Tech Forum

Alan_Brown wrote:In my opinion, it is simply a matter of cost-benefit analysis, and the benefit does not justify the cost.

That seems more plausible.

I know on the Garmin Nuvi GPS's under the points of interest it has most non LDS church's pre-loaded onto the Maps.

I always wondered why our church did not. Has the LDS church requested to not post that info?

I would like to have them there. Who knows maybe a few people would stop up at our church's based on finding a meetinghouse they otherwise would not have found.

thesmtih7, i agree with you that it would be a benefit to members and non-members alike.

As concerning the cost benefit, it would be very unusual for the church to not have their meeting house locations placed in a database somewhere. The cost to publish the meeting house locations in a simple csv would be ridiculously easy. Give someone like me (not as smart as church programmers) one to two days worth of time and I'd have it done and published. I don't think anyone is asking for anything complicated...simple data dump would do just fine.

As for this thread, there's been a lot of speculation on why or why not....can someone from the church technology group reply with an official church statement? For example, Joel Dehlin or David Burggraaf maybe?

For clarity sake, I would like to know if I could have a dump (in whatever format you choose) of all the US church meeting house locations? I would then like to take those locations and format them for a TomTom or Garmin gps system and make it available to all who wish to use it.
http://tech.lds.org/forum/../index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=52

Hi all, if anyone is interested; I went ahead and created a program that will get you all your membership information and create a GPS file for you. It also grabs all the US Temple sites and US Ward Buildings.

You can read about and download the application (and other GPS files) on this website I created.

http://www.mormongps.com

trhodes wrote:Hi all, if anyone is interested; I went ahead and created a program that will get you all your membership information and create a GPS file for you. It also grabs all the US Temple sites and US Ward Buildings...

Before posting this utility that gathers sensitive data, did you check with CHQ to get their reaction as noted below by Tom Welch, Church Employee and Site Administrator?

tomw wrote:I'm not sure but I believe that the reason the Church does not publish a list of all meeting houses world-wide would in part be for security reasons. Because of this, I'd check with CHQ before posting this information.

Tom

I have not posted anything with sensitive data in it. Anything that I have posted is public domain and very easily attainable from the church itself. The list of ward meeting houses is a community based organization of user submitted meeting house locations. The membership application cannot do a thing without the users own login, so again it is no different than a member going to their unit website and looking at their ward members.

I do appreciate the question though.

trhodes wrote:I have not posted anything with sensitive data in it. Anything that I have posted is public domain and very easily attainable from the church itself. The list of ward meeting houses is a community based organization of user submitted meeting house locations. The membership application cannot do a thing without the users own login, so again it is no different than a member going to their unit website and looking at their ward members.

I do appreciate the question though.

You may want to consider the Church policy regarding directories (See CHI, book 1, page 177). The membership information your membership application strips from the LUWS is a directory.

Since the LUWS Membership Directory is a directory it adheres to the CHI policy. That policy requires a statement with specific cautions be provided. Check out the top of the Ward Membership Directory page and you will see the statement - "Information on this page is for Church use only and is not to be used for any commercial, business, or political purpose." This is in compliance with Church policy regarding directories.

Your membership application must adhere to the policies and procedures set out in the CHI since the source of that information is a Church directory. It must provide a statement similar to the one seen on the LUWS membership page. Additionally a member creating a directory from LUWS membership data must also be made aware that this information should not be distributed outside the stake or ward boundaries. Copying the content of a LUWS Membership Directory also requires permission of the bishop or stake president.

Looking at the CHI instructions I would say that the membership information provided on the LUWS is sensitive data. To ensure your membership application adheres to Church policy and procedures it would be best to contact Church headquarters to get direction from them.