Data portability

Are the same resources available for your:

• PDA;
• Cell Phone;
• Mobile Device;
• Netbook;
• Laptop;
• Desktop;

Can content between those devices be synchronized?

Laridian almost passes the “Data Portability” requirement. If your netbook, laptop, and desktop run 32 bit Windows, it might “pass”. If your desktop is on a different OS, then it barely “fails”.

Olive Tree Software offers products for most mobile devices, but doesn’t appear to offer a way to synchronize between them.

The Sword Project offers front ends for more operating systems, and platforms than any other organization that delivers Bible Study Software. However, they currently don’t offer tools to synchronize between programs.

Future Proofing

• Can your existing resources be used on your new computer/mobile device?
• Can the resources that you create be easily imported into the program?
• Can the resources that you create be easily exported from that program?

Laridian almost passes the “Future Proofing” requirement. If your new
platform is a mobile device, the odds are that they have a product
for that device. They also offer BookBuilder, which enables one to create one’s original content as a resource for their software.

Olive Tree Software —  the other player in the mobile device Bible Study Software market — offers specifications for Olive Tree Markup Language. What is not easilly discovered, is where, and how that markup language can be used.

The Sword Project offers a plethora of tools that enable one to create their own resources. It also offers tools that enable one to easily extract the data from the resources. All existing Sword Project resources can be used on any current⁶⁷ front end. The “catch” is that not all front ends are equal⁶⁸.

Resources

The primary issue is: “Which Bible Study Program currently
offers the resources that your will use?⁶⁹”

• Not what resources they plan to offer.
• Not what resources are currently available⁷⁰.
• Not what tools are available for creating resources⁷¹.

Laridian, and, to a lesser extent Olive Tree, operate on the theory that people won’t be carrying around large digital libraries. “Large” means anything more than somewhere between 100 and 500 digital works.

Libronix operates on the theory that 1 500 digital works in one’s library
will constitute a “small” library. As such, they currently offer resource collections that cover most of the spectrum of Christian Theology⁷².

Whilst more 10 000 user created resources⁷³ are available⁷⁴ for e Sword, less than a third of them can be legally distributed⁷⁵. Roughly 500 have been officially distributed. The results of a poll on e Sword-users.org imply that the majority of e Sword users have less than 300 resources installed on their system — a claim that Rick Meyers has made for years.

Tools to create Resources

A pastor, preaching fifty new sermons a year, can publish a book every six months. If that content can be digitally published, in a format that
integrates with the recommended Bible Study Program for the congregation, it is a win for both the congregation, and the
pastor⁷⁶.

The core issue here is whether or not users will experience any functional
difference between the digital content that is distributed by their pastor, and that distributed by the program developers.

Molly Mormon, whose sole content creation is limited to taking notes at
Church and Bible Study, can generate a significant amount of content
over the course of time. Content that can be digitally distributed with others⁷⁷, for their edification.

How do you study the Bible

I’m not going to list all of the different ways to study the Bible here. I
am aware of roughly 200 different points of departure, in studying
the Bible.

Most⁷⁸ of those can be listed under one of the following:

• Book, chapter, verse orientated;
• Chronologically orientated;
• Creed/Catechism orientated;
• Original Language orientated;
• Topically orientated;
• Who/where orientated;

Each of those points of departure requires a different set of functions, and resources.

Does the software program offer:

• The appropriate tools?
• The  appropriate resources?

For book, chapter, verse orientated study:

1. Do the Bibles contain the books that are canonical for your branch of Christianity⁷⁹?
2. Does the versification scheme reflect that of your
   branch of Christianity⁸⁰, or denomination⁸¹ within that branch?

If  your study is chronologically orientated:

1. Do the tools assist you in locating texts of the same period in time?
2. Can you alter those tools, so that they reflect the chronology that one believes to be accurate, or to include passages that were omitted⁸².

If your study  you study is orientated along creed/catechism lines:

1. Does it include the Creed or Catechism that you use?
2. Are the references within it also available as resources for that program?
   
3. Are those references linkable from the creed or catechism?

If your study is orientated along original languages, or linguistic analysis

1. Does it contain resources in the languages that you study⁸³?
2. Does it offer tools that help one do morphological analysis?
3. Does it offer tools that enable one to do linguistic analysis?
   
4. For advanced users, can all five requests laid out at the SBL
   Bible Software Shootout be easily  done?

If your study is topically orientated:

1. How do the available tools aid that process?
2. How do the available tools hinder that process?
3. Do the available resources cover the topics you study?

If you study is who/where orientated:

1. Is a list of all of the characters, both named, and unnamed, that are mentioned in the Bible, available?
2. Is a list of all places, both named, and unnamed, that are mentioned in the Bible, available?
3. Are these lists fully congruent with the one that you use in your study?
4. Are these lists congruent with your theology?  (Maps are especially susceptible to theological bias.)
   
5. Do the provided tools enable one to see a timeline of the place, and the individual, simultaneously?

Accessibility

What functionality is lost by removing:

• The keyboard;
• The mouse;
• The monitor;
• The monitor and the mouse;
• The monitor and the keyboard;
• The keyboard and the mouse;
• The monitor, mouse, and keyboard;

If any functionality is lost by the removal of any, much less all of those, then the program is not accessible⁸⁴. If program functionality requires any of those items, then it should be rejected on sight, regardless of any other merits it might have. This applies regardless of any current accessibility requirements of the potential user⁸⁵.

For both the User Interface, and the resources, how easy is it for the user
to change:

• Fonts;
• Font size;
• Font background colour;
• Font foreground colour;
• Overall foreground colour;
• Overall background colour;

1. Does the program offer the ability to selectively magnify sections of the screen?
2. Can every item on the menu be reached by a keystroke combination?
3. Is the functionality of every icon instantly recognizable?
4. Are icon labels coherent⁸⁶?

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iPad is built on the iPhone OS (operating system), which means that iPhone BibleReader runs on iPad today. Here at Olive Tree, we downloaded the iPad emulator on Wednesday afternoon and got our first glimpse of BibleReader on the iPad’s new larger screen. BibleReader is one of the many apps that will transfer directly to iPad when it ships in March, so you can expect to see BibleReader for iPad available from day one.

But, of course, we’re looking to do more. We’re committed to bringing the best Bible Study experience to iPhone OS, which now includes the iPad. And iPad’s new features give us the room to dream big.

Olive Tree has always specialized in mobile technology, and we’re excited about the iPad because it signals the direction all mobile technology is headed—becoming powerful, flexible, and useful enough to fit more than one category, transcending the current boundaries between mobile computing devices and other computers.

And that’s where BibleReader is headed too. We plan to make the BibleReader experience far more than just reading a book. And we’re glad the new Apple iPad will give us the opportunity to create a deeper experience of the Bible.

The main difference is that BibleReader is tailored to the experience of reading and studying the Bible. BibleReader is Bible-centric technology. In contrast, reviewers have pointed out that Kindle is “dominated by the book metaphor.” Kindle reads and handles almost exactly like a book (and not like a magazine, reference work, newspaper, or website). If all you read is fiction, or linear non-fiction—books where you start on page one and read, page by page, straight through to the end, the way you’d read a novel—then Kindle and other traditional eBook readers may work well for you.

But as anyone who has done any Bible reading or study can tell you, that’s not the way most people interact with their Bibles. Certainly, reading the Bible from cover to cover is a valuable practice, and if you’ve never done it, you should try it at least once. But for many people, daily Bible reading and study takes place in primarily non-linear ways.

And that’s where the specialized features and usability of BibleReader come into play.

• Say you want to open your Bible to a specific place—not just the third chapter of the book of John, but John 3:16 exactly. BibleReader’s Verse Chooser lets you navigate quickly to any verse in the Bible.
• Suppose you wonder how the word “spirit” is used throughout the Bible. BibleReader’s search function lets you look up every occurrence of the word “spirit” in both the Old and New Testaments. And when you scroll through the search results, it takes just one click to open the Bible of your choice to that verse.
• What if you’re reading Nehemiah, and you need more historical background on the Temple and its importance in Jewish culture? BibleReader’s versified commentaries let you switch to the commentary of your choice that opens right to Nehemiah, or wherever you were reading in your Bible.
• BibleReader’s split-screen reading makes commentary or other Bible reference works instantly available as you read—the two screens are linked so your commentary is always open to the right verse. Or you can use split screens to read two different Bible translations side-by-side.
• Many Bibles have additional information like textual notes, cross-references, or Strong’s numbers. BibleReader includes hyperlinked notes that are available with one touch.
• If you make a personal note on a specific verse in the Bible, you can access these notes in any Bible version, tied to the same verse.

While you might not need any of these functions while reading an eBook, reading the Bible is a different story. BibleReader was created with the unique experience of Bible reading in mind, and its features are designed to let you get the most out of your Bible reading and study.