> I wonder, would the Church ever open up the spec underneath > the MLS<-->CHURCH HQ communications so that a secure, open > source, online membership and web system could be developed > and integrated? Seems like there are allot of members with > allot of MLS and ward website suggestions. > Like family history, this is one of those areas that has > room for developement. Seems all we can do right now is > build hacks and offer suggestions. Could that change?
I don't know. I do know that the Church is very careful about the security of its membership information. Personally, if I wanted to start an open-source project with a goal that it would someday be adopted Church-wide, I wouldn't start with membership data. Family history (so many good things could be done there), a freely-available web filter, creating a DMOZ-like directory for high-quality articles on various church-related subjects, figuring out ways to improve the the visibility of pro-mormon or even neutral-mormon articles on the Web (see moregoodfoundation.org), or even a system to help people track progress in scouting and/or duty-to-God requirements -- all of these seem like they would be easier to get adopted someday. The other thing is it seems unlikely that the Church would adopt an open-source project without a strong developer community behind it. They value stability, longevity, and support. The Church has already started using a number of open-source projects (apache, lucene, hibernate, etc.). The projects that they've adopted are, at least to my knowledge, generally mature and have a strong developer community. Until the Church starts sponsoring their own open-source efforts, why not start a project in some worthwhile area right now? -dallan _______________________________________________ Ldsoss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ldsoss.org/mailman/listinfo/ldsoss
