Have you ever wondered just exactly what happens after you submit feedback from any of the thousands of pages on LDS.org? Elder Jed Black, Church Service Missionary (CSM) with LDSTech explains the process.

 “The feedback goes to a central location and they look for keywords,” explained Black. “If the Feedback has the words calendar, directory, or lesson scheduler in it  they send me a notification of the feedback.” Why? Because he is the Knowledge Specialist for those three applications.

Elder Black reviews the information and responds in one of three ways:

1. User Education – many questions can be resolved by training the user to better interface with the application. This may be as simple as a return email or as involved as a training session at a ward or stake level.
2. Update Frequently Asked Questions – The centralized Feedback Group answers as many questions as possible prior to forwarding requests to Knowledge Specialists. To do this they utilize a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ database. The more complete the database the fewer questions actually funnel down to the Knowledge Specialists.
3. Identify Bugs – Because Knowledge Specialists are experts in their applications they can tell the difference between a user issue and a program defect and are capable of communicating with the development staff in a clear and concise manner. Knowledge Specialists are in a great position to beta test and recommend product improvements as well.

Elder Black works in Salt Lake but of the five Knowledge Specialist CSMs assigned to Gospel Library; two work in England,  one works in Colorado and two work in Salt Lake.

Although Elder Black had 38 years of programming with the UNISYS Corporation prior to his retirement, this level of expertise is not necessary to become a CSM Knowledge Specialist. One must be familiar with an identified application and comfortable communicating with both novice users and program developers. If this is you or if you are interested in possible part-time or full-time CSM opportunities contact: Elder Allen Bottorff or Sister Cheryl Bottorff at  (801) 842- 4771, or e-mail them at their email address   allenbottorff@ldschurch.org or cherylbottorff@ldschurch.org or fill out the LDSTech Missionary Form.    

     For those with language skills, interested in becoming Area Technology Specialists in countries outside of the U.S. (Korea, Dominican Republic, Central & South America, etc.) contact: Elder Gary and Sister Marilyn Peterson, call them at 801-240-7373 or email them at: gary.peterson@ldschurch.org or marilyn.peterson@ldschurch.org

Or you can check out the current CSM Opportunities on lds.org/callings/missionary/churchservice    or  servicemission.ldschurch.org/csm-public/home.jsf