The Intersection of Inspiration and Innovation

(Re-posted by request.) One of the neat things about working for the Church is that every once in a while, you get to hear how the systems you help develop are used by the Church’s general authorities.

In March 2007, the New Era magazine published an entire issue dedicated to helping young men and women prepare spiritually and practically to serve a mission for the Church. One of the articles describes how a prospective missionary can fill out the required paperwork, using a web application developed and deployed in the past few years.

A sidebar in the same article describes how Elder Henry B. Eyring records new missionary assignments as given to him by the Spirit:

All my life, from the time I have been a young boy and as far back as I can remember, I have had experiences feeling of the Holy Ghost. … But I’ve never felt what I have felt as I have … participated in the assigning of missionaries. …

We go into a room, and … it will be a two-or three-hour session and sometimes longer. Because of technology, it is possible for us to have your picture and the information about you displayed. And then quickly, on that same screen, all the missions of the Church with all of their needs are displayed. Within minutes, and sometimes less than a minute, the impression comes so powerfully that it would be, if it were a single instance, something that you would never forget. Can you imagine sitting there for hours at a time, having that happen time after time without interruption? I testify to you that it is real. …

In a world so large, the Creator … somehow not only knows you but loves you enough to ensure that your call is where He needs you to go to teach the children of our Heavenly Father.

Working on cool technology is one thing. Working on cool technology that’s used to further the work of the Lord is something else.

And knowing that the software you work on is being used by an apostle under inspired circumstances like this is priceless.

posted by ted on Monday, Jul 30, 2007

Want to see a modern miracle?

How many languages does your site broadcast in? The LDS Church will broadcast its semiannual General Conference in over 60 languages in this weekend. The list runs from Albanian, American Sign Language, and Amharic to Urdu, Vietnamese, and Yapese.

Along the way from A to Z, you’ll recognize lots of familiar languages plus such interesting tongues as Chuukese, Guarani (my wife served in Paraguay where this is spoken—she’ll be gratified to see it included), Kosraean, Pohnpeian, Papiamento, Twi, and Telugu.

Why bother posting about this? Because it’s a technological and theological miracle to get that many languages broadcast simultaneously. The entire Audiovisual Department throws its full effort into overdrive for these two weekends each year. Translation is arranged with native speakers and returned missionaries all over the world. The IT organization minds it satellites and streaming media servers. There is a deployment moratorium that takes an act of… well, that takes some serious effort to get passed if you need to release new websites or applications during the week before conference, so focused are everyone’s efforts on providing a good experience for conference watchers and listeners.

And it all works.

I remember when it didn’t work so well, trying to watch conference on my PC in Washington state 7-8 years ago. It didn’t work so well back then. Maybe my computer is faster. Maybe the Internet itself is zippier. But I also believe the Church has really started delivering on the promise of taking the Gospel to every kindred tongue and people, with technology helping pave the way for that effort.

But despite all the coolness, I hope you just enjoy listening to the words of inspired leaders this weekend, in your own language, without having to think once of the technical miracles that make it all possible.

That is the real miracle, when the technology disappears, and just lets you focus on the Spirit and Inspiration.

posted by ted on Friday, Mar 30, 2007

Inspiration + Perspiration = Innovation

Edison said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. I don’t want to disagree with a hard-working genius like Edison – effort is certainly crucial when trying to innovate. But here in my current work environment, I think Inspiration might be needed – and provided – in slightly larger proportions…

It’s one of the cool things about working someplace where my personal values are pretty much in line with corporate value. If someone asks you what you do for a living, you can say, “Whatever God wants.” That’s a little cheeky, but when you work for the Church, your daily task list is driven not by advertising, sales figures, page views, or the almighty dollar… but in some sense by the Almighty Himself.

What is it He wants to accomplish by this web site, application, or whatever? Whether it is to teach the Gospel, help a prospective missionary fill out his papers, disseminate policy directives to local leaders, or show somebody in Zimbabwe how to do family history, the goal is something that Matters, not just to the “company” or even to “the customer”, but to God, and therefore to me.

That’s the Inspiration that drives my Perspiration.

posted by ted on Tuesday, Sep 05, 2006