Posts Tagged ‘software’

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Proposal: A Bible App That Starts from the Commentary Out

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Last night, I attended a Bible study where the pastor/teacher had his congregation study the text beforehand, and then come to the study being able to respond with cross-referenced verses to the primary passage. Really excellent seeing the engagement of the entire community to study the text and be able to respond intelligently to some of the questions.

However, there was some issue with cross-referencing while respecting cultural or literal context with some of the additional Scriptures. And while that’s certainly something worth finding out if it is something addressed for that kind of study, it got me thinking about the structure of Bible applications and how switching the primary interaction.

Since the dawn of digital Bibles, the emphasis has been on reading and seeking. We have a library of Bibles and commentaries, but the start of anything that we do is with the text. This works out for many types of interactions, as in many cases, the place of a mobile device is usually within a context where you are looking up a passage or a bookmarked entry.

But, what if we turned that model around a bit. What if the Bible application only stored our notes, dictionaries, and commentaries? What if that same application was intelligent enough to stitch our notes and the Scripture references that we used to online Bible services such as a YouVersion or Biblia? And it would also be able to – by a metadata driven index – be able to link our notes to similar phrases and indices within those dictionaries and commentaries? What would that do for a study like the one that I described able, where the point is to make the connections within Scripture to common concepts, while forcing the reader to literally meditate on the Scripture to know that those threads exist?

Example and Description

Proverbs 28:9
- Note(s): is the position of your life and heart in right relation to God and His instructions
- (XR) Isaiah 1:15 (hands full of blood) – JH Commentary, MH Commentary – 50% Relevant to Source Scripture (History of Isaiah book, book #2…)
- (XR) John 9:31 (God doesn’t hear sinners) – MH Commentary, JMA Commentary – debatable relevance because of context of the speaker and the lesson that was being taught
- Search for more (XR)

So, here we have a person that’s got a source piece of text, and a note attached to it. The note is scanned for all possible search matches (word, phrase, etc.) and the next button asks if the user wants to search all available library material (local and connected dictionaries, commentaries, Wikipedia, etc.) for cross-references (XR). After the search is completed, the user taps on the verse and gets what was cross-referenced (the word or phrase) and those associated resources which speak more on that specific XR. It then gives a percentage of the relevance of that XR to the note and primary Scripture based on some algorithm that weighs the primary Scripture, then the associated resource, then the user’s note content.

Thinking about it like this, the person is essentially having a near-real-time query of every statement they make in their notes run up against all available materials, without storing the Biblical text itself on the device. Ideally, one would use a API call in this app to link the Scripture to whatever Bible of choice the user wants – but this app keeps the focus on the notes and the ability of the user to constantly make connections which have higher relevance ratings.

Potential Benefits
There are several good things which would then come from this: we’d have people who become used to search as a means to relate applicable concepts to literal Scripture and already existing commentary (filling a gap where education might not be attainable); we’d have people who are made more aware (or at least more quickly aware) of their inconsistencies in reading or understanding Scripture against already established memes; it will expose people to the wealth of content that folks like Logos have turned digital in an amazing amount of time; and it would further push this idea of getting content in the open where publishers can better see who digests it, possibly making for them another means to make good where print/legacy study interactions might be failing because of the switch to digital content streams.

I will admit, this is about as rough as ideas get here; but something that would be worth exploring by a developer/publisher who is looking to sow some kind of application into the digital ether, but wants to do something that’s not as “me-too” as the hundreds of Bible apps and reading plans already available.

Your Comments
So let’s hear from you. If you are a pastor/teacher, would this kind of application be a help to you personally or for a Bible study such as what’s described above? If you are a developer, what are some of the good points of this idea? What are some of the issues you can see? Is anything in this idea impossible, or improbable? Let’s discuss :)

 

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Posted in Devices and Software | 3 Comments »

The Future of Bible Software

Friday, August 20th, 2010
2010 Future Trends Series: Bible Software | Bible Publishing | Physical Bibles

It was a lot of years ago, but MMM rightly predicted and noted how Bible apps were going to go mobile and why this was a suitable area for companies and developers in this space to pay attention to. Now, let’s take our gaze to the future a bit, what could be next?

Know Your Past

The old paradigm was simple: developers licensed content from publishers; then crafted a user interface and added varying degrees of value to that content offering. This was usually done by creating a reader” to which this specifically licensed content, and the value-added abilities were wrapped into.

This worked well even in the beginning stages of the Internet. With smaller pipes, and few persons able to afford what amounted to a “extended licensed” content (license went from publishers to developer, and then content was made available to the user), it made sense that connected features (email, notes, send to blog, etc.) would appear also within these “readers.”

PDAs and Mobile Pioneering

Then we had those PDAs. Applications followed the PC paradigm of use by offering a reader and downloadable content. Some of these applications would even sync with desktop counterparts so that bookmarks or notes could be shared (remember, initially PDAs weren’t wireless-data capable except for a few isolated and very expensive models).

From PDAs we started to see the Nokia Communicators and Palm Treos of the world start moving users to this idea of constant connectivity. Bible apps for mobiles started to adapt – first in general user interface design, and then slowly in the adoption of mobile/web features.

From Mobile Boom to Realizations

Then came the boom known as iPhone, and this greater acceptance that people were more apt to want to read their Bible or have Biblical content on their devices before consulting a desktop, and even a dedicated application. An explosion of mobile websites and mobile apps for iOS, Android, Symbian, Blackberry, webOS, and Windows Mobile showered the mainstream marketplace. For most it seemed that this model pioneered with having a reader app that people would read licensed content would work.

But, something happened as data became looked at as more than just accessible anytime. A type of user workflow began to rise to the surface. It wasn’t so much that people were not using their desktop Bible readers and websites, but they no longer were using these screens in isolation from their mobile screens. Searches, notes, and bookmarks needed to appear on all of these screen equally, without the intervening of a syncing conduit (after all, everything was connected to the web already). These workflows and behaviors weren’t really new, but the abilities of the technology along with the flexibility of the delivery conduit made these behaviors easier to see and adopt.

The understanding and shaping of Biblical data even began changing. What was once understood on the print side as glyphs and manuscripts became chopped and reorganized alongside Unicode languages, metadata schemes, database types, and even the constraints of physical devices (displays, inputs, etc.) and their presentation layers.

To add to the fun, people also embarked on changes of their own. Now, Bible reading wasn’t just a personal affair driven by devotions and reading plans, the idea of going social set in. Doing more with your Bible included engaging within virtual communities, affixing a Biblical context to social activities. The Bible and biblical data was just as much about the devices and data as it was the behaviors and actions of people once they assimilated it. And so instead of just a group of trained (technically and linguistically) users as the primary userbase, we started to see various communities arise as accessible user types, collecting more around the social actions, but using software and services in a shared manner (for ex., YouVersion and Facebook communities).

So What’s the Future to Behold

A common theme emerges when you look back at this summarized history of Bible software, we go from technical abilities, to social activities, to new technical abilities, to richer social activities. What is to be gained from biblical software now then, it does seem as if all that’s left is to live it, right?

I can see a few distinct software changes coming to biblical software and the faith community at large. On the software side, we should begin to see more consolidation in terms of the larger companies in this space. Don’t be surprised for more announcements similar to the one forged with Zondervan Publishing and Olive Tree. It makes a lot of sense for publishers and software houses to align their resources as they are building and mining on the same data.

Look for a few companies to take an approach similar to Logos and their Biblia.API project. The benefit of an API is that you can stack data into new kinds of applications or services. For example, if you are a missionary who lives in your car (so to speak), it would make a lot of sense to map your GPS device’s POI database to passages you might have preached or privately held for devotions. Imagine possibilities also where augmented reality services allow you to embed a Scripture on a virtual location, but you are able to interact with it in the physical world. These and other possibilities are doable.

Also, we should expect the loosening of English as the primary language of our Biblical communities. Even as I write this, there are more mobile web users in China alone than there is the total population of persons in the US. English definitely served as the world’s language when there was only the G7. There’s the G20 now, and you can bet that all languages will have to be given space on the world’s stage for communication and interaction.

More of this thinking has been expounded in our post about trends coming in the next 10 years (also, see presentation deck).

Imagine This

Imagine this, a future Bible software application isn’t an application at all, but a validation key brokered between you, the developer who holds the API, and the publisher who owns the content. Your license enables you to read the content via whatever reader or browser you choose, and you have a limited license to share it with certain people or through specific regions. The developer, as part of their service agreement with you, gives you access to a panel where you can purchase additional API capabilities or upload your own contributions. And the publisher also has a panel, to which you can offer feedback, purchase additional licenses, and view the analytical data that goes into their marketing and research efforts.

In my opinion, we aren’t that far off from this happening. Will you as a user, developer, or publisher be ready to make the next change in offering or engaging with your Bible/biblical software. The idea of owning content, managing apps, and even browsing  is changing. What I describe might not be the future realized, but it does point to what are some of the likely outcomes.

For those of you invested in the future of Bible software, I hope this helps to address your current plans for what’s next.

 

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Posted in Communication, Devices and Software, Future Trends | 4 Comments »

Glue Not Just View

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Of the many aspects of understanding and using technology in our communities, the function of IT administrator seems to be the most common role and perception of people involved. And indeed, this is an important role in the respect that there are several systems to which many communities will use to engage church (Sunday) or church (administrative and missional) activities.

IT Administrator is a very over-arching term. Depending on the needs of a community, IT Admin can be the person who runs the website, sets up and runs audio and video facilities, strategically plans and teaches pastors and administrators how to use their personal tech tools in the ministry, fixes the hardware and software for all of the above scenarios, or is the person that does all of the above.

In this viewpoint, IT is a bit like glue. Not the only glue, but a piece of glue that’s sometimes not quite well understood. This person (or small team) can be relied on for a lot, but their technical nature, and probably more logical leanings, might lend these people, and their gifts, to being unattached to the fellowship time. Unfortunately, what happens with many of these gifted persons is that they end up fellowshipping with screens, instead of with the rest of the community.

This is one of the challenges towards MMM’s participation locally with the Lausanne event; there’s a need to display some strategic aptitude towards using computer tech to stitch many communities together, but to do so in a way that promotes the use of IT in ways that doesn’t encourage burnout. With IT being such an unchartered territory for so many community and church leaders, it is very easy to promote an attitude of “let me just do this” (view), instead of “let me teach how this works” (glue). However, the approach should never be to enable dependent reactions. The gift that is IT means that we get to be the glue in some settings, but also another view of the Spirit’s leading and developing of the Body.

Eventually, there are some people who will rise to the top of various communities with an understanding of several areas of IT engagement. Some of these people will even expose innovative approaches to modern and traditional tools. It’s this kind of environment that we’d want to see happen (and it takes some time). It starts with perception. Leaders, IT-centric folks, and even people in other groups within the same organization have to take on the approach that no one part of the Body is less needed than another part. And that there’s value in all of our gifts as we come to the table, even those who come to the table more inclined to beep and do than to be seen.

 

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Accurately Discerning the Word

Friday, August 6th, 2010

One of the conversations had earlier this week also noted an aspect of mobility and constant access that speaks into other areas. The the subject in that part of the conversation had to do with the issue of how to verify that the things being read online are true enough to build a stable doctrinal foundation.

Thursday night, this topic came up again as some brothers were talking about 2 Timothy 2, and the impression by Paul on Timothy to not just strive for an understanding in all things (v.7), but to not let that understanding lead you into arguments over vain and profane topics (v.16). As we talked about the characteristics of a conversation what is mature, this sub-topic of exactly “how” to study to become acccurate in doctrine (v.15).

As technologists and students of the Word, it is very easy to get into “I use this application to study because it offers this and that feature.” I’d like to mature that question by asking the very pointed question:

If you have been using digital biblical study aides for an extended amount of time; what have you learned about digital resources and the content offered which enables you to discern those things profitable from those things heretical?

This is a tough question for some, because the challenge isn’t just to say “I know because the Spirit told me so.” The burden of proof is on how you take whatever topic or area of Scripture you are studying and how this relates to the previously held and disputed contentions about that item over the course of Judeao-Christian history. Ideally, the “how you discern” comes from such attention. I’d like to know what that looks like, based on usage of digital resources and the experiences within ministry you’ve had.

And if you’ve not quite figured out the “how” just yet, but looking to do so, comment towards what exactly you are having trouble with, or what specific challenges you might be having relating the availability of information, the expanse of it, and then that undertaking of reading the right things.

Looking forward to your comments on this one.

 

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The Changing State of Devices and User Interfaces

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

It’s a good time to give a small update towards a recently purchased iPad, and also what I feel is something that I think we miss in respect to the many devices and user interfaces that we have to deal with.

First, iPad Thoughts
Let me just say off the top that I like the iPad not because of applications or screen size, but because the battery life is absolutely amazing. My impressions really begin and end with the fact that the device can last all day (in a coffeehouse setting). And for my uses, I’m just using the web browser. Tons of windows open at a time mind you – and an occasional blog posting such as this one – but really, its Wi-Fi all the time. Amazing really.

Lot’s of questions have come from folks asking if it has a USB port. And then I ask them why it needs one. Usually the answer is “to put files on there.” Then I ask them, what kind of files and the conversations get silent. We’ve become used to managing files on portable media, but not really understanding of why we do that (obvious answer: because you need a non-online ability to read or edit something). Thing is, for many of these folks, these are files (documents, multimedia, etc.) which they usually access next to an Internet connection. So why not use something like email, or fancier like GDocs instead? For them, its a different way of thinking and acting, but one to consider with the iPad.

Which Leads to User Interfaces
User interfaces – or UIs – are interesting. On many computers, because we are used to the keyboard and mouse methodology, we are accustomed to controls and behaviors that take advantage of these items. For example, we look for keyboard shortcuts just about everytime we have a keyboard. With the iPad, that line of thinking needs to go out of the window – even mores than some other mobile devices which have touch screens.

The iPad doesn’t make any concessions to ways of interacting with content/media that act as if they first need a mouse and/or keyboard. Everything is designed with the idea of touch and go. And its actually to the point that there are some actions that could use a gesture or better touch-style control, but those don’t exist – such as managing browser windows. The device, and its software, don’t rely on former methods in order to make the point that you can interact with content. It’s designed so that you don’t have to assume much of anything.

Hence this really interesting paradigm of use and behavior that develops with the iPad and similar-sized devices. You have this device that’s the size of a book, that’s simpler than many books, and that allows you to forget that there’s a such thing as a power supply nearby – and you simply just use it. If not careful, the simplicity of the UI and the functionality around it takes what was previously a chore in terms of engaging content, and makes it into “the way it always was.”

When designing for a touch-based UI, this is the kind of thinking that needs to be cultivated into function. The fact that we physically touch digital planes means that we can (and sometimes do) ascribe a deeper sensory connection to it. It’s not just a Bible reader, but I’m touching and manipulating the very lines that make up the Bible so that I better understand it. This is similar to the student who has a pack of highlighters and the resultant multi-color textbooks. The colors and actions of highlighting allows for a kind of interaction with the content that makes it easier to recall and reuse the content. In the same way, touching allows for a newer (or older, depending on your perspective), relationship to content.

When a site is well designed for the size and ability of modern-day touchscreen devices, its not just another site – it becomes another type of experience. If done really well, and then control mechanisms are contextual, you don’t miss the former methods at all, but do wonder why it took so long for things to get this simple.

In relation to the iPad, this is how using it makes me feel. I look forward to digging into the various unique applications that have been designed for this platform – and don’t just want to display content, but want to present ways of engaging it that are deeper, wider, and altogether more engrossing than other types of media. With mobile, mobile w/touch, this is very much the bar to be reached, and the bar to be explored.

 

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Posted in Devices and Software, Future Trends | 1 Comment »

ESV iPhone App from Crossway

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Looks like there’s a new mobile bible out there for those of you with iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Crossway has released an ESV iPhone App which offers the ability to read, search, note, and highlight verses and passages.

This is a free application and can be downloaded by going to http://mobile.esv.org/ or theiTunes App Store.

 

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The Bible and the iPad

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Matt Miller wrote on his initial experiences using the LifeChurch.tv Bible HD and Logos Bible applications on the Apple iPad (which became available for purchase this weekend. Here’s a snippet of what should prove to be an interesting device and perspective towards how mobile has jumped even more into everyday doings:

…My friend Dan Cohen, from Gear Diary, and I were talking a couple of months ago and after that one of my motivations for buying an iPad was to enhance my daily Bible reading and study experience. I have the Bible loaded on my smartphones and the software I use is quite good with the only real issue being the size of the display and now the iPad brings something bigger. I doubt Moses ever dreamed he would see tablets like the iPad, but I believe this new device can offer a compelling Bible reading and study experience so check out a couple applications available now and pack your iPad [electronic tablet] to church this Easter morning…

Check out the rest of the article by Matt, along with his other iPad impressions. And download LifeChurch.tv Bible HD, Logos, and several other iPad applications from iTunes.


 

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CCM: Exciting Times for Digital Bible Study

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Great article over at Christian Computing Magazine (CCM) talking about Digital Bible Studying and how its evolved with now a near-digital/mobile-native approach that’s able to be taken towards Bible studying. Here’s a snippet:

…It is truly a great time to be a student of God’s word. If you use a computer, smart phone, or book reader, then you have more tools available for studying the Word of God then at any time in history. And I think the best thing this does for us is not cut the time it takes to do our studying, but rather it helps us go much deeper. If your primary goal for doing Bible study on any of these platforms is to cut minutes or hours off your time in the Word, then you are missing the greatest benefit. Instead your goal should be to go deeper in the same amount of time…

Read of the rest of Digital Bible Study Is Breaking the Banks of the Personal Computer at Christian Computing Magazine (CCM).

In terms of a comment from MMM’s perspective, I’ll repeat a question that was stated in a post a few weeks ago:

So what does it mean to have believers who have instant access to multiple resource and communities, who seek answers to the questions of faith and life, evaluating sources in real-time through online and offline relationships, instead of waiting for a sermon or preacher to smooth the message.

If you will, we’ve got the ease in getting to the resource now. So what does the Body do in terms of teaching those analytical and spatial-search skills that will enable believers and non-believers alike to engage the Bible, and the people of the Bible, in God-edifying ways? Yes, these are indeed exciting times, but the implications of being able to do digital Bible studies means that we’ve also got to tweak our methods of teaching and living with one another. Are we up for the challenge, because, its for these implications that these times are exciting too.

 

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