[bt-devel] Questions about BibleTime for Project Leaders

[Don Parris]

Joachim Ansorg wrote:
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> Hi,
> thank you very much for your eMail and your time and work you put into your 
> writing.
> If you need more detailed answers to some of the questions please let me know. 
> Feel free to fix my wrong spelling :)
> 
> 
>>1. When did you start your project?  (how long have you been around?)
> 
> 
> Version 0.1 of BibleTime was released at  1999-08-27. As far as I remember we 
> started working on BibleTime in June 1999.
> I'm in the project since the beginning.
> 
> 
>>2. Who are the key players in your project?
> 
> 
> Martin Gruner is a developer who is also involved with the project management 
> stuff.
> James Ots does a great job with the icons and our other graphics stuff.
> Brook Humphrey, Daniel Glassey and Lamar Owen are our brave packagers.
> Without our translators we could not reach people who don't know English.
> 
> 
>>3. What is your project's goal/mission? (What is your product or service?)
> 
> 
> Our aim is to make good Bible study software for Linux systems.
> 
> 
>>4. Can you give me a rough estimate of the number of people (or
>>organizations) using or  participating in your project?
> 
> 
> That's hard to guess because there are mirrors of our downloads, packages in 
> Linux distributions and so on. And the download statistics may include 
> multiple downloads of the same users.
> I guess we have less then 10.000 users (probably about 5.000). 
> 
> Developers: Two in project management and coding, around 15 translators, 3-5 
> packagers, one artist working on our graphics (icons, ...).
> 
> 
>>5. What are the key features of your project?
> 
> 
> BibleTime is an easy to use Bible study tool.
> In my opinion it does provide enough functionality to help christians to study 
> the Bible. 
> BibleTime offers easy access to Bibles, Commentaries, Lexicons and more 
> general books. It offers an easy to use bookmark system, searching, printing, 
> limited export capatibilities to the clipboard or to disk, a personal 
> commentary editor and some more features.
> 
> 
>>6. Who will benefit most from your project?  (individuals? churches?
>>large? small? etc.)
> 
> 
> Individuals, I guess.
> 
> 
>>7. Have you seen any increase in activity in the last two months? (in
>>terms of  the number of users or downloads)  Can you explain the reason
>>for the increase?
> 
> 
> No, I don't think activity increased in the last two months. In times without 
> new releases users and downloads stay at the same level.
> 
> 
>>8. Have you taken on any new developers/users (recently) to help with
>>your project?
> 
> 
> Some new volunteers stepped up to help with our documentation.
> - From time to time we get new translations.
> 
> 
>>9. How can people get involved with your project?  What do you need most?
> 
> 
> Most of the volunteers just email us and ask how they could help us.
> We most urgently need developers/coders familiar with Qt/KDE who are brave 
> enough to dig into our code :)
> 
> 
>>10. Are you aware of churches that already use FOSS?  Are you aware of
>>any that are considering using FOSS solutions? (consider the OS and the
>>apps separately, as some may use a proprietary OS and FOSS apps.)
> 
> 
> We don't get much feedback about this.
> I don't know of churches using FOSS, but I know that the Sword project is used 
> in poorer countries, although I don't know if churches use the software 
> there.
> But I do know of some christian missionaries using the Sword project.
> 
> 
>>11. Would you be interested in meeting and/or working with other
>>Christian admins/consultants/developers?
> 
> 
> Yes, we are. But that depends on the aims which should be reached.
> 
> 
>>12. Anything else you feel is important to mention?
> 
> 
> Without God nothing like this is possible. We don't want to do BibleTime for 
> ourselfs but for his glory.
> 
> 
> Joachim
> - --
> <>< Re: deemed!
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> 
Hey thanks!  The questions had to be somewhat generic to get basic 
background info from various types of projects.  I've got to update "Penguin 
in the Pew" to include these projects I've learned about.  That little 
booklet has really helped a lot of people - including a few churches.

When I get responses to the article, I'll know how to direct developers 
interested in developing for the Kingdom to the right projects.  I can also 
create a brief article at Freely - sort of a how-to on getting involved in 
various projects.  The Freely Project is a website that offers help to 
believers & churches desring to learn about/use FOSS.  The Linux 4 
Christians site/e-mail list has a similar goal.  The Christian Open 
Development Network is currently operated by the founders of LightSys, and 
desires to host/list Christian FOSS projects.

What I did in the wake of my Linux Journal article was to direct folks to 
Freely.  Now I can direct folks a little more intelligently as well.  With 
this article, believers will become aware of FOSS projects they don't 
already know about, and developers, admins, and consultants who work with 
churches can be better prepared to offer solid information for churches. 
People will also see that more and more Christians are migrating to FOSS 
OSes/apps - and for good reasons!

I sincerely wish I had been blessed with the gift of software development. 
But alas, that takes more logic than my left-handed brain can handle. ;)  I 
can't even figure out how to instantiate a class in PHP!  I look at the 
examples in the books, but trying to define my own is like trying to hold 
back the winds of Hurricane Charlie - ain't happenin'. :(  I do well with 
SQL design and SQL server management, though.  I rather enjoy databases. 
But writing about all that you guys are doing for us is probably my real 
contribution to the cause.

Thanks for your time.  I know you're busy, and something like this can be a 
distraction.  I hope to continue chronicling the Christian FOSS movement in 
various web media, and even through additional booklets.  I also hope my 
writings continue to stir interest in FOSS among the brethren.

In Christ,
Don