Combining Christianity and Technology to Enhance Your Life. ?Those are the words that you see at the top of each page here at ChristianDroid. ?I love the Lord and love technology so when someone comes along with a new idea to combine these two things I get excited. ?Over the years I have used a number of different computer applications to assist me in my Bible studies. ?I believe that I have tried just about every piece of Bible study software that is on the market today.
However, trying so many different products does cause some problems. ?For the past 15 years or so I have taught the same Sunday School class at our church. ?I have always taught this class using my computer tools to assist me in my lessons and over the years I have taken extension notes and made hundreds of lesson outlines. ?The problem is that I have notes and outlines scattered about my hard drive in 4 or 5 different formats and in 3 or 4 different Bible Study programs. ?So, as you can imagine, it is becoming difficult to find something that I know I wrote 10 years ago. ?(Heck, I have trouble finding stuff I wrote last week sometimes.)
With the technology available to us today, wouldn?t it be great if there was a place that I could store all of my notes and access them from any computer, any Bible study program, or even my phone? ?That wish might soon become a reality.
ChristianDroid: ?Who exactly is Aaron Frey?? Tell me a bit about yourself?
Aaron: ?I?m a lifelong Christian and Bible student who went to school for pastoral ministry but who has always been enthusiastic about the potentials of computing technologies. I was already combining Bible study and computer technology back in the eighties when I was still in high school. In college, I learned Greek and Hebrew from professors who were raised with pen and paper, but I spent my evenings recreating my education with Bible software. Not long after graduating the seminary I was called back to help my old professors initialize a one-to-one computing strategy using Bible software in the classroom, and I have long enjoyed my ?side job? of running Bible software training sessions across the country for pastors who want to dig a little deeper.
ChristianDroid: ?What exactly is PearlVault?
Aaron: ?PearlVault grew not only out of my own experience with Bible software but also from the experiences of the students I?ve trained. There is always excitement about the huge potential for discovery that goes along with a digital Bible reference library. But software packages tend to be fleeting things when compared to the lifelong pursuit of Bible study. I was constantly being asked about the note taking features of the various software packages, and the one concern that was always being voiced was what would happen if you changed Bible software packages or you wanted your notes out of the system for other purposes. Sadly, Bible software has not given us a great answer to that question and neither has the rise of Bible websites or mobile apps.
PearlVault is an attempt to apply the power of technology to the lifelong pursuit of recording and building upon Bible study notes. In other words, it provides a sort of digital Bible margin for you to write in that isn?t stuck to any one Bible that you might use.
The first stage, which is the focus of the PearlVault project at Kickstarter.com, is to create a web portal powered by a very intelligent a flexible database that we will be able to easily migrate into emerging technologies in the future. The web portal will work on any computer with internet access, but it will be specially optimized for mobile devices so that you can take notes anywhere.
The web portal itself will be independent of the various digital and paper Bible study environments that you might use but will include the typical powers for taking notes that you find in the best Bible software packages: highlighting, attaching to verses, user-defined tagging, attaching to individual words?even attaching to words in the original languages.
?It?s the next stage where it gets really exciting, though. We?ve already started developing relationships with Bible software companies, website providers and app developers. We will be dedicated to making and maintaining synchronization structures with all these Bible study environments. We want you to be able to access your notes from within Bible software, websites and apps. That?s the key to making sure that your discoveries can stay with you for life even as technology changes all around you. That is the real vision we?re pursuing.
ChristianDroid: ?How does this differ from all of the other Bible study resources that are available to students of the Bible?
Aaron: ?The key difference is that this is not just another way to access large libraries of information. The ability to search through huge numbers of Bible resources has changed Bible study forever, and that?s fantastic. The question is, what do you do when you find something good? How do you record it so that you don?t have to go looking for it again? How do you keep that information with you when the next great resource-mining technology comes along or when you switch word processors or note taking apps?
?I like to see it as the difference between finding out what other people have believed about the Bible and discovering for yourself what you really believe, or the difference between what someone tells you the Bible says and holding on to what the Bible itself says to you. That?s an aspect of Bible study that I never want to see us lose in a sea of commentaries and reference works, and it?s worth providing great technology to that pursuit as well.
ChristianDroid: ?Do you see this as a resource for just ministers or do you envision anyone who reads the Word of God using PearlVault?
Aaron: ?Ministers get the point right away, of course. But we are creating this specifically to be useful to anyone who reads the Word, anyone who receives an insight that they want to hold onto and build upon as they grow. Some will have more notes than others, of course, but everyone will appreciate the fact that you can be in a study of John 1-6 in 2012 and uncover once again what you learned as you do a topical study about God?s grace in 2017. This tool is for all Bible students, not just the professionals.
ChristianDroid: ?How did you decide to pursue the PearlVault project?
Aaron: ?My wife has heard me talk about the need for this thing we now call PearlVault for years. The Lord allowed for a set of circumstances at my last ministerial post that I never could have predicted and that, as hard as it was for me to believe, led me to the decision to resign. It was the hardest thing I had ever done and extremely difficult on my family as well.
Through the years I had been recruited for several jobs at one of the bigger Bible software companies and wondered if I shouldn?t try pursuing that. When the first job I applied for was eliminated before a decision could be made, I decided to call the CEO and pitch an early concept for PearlVault. His response was basically, ?That?s a great idea, but we?ve got enough to do with what we?re working on already. Why don?t you make a business out of that??
I thought he was crazy and went to go find other work. But after a couple of months of that (I live in Michigan, which, I?m told, currently has the worst job market in the country), my wife said to me that I was the crazy one and that I should pursue the notes project.
She usually wins our arguments, so here we are. I?ve never been happier at how convincing she always is.
ChristianDroid: ?Tell me about the Kickstarter Campaign?
Aaron: ?Well, we?re off to a slow start. Sadly, I?m no great marketer, and I decided to spend the first third of our 45-day campaign focused on friends and family. They?ve been great and have provided some wonderful pledges, but I?couldn?t?seem to get them moving quickly enough to start the momentum you like to see in a campaign like this.
Now that we?ve passed the 30-days-to-go mark, I?m working hard on contacting Christian technology blogs and other media. With no advertising budget, this will not be easy. But I?m convinced by my early research that the people we need to make this project fly are out there. My thanks to ChristianDroid and the others who are now working to spread the word much faster than I?ve been able to so far. This won?t work without all of you behind it. I know that for sure.
ChristianDroid: ?$305,000 is an ambitious goal. ?The way Kickstarter works, if the goal is not met then no funds are donated and distributed. ? Are you concerned about the dollar amount needed?
Aaron: ?How could you not be, right? On the other hand,?I?ve?tried to use what I?ve learned from the Scriptures over the years to guide every aspect of my approach to this project, and I am confident that the principles on which I?m basing this are sound.
My research also indicates that there are more than 40 million Americans involved in some kind of organized Bible study at the moment, and that doesn?t even consider the worldwide count. Then there?s the fact that mobile computing is exploding right now, and it is exploding in the Christian community just as much as everywhere else. Then when you consider that, depending on pledge amounts, we only need something less than 10,000 of those 40 million+ Bible students to pledge, you realize that this is definitely doable?with enough exposure, of course.
ChristianDroid: ?Once the Kickstarter campaign succeeds (notice I said once and not if) what is the timeframe for PearlVault?
Aaron: ?Love your confidence!
I have a very talented team of developers who have a strong record on delivering within the timeframes they have set. We?ve been over and over the details of the project, and they tell me they can have the web portal up and running in six months.
Now, their reputation is one thing, but mine is a little closer to home, so I?m planning on just under a year. However, those who pledge to be a part of the beta testing shouldn?t have to wait more than a few months before seeing pre-release versions they can play with. I?m really excited to see how they will help us to mold the final product.
And keep in mind that, as I said, we have already established relationships with some of the bigger Bible software, website and app providers out there. If they are willing to work with us early on synchronization, I?ll be more than happy to get them going right away. I think that would be great!
ChristianDroid: ?If someone is interested in seeing this PearlVault become a reality, how can they help?
Aaron: ?Head to Kickstarter.com, look up PearlVault and see what you can do! There is also a shortcut link (bit.ly/PearlVault) that can get you straight to the project page.
Most importantly, though, get the word out. Humanly speaking, the plausibility of our success is based on the percentage of the 40 million+ people in America who can understand the value of PearlVault prior to seeing it in action. I?ll be honest: With no advertising budget, the right percentage of people will be hard to reach. But with today?s connectedness, this kind of thing is entirely possible, so long as people are willing to use the means at their disposal.
ChristianDroid: ?Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?
Aaron: ?Please, spread bit.ly/PearlVault around. We?re going to need a lot of exposure to pull this off. If you?ve been around Bible study for a while, think of how great it would be if you could have had something like this back when you started and help us along. If you?re new to Bible study, go talk to a veteran about this and see how quickly you can get them to say, ?Boy, I wish I?d had something like that twenty years ago!? Based on the conversations I keep having, it won?t take you long. Take that as additional encouragement to get involved in PearlVault, and see if you can?t bring your veteran friend along.
Richest blessings on your studies, everyone, and thanks, Sele, for your interest and support.
?
I would like to thank Aaron for taking the time to answer my questions today. ?I hope that you have enjoyed learning little bit more about PearlVault and Aaron?s plans for this exciting project. ?Take some time to check out the information on PearlVault at bit.ly/PearlVault and be sure to tell your friends and family about this exciting new way to organize and collect your Bible study notes coming to your computer soon.
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