Question Revisited
Last month, we asked a question of whether a common format for digital Bibles would be of an assistance to your ability to read, study, and share the Word. I'd like to revisit that question, but dive a bit deeper this time around.
How would having a common format for Bible electronic Bible study material enhance your time spent in the Word?
UPDATE: Apologies for missing on this one if you read it in your feed and it was all of a sudden gone. I changed the date and typed 07 instead of 08 and so this was shifted back a year. Whoops.
How would having a common format for Bible electronic Bible study material enhance your time spent in the Word?
UPDATE: Apologies for missing on this one if you read it in your feed and it was all of a sudden gone. I changed the date and typed 07 instead of 08 and so this was shifted back a year. Whoops.
posted by Antoine @ 1/02/2008 09:15:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I suspect you picked a bad time to post this question. ;-) Maybe you could bump the post to bring it to everybody's attention again, now that the holiday season is mostly past? :-)
As to my perspective... Well, it would help to know what is meant by "common" format.
There already are open, common formats. The main one that springs to my mind is the open format that Project Sword produces. Actually, I believe it makes its modules from other, also open formats.
The Sword Project, unfortunately, however, has had some problem getting commercial content providers on-board. The notable exception would be the publishers of the ESV Bible in English. I have noticed that, since then, the publishers of the NET Bible have made a limited version of their Bible available for Project Sword.
But, for anybody who wants so-called modern scholariship, the Sword Project is somewhat lacking--and not because you cannot create licensed content. Licensing is now built into the Sword Project modules, should someone wish (and there is something in German that is locked).
All of which brings me to the main intent of my post. The problem is not, IMO, the format, but the publishers and sofware producers. As long as the publishers seek exclusive licenses, and software publishers eagerly go along with this, there will be a problem. There have been open formats, and attempts at common formats, but publishers do not wish for this--they would rather you purchase their product multiple times, same as the music industry.
BTW, this is also one of the factors driving Bible translation and publishing today. One makes less money from a public domain Bible than from a copyrighted Bible. And the plethora of specialized editions also gives the publishers opportunities to multiply their sales. So, there is little incentive for them to simplify by moving to open standards of common formats. Put another way, as long as people are willing to eagerly throw their money at the publishers, they will not change.
However, for those who appreciate open standards, there is the Sword Project. I use modules from Project Sword on my Mac (MacSword), and in BibleTime, GnomeSword and my Palm. If I had Windows, I could use them all there, too. There are some unusual resources available on Project Sword, because they would not be financially feasible to the big boys in the industry. (non-English-language translations, etc.) I also use Accordance, and love it, but have limited it to its strongest points--Bible searching and original language helps, saving the rest for Project Sword, where I can get many of the older, public-domain resources for free.
So, I guess my answer to your question is "yes" and I have it in the Sword Project. ;-)
-Jon
Definitely be an enhancement.
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