Been thinking a bit about some of the statements made in that Future of Bible Software piece. Sometimes, a bro can be a bit far-reaching, and other times, I simply expect more out of us all than what’s probably realistic.

I mention this because I’m thinking about my primary mobile device (a Nokia N97 running the Symbian^1 operating system) and why I no longer have a Bible reader application on it. Part of the reason is becasue I’ve found it better in many of the gatherings that I attend to simply listen to what’s being said, using my mobile to note important points. Other times, I’m in a setting where the larger screen and UX of the iPad plays a better role for things.

I wonder though about going back to having something more than a link to preferred Biblical resources on my device. Something that isn’t a Bible reader, but does give me some of the benefits of a quick and targeted search. I don’t (necessarly) need to even bookmark the passage, but I do need to possibly copy it (or tweet it) so that I can recall it later.

And so, I thought some about the Biblia API project started by Logos, and how simply their releasing of this API releases them from an expectation of having to create an application [for me] – but it puts the onus on me to learn how to use that pipe for the kind of content experince that I desire. I’m in favor of such a move, because it is indirectly causing some aspects of the user-base of Bible applications to become fishers of content themselves, and creators of more personal solutions.

However, I’ve not started to crack open the book(s) on learning this API, nor how best it could be used in my kind of a scenario. In some passing conversations with Brett (MMM’s latest team member), his expressed desire to learn to develop for various platforms has rubbed off on me. I want to learn how to use that API, and do it in such a way that adds value to my Biblical needs, not just scratches an itch for information at my fingertips.

What I have been doing is planning my approach. For example, I know that I want something that’s not a native application – it needs to be a web runtime (WRT) widget. The widget would need to have two panels: the static one on my homescreen would just display an icon to the left and the Scripture references to the last two or three items I searched for (there’s no room for more than that). Clicking on the widget would take me to an expanded view where I see a listing of my latest searches (5-7 perhaps) and a search box at the bottom where I could put into it any measure of references, boolean operators, and phrases, which would then spit back to me on a similar screen the results of the search. Clicking on a search result would automatically add it to my “history,” open the browser to the biblia.com website to that reference, and on the widget there’d be a button at the bottom to go back to my search results screen. Because this is a widget, it wouldn’t need to save anything, so when I close it, the only things really saved are my history of the references I went to, not the search queries.

In my mind, on my mobile device, this is something that’s very possible. I don’t necessarly need an app anymore than I can develop one myself. The pipes are there, and I can do with the content what I can based on legal and ethical agreements.

It has me thinking hard about the future of applications as a whole, but also how we are motivated towards creating our own experiences or doors into searching and valuing the availability of Scriptural content. I can’t say that at this moment that I’ve moved forward past what I’ve said here, but I am thinking that something like this should happen nearer than in the future.