Last week, we were contacted by Aaron Frey, who has begin a Kickstarter project called PearlVault asking to help get the word out about this project. We’ve not talked about some of the struggles with notes and electronic Bibles in a long time (something from 2008, and another something from 2006), and so getting this note about PearlVault reopens that conversation alongside the other collaborative features many have asked for in the Bible software domain.
About PearlVault
From the Kickstarter page:
…This project will create a web portal where you can take your Bible study notes so that they are searchable, taggable and indexed according to Bible references. It will also allow you to attach notes to words from a particular Bible translation–or even words from the original Greek or Hebrew. It will be optimized for the easy discovery of past notes whenever you study that same passage/word/topic again. It will also be optimized for use on mobile devices so that, even when you are away from your desktop, you are never away from your Bible notes. And PearlVault, should this project succeed, will be available for the rest of your life, independent of whatever study environment you use otherwise.
Essentially, your Bible reader of choice will utilize PearlVault as the syncing-linchpin for your notes content between Bible apps. Not a bad idea, and definitely down the road towards how we’ve supported similar-featured projects in the past in regards to being able to have more liberty with the content you create or own.
[Click here if unable to see the video embedded above]
The Challenge for PearlVault
The challenge for PearlVault is getting enough buy-in and interest from Bible publishers and software companies to support this effort. Hence, the Kickstarter project. Your notes would be stored outside of the application, so that in the case you’d decide to move to another Bible software suite, that you’d not lose the content you’ve already created. As it stands right now, of the Bible software programs which have a notes functionality, many times this is a feature within the application and you usually need an additional piece of software (or in some cases a full PC) to take the notes from the application and put it into a more generic format.
The other challenge actually comes from the users of Bible software. Much like with versions of the Bible, software can become an issue of comfort and attachment. And unless circumstances dictate otherwise, many people will stick with the same Bible software family for many years. Now, when they do change, there’s some general flow towards how they evolve with Bible software:
- Many start with a free, gifted, or low-cost package; as they become more skilled in using the software, they may opt for the paid content or a paid Bible app with a similar user interface (UI);
- Some start with a recommendation of personable apps such as Olive Tree, Pocket Bible, YouVersion, Logos, etc.; sometimes with the encouragement to try a few of these before settling on one; in the meantime, notes and other content is being generated that won’t transfer to the app they settle to
- The last step forks one of two ways: either the person is such the student of the text (w/pastorial responsibility) that Logos and their deep library is the only option, or they are a mild-academic in terms of the text, looking to some of the lighter Logos packages, or the wares of Olive Tree, Accordance, or eSword (depending on content needs); the latter group is likely to use more than one Bible software package
Having said this, the challenge is actually quite apparent. Even if a person moves up and through several leagues of Bible software, they will have some (not major) difficulity in keeping their notes attached (programatically) to the text. Now, do know that we are talking about a specific set of Bible software users here, its not the normal course for non-pastor/teacher types to go through several iterations of software – folks just aren’t that patient. Those who are, and who have a genuine joy for searching the Scriptures so that this issue of notes between apps comes into play, just have different needs that’s not been met as of yet which PearlVault seeks to do.
More Information, Supporting PearlVault
PearlVault is using Kickstarter in order to raise the funds needed to support the building and maintaining of the service which will be hosting these linked notes. It is also in place to log the interest of people for such functionality. By placing your donation into the project, you help Frey’s discussion with Bible publishers and software developers who sometimes don’t want to look outside of their products, but do know that the user at times will.
Some additional information about PearVault and Aaron Frey’s motivations for the project have been detailed in an interview over at Christiandroid. Definitely check that out as it goes into a bit more than the Kickstarter page towards the project’s vision and aims.
And finally, support Aaron. Having been on the side of trying to just make Bibles available between platforms, I admire and affirm Aaron Frey’s project and what it aims to do for everyone who gets value out of storing, rereading, and sharing Biblical notes.
One of the kinks that you tend to run into when you have a Sunday schedule like ours (i.e., visiting many churches/fellowships per month), is that of the holiday season. You have some groups which do a great job of trying to center their communities on the “holy” part of the holidays. Then, you have others who seem like they are doing everything they can to get rid of that materialistic mentality all-to-common for this time of year. IMO, if every church simply observed Advent, that might not be so hard to do.
Always nice to see others putting together various experiments and implementations of edge-case technologies. This one, from the folks at Church Mag is taking the idea of QR Codes, and mapping some interactive and sharing elements to it. Here’s a snippet of the experiment:
Goodbye Analog, Hello Digital
Sunday, May 20th, 2012This article was originally posted as a blog post at Urban Scholar:
Earlier today I was contemplating the thought of purchasing a new print Bible. One of the first posts I made on this site was about my switching to the ESV. Well, the only print ESV I own is a 2001 text edition, and there have been a number of changes since then with the 2007 & now 2011 update. So, I started to think that I should purchase a new ESV to have on me, especially for when the opportunity presents itself to teach again. I thought about it to the point that I even tweeted about the kind of Bible I wanted, saying the following:
As the day went on, with the thought still on my mind, I wondered if the local Lifeway store had any 2011 ESV Bibles in stock. Then, as I thought about it some more, I was thinking, “Oh, I need a nice ‘preaching’ Bible too, to go with the thinline as my everyday ‘handy’ Bible!” After a while, I finally paused and asked myself a question. If I do all of my studying of the Bible digitally, why should I have a Bible that I only use for teaching? Shouldn’t the same Bible I study with be the same Bible I teach from? The answer was: why not?!
As I thought through this some more, I wondered what this would look like for me. Preaching from a tablet is nothing new and has become more popular in the last couple of years, so it’s not like I’d be breaking new ground or anything; yet, there could be something that better suits how I do things. In my thought process, I quickly realized that the way I teach requires lots of “page flipping” because I typically cross reference a lot of Scriptures. How could I leverage a tablet to my advantage? Right now Logos is my primary tool for study, but their mobile app doesn’t support a split screen of Bible & notes; so, that wouldn’t work. Then, I remembered that I have Olive Tree, which does & can also sync with Evernote. Having Evernote means that I can simply copy/paste or dump my passages or notes into an Evernote note and sync it with Olive Tree quite easily. Then, I can have my notes split with my Bible, and tap to open a reference. Now that could work! That would completely eliminate the need for a print Bible & printed notes.
So, let’s take this further because now I’m thinking about completely getting rid of my laptop from the pulpit. This proves tricky because that’s how I run my PowerPoint slideshow for the congregation to follow along. If you’re asking, yes, I usually run my own PowerPoint. Then I started thinking that this is somewhere that Logos could come back into play. They recently released Proclaim Church Presentation Software and it is built for this kind of thing. So, I just get a computer, any computer, connected to the overhead projector (whether it be my own or the one in the sound booth) and load it up; then, I can use my phone (or the tablet) as a remote to progress the slides as needed. Now that would be cool!
I could really see myself teaching in that fashion, and it’s right up my alley. I’m a digital guy, so working in this fashion keeps all of my notes accessible to me from multiple devices and I’m not in a jam if I ever forget or lose my print Bible. Plus, there’s always the freedom of being able to switch translations on the fly, which is nice. I also feel that technology is at a point now that it is fairly reliable, especially in terms of battery life, where no real red flags are raised for me anymore. I truly think that this is the route that I’m going to go in the future, however the Lord sees fit for that to happen.
Tags: Bible, Bible apps, Bible study, digital, ESV, Evernote, logos bible software, mobile in moment, mobile in personal/moment, Olive Tree, preaching, proclaim, technology
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