SMS Messaging - (Another 3 letter search!)

Share discussions around the Classic Local Unit Website (LUWS).
Josiah-p40
New Member
Posts: 28
Joined: Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:42 am
Location: Rexburg, ID
Contact:

#11

Post by Josiah-p40 »

I've SMS'ed through a few Florida hurricanes, and I've been in the dark for a few too. You never know.

Other "daily" uses could be considered. Scriptures, for example, could be called by "hel 5.12" and Helaman 5:12 (one I thought alot about through those 'canes) would be received. Just use the abbreviations in the front of the quad for the book titles. Lots of variants to be considered. (Scripture Mastery, etc.) A game changing technology for Seminary scripture chases. :)

Enable the Meetinghouse Locator to SMS. Lots of variants here too. Zip code, current address (like your hotel, etc), city, or even ward name could be used to identify the closest chapel (or temple). In the case of address, after the reply has been sent, the SMS service should relay the user address and the chapel/temple address to Google's SMS service so that the user will then receive step-by-step driving directions to the chapel/temple from their current location.

Lots of uses for this. What more can you think of?
FullmerCB
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 59
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:26 am

Individual phone numbers (for mobile, etc) and email addresses in MLS

#12

Post by FullmerCB »

darren_hildreth wrote:I'm glad we bumped into this thread. We are located in Las Vegas. Several stakes in the area are deep in the middle of their emergency prep planning. They have been looking at pagers and other equipment. We have been working with them to implement and SMS/IVR/Email solution for them. The idea has been to use the MLS DB complete with access rights, etc. to integrate with our web and WAP solutions. We already use SMS and IVR for many marketing needs and have the capability to quickly implement campus alerts. It will be interesting to see how we integrate with the stakes here in town. I guess the question I have is, why is there no field in the MLS to specify mobile phone vs. home phone? would that be a possible addition?

For a quick solution for these stakes we will likely be implementing a manually updated database independent of the MLS. If the proof works with these stakes it wouldn't be hard to implement on a more broad scale.
---
Good discussion thread here. An FYI - personal phone # s & email addresses (in MLS) is under consideration at Church HQ now. Several new applications under development by Church HQ would be greatly enhanced by this functionality.
User avatar
opee
Member
Posts: 338
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:00 am
Location: Sunnyvale, CA

#13

Post by opee »

Chadf wrote:---
Good discussion thread here. An FYI - personal phone # s & email addresses (in MLS) is under consideration at Church HQ now. Several new applications under development by Church HQ would be greatly enhanced by this functionality.

Chadf, are you saying that MLS will soon allow separate phone numbers and email addresses for different members of a family?
rpyne
Member
Posts: 228
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:13 pm
Location: Provo, Utah, USA

#14

Post by rpyne »

opee wrote:Chadf, are you saying that MLS will soon allow separate phone numbers and email addresses for different members of a family?
I have been begging for this since the first release of MLS that was forced on us. The next step that is needed is to sync email addresses between MLS and the Ward and Stake web sites.
User avatar
opee
Member
Posts: 338
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:00 am
Location: Sunnyvale, CA

#15

Post by opee »

rpyne wrote:I have been begging for this since the first release of MLS that was forced on us. The next step that is needed is to sync email addresses between MLS and the Ward and Stake web sites.

Logically if MLS has the additional information for each family member, then the LUWS will also need to have it too, right?
User avatar
thedqs
Community Moderators
Posts: 1042
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:53 am
Location: Redmond, WA
Contact:

#16

Post by thedqs »

Not necessarily. For example MLS doesn't need a photo while the website can have one. It could be a web only thing and thus you lose those numbers when you move out of stake.
- David
User avatar
darren_hildreth-p40
New Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:33 pm
Location: Las Vegas
Contact:

#17

Post by darren_hildreth-p40 »

It's great that Church HQ is adding separate fields for the MLS. There are a handful of useful implementations for this.

Previously, we mentioned we were building a solution that employed SMS as well as a handful of other communication technologies that integrate into our communication core. We set it up with a rights and security model and allowed for grouping by unit level (i.e. wards, stakes, etc.). Several stakes have shown great interest in the power of mass communication to many functioning handsets using every messaging method available to standard mobile handsets.

One stake in particular has implemented our solution directly into their stake and ward plans. Last week we ran a stake wide test on the system and were very pleased with the results. We sent hundreds of messages with specific directions to the appropriate users and mobilized the stake leadership within minutes. Within a short period of time we had a member of the bishopric knock on the door (the bishoprics from each ward were on bicycle and foot because they were "warned" that the roads were unusable) to check in on the residents of the home (they didn't know we were the operators of the messaging system).

Members were able to report back using their messaging technology of choice (in an emergency, whichever is working) and we rolled up the responses into high-level reports for the stake president.

Technologies used in the proof of concept were SMS, SMTP, Mobile Web, Internet, Text to Speech, and IVR. As proved in the functional concept, if any mobile or internet technology is functional a user will have a method of communicating through our system.

Some notes of interest: we identified strengths in the stake's plan and noted some challenges as well. It was of significance that we were able to mobilize such an organized force within such a short period of time. It was interesting to monitor how long it took to account for all members within a ward and stake (particularly one of fairly close proximity). There are also specific technology enhancements we are working on for phase 2 to make the system more robust and even more reliable in the case cellular towers are unavailable. More to come…
Locked

Return to “Classic Ward & Stake Sites (LUWS)”