My Bible Technology Wish List

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

Data Visualization and Analysis

1. Online Bible Maps. Some sites show places from the Bible overlaid as default placemarks on a standard Google map. All of these use background layers which show modern borders and roads or else show little more than land features. New features from Mapbox and Carto are making it easier to create custom maps that could show ancient place names and borders. Unlike static images, these maps would show regional names first, reveal large cities after zooming, then smaller areas when zooming further. The Pelagios project hosts a map like this of the ancient Greco-Roman world. We should do the same for maps of ancient Israel, surrounding kingdoms, and New Testament lands.

2. Better Family Trees. The original version of this complete biblical genealogy graphic was an Adobe Flash application that zoomed in on people when searching and highlighted their complete lineage. I abandoned further development once I realized Flash was all but dead. Now, I’d like to remake that exploratory tool and add features using JavaScript. I like how Logos Bible Software does this and wish there were a tool like it online for free.

3. N-gram comparisons. Google has 520 million English words scanned from books all the way back to 1500 A.D. They shared data showing the frequency of single words and phrases “n” words long. You can easily explore a string of words with their n-gram viewer, too. Wouldn’t it be interesting to compare phrases from the Bible (for a given English translation) with those in other books? What can that tell us about the influence the King James Version or Geneva Bible had on our language over time (don’t miss this video on common sayings we got from the KJV)? There are some pitfalls to such analysis, but still plenty of value to uncover.

4. Name comparisons. My three sons are named after people in the Old Testament. How common is it for people to give biblical names to their children? The Social Security Administration releases baby name popularity data every year. It wouldn’t be too hard to do some comparisons and trends.

5. Timelines. There are some great timelines that align biblical and world events. Only the most expensive software packages have anything detailed, searchable, and linked back to the text. It’s time for a free online version. The Biblical Timeline is out there, but it’s hard to use and lacks important features like zooming or filtering to a book.

6. Weights and Measures. It’s important to relate older ways of measuring things with modern equivalents. It’s also hard to grasp distances in unfamiliar lands. Last year I saw Jessica Hullman demonstrate a tool which translates distances to familiar analogies. An 80-mile walk from Bethlehem to Egypt is easier to picture when I know that’s like walking from my house to the Fort Worth Zoo and most of the way back. Wolfram|Alpha does similar things with common measurements. Let’s make it simple for readers to see these analogies in-line with biblical text.

New Data Sets

1. People’s relationships beyond genealogy. We already have good information about people’s lineage, but who were their friends? Who did they meet or conspire against? Sean Boisen created data like this at semanticbible.com for the New Testament. I’d like to see the same kind of thing for the whole Bible.

2. Open-source timeline. A full timeline data set with passage references, durations, and a way to deal with uncertain dates would support the creation of an interactive timeline like the one under “Data Visualization” above. While there are a few sites with this sort of data, it isn’t open-source for all to use or it’s in a format that’s hard to use in an application.

3. Tagged pronouns. Tim Morton, creator of Bible Analyzer, has allowed me to use and distribute data that tags pronouns describing persons of the Trinity. This lets us find verses about Jesus, God the Father, or the Holy Spirit that don’t mention them by name. This is important for search results or analysis about frequency of mentions. We should expand this data to all people and places like we have for the Trinity.

4. Graph database migration. You’ve heard of the six degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon game, right? Graph databases help you trace those relational paths. This kind of database powers Google’s Knowledge Graph. I want a similar knowledge graph of biblical data, so it makes sense to use that kind of data storage. It would help with linguistic analysis, too. So, I want to convert all the data I’ve collected (available on request) to a graph database instead of the normal table structure I have now. It would be easier to expand later and it makes complex algorithms simpler to write. Here’s a slideshow that walks through the advantages of graph databases: http://www.slideshare.net/maxdemarzi/graph-database-use-cases.

User Experience

1. Tailored search results. Right now, searching a Bible website or application returns lists of verses and sometimes sections of associated commentary, media, and other resources. I want these results to be more than lists of things I have to comb through. When searching for “Paul,” I want it to show a short bio and something that tells me he used to be called Saul. When typing “Abraham,” we should see biographical information and a few generations of his lineage (see, for instance, this Wolfram|Alpha query). For places, I want a map and a list of nearby places. Throw in a few key events that happened there, too. All of that should be complied from existing resources rather than forcing me to peck through each result, one at a time.

2. Fast scrolling. Google Photos has the best scrollbar I’ve used. It’s like a measuring stick with tick marks at every month with photos and labels at every year. One tap-and-drag motion leads me to the section I want. Bible apps for touch screens make me tap and scroll too many times. A quick, draggable scroller would feel more like navigating a print Bible: one thumb action flips through the major sections and gets you close to the chapter you want. Then, one more tap or drag takes you to the right place.

3. Persistent in-line information. Sometimes I can hover on a word to see quick definitions, footnotes, or images. That’s better than making users go to another screen to see the same information. But, this doesn’t work on touch screens where there’s no way to hover like you would with a mouse or trackpad. A better way is to show an information box between lines of text when you click (or tap) a word. It would stay there until the next click, and there can be several in view at once. My favorite text editors do this to help me edit related code, pick colors, or show error messages. I’d love to see that in Bible reading apps, too.

Writing

1. Data-oriented Bible studies. Look, if FiveThirtyEight.com can apply statistical analysis to sports, politics, and culture, we can do that with biblical truths, too. There is an audience that would enjoy explanations of passages that include detailed numerical analysis. Of course, it must be done well. Data is only as good as the person’s skills interpreting it, carefully avoiding common biases.

2. Bible app reviews. The average app review covers features and value. I’m interested to see (and write) more reviews of user experience and design philosophy. Technology decisions can help or hurt the process of a user discovering important parts of God’s story. I believe too much Bible software today makes it frustrating to do that, no matter how many resources it includes.

Building It