Bible Database Dumps

I’m not sure why I hadn’t found these before, but I came across MySQL database dumps for the KJV and ASV Bibles. Get them for yourself at Assorted Thoughts.

Add comment November 11th, 2007

Bible-techy links

In relation to my previous post about using technology to create better bible study experiences, here’s a trail of links I found:

• SemanticBible (blog)
• BibleMap.org (built by HeLives.com)
• Logos Bible Software (blog)
• Flash Thru the Bible (Also by HeLives.com)
• Religion Timelines: Jewish History + Christianity History (AJAXy goodness)
• x# (like a scripture based del.icio.us?)

3 comments February 26th, 2007

Really using the web to enhance biblical study.

I’ve long thought about what I could do– how I could really use all this random web programming and designing skill I’ve acquired to make a better bible reading experience. Today I was thinking of a semantic bible. Sort of an extention of the up and coming concept of the semantic web. For those of you that don’t know what the semantic web is (which means you’re not a total internet nerd), here is Wikipedia’s definition:

The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which web content can not only be expressed in natural language, but also in a form that can be understood, interpreted and used by software agents, thus permitting them to find, share and integrate information more easily.

If that still doesnt mean anything to you, my basic idea was: How can we get all the disparate information (maps, reference material, cross references, original language meanings, etc.) and make it easy for readers to access when reading the bible. I mean, we’ve got all this great info, but it’s impossible to get it all in one place. And when you do have it, it’s usually organized in a way that’s overwhelming and confusing. So how can we really make this a better experience?

I decided to see if the domain semanticbible.com was taken- because of course, I’m the first person who’s ever thought of this, right? Wrong. The bad news is it was already taken. The good news is the guy who took it (All I know is that his name is Sean Boisen) has probably done more with it then I would have done in my lifetime. So I stuck around for a while.

The site (semanticbible.com) bills itself as an emerging exploration of new applications of markup and computational linguistic technology to the study of Scripture, with an emphasis on practical tools that encourage understanding and personal transformation. That’s pretty darn close to what I had in mind- I might not have been quite so geeky about it, but each to his own. But vision is only one piece of the puzzle. Has he been able to execute was my next question.

The first place I visited was the blog. I think you can learn alot from a blog including how active the site is and some plain language information on what the site is about. At first I noticed lots of technical stuff- which is to be expected- but then I saw a post that really made me feel like this guy was on the same page. Well, he was probably a few pages ahead of me, but we’re definitely in the same book. That makes me feel good. I want to put more time into this, but I’ve never been very good at dedicating lots of time to side projects. So maybe there’s enough groundwork here that I can just jump in and have some impact.

So that’s what I’m shooting for. I’ll poke around in this semantic bible he’s creating and see if I can create something that really adds value to what he’s started.

Add comment February 26th, 2007