continue engagement or drop the topic. It could also introduce one or more of the many wonderful church videos, or talks, or analogies, or scriptures or lessons all digitally available now.

Investigators could be introduced to the downloadable app (smart phone, or computer) by the missionaries or members. Missionaries could also be tutored as they enter the Mission Field with discussion topics, content, scripture memorization, etc. Anyone in any Church calling could benefit from a "personalized" digital companion that would help them take their gospel knowledge and activity to the next level.

I am not a programmer, more of an instructional designer, that is looking to collaborate with others in the development of such an app that could integrate all of the Church digital resources in a unique way for all mobile/ digital users.

Please forward this to whomever you think might have an interest or be able to point the way forward.

Thank you,

Charlie