I haven't exactly revised these posts, but I'm reposting them together so that my professor can locate them more easily.
Some thoughts: YouVersion
I realize I've been talking about YouVersion being all Web 2.0 and stuff, and that I haven't really expanded on what makes it the most Web 2.0-y. I've mentioned that users can be "connected" with other users. But I haven't really talked about it, huh. Well, that's probably because I'm not interested in that aspect of YouVersion. ...But I still think I should address it.
YouVersion allows you to "follow" others and to "be followed" by others. Great! Well, I have one follower. He's been following for a day now, and I don't know why he's following me, since I haven't really done anything with YouVersion except highlight and tag random verses while testing it out. I've highlighted Genesis 1:1 and wrote a note entitled "testing" about it. That's about it. Oh, and a few other tags to test out its technical abilities that I mentioned in my previous post.
Do I want other people to "follow" me on YouVersion? Not really. Strangers reading about my intimate (for lack of better word) thoughts and feelings about the Bible, Christianity, God, etc.... Eurgh--kinda weird. So I like that my contributions on YouVersion can be made private.
Do I want to "follow" others on YouVersion? Not really. I don't know them. They don't know me. Some may argue that I can just make friends! But I can make friends without the internet... I can make friends by meeting them face to face at real social gatherings.. So even if I can get alerts about contributions that the people I'm following have made, the whole following business on YouVersion doesn't seem so marvelous to me. Of course, it's always encouraging to see what others feel about a particular part of the Bible, and I'm sure I'll come across helpful and useful links by looking at other people's contributions*--but would I necessarily follow someone because of that? I don't think so...
Of course, that's unless a whole bunch of my friends use YouVersion, too. Then it's a different story, cuz that means that we can keep in touch about these Bible things using YouVersion when Daily Life would otherwise keep us from spending time and sharing about these things in person.
I guess, all in all, what I'm trying to say, is that Bible study is good. Bible study is great--when you study it with other people. But Bible study is greatest when you study it with other people face to face. That is where REAL community is experienced. That is where REAL love, encouragement, rebuke, truth, and grace is experienced. Face to face-people. There are internet-people--screen names--and there are face to face-people. There's no hiding from face to face-people, and that's what we need--face to face-people to tell us how it is and to show us how it is. That's why YouVersion is kind of blah to me. That's actually why the community aspect of Web 2.0 is kind of blah to me. I don't really prefer it because I don't really need it...
--kowai-kawaii
*LONG side note --feel free to skip this because it may not make sense, and I cannot bring myself to delete it because I had taken the time to type it out and TRY to explain it-- Even stumbling across helpful links through other people's contributions that are uploaded through a particular passage of the Bible seem kind of unlikely to me. What are the odds that I would find Article related to Topic A through Verse A, when Verse B and C and D and E and F and G and XYZ relate to Topic A, too? Even so, Verse A could be related to Topic A as well as Topic B and C and D and E and F and G and XYZ, too. If someone uploaded some content related to Topic A through Verse A, though I felt that Verse B better reflected Topic A and therefore did not go to Verse A to find any other such content about Topic A, I may never find Article! .....nevermind. If anyone is following my train of thought and the way I'm presenting it--congratulations! ...welcome to my mind. I guess what I'm trying to say is that finding applicable, "inspiring" content from a random stranger through a fairly arbitrarily chosen verse about any topic seems kind of farfetched to me.
YouVersion allows you to "follow" others and to "be followed" by others. Great! Well, I have one follower. He's been following for a day now, and I don't know why he's following me, since I haven't really done anything with YouVersion except highlight and tag random verses while testing it out. I've highlighted Genesis 1:1 and wrote a note entitled "testing" about it. That's about it. Oh, and a few other tags to test out its technical abilities that I mentioned in my previous post.
Do I want other people to "follow" me on YouVersion? Not really. Strangers reading about my intimate (for lack of better word) thoughts and feelings about the Bible, Christianity, God, etc.... Eurgh--kinda weird. So I like that my contributions on YouVersion can be made private.
Do I want to "follow" others on YouVersion? Not really. I don't know them. They don't know me. Some may argue that I can just make friends! But I can make friends without the internet... I can make friends by meeting them face to face at real social gatherings.. So even if I can get alerts about contributions that the people I'm following have made, the whole following business on YouVersion doesn't seem so marvelous to me. Of course, it's always encouraging to see what others feel about a particular part of the Bible, and I'm sure I'll come across helpful and useful links by looking at other people's contributions*--but would I necessarily follow someone because of that? I don't think so...
Of course, that's unless a whole bunch of my friends use YouVersion, too. Then it's a different story, cuz that means that we can keep in touch about these Bible things using YouVersion when Daily Life would otherwise keep us from spending time and sharing about these things in person.
I guess, all in all, what I'm trying to say, is that Bible study is good. Bible study is great--when you study it with other people. But Bible study is greatest when you study it with other people face to face. That is where REAL community is experienced. That is where REAL love, encouragement, rebuke, truth, and grace is experienced. Face to face-people. There are internet-people--screen names--and there are face to face-people. There's no hiding from face to face-people, and that's what we need--face to face-people to tell us how it is and to show us how it is. That's why YouVersion is kind of blah to me. That's actually why the community aspect of Web 2.0 is kind of blah to me. I don't really prefer it because I don't really need it...
--kowai-kawaii
*LONG side note --feel free to skip this because it may not make sense, and I cannot bring myself to delete it because I had taken the time to type it out and TRY to explain it-- Even stumbling across helpful links through other people's contributions that are uploaded through a particular passage of the Bible seem kind of unlikely to me. What are the odds that I would find Article related to Topic A through Verse A, when Verse B and C and D and E and F and G and XYZ relate to Topic A, too? Even so, Verse A could be related to Topic A as well as Topic B and C and D and E and F and G and XYZ, too. If someone uploaded some content related to Topic A through Verse A, though I felt that Verse B better reflected Topic A and therefore did not go to Verse A to find any other such content about Topic A, I may never find Article! .....nevermind. If anyone is following my train of thought and the way I'm presenting it--congratulations! ...welcome to my mind. I guess what I'm trying to say is that finding applicable, "inspiring" content from a random stranger through a fairly arbitrarily chosen verse about any topic seems kind of farfetched to me.
Beta-->2.0 without 1.0?
Notice the sticker-label looking thing with the word "Beta" in it. But now... I checked my email today, and I had received this alert--apparently YouVersion has updated? officiated? its status so that now it's:
Ooo slick black. and no more "Beta" sticker. The subject headline of the email looks like this: 
Umm, so I'm confused--it can jump from being in Beta all the way to 2.0? Or did its 1.0 stage last for just a day or something? But then, I'd've received an email about YouVersion coming out of Beta and into 1.0, right? Regardless... Man, YouVersion is different now.Now the homepage opens directly to the Bible Reader. My favorite update to the site is the ability of the reader to open up two versions of the Bible at once. The versions can be sync-ed to the same passage, or they can be unsync-ed. Browsing through the Bible is easier, now, too. I wish I remembered how browsing worked with the old Reader, but I remember that I didn't like it and preferred to search passages up directly through its search engine. Look at its craziness!:
I didn't mention it before, did I, but YouVersion incorporates not just English versions of the Bible, but also OTHER LANGUAGES!!! yesss What a tool to help those learning a different language, eh, especially with two languages side by side. Besides clicking on the "browse" button and using the pop-up menu, you can also click the "previous" and "next" buttons for the "previous" and "next" chapters of that book.And now, instead of "star"-ing a verse, you "bookmark" it. The "My Contents" tabs that I mentioned in my previous post are now gone. Now that half of the screen is tab-less and incorporates widget boxes: "Community Contributions," "My Contributions," "Reading Plan," and "Journal." (They're customizable, but only in that you can re-order them, and choose not to show some--still kind of glitchy, though, because it wasn't cooperating with me earlier.)
Viewing tags in this newer version is easier, too. I think the previous version was rather glitchy with its tagging abilities. Kinda too difficult to explain... Well, I would tag a Verse 1 with "tag 1" and then I'd tag the same Verse 1 and a new Verse 2 with "tag 2," but when I went to look at my tags, it seemed that Verse 1 would be tagged with "tag 1" and Verse 2 with "tag 2" but not Verse 1 and 2 with "tag 2" or something weird like that. But that's fine, cuz I think it's better now.
I don't think they've figured out the attaching/uploading audio and vlogs capabilities yet. Doesn't matter, especially for vlogging. You won't ever catch me doing that, I think.
Overall: nice, YouVersion/LifeChurch.tv! verrry nice
--kowai-kawaii
edit: The slides of my class presentation, mentioned in the first sentence, can be viewed here!:
Youversion Presentation
View more presentations from kowaikawaii.
Christianity and Bible Study: Web 2.0'd
YouVersion! That's right. YouVersion. Not YourVersion, but YouVersion. Kinda odd, but let's not let that stop us... YouVersion was started up by LifeChurch.tv. I feel that LifeChurch.tv needs some more introduction. I'm not that well acquainted with it, but as I have come to understand it, poking around on their website, it's an actual church with more than 10 locations or something. The churches are so spread out that they are all connected by satellite and internet in some way (exactly how they're connected that way...that's not really clear to me yet... They do put their sermons online...). The odd thing is that their brick-and-mortar churches are also called "LifeChurch.tv"--.tv?! I don't understand the reasoning for a physical church to have a ".tv" attached to its name when "Life Church" would be good enough... Anyway--
The thing about LifeChurch.tv is that it runs an "online church." Internet church sounds a bit odd to me, and for me to share more of my opinions about it would be an entirely different post. Ultimately, whatever floats people's boats is my so, so, so short answer (an answer that I almost don't want to give at all). So LifeChurch.tv is very internet savvy, and so they were able to make YouVersion, a free online Bible that connects you to other believers, allowing you to connect through shared links, videos, and comments, all centered the individual's selected Bible verse(s).
As with any other Web 2.0 app, this means signing up for an account. I know how to do that! Check! And now... The Bible Reader. Either I'm not that smart, or it's not that intuitive, or it just doesn't work that well, but the reader takes some getting used to. It says:
You can begin by selecting, then tagging (I failed at the first (which was the basis to the second and third). For your information,) or starring (
) content that resonate with your studies.
Just tap the text and it will select/highlight the entire verse in yellow for you. It took me a while to figure it out. So sad.
To the right of the reader is what I like to call "the Content Tabs" (I just made that up because I didn't know how to refer to it in my post). The first tab of these "Content Tabs," the "Community" tab, brings you to other people's activity surrounding the highlighted verse. Most common are "thoughts"/notes--theological notes, historical notes, "btw" notes, "i love this!" notes, devotional notes... Besides notes, members of the community may attach/upload links to other websites, videos, images, and coming soon, vlogs and audio.
The next tab is the archive for your own uploaded content. It's nice that there is the option of making your own content private or public. However public and community-y you choose to use this website by utilizing YouVersion's Web 2.0-ness (its "Web 2.0-ness" being its ability to link to many different types of things), YouVersion, in my opinion, is more immediate and useful than Delicious bookmarking--at least for Bible study related stuff. See, I could bookmark an article from a website that really makes me go, "Ahh.." about Genesis 1:1 through Delicious and look through my tags at Delicious whenever I wanted to find it, or I could just more directly link it to the actual Bible with YouVersion, and look at "my contributions" on YouVersion where all my other related Bible study content are also located. (es, post-its in the physical Bible book would work, too, but then everything gets lumpy and the post-it covers other parts of text...) YouVersion seems pretty cool, but I need to poke around it a bit more to see if I'd really stick with it.
But no more time for poking around--I'm getting sleepy, and while I'd love to talk to you more about YouVersion, I'd rather talk to God about other things... Good night!
--kowai-kawaii
