Bible Study/Sermon Prep Application Thought
I am sitting here thinking about my upcoming schedule of things to do and realize that it would be very nice to have a better Bible application (or web application that works offline) that would just facilitate leading and attending Bible studies or listening to sermons.
If you will, I don't need something that would be a Bible reader that then does notes. I am thinking more along the lines of a notepad application that automatically links to a Bible (on the device or not), in addition to other resources.
Something where I could create a document, and it would just be an HTML document. I could add tags to it (so that its easily searchable); and it would upload to places like Google Docs so that it can be shared with others. But then again, it wouldn't have to do that so much.
The idea of automatically linking to resources though is the fun part. For example, if I write a note, I want to be able to highlight either the verse notation written, or a keyword, and then be able to select what resource that it should be pointing to. That resource would basically be the search page for that Bible/commentary/lexicon/Wikipedia/etc. website and instantly give some depth to my notes. Imagine even linking to a city and having Google Maps, or whomever is doing a Google Maps-like ancient Bible maps mash up, link to it automatically.
I think something like this would be ideal as a web application because it is something that I would want for a mobile device (most likely my N800 Internet Tablet, but also my mobile phone). The ideal thing would be for this to work offline without having to be connected first (an issue with many web applications). But I could see something like this coming in just as much, if not more in handy than having a Bible reader, and then asking for the other features to be plugged into it.
Side note: If someone is willing to build this kind of an application, either a web app or something for a dedicated mobile device; I would be glad to help test (sorry, not a app developer) and when it is done promote the application here at MMM.
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Labels: Bible, mobiles, sermon, software, study, tech, web application
posted by Antoine @ 5/11/2008 10:00:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I've been wanting to see something like this for a long time.
My plan was simpler... be able to simple have a list that contains text (like titles, topics, descriptions, points, stories, etc), scripture references with inline text, and pictures or web links.
It could all be filtered, so for example, you could reduce it to a shorter cheat sheet of topics and scripture references, and main points for each scripture.
There is a web service API for developers here... http://www.ebible.com/toolkit/developers, and if used in conjunction with one of the newer Google Gears like technologies, you could certainly imagine preparation being done online, but then the critical time of sermon delivery being possible offline.
I think this sort of thing is above my capacity in terms of skills and time at the moment, but it remains a desire if no one else ever does it. Even the most simple version that allows me to basically include a few simple notes and scriptures and scripture text would be nice.
The other similar project I'd like to see is something for handhelds that allows you to take notes during a sermon easily, including easily created reference links to scriptures, typed text, and handwritten notes on touchscreen devices.
I'm sure it's just a matter of time, but I'm surprised that these things aren't available already.
Well Bob, I don't know if its something that's a matter of time away. The idea is probably not a fresh one, but just an aspect of thinking about how people use software instead of how we think that they use it. People take notes, making those notes link to other information and media easily would make sense to me as a suitable application for anyone to have on a mobile device.
But like I said in the post, if someone really wants to take a crack at developing something like this, the opportunity is there for the taking.
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