Trailblazin Ministries Blog: The Ultimate Bible Software Application: Semi-Final Thoughts

Tech Stuff

The Ultimate Bible Software Application: Semi-Final Thoughts

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Tuesday, 04 March 2008
Filed under: Bible, Tech Stuff

Today has been a very interesting day and has taken me on quite a journey. I've gone from thinking that something like this would be nearly out of reach to seeing it partially be a reality to finally realizing a lot of the logistics for why something like this has not happened to date. It started with Jon speaking about some of the projects that were already out there in the open source arena under the Sword Project and thinking about how to utilize that to possibly have a united platform. This then led to a long discussion with a co-worker and my manager simply discussing the possibilities and logistics of doing such a thing.

To summarize, without revealing inside information, an open source project is great for the consumer, but a very risky business move, especially for an already established company. Not that Bible software companies aren't already in competition with one another, but with a single open source it would open the door for putting companies in direct competition with one another if one were to move exclusively to an open source platform. The reason being is that a lot of contracts & books overlap between companies & publishers (i.e. Logos & WORDsearch have the rights to publish a lot of the same titles) and this would allow for them to compete with one another with the exact same product (therefore whoever had the best marketing and/or prices would win out). Right now, you can buy a book in Logos, but you can only use it there; therefore, if you use WORDsearch, you are forced to buy their version for it to work in their software. So, if you are now publishing books in the same format for the same base software, you are in head-to-head competition with one another, which isn't a good thing for the companies trying to keep a profit & remain in business (albeit a great scenario for the user). Then, you throw in the publishers, who basically only care about getting their royalty checks, and you have another issue altogether (as they could easily put a halt to all of this).

The one thing that could work is for an established company to start selling their books in, say, the Sword format and providing much needed resources to the community that uses that product (especially for the Linux user, where that is the only option they have). This provides the company with the means to expand their base & increase profit, while also not abandoning their base product. That seems somewhat feasible, but bears the question of whether the man hours spent in doing such a thing would be worthwhile for such a small community of users (who may or may not even buy the books, considering they are so used to open source product). The one last idea that was had was the thought of having a base product that was extendable via extensions or plugins (think FireFox extensions for Bible software), and then each company could sell their proprietary code for the base product as add-ons. But even then, there is still the issue of direct competition in selling books, which is the primary thing that keeps these companies in business.

From a dreamer and user's standpoint, my original idea would be great, and it would be even better if all companies were offering a united product that was infinitely extendable. But, since I know that's not going to happen, as it would require too much change and a serious shift in business models for everyone, I think I'll be pleased enough to see each software application continuing to move forward to provide a better user experience in studying and exegeting the Word of God for all its worth. Thank you to all who have read my thoughts, and especially those who share in my sentiments. Bible software is a passion for me, and not just my job, and I want to see it benefit the maximum number of people possible in the best way possible.

And just as an FYI, I finally got Linux (Mint) dual booting on my laptop and am running BibleTime, which is a pretty solid application in its own right, but more on that another time (if I even keep Linux installed).

Comments (5)

nathany.myopenid.com wrote:
on March 5, 2008 10:49 AM

Open source is misunderstood. All the existing companies will continue to use their code base, regardless of a new opensource player. Yes, a new guy could come along and do a better job of marketing a product based on your source, but then there are ShareAlike licenses like GPL which force them to open source their work as well. Also, it is possible to opensource only a portion.

I think you hit on something revolutionary with a common format. There is a common XML format called OSIS, though it doesn't seem like much has been done with it recently:
http://www.bibletechnologies.net/

Wouldn't it be interesting if a company sold Bibles in OSIS format, and software simply imported that into a native format. Then your Biblical texts could move with you. Unfortunately, if the money is in the books, it is unlikely that such a model would be adopted by software-makers. A software company would have to have enough faith in it's product to believe that people would continue to buy/upgrade it even though the books could be moved around freely.

On the other-hand, publishers could sell OSIS text directly which would make it a lot easier for the little guys/opensource developers, as they wouldn't need to worry about licensing. Just support importing OSIS and provide links to the relevant publishers. I could see ESV doing something like this, as they seem to be on the cutting-edge of technology, other translations I'm not so sure.

You've given me a lot to chew on these past few days. Thanks LJ.

Jon wrote:
on March 6, 2008 8:20 AM

Actually, the ESV is already available as a Sword module--or at least it was. I downloaded it off their site a long time ago. I forget how I found it, but I think it was by accident.

As to open source, it has an uphill battle ahead of itself, simply because it's difficult to "monetize"--convert to profits. The service model is what's primarily being used in the software world--but how does this transfer to Bible software, or more specifically, as LJ points out--the publishing industry that is the backbone of the Bible software industry?

The sad truth is that the whole thing is kept alive solely because of the closed nature of the system. If it were opened up, the whole empire would come crashing down--at least as we know it today.

I think, however, that there are baby steps being taken--the publishers of the ESV, I think are at the cusp of this trend. We'll see if others jump aboard. IMO, however, if publishers could offer a limited number of, maybe older, titles as Sword modules, they could at least gauge the potential--although, in my experience, half-hearted adoption is the fastest way to kill a technology.

In any case, I shall keep pushing the Sword solution. ;-) And in time, we shall see what happens...

-Jon

nathany.myopenid.com wrote:
on May 2, 2008 11:45 PM

Interesting to note, as far as Windows Bible software for the layman, WORDsearch 8 is the ultimate ;-)

http://www.fostertribe.org/biblesoftware.html
(according to Jerry)

LaRosa Johnson wrote:
on May 3, 2008 8:45 AM

Yeah, I checked out that review. After using quite a few different software applications, I would have to agree that WORDsearch 8 is definitely a great package for the layman and for someone who does light word studying. For the more academic crowd, BibleWorks and Logos are definitely superior products.

I currently own WS8, Logos (Scholar's), and BibleWorks 7; but, I spend the vast majority of my time in WS8. When I'm working on studies for this site and just in general, I use WS8 because of its ease of use and feature set. I'm still learning my way around the complexities of Logos and BibleWorks, but my studies are nowhere near as in-depth as they would need to be to make as great a use of those software packages.

As WORDsearch's claim is that it's a program for preachers and teachers, I would have to agree because it provides all the tools that you would need to prepare a sermon, no matter how light or complicated it may be. It's definitely the software of choice for me and what I'd recommend for most visitors of Trailblazin Ministries.

lj.

FosterTribe wrote:
on May 7, 2008 3:43 AM

Some sort of common format between major software packages would be awesome. But I doubt that will ever happen as well (look what happened to STEP - close, but no cigar). You can see the vision behind The SWORD Project, and how cool it would be if more and more publishers supported the format. But they are fighting an uphill battle in the Windows arena.

In addition to OSIS, we have ThML and Zefania XML as other attempts at some sort of open book format. Interestingly, they are all XML-based, which suggests they could be easily rolled into one common XML format. It seems like ThML has some momentum due to it's use on the CCEL site: http://www.ccel.org/. (I'm not sure if the SWORD format is XML based or not.)

We can be pretty confident that the software publishers are not going to give up their proprietary formats. They want to protect their investment, which is understandable. But it would be cool if they would at least get behind some sort of import ability for a standard XML/SWORD format as a first step.

I know the BeST tool for e-Sword will import OSIS books, and The Word's importer will do Zefania XML. But that's about it. None of the big boys seem interested yet.

As an aside, the NET Bible is also available as a SWORD module, in addition to the ESV. The folks at bible.org seem intent on pushing the NET Bible in any format.

Thanks, LaRosa, for a thought-provoking article.

Jerry