Reminder
Now broadcasting live and direct from the Sharon Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses at 2885 Hann Hill Rd, Hermitage, Pennsylvania USA
To watch, click the video below - then click the link to the page on youtube to watch
darkspilver
JoinedPosts by darkspilver
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Livestream! Memorial Service for JW George Kraynak - Sat 1 Oct 2016
by darkspilver inthis coming saturday!.
memorial service for jehovah's witness george kraynak.
being broadcast worldwide as a livestream direct from the sharon kingdom hall of jehovah's witnesses at 2885 hann hill rd, hermitage, pennsylvania usa.
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darkspilver
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JW's use of technology
by darkspilver inthe following link is in spanish - but imho is interesting enough to read via google translate - some interesting facts and figures are included too.. http://tecno.americaeconomia.com/articulos/upgrade-tecnologico-la-religion-asi-lo-hacen-los-testigos-de-jehova.
fyi the article references the following webpage: http://www.pangeanic.com/knowledge_center/which-is-the-most-translated-website-in-the-world/ .
upgrade technology to religion: so do jehovah's witnesses.
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darkspilver
The following link is in Spanish - but IMHO is interesting enough to read via google translate - some interesting facts and figures are included too.
FYI the article references the following webpage: http://www.pangeanic.com/knowledge_center/which-is-the-most-translated-website-in-the-world/
Upgrade technology to religion: so do Jehovah's Witnesses
By AETecno on the Internet September 30, 2016
The impact of technological and digital revolution has even religion. Discover how this organization has successfully implemented some solutions.
Usually, when we talk about religion, we tend to associate it almost untouchable buildings or large to very large and old books, yellowed leaves and in many cases even worn. If we add the overview of ceremonies, we associate it with cults, in most cases voices with economic or permanent silence with rebukes to any kind of interruption or distraction by listeners and participants. Do you get the phone or tablet during the ceremony? Impossible!
However, this paradigm seems to be changing. About to turn 73, Leda Santa Cruz Figueroa, who is a Jehovah's Witness and lives in Santiago de Chile, is a permanent user of the tablet in their religious gatherings. While I had some basic knowledge through a computer he inherited seven years ago when he bought a tablet, it had to learn from scratch operation.
Leda tells us reading the Bible for 47 years, so one of the things that motivated her to use the JW Library application (developed by Jehovah's Witnesses) was that he could now do so in large print, adjusting the font size his sight. In addition, highly values when a biblical quote in a magazine or book appears, the touch above it, looks what the text specifically says. As recounted Leda, he loved the technology as also lets you communicate with friends and family and watch the videos that transmits the Broadcasting program of the organization.
Therefore, as we have continually talked about the impact of technology and digitization in various industries such as health, transport, education, finance and retail, to name a few, today we have a sample case of religion. We'll talk specifically about Jehovah's Witnesses.
Independent of worship and the particular beliefs of each religion, we refer you to review the aspects that make this organization an impressive example of the scope that technology offers us today.
MAIN TOOLS
As we describe the beginning of the article with common practices of religion, the contrast with what we see today is remarkable. Jehovah's Witnesses around the world (about 8.2 million people) usually use at all its meetings (twice a week) mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones to keep the content of their teaching: reading the Bible, magazines, and other publications of interest to videos.
How do they do that? Thanks to a series of applications and web sites developed by the organization to upload and then download all content. Then we go over some:
Jw.org
This is the official website of the organization. Has he ever visited or heard? It would not be surprising, since we are talking about the most translated website in the world, by far. Although many might think on sites like Google, Wikipedia, Coca Cola, McDonalds or even the UN itself, none of these approaches the number of languages in which the site is available jw.org.
According Pangeanic, one of the leading providers of translation services, Wikipedia, a community effort around the world, is the most widely about 287 languages. The first commercial site is Apple, translated into over 130 languages. While the website of the Vatican and the European Union are translated into 10 languages and 24, respectively. Meanwhile, at the end of this note (the figure is constantly updated), the website of Jehovah's Witnesses is translated in whole or in part in 861 languages, including many originating and sign languages.
In 2013, the daily visits to the site accumulated from more than 230 countries, reached 900,000. While in July 2016, jw.org recorded more than 2.2 million daily visits, approaching 2 million unique users per day, and specifying a total of more than 253,300,000 downloads in the month.
Another major aspect of this site is the ability to download content: videos, books, magazines, pamphlets, audio, etc. That is reflected in the figures, because during the seventh month of this year there were more than 8.1 million downloads (in 2013 were only 1.5 million). All this organized in more than 600,000 web pages within the same site.
Application JW Library
JW Library is the official implementation of Jehovah's Witnesses. It includes a translation of the Bible as well as books and brochures to study it thoroughly. It is available in the App Store, Google Play and Windows Store, among others. The app has over 13 million downloads and is the main tool for members of the organization can follow the meetings and the weekly program including the same, in addition to all publications, including the Bible, used. Children, youth, adults and seniors use it interchangeably in their Kingdom Halls, places where they gather.
JW Language
JW Language is an application produced by Jehovah's Witnesses to help those who are learning a language, to acquire more vocabulary and improve their communication skills in preaching and in meetings of the congregation. It allows you to choose one of 22 languages as their mother tongue and another as the language to learn. Although, like all other applications and tools, is public and open, JW Language is primarily intended for Christian ministers who strive to preach in another language. So far recorded more than 1 million downloads.
JW Broadcasting
JW Broadcasting is a television channel that offers Internet focused on strengthening the faith of the whole family programming. The content is produced in the study of JW Broadcasting and videos from the main site. programs are broadcast 24 hours a day, according to a set schedule and demand. You can see channels like Recommended, Movies, Children, Youth and spiritual programs.
JW Library Sign Language
This application download, organize and play videos on its official site in sign language. You can see, for example, the Bible and other publications adapted for sign language. Recorded so far more than 500,000 downloads.
A DECISION TECHNOLOGY?
For more details the work and the reasons behind this huge deployment, we conversed in Brooklyn, New York with Salvador Fernandez, deputy director of jw.org site, who explained the motivations that had to develop a page of this magnitude. And even with such figures, it seems that we were talking about a site with years and years of existence, it all started not long ago.
"About four years ago we began consolidating our content jw.org and as you know, tablets and smartphones have no more than seven or eight years. As were becoming more popular, we started to notice that our content could be seen on those devices and that was when we launched these services, "says Fernández.
Was it a difficult decision to make, considering the stigmata or traditions that generally have religions? The manager tells us: "As we have a well defined goal is to help people to using the Bible to know God better and improve their quality of life, what happens in our case we use technology as a new form of distribute our content. So rather than it is something we are changing, we are using the new media that are made available to meet our goal. "
Salvador Fernández explains that, since the goal of the organization is not the technology itself but only a means, "not hard to adopt when you have very well defined the mission of your organization and how you will help fulfill the purpose What do you have". A principle which undoubtedly can be applicable to any company or enterprise that has been in the same controversy regarding the technology.
In fact, Fernandez makes a parallel with what happened centuries ago when the Bible was not available to everyone and there was overcrowding of copies: "If more people wanted to read the Bible, you had to print it on paper; if now we want more people to know about it, we make our material available for mobile devices. "
Fernandez stressed that what they do is not a commercial work, therefore are not interested in charging people for access to the site nor to receive advertising revenue (can you imagine how much money could get a website that records million visits up to date?). Everything is financed by donations and with the help of volunteers, professionals who make up a full team of programmers, analysts, designers, architects and developers, among others.
But beyond the money, how it builds a site with such levels of performance and demands?
SUPPORT AND SCOPE
So far it is clear the widespread use of cloud and mobility. But among the other resources used to support and administer the site, Fernández account the importance of the new services offered by cloud providers.
In that vein, adding that in the future will expand the use of mobile and cloud world, but especially the microservices, which allows them to reuse your own code and increase interactions between applications, APIs that allow them to consume services between their own products. Another practice that facilitates the maintenance of a site of such dimensions is the concept of serverless. Fernandez explains that so no need to keep your servers, which simplifies, optimizes and even allows for scaling online when demand increases, for the own cloud provider automatically adds more services, without you configure it or worry .
But how much traffic must support the site? From the Office of Public Affairs of the organization they tell us that last week of September 19, traffic for the entire site jw.org was 44.4 TB. That is, 6.3 TB daily.
The deputy director of the website summarizes the logic behind this work: "What is happening is that if the cloud is the most efficient, we use the cloud; if mobile is something that people now have and can facilitate our content on their devices, then we do ".
For Leda Santa Cruz this has been fantastic and, in fact, tells an experience that lived some time ago when none of this was popular, and marks the paradigm shift that we speak. It was when he invited a young man to one of their meetings. It turned out that during the speech that was given, the boy took out his cell phone and was at all times with him, which caught the attention of some present, they thought he was distracted, playing. Even she was surprised when she realized that what was actually doing was searching the biblical texts quoted the speaker.
"One of the virtues of the website is that it is very easy to use. So when an adult begins to see that instead of bringing a Bible, plus a magazine, plus a book that is heavy, you can see all that in a device, it is not surprising that when you go to see a congregation elder who already have a tablet or a cheap phone that allows them to view content and lower the app we offer, "concludes Fernández. -
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Contrast in styles - JW cart zombies vs. street preacher
by sir82 ini work in a mid-sized us city somewhere east of the mississippi.
right in the exact center of the downtown area, at the intersection of the 2 primary streets, there is an interesting contrast of proselytizing styles.. on one corner of the intersection, a young guy has a handful of tracts from some "xyz ministry" or some such.
he belts out in a booming voice, every 3 or 4 minutes or so, "i have good news!
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darkspilver
Haha! See this motley collection from a couple of weeks ago..... in San Francisco
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5705061902581760/carts-market-street-san-francisco
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Speaker and Interpreter Ratings
by wifibandit inseptember 27, 2016 to all bodies of elders re: recommending convention speakers and interpreters.
september 28, 2016 to all bodies of elders having bethel brothers in their congregation re: convention speaker ratings for bethel brothers.
s-315-e 9/16 speaker and interpreter ratings.
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darkspilver
Hi tiki!
Then why so many dismal speakers over the years?
Yeah, I've flagged this up myself, why?
I suspect it's due to the ever decreasing pool of capable brothers due to a massive increase in the number of Conventions now taking place. I don't know all the ins and outs of how WT chooses speakers, but consider this:
For a Circuit Assembly there are about a dozen items each time requiring a brother/speaker - about three or four of those are filled by the
CO or an assigned visiting speaker - leaving say just 9 brothers needed out of a circuit of 2,000 publishers (if for purposes of the Circuit Assembly, the Circuit is split over two days, it was normally common practise for the same brother to give the same talk at both)
That's relatively easy to select resonable/good speakers - even if you seem to end up with the same ones often being used each time
BUT now think of the District Convention.... the 2016 had around 46 items needing a brother/speaker - in olden days, with larger Conventions of say 10,000 to 15,000 and around 6 or so circuits - that was relatively easy.....
BUT now, with the move is to have smaller Conventions, sometimes even just one circuit in size (!) - haha! well now try to get 46 good speakers from just one circuit!! even allowing for a handful of visiting brothers from outside the circuit.....
And, from comments I've heard, the video of the USA 2016 Convention proves the above.
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Announcement from SPAIN: On Monday, the 26th online in the a.m. in the online edition of www.elperiodico.es...
by AndersonsInfo inannouncement from spain:.
on monday 26th septriembre, www.elperiodico.es published in its online edition the first publicly reported case of child abuse and harassment in spain watchtower, digital edition monday, tuesday print edition.
please maximum dissemination of the link, it will be online early in the morning of monday 26, in the online edition.
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darkspilver
Interesting, as you know - and have thanked me for - I've taken the time to proactively upload the articles etc to this thread for all to read.
I appreciate that you are no doubt busy - well so am I! - therefore I'm sorry, but i'm gonna have to just refer you back to my posting in this thread from three days ago:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5088277520449536/_post/5972852660502528
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2017 Special Conventions
by wifibandit inseptember 22, 2016 to all congregation service committees in the united states branch territory re: 2017 special conventions.
2017 special convention application.
instructions for entering special convention groups and applications.
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darkspilver
HI ttdtt!
Is this what they used to call International Conventions?
Yes. It also appears that WT is doing a rolling programme of these Special Conventions each year.
The current series are listed at www.jw2016.org
It is understood that WT have also registered/own the following
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/481980004/proof-that-armageddon-will-come-2020-2021
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The status on the child abuse inquiry in ENGLAND
by Sliced inlooks like we lost ben emmerson for the england inquiries.
does anyone have an update on what's happening in the uk?
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darkspilver
Personally, I think it's more basic - it's seems to be a problem with the lack of calibre of people running the public inquiry.
Yes, admittedly those in the 'front-line' of public service - such as MPs etc - are not really paid a lot
It's the people behind them - the 'second-line' of public service where the money is paid - and that's what we're seeing with this Inquiry
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11319918
9,000 in public sector get more pay than prime minister. More than 38,000 public employees earning above £100,000 and 1,000 people on more than £200,000.And what do we get for that money? And what would happen in the private sector??!?
Look at America - love him or hate him - I think that's also one of the reasons why somebody like Trump appeals to the electorate - he's not a 'career-public servant' - agree or disagree with how good he is/was in private business - the appeal is that he has actually been in business, and not a life long career based public service politician.
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Campaign to invite people to meetings
by StarTrekAngel injust found out last night that our congo is starting a campaign to invite interested people to meetings.
the instructions for the campaign clear out that "interested" people are not just those whom we visit often or have bible studies with.
it includes and random stranger we may talk to and who may show a hint of interest on the religion.
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darkspilver
Hey blondie!
Growing up the WTS had the congregations print a small slip with the meetings times, days, locations that could be given to everyone that was contacted at the door, informal witnessing, not at homes, etc.
We were encouraged to give them to everyone with the delusion that many people would come to the meetings...in the 45 years I went maybe one person a month showed up because a random slip given out.
haha! in olden days the WT would also print individual congregation handbills with a list of dates and talk titles for that specific congregation a month at a time. (Ah the joys of the small job press!)
Hence, the following statements in various KMs:
Kingdom Ministry December 1973, page 3
Do You Leave a Handbill?
... In addition to handbills that advertise the public lecture program of the congregation for several weeks, there are those that give general information on the times of meetings and the location of the Kingdom Hall ...
Kingdom Ministry August 1967, page 4
Leave Something with Everyone
... The publisher then kindly offered him a handbill for the talk to be given that week ...
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The status on the child abuse inquiry in ENGLAND
by Sliced inlooks like we lost ben emmerson for the england inquiries.
does anyone have an update on what's happening in the uk?
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darkspilver
I posted yesterday's front page news here:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5371090608062464/_post/5668434236932096
Today's front page? (with full double page spread inside)
Abuse inquiry in doubt after lawyer quits
Abuse inquiry in doubt after lawyer quits
The most senior barrister at the national child abuse inquiry quit last night, putting the future of the £100 million investigation in doubt.
Ben Emmerson, QC, had been suspended on Wednesday night amid concerns about his leadership. Yesterday it emerged that his deputy on the legal team had resigned days earlier.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/abuse-inquiry-in-doubt-after-lawyer-quits-962q3csbk
Janner family’s challenge could bring sex abuse inquiry to a halt
The first public sessions of the national child abuse inquiry could be scrapped in response to a new legal challenge.
The family of Lord Janner of Braunstone, the Labour peer who died last year, told The Times yesterday that they had instructed lawyers to seek a judicial review of the decision by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) to hold public hearings into the allegations against him.
Rising costs threaten to push final bill well above £100m
The cost of the child abuse public inquiry could soar above the predicted £100 million, Whitehall sources have told The Times.
Officials are understood to have proposed significant increases to the annual budget, which could lead to costs doubling as the inquiry moves from a formative period into conducting evidence sessions in a number of modules of its ambitious work programme.
Victims lose faith in an investigation ‘run by Whitehall’
At 6.27pm on Wednesday, after a day of fending off questions about the future of Ben Emmerson, QC, its leading counsel, officials at the independent public inquiry into child abuse stated that they would not be making any further comment.
Difficult negotiations on the terms of Mr Emmerson’s agreed departure had stalled and the lawyers and officials involved had decided to call it a day.
Ninety-six minutes later the inquiry announced that it had suspended him because of serious concerns about his leadership of the legal team and that there would be a full investigation.
There was no explanation of what had happened in the hour and a half between having nothing to say and taking the dramatic decision to suspend one of Britain’s most senior and respected barristers.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/victims-lose-faith-in-an-investigation-run-by-whitehall-h65dcrzqk
New child sex abuse inquiry crisis as two lawyers announce their resignations in one day
The future of the national child sex abuse inquiry was plunged deeper into crisis on Thursday night after the two most senior lawyers in charge announced their resignations.
Ben Emmerson QC, the counsel to the inquiry, quit at 10pm last night, a little over 24 hours after being suspended from the role.
Mr Emmerson’s deputy Elizabeth Prochaska, the inquiry’s junior counsel, announced she had also stood down although it was claimed her decision was not linked to recent events.
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Livestream! Memorial Service for JW George Kraynak - Sat 1 Oct 2016
by darkspilver inthis coming saturday!.
memorial service for jehovah's witness george kraynak.
being broadcast worldwide as a livestream direct from the sharon kingdom hall of jehovah's witnesses at 2885 hann hill rd, hermitage, pennsylvania usa.
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darkspilver
This coming Saturday!
Memorial service for Jehovah's Witness George Kraynak
Being broadcast worldwide as a livestream direct from the Sharon Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses at 2885 Hann Hill Rd, Hermitage, Pennsylvania USA
Saturday 1 October 2016 at 3.00pm local time (EDT Pennsylvania)
NOTE: live broadcast due to start 45 minutes before service (ie 2.15pm local time)
Check for your time zone with the following link:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Webcast&iso=20161001T15&p1=418
http://obituaries.sharonherald.com/story/george-kraynak-1926-2016-832689241
