HT/VT Reporting Website Overview

Discussions around miscellaneous technologies and projects for the general membership.
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WelchTC
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#221

Post by WelchTC »

Mr. M wrote:I apologize if I sound a little frustrated but, I see this type of thing happen in Bureaucratic environments where something very useful is pitched and pursued only to be shut down because of a "policy."
I appreciate your concern and even your frustration. We have so many projects on our plate right now that it just takes time to get new things reviewed.

Tom
The_Earl
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Bellweather

#222

Post by The_Earl »

I had a post that I debated somewhat on the lines of what Mr. M posted. I see this project as an indication of how this process works.

I understand that the church has a lot of process to get these things live.

My fear is that we will lose good people with great ideas if these projects disapear.

I have a few suggestions for a place to put these files:

1. Separate it from the existing LDS.ORG domain. It doesn't even need to be on LDS.ORG. Keep things on a separate network / vlan. You probably still want the machines in-house so you can protect them with your existing firewall / IDS / monitoring, but there is no reason for these projects to be able to talk to any church systems.

2. Only allow projects that use MLS export data and hand-entry. It sounds as though legal has determined that the MLS export data is what they are comfortable with people dragging around with them.

3. Make local admins / leadership responsible for the data. If local leaders and admins have some skin in the game, they should make educated decisions about what data to load and how security should work.

4. Allow limited testing for security. Probably the best way to verify security is to get a few people to beat on the app, and a few trusted people audit the code. These would not have to be church employees, but community members could give the app the once-over.

Let me know if there is anything I can help with to get this rolling. I can't stress enough the importance of keeping these projects moving if we want to keep this community working.
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WelchTC
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#223

Post by WelchTC »

Excellent suggestions. Thanks for the input.

Tom
The_Earl
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Suggetions 2

#224

Post by The_Earl »

I forgot one suggestion.

Do you have some dummy MLS data that we could use for testing? It would be nice to be able to test the apps without worrying about the data getting out.

Here, we craft data by corrupting existing datasets. Often we replace names with fictional characters, and mix records.

We might take:
Jeff Jones
DOB: 10/12/2002
SLC, UT

Mark Waters
DOB: 10/21/1888
SF CA

and end up with Mark Jones DOB 12/10/1888, SF, UT. and Cinderella DOB 10/21/1988, SLC, UT

That gets us data that is close to our original, but does not
leave the data recognizable.

Thanks
russellhltn
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#225

Post by russellhltn »

MLS had a practice ward and stake.

Unit #108 is the ward and Unit #2224445 is the stake. If you have access to MLS, simply create the new ward and/or stake and the fake data will appear.
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mkmurray
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#226

Post by mkmurray »

RussellHltn wrote:MLS had a practice ward and stake.

Unit #108 is the ward and Unit #2224445 is the stake. If you have access to MLS, simply create the new ward and/or stake and the fake data will appear.
So I assume the suggestion is that you could export the fake ward info from MLS and then upload that into the test website?
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brado426
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#227

Post by brado426 »

Test data can be helpful for certain things, but it only goes so far. Without feedback from an active group of users, it is extremely difficult to identify bugs and learn what works in real-life and what doesn't.

This app is kind of like a living organism. It exhibits different behaviors throughout the month. You can test all day long, but that won't guarantee you will find all the issues. For example, thousands of people need to access the system to report. This means just about every browser and security setting configuration within the browser needs to work. Also, the people using the system are of varying experience levels. What seems to be good for us tech-freaks may not work out so well for your standard EQ President or Visiting Teaching Coordinator.

The point that I am trying to get at is that I have found active testing to be absolutely critical for this project in particular.

Even more importantly, if no one is benefiting from actually using the system, my motivation level decreases to a critical level. :)

Brad O.
russellhltn
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#228

Post by russellhltn »

mkmurray wrote:So I assume the suggestion is that you could export the fake ward info from MLS and then upload that into the test website?
Correct. The information isn't as useful as real information. But it's a start. It saves time trying to manufacture information for first round of testing and at the same time tests the export process.

Wish I had a solution for the bigger issues here. My only hope is the church finds a way to allow for limited demonstration projects. I'm sure at some level the question is going to come up - "how much of a difference does it make? Is this just wiz-bang or does it really make a difference?" It would certainly be helpful for the church to answer those questions at low cost (and low risk).

Hopefully something can be worked out, so that with a review that reasonable precautions taken, it can be tried out without creating too much of a burden on the church's staff.

I have seen where the Church moves very slowly on these kinds of things - even slower then the staff expects. So all I can suggest at this time is patience. (And the quote that patience is the ability to hide your impatience. :D)
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daddy-o-p40
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#229

Post by daddy-o-p40 »

tomw wrote:I don't know. Please realize that I may never get the go ahead.

Not at the present time.

Please do not continue using the site.

Tom
Tomw-

Just so you know we have no issues complying with this. It is just unfortunate that the benefits this tool brought the familys which were visited will be lost.

I do have to report back to my leadership on this. So help me understand the logic here....if we are cannot continue using this site, which once again, only has public record info on it that is secured. They why does the church allow other less secure publicly accessible sites such as ymyw.org, scouting.org, and all the singles wards sites to continue to exist?

Shouldn't they be told to shutdown as well?
"What have I done for someone today?" Thomas Monson
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mkmurray
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#230

Post by mkmurray »

enriquer wrote:They why does the church allow other less secure publicly accessible sites such as ymyw.org, scouting.org, and all the singles wards sites to continue to exist?

Shouldn't they be told to shutdown as well?
I asked Tom the same question on [post=5243]this post[/post], but he probably didn't see the question. I am also interested in this response. Thanks.
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