Tag Archives: development

Copyright, Licesning, and Faith-Based Resources

screenshot of the World English Bible copyright and liscense agreement
The publicaion, use, and sharing of religious resources has been a rights issue for as far back as there has been a faith practice to transfer. One can make the call that God even enforced the first rights-management system when he declared that “I am ther Lord your God and you shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2)” Weighty in the respect of reverence, but also in the respect of exclusivity – if there is to be a faith towards a deity, then let your faith towards this one be exculsive and binding.

To that end, the faith world has seen all kinds of challenges to doctrine, dogma, and behavior. Going digital has rekindled some old arguments and founded some new ones. In 2009, we tried to add some sense to the challenge and change that digital contexts makes in regards to copyright/licesning biblical resources. It was one part of an on-going discussion, and one where there just isn’t a clear answer. Its been an intention to add to that article some items of relevance – with a ground literally shifting often. But thankfully, others are picking up the discussion, and the mounting challenges not so much for just having access, but having access that fits the context of digital use and ownership paradigms.

The licenses that govern the use of modern versions of the Bible in English grant very limited, arbitrary permissions for the use of the content. For instance, a person may be permitted to use 250 verses of the Bible (or 500 or 1,000, depending on the publisher) but only if they do not include a complete book of the Bible in their content. The amount of Biblical text they use is usually not allowed to exceed a certain percentage (often 25%, sometimes 50%) of the complete work. The table below lists current (at the time of writing) license restrictions on some common versions of the Bible in modern English. Note that “Max. Verses” refers to the maximum number of verses that may be used, “% of Total” refers to the maximum percentage of the text in the resource that may be Biblical text, and “Complete Book?” refers to whether or not a complete book of the Bible may be used in the resource.2

Version Max. Verses % of Total Complete Book?
CEB3 500 <25% No
ESV4 1,000 <50% No
HCSB5 250 <25% No
NASB6 500 <25% No
NET7 not specified <50% No
NIV8 500 <25% No
NKJV9 1,000 <50% No

Most licenses (though I am not aware of any exceptions) do not explicitly allow freedom beyond these specific permissions, meaning the restriction preventing the translation of the Biblical text has not been lifted. For use of the text that requires more than this—like including the complete text of a book of the Bible—the user must enter into a specific licensing agreement with the copyright holder of the Bible translation. These licensing agreements typically include the negotiations of royalties from the sale of the content back to the owner of the Bible translation.

Read the rest of The Urgent Need for An Open Liscensed Bible in English at Distant Shores Media

Besides being an updated guide, towards the current challenges publishers, participants, and readers have towards digital faith-based resources, it also speaks to the problem of why there is even a greater challenge to create non-English faith resources. Simply put, law and process hasn’t kept pace with technology and behavior.

…Imagine a Christian pastor in Tehran who uses his mobile phone Bible application to search for what the Bible says about “suffering for Christ.” The pastor does not know that the free Bible he is reading on his app is only free in exchange for data about how he uses it. In fact, he cannot even do a search for “suffering” on his phone without a network connection, because his free app with the “free of charge” Bible he is reading phones home to the web service with every search he makes. And when his app phones home to an American website (a Bible website, no less), it may well trip a filter in the Great Iranian Firewall. And maybe around 2am, the pastor gets to find out firsthand what it means to suffer for Christ. Because his app phoned home. Because “free of charge” comes with a tradeoff, when it is not also accompanied by “legal freedom” at the level of content…

While I do think that in some revolutionary ways this will be addressed in my lifetime, I am also very aware that the nature of faith, data, and information lends itself to be something held close and valued towards exclusion rather than shared towards posterity. Hopefully, there can not only be a change that works for all here, but one that compensates rightly all the levels of engagement that it takes to make these resources possible to the global faith community.

Then again, is not part of the definition of religion that of a system that’s exclusive not just in application, but in information shared?

Developers: What Can You Do With This?

Was on Twitter recently and @_ndsmith posted about putting the entire Strong’s Concordance into a SQLite database. I replied that I was sure that it was something that had been done before, but hey, these kinds of projects can be used beyond just technical experiments?

So, developers. What can you do with this: SQLite/Python Database

Maybe you’ve got a project or two that you’ve been doing that was pretty much a fun exercise (we’ve got one), if you put it out there, what can people do with it?

Mobile App Holiday Giveaway: 1000 Church Apps from ROAR

ROAR App's Holiday Giveaway of 1000 Church appsWe are partnering with ROAR to let you know about an awesome opportunity to getting a mobile application built for your church/ministry. Here are the details as posted by ROAR CEO Matt McKee:

From November 29th – December 31, 2011, we are completely waiving the $750 per app setup fee for the first 1,000 churches, ministries, or 501c3 non-profits to sign up. You will still need to pay the monthly hosting fee, but we’ve even reduced that for this limited-time offer! You can choose either option: iPhone and iPad only or iPhone, iPad, and Android. You get a better value if you choose all three platforms, and for this limited time, we’ve also slashed the price if you go ahead and pay for a full year of hosting up front! Seriously, if your church is considering an app, you will not find a better deal than this.

Pricing is as follows:

  • iPhone/iPad app: $30/month or $300/year
  • Android app: $30/month or $300/year
  • iPhone/iPad AND Android apps: $50/month or $500/year
  • And NO setup cost.

So, if you’ve already gotten your ducks in a row concerning what it is that you want from a mobile application (see the recommended reading links below), you just need to step up towards ROAR’s invitation and get that applicaation built.

If you haven’t gotten your mobile app plans moving forward, and development was the sticky point, definitley take advantage of this offering and finish 2011/begin 2012 on a capable mobile foot.

Sign up now before the 1000 slots are taken up.

NOTE: You do need to pay for the 1st month’s hosting fees for the application in order to get the church/ministry application built for free. You can also choose to pay for the entire year, and the free application offer also applies.

About ROAR

Learn more about ROAR’s mobile app development, CMS solutions, their pricing models, and their FAQs at their website.

Recommended Readings
Do make sure to have these articles in your reading list as they will come in handy as you work with ROAR or any other mobile application developers/service providers. The better prepared that you are, they more effective your mobile solution will be.

Take advantage of this partnership between ROAR and MMM while this offer lasts.

No Longer the Age of Bible Apps, Now the Age of Bible As Applied

A friend and I were talking about a project he and his company were working on and while it was great that they were working on it, I had to be direct and ask him, “why are you building another Bible applicaiton?” According to he and his team, having a Bible application would put them on equal footing with other companies in this space who have applications and have (apparently) made the successful transition from a PC-based product model to a mobile/web-based one.

I shook my head at his flawed logic. “You don’t run to where the puck is, you run to where it would be,” I told him (quoting Wayne Gretzky). The problem with their approach, and many within this mobile ministry (#mobmin) space who are looking for their innovative solution to take the religious world/church/tech world by storm, is that they keep looking to copying current products in order to make a dent or shift in perception. That’s just not how this works.

For this group, I asked why didn’t they go the route that other Bible applicaiton companies haven’t gone, but that very few secular companies would dare go: the Boston Globe/Boston responsive web, subscription web approach (several articles talked about this)? He looked at me with disdain, as he heard some about that project, but didn’t know how far reaching that it went. You see, their team is savy enough to build something like that, but their company isn’t visionary enough to figure out why that works.

Hence the title of this article: the age of bible applications is over; it is now the age of bible as applied in digital spaces.

Am I saying that there is no need for any company to create, recreate, or innovate on top of the paradigm of reading, searching, bookmarking, and collections with Bible apps? No. But, I am saying that if you are a content publisher who bases your content on any of those Bible app paradigms, then you are better off pushing your energies towards developing a product somewhere else besides “let start with a Bible app.”

Antoine: you aren’t even a developer, how can you say such things?

Easy actually. Go have a conversation with someone. Tell me, did you start in the Bible or was the conversation dipping in and out of the Bible at various points with other contexts as the backbone to the conversation? I’ll address a recent conversation from a coffeeshop. The pastor/missionary and I started talking because I asked about his wide-margin NASB that he was carrying. The conversation went into church history quickly from that, then into cultural perspectives of various regions of the USA. Would a Bible app have helped there, or an application that was able to search on topics related to church history which also referenced Bible verses, noted authors, theological paradigms, and denominational statements of faith that added context to the situation. Of course, innovation here would be turning on said app while in the conversation and as it “listened” it would pull a Google/Britiannica/Wikipedia/Wolfgram Alpha and search then display all of the relevant content streams, statistics, and opinions available online or in accessible scholarly collections. If you will a Shazamm for Biblical conversations.

It prbably makes sense why I can say that you can bend beyond Bible applications when I phrase the context like that right? But that’s called research and analysis, specifically, anlaysis of cultural behaviors of communication that rarely go into the development of these kinds of applications (this is how reports like Mobile Lens 2011 were framed). And that’s why we end up with a situation such as what I described with my friend at the start of this article. If you want your product(s) to be of earthly good, then you have to move beyond the age of simply offering just the text. Develop an app that engages the application of Biblical (religious) knowledge first, and then grounds the user in a growing (maturing) understanding of Scripture, church history, and culture as they grow in faith and knowledge.

Anyone want to bet on “Bible as Applied” being the space in which faith-based/religious apps show the most potential for growth in the coming years against simply offering the text in increasingly siloed services?

Mobile App Opportunities

Might make this Friday's post; making the NET Bible very... on TwitpicFor as much as I would like to get away from the app-centric culture of mobile, there’s something to be gained for that focused window into a task that opens up an opportunity.

For example, the thumbnail on this post. I’d been using the NET Bible on my Nokia N8 since it’s basically a simple “web” app – it’s simply a collection of static webpages arranged as a site and isn’t in need of me loading any thing more than my browser. However, this “package” was really meant for PCs, larger screens, and mouse-driven input. I wanted to change that and so I started exploring what that could look like (first) in wireframe sketches and later a prototype. Nothing has come of it so far, but it has let me stretch my UX muscles a bit.

Then there are those opportunities that come from others such as the one posted this summer by Dave Bourgeios for aN application that would help people create, gather, and manage small group connections – if you will, something like taking cell groups and adding a communications manager component to it that’s usable from a mobile. Now, (at the time of this writing) I’m not sure of the status of this project, but it again points to some of those opportunities that are out there which might not be big hits, but are nonetheless usable and useful.

As you walk into the weekend, probably with a mobile device or several near you, pay attention to the opportunities that lie right next to you. You never know, someone might also be thinking about it as well and will connect with you to push it through.

Update: Speaking of opportunities: just took a quick look at AppGeyser (AppGeyser.com, @AppGeyser) and built a quick MMM Android app. Download it and give us your feedback.

How to Build an App for Your Ministry

@Ew4n @jebbrilliant just sketched this in Tactilis; thoughts? on TwitpicWhile we’ve talked in the past about the considerations you should taken when looking to build a mobile application or mobile website, we’ve not had for sometime a post that leads you down a few simple steps to having an app (ignoring website for the moment) for your ministry. The below items are strictly high level and may not apply to all ministries in the same manner – however, this should at least give you a starting point from which to build and market a mobile application experience for your ministry.

Step 1: Collect and Organize Your Content

Figure out what it is that should be in your mobile app. Whether its sermons, announcements, videos, music, or all of the able, you need to know what’s going in the app (and why it deserves to be there).

Create a small organizational chart that lists where these will be in relationship to how someone will use it. For example:

  • Home
  • Latest Sermons
  • Latest Videos
  • Calendar and Networking
  • Pastor’s Blog
  • Help/Support

Your outline might be a touch more in-depth than this, which is fine. The key is making sure that you at least know what’s going into your application and at a high level what you will be building.

One of the things that I like to do at this step is to use either a physical whiteboard or my iPad to create a general wireframe of what it is that the app should look and function like – sometimes including points to other systems that feed into the application.

You may decide that you want something other than a Bible/sermon/brochure app – that’s a good thing. Outline your expectations and what should be in there as well.

Step 2: Figure Out Your Mobile Platforms

There are several mobile platforms out there, and its very hard for any ministry to support them all. I recommend that you do some kind of survey (informal is just fine) toward figuring out the kinds of mobile devices that people have to which you will be creating this application for.

This doesn’t mean that you will only target one platform (such as Apple, Google, BlackBerry, etc.), but it does mean that you have an idea of what your potential use base will be.

You may also need to do additional research on mobile applications and many other parts of the mobile industry. We’ve got a list of resources that can help you get started (warning, its a lot of reading).

Now, here’s the important point, if you/your ministry is making the statement they want to support every platform *no questions asked,* then you need to stop thinking about an application at this point and point your energies towards making your website work best for mobile devices.

Step 3: Build or Buy

For the next step, you need to figure out if you are going to build the application from scratch, or purchase a application service-platform with which you’ll use to build your application.

Our list of mobile website and mobile application services

If you have decided that you will build your application from scratch, and your outline for what you want to offer looks like our example above, this is the type of team that you want to have in place for the least amount of fuss:

  • 1-3 mobile application developers who know the ministry’s current content management system
  • 1 software tester
  • 1 person who understands all of the current produced content within your ministry
  • 1 person who understands all of the current and near-future marketing messages within your ministry
  • 3+ people who will simply support the effort by prayer alone
  • 5-10 people who have the target devices and are ok with being a closed beta testing group
  • 1 person to document the application, frame/organize training if needed

This is optimal. This isn’t always what happens, and in many cases one person carries many of the hats mentioned here. The bigger the expanse of the application however, the more these specific points need to be taken into account.

If you’ve decided that you will build your application from a template (application-creation service), these are some of the items and people that you’d need:

  • 1 person who is responsible for creating and/or collecting all of the graphic assets that will be used in the application (ideally, this is the same person already responsible for this for web and other marketing materials)
  • 1-5 people who would be available to create or edit text content that will be used within the application
  • 1 person who understands the technical requirements and capabilities of various mobile application development platforms
  • 1-3 people to build the application on the mobile application development platform
  • 1 person who understands all of the current produced content within your ministry
  • 1 person who understands all of the current and near-future marketing messages within your ministry
  • 3+ people who will simply support the effort by prayer alone
  • 5-10 people who have the target devices and are ok with being a closed beta testing group
  • 1 person do document the project, application, frame/training, and manages the relationship with the application-creation service provider

Step 4: Build the Application
At this point, its just a matter of getting the code, graphics, and media together into something that nearly-works.

Its in this step that you are testing the application. The developer(s) should be testing as they go along, your test grip should have some kind of structured testing script that they are using. Don’t over-do the testing, but also don’t be afraid to take the medicine either. If something isn’t working, this is the time to figure that out.

If you are working with an application-creation service, they might also offer consulting services to help you through this part of creating your application.

Step 5: Promote Your Application

No matter if you have built the application from scratch, or used an application-creation service, you need to now let people know that there’s an application available from your ministry.

First, use the communication channels that you always use for announcements (during service, in the bulletin, on social networking services, etc.). That’s the easiest and least expensive way to get some attention for your application. If you do this quietly (“going viral”), then you might also catch som issues that might have been missed in the formal testing rounds.

Second, connect with media outlets that cover ministry and technology applications and ask if they would be open to reviewing or republishing the press release about your new application. In many cases, this opens new audiences for your ministry, while also allowing you a glimpse into what other people might think of your ministry offering (feedback is always good).

Third, use your application in public. Outside of contemplative or video applications, there are very few reasons not to fire up your ministry app when waiting in the line at the bank or at the doctor. Bonus points if your ministry’s senior leadership doesn’t just use the application to posture the project, but genuinely enjoys engaging your ministry resources in this manner.

Step 6: Update and Enhance

Things don’t end when you have released the application. Back in your testing queue, you most likely found things that were “better left to version 2.” Taken advantage of that information and get to work on version 2 of your application. You don’t need as large a team as you had the first time around to add those iterations, but it does help if you can keep your testing team(s) engaged.

Help! This is too much!

It is totally understandable that these steps are a bit more involved than simply opening the app store and saying “create me an app.” If you want it done right, you’ll do these, and similar steps in order to make sure that not only you create a great application, but that the experience of using it follows the expectations that you have.

If you find that you are having trouble in getting through these steps, MMM offers consulting services to help you and your ministry get through these moments. Contact us to set up a free, initial consultation (our rates afterward are reasonable for both the knowledge and niche that is mobile ministry software). If you are a developer or development company looking to get connected to ministries who need an app or mobile service, we can get you connected, drop us a line.

And now you can move forward making your ministry and your mobile application to being the best experience that it should be, and a solid representation of Christ to your community and the world.

Mobile Ministry Should Not Neglect Accessabiliy Practices

It isn’t often that we can cite the many miracles Jesus and the Apostles did in respect to their efforts to those whom their communities considered disabled or access-restricted. We find it as some of the more sincere and humbling acts of Scrpture when those persons are met and not simply healed, but addressed and considered as part of the greater community, not a layer to be ignored until public relations or peer pressure dictates they need attention (Matthew 5:1-15).

So, how do your mobile ministry practices address those who might be disabled or have restricted access due to physical, psychological, or political disabilities? For example, you built that mobile app for your church’s content, but are you relying on Apple/Google/RIM/Nokia/MS to have accessibility controls so they can navigate to your content, or have you designed high contrast, voice-powered interfaces that are independent of whatever the platform may or may not do?

Regard these words from technokitten in a recent post:

It’s not that big a deal, right? I can still do everything I used to be able to do. I only need glasses for a smidgeon of my time. And it can’t be that big a deal when we’re talking technology? Or so you’d think. My experience with mobile devices and my not-quite-as-good-as-it-used-to-be eyesight is pretty appalling:

  • Going to a website on my phone and being forced to view the mobile version where the font is fixed and is too small (only by 1 or 2pts) to read without my glasses. Why can’t I zoom in or increase the font size?
  • Going to a mobile site where having squinted at the article I’m reading, only to find that I can adjust the font size right at the bottom. That should be at the top, no? There’s little point in struggling to read the page only to find at the bottom, I could have made it a whole lot easier for myself.
  • But neither of those are as bad as the app situation. Oh my word. That is simply horrid and a frustration. And I’m speaking having used apps regularly on Android, Windows Phone 7, Nokia N95 and N8, Android and Palm Pre II. Why can’t I increase a font size in an app? Why does the font have to be so small in the first place?

And this is from a person who is simply speaking of her accessibility needs which tend to happen to us all as we simply age. I know from close relationships just how much even mild disabilities are ignored in computing – and more so when it comes to religious applications and connected services.

Now, you can take the approach that this isn’t your fight. But, you’d have a hard time finding your efforts ministering to much of anyone if you do. Sure, you meet the goals of building something via mobile, but you miss the point of “a love that serves” over simply having a talent (1 Corinithians 12-14).

Or, you can take the approach of getting up to speed on what you can do, even going as far as entering contests such as the Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessabiliy Awards. Its really up to you. The testimony of what you address though will be clear in time (Matthew 25:31-45).