I’m glad the Church is getting on the band wagon.

My daily feed for world progress in Web Apps is Wired News’s Blog, “Monkey Bites,” and I must say, the outflow of web innovation from different corners of the world is just astounding.

I remember thinking to myself, “When is technology going to catch up with what seems already possible?” I had/still have this vision in my head of what is possible with the Internet, and I can still imagine an awful lot that just isn’t there. It’s like watching the advent of radio, but having a vision for television before television came along.

For example, browsers seem so clunky. Google (that wonderful beast) seems to have a piece of the vision right. Leave awful cross-platform problems behind (CSS, JavaScript, DHTML). Now it’s all AJAX, with the idea of all-inclusive or at least intensive APIs. So we see the bright and shining rise of “Web 2.0,” where code becomes easier to implement, and design and usability becomes the emphasis. It’s the ever-expanding universe of the web application.

Still, I can’t help and wonder when Web 3.0 will come along, and the browser is done away. For more than a little while, Google pundits have been speculating not just over a potential Google browser, but a web-based operating system (OS) that could house all of Google’s Web 2.0 applications. It certainly seems like a logical move for Google if they wish to stay competitive. (Microsoft is already making such moves, albeit, in their own twisted way.

Why talk about Google so much? Because they are the standard for online innovation. They essentially singlehandedly popularized the AJAX movement, even though the term was coined elsewhere. They pushed asynchronous, dynamic web content into the forefront with apps such as Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Docs (previously owned by Writely). Accordingly, others followed suit. Now (as witnessed on Wired’s blog) so many innovations are happening daily that we really can’t keep up.

Enter the Church. And I say, it’s about time. Yet I’m really grateful. I suspect that, in time, John Taylor’s famous prophecy will come true, and this with regards to the Church’s efforts in technology:

You mark my words, and write them down and see if they do not come to pass.

You will see the day that Zion will be far ahead of the outside world in everything pertaining to learning of every kind as we are today in regard to religious matters.

God expects Zion to become the praise and glory of the whole earth, so that kings hearing of her fame will come and gaze upon her glory…” (Sermon, September 20, 1857; see The Messenger, July 1953.)

But I don’t see the Church here yet. Yet it seems within grasp.

Why should technology represent this kind of appointed prophetic aptitude? It’s just that the Internet has caught the imagination of the world, and I personally find it delightful to think of the possibilities with the Church in connection with the Internet.

Can anyone imagine the kinds of ministry possibilities? I for one once caught vision of it, but then became very grounded…er…skeptical? But delusions of grandeur still seep in every now and then, as evidenced by this (lengthy) post.

Thanks! The correction has been made.