Digital Latter-day Saints - SUCCESS!

Well, last Sunday was a success. The missionaries decided to make a last minute change and came in person to the fireside instead of skyping in. It was fun though because the audience got to interact with them more comfortably.

There were four people that sang a musical number, and a girl shared her experiences sharing the gospel with her friends and making a mormon.org profile. If the missionaries gave the most inspiring message of the night, she gave the most motivating portion because it showed that what we were talking about was possible.

James Wilcox added his experiences of translating a Prezi presentation that the missionaries use into another language.

We ended by showing a slide show of all the websites that the church maintains.

It was a great and uplifting experience. The next event we have planned is the final showcase. December 9, 7-9pm in the JKB.

Come check it out!!

Web 2.0 - Advergaming

Web 2.0 as we become for comfortable with the internet we are discovering more ways to use it in innovative ways. One of the ways that I found interesting is Advergaming.

When the internet was new, advertisers and marketers applied old marketing tactics to the new internet medium. If they wanted to advertise a certain product or service they would have a standard picture with text advertisement. They even called these, ‘banner ads’, like the billboards and banners they were modeled after.

The problem was, banner ads fell woefully short of the potential of the internet. The beauty of the internet is that it doesn’t have to be static. It can be interactive. A natural defense of humans is to notice quick motions as compared to static images or subtle changes. Marketers discovered they could capitalize on this natural instinct if they made a moving advertisement. They noticed the advertisements that had motion were much more effective at catching people’s attention.

This idea has gradually been developed until entire games have been produced with the sole purpose of advertising a product and boosting brand or product awareness.

Digital Latter-day Saints- This Sunday

We skyped again with Elder Spencer and confirmed our outline for the fireside this Sunday. A few of our team members were not able to make it but it was nice to be on the same page with the elders about what they will talk about.

We asked them to talk about 4 topics

1. Their story and how they came to serve in the Referral Center Mission
2. Tools they use to teach others about the gospel of Jesus Christ
3. A success story of someone they have taught
4. Commitment to the audience to get involved with missionary work


We noticed that although our fireside had a good program, we were lacking a historical element for the final project. Kurt with his quick thinking and Andrew with his mad computer skills decided to build a website that outlined how our ancestors heard about the gospel and how people can hear about the gospel today.

It used to be that the only chance people had to hear the gospel was if missionaries showed up at their door. Now, there is a multitude of resources that people learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So for our final project, we are going to report a media portion about the fireside and a historical portion about the accessibility of the gospel.

Come on Sunday and learn more!

Digital Latter-day Saints update

BYU 61st ward is going to sponsor our digital missionary fireside! The event is this Sunday November 21 from 7:00 pm - 9:00pm.

We recently skyped with LDS missionaries Elder Spencer and Elder Ahlstrom at the Referral Center Mission in Provo, Utah. We learned about their teaching techniques and how they use the internet to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and His restored church on earth. 

Passwords, Future Shock and Bookclubs

I recently learned in my Digital Civilization class how poor most passwords are. I was amazed to learn that my professor had hundreds of passwords. He creates a new password for every site that requires password authentication. He does it through a password program that creates and remembers his passwords. So I decided to experiment.

Blog role model. Blogmodel?

In my Digital Civilization class we were asked to review an offer suggestions of another classmates blog. I reviewed hsmaggie's blog here. We reviewed our findings in class and discussed blogging best practices. One of the major suggestions was to have a standard theme to your blog. If a blog becomes too diverse it tries to become everything to everyone and losses quality content. If you have a lot to say it is best to have multiple blogs.

This lead me to look for a blog role model. I mentioned connecting with this blogger early in the semester. He never mentions his name on his blog so I assume he doesn't want people to know it so I won't share it here. His blog is great because it is all about his experiences with investment banking. His successes and failures. Lessons he has learned and advice he would like to pass on. It has been a great resource for me in learning about investment banking and now, how to blog correctly. His blog has a consistent theme and is always full of relevant, useful content. He is my role model of how to make a great blog. I want to start a similar blog but instead of investment banking I would write about Venture Capital. The link is here.

America on the move - AUTOMOBILES!

Henry Ford

Henry Ford himself called it a car for the great multitude. It was functional, and simple, like your sewing machine, or your cast-iron stove. You could learn to drive it in less than a day. And you could get any color you wanted, so long as it was black. When Ford first conceived the Model-T, it took thirteen hours to assemble. Within five years he was turning out a vehicle every ninety seconds.
                                                                                       -Seabiscuit (2003)

HSMaggie -Blogger extraordinaire

Wow. What a blog. I just reviewed hsmaggie's blog. It was amazing. We are supposed to review another student's blog in class and offer suggestions. I really can't say anything negative about her blog, it was great. The only suggestions I would have that could improve are things that I have heard but haven't implemented myself. Having occasional top ten lists, for blogs is supposed to be a good format because people like to see rankings and it also gives them a knowledge of how long a post is going to be.

Reflections II

This class has been very different. I have tremendously enjoyed some aspects and have been stretched in others. I love history and really enjoy the historical concepts we cover in class, although I have already covered many of the topics in previous classes. I also enjoy learning more about computer technology and how we arrived at where we are today and the possibilities the future hold. The difficult part has been consistently keeping a blog.


1. Historical Content; 2. Computing Concepts and Digital Culture; and 3. Self-Directed Learning.

The Mormon Way of Doing Business - Connect

This is book is a great read about the Latter-day Saint (LDS) presence in corporate America. I even had the opportunity to meet one of the people mentioned in the book, Rod Hawes, at the National Advisory Committee gathering at BYU last week.

Jeff Benedict, the author of The Mormon Way of Doing Business followed around and interviewed eight prominent LDS members to find out what they have in common and how being LDS affects their business lives.

Fusion vs Fission

What is the difference? Atomic bombs and H-bombs? Are they the same thing?

There are two options available when it comes to nuclear reactions, Fusion and Fission. Fusion is what takes place on the sun and has therefore been around as long as the sun. Fission was developed first in America under the name Manhattan Project during world war II. Scientists were able to divide elements with large nuclei into two elements with smaller elements.

Atomic Age

If you would like a quick glimpse into what the cold war was like watch the movie, Thirteen Days. It is about the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War and John F. Kennedy. The movie follows the literal thirteen days where America and the Soviet Union almost went to nuclear war.

Crowdsource = Samasource

Logo from samasource.org

I learned about Samasource through a friend that actually did a documentary on/for the company. Dusty Hulet, djembe extraordinaire, monster run enthusiast, social entrepreneur aficionado and budding documentary producer, teamed up with the Peery Institute and traveled to Calcutta India to film a 5 minute promotional video about Samasource here.

Bazari - Connect

Logo from Bazarimobile.com

Economies are constantly changing. From mercantilism to Adam Smith then John Maynard Keynes and Milton Freidman, we try to construct models to predict what drives an economy. What is the next iteration of the Economy going to be? Will it be a text economy?  There are some cell phone service providers in developing countries, (ie Africa, Central and South America) that are becoming banks to their customers in addition to a wireless service company.

Final Project - Digital Latter-day Saints

Have you ever googled yourself? If someone were to google your name and they had to base a judgment of who you are based only on what they find, would it be accurate? If you would have googled Rhett Ferrin two years ago, you would have seen a news paper article that mentioned me for wrestling in high school and a facebook profile. If you google me today, you will find a LinkedIn account with my previous work history and interests.

Economics...

Mercantilism (1400's - 1700's): A nation's wealth is how much gold it can accumulate for it's monarch. Positive balance of trade (imports > exports). Governments role is protectionist, encouraging exports and discouraging imports, this is enforced by the use of subsidies and tariffs. 

Turning Over a New Leaf...

New Goal: Blog Every Day!

Ever get behind in school? Well I do sometimes too. This blog post is me making a public commitment to do better. I would also like to outline a few things that I would call my 'keys to success'. It might sound weird to have a blog start by committing not to get any more behind in school, then continue with keys to success. You're probably thinking, 'If this guy is trying to dig himself out of a hole, why is he offering advice on how to succeed?"

Let me explain. First, this list is mostly for me to organize my thoughts in one place. Second, this is a list of how to be successful. When I follow them, I am successful. It's when I stop following them is when I get behind. So here we go, Rhett's Top Five List of how to be successful.

1. Go to bed early. This has been the single most important success factor for me at school. If I am drowsy in class my retention goes to almost zero. This doesn't mean sleep 8 hours it means go to bed before midnight. For some reason the amount of sleep you get before midnight is much higher quality. So if you want have a great day, start the night before. 
2. Wake up early. It is a weird thing but sometimes I can get more done in the six hours from 6:00 am - 12:00 am than I can during the rest of the day.
3. Use a planner. Franklin, freshman planner, palm pilot, google calendar, ical, iphone, whatever it is, use it! If I don't write something down it doesn't get done. I usually forget or schedule conflicting events. The best time to do this is the first week of the semester when you first get your syllabi for all your classes. Write down every assignment and major event.
4.  Prioritize and make goals. Now that you have all of your tasks for the day in your planner. Take ten minutes at the beginning of each day and write a number next to all the events assigning them relative importance. One through however many things you have to do for the day.
5. Read the Scriptures. There is power in reading the scriptures and showing God that you need his help and want to follow the will he has for you. When I read the scriptures, I find that my time is magnified and I am able to get all or at least most of what I wanted to get done for the day completed. 

I am going to use the skills to meet my new goal; blog at least one blog everyday for the rest of the semester.