Open Letter to YouVersion
Well, I asked my loyal readers/followers/friends what would make youversion.com better and neither of you had a single idea…or you think YouVersion is perfect just the way it is. Actually, Darren tried to leave a comment, but alas, comment part of my blog went belly up; that one’s on me. (By the way, the mission critical parts of the blog are working, but there are some cosmetic things I’m still working through.) I even provided an idea to prime the pump, “Out-Google Google/Youtube; make on-line sermons, (youtube, vimeo, tokbox, podcasts, etc.) searchable and cross-referenced via search terms, Twitter hashtags, etc.” But, I got nothin’ from you, so I guess I’m on my own.
As visionary as my prime-the-pump suggestion was I realized that it’s an awfully selfish suggestion. Ultimately it’s born of a desire to make my life easier. Oh, and it’s also trying to show-off; to show how outside the box I can think…well, maybe not that far outside of the box.
All of my other ideas were self-serving as well: syncing bookmarks between platforms, i.e. Firefox and iPhone; downloadable reading plans; off-line reading; live chat with friends…on and on ad nauseum.
So, here’s an idea that really doesn’t help me at all. It’s what one of my best friends would call a “Kingdom Idea.” And, yeh, I’m intentionally trying to get out of the box.
With that said, I’m offering an open letter to youversion.com; let’s think of it as a challenge. That’s right, I’m throwing down and talkin’ smack! Let’s see what you got, playahs!
My idea starts with a client for the One Laptop Per Child initiative [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/The_OLPC_Wiki] notebook called the “XO”. An open-source Linux client for Sugar should be easy. How about an Adobe Air app for the Microsoft XP “lite” OS that runs some XOs? Another possibility is a Java client. Porting the existing smart phone Java client for youversion over to the XO shouldn’t be too difficult.
Rwanda is getting ready to distribute 100,000 XOs to their children [http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1997940,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular] and then follow up with a distribution to at least half of their 2.5 million remaining school children. What if each of those had a copy of the Bible, or even just the New Testament, in Kinya-rwanda, French and English on it? That would rock like a hurricane!
Peru and Argentina plan on distributing 260,000 and 60,000 respectively. A Spanish translation on each one? Dude!
I realize there are a ton of “politically incorrect landmines” to this plan of installing Bibles on PCs distributed by governments. I don’t know Mr. Negroponte, chairman of the OLPC idea, personally and I don’t know his spiritual disposition, but there probably will be some substantial hurdles to overcome the “proselytizing” aspect of this.
So, why not develop, build and distribute our own $100 PC? We can call it the “tO!” Get it? The “t” looks like a cross. Oh, well, marketing isn’t my thing.
But really, it can be done. We’ve spent $250 billion in American churches over the last decade or so. We can certainly can poney-up $181 per notebook (yep, that’s what the XO costs) to equip missionaries to build relationships through education and technology. Yeh, I know that there are technophobes who think that technology is inherently evil, but once upon a time the Guttenberg press was cutting edge and look where that got us.
We don’t need to start “over-there”, either. We could start right here with at-risk kids in our cities or on Native American reservations. There’s no shortage of beta-testers.
And, the money is out there, too. I’ve worked a telethon for CBN, c’mon Patty Rob. Or, how about the Salvation Army? They’re still working through that cool $1 billion from the Kroc’s (the brains behind McDonald’s). I know that the Kroc donation is intended for Kroc Centers, but think about each kid that comes to a Kroc Center with their own PC with the youversion app on it. S. Truett Cathy? I’d give up my profit eating Chik-fil-a coupons to free up some funds for this project. I don’t know Mr. Cathy, but I bet he’d be all about this. Hey, Southern Baptists…how about throwing some of your Great Commission Resurgence money behind this?
Yep, the money is there. Besides, God’s plan done God’s way never lacks God’s supply. He owns the cattle on a thousand hillsides. If He needs to raise some capital He can sell some burgers.
Anyway, there’s my idea. Do with it what you like, but please don’t waste it. And, if you need someone to head up this project, then I’m available. Hmmm, I guess this idea was a bit self-serving after all.
Oh, one more idea…how about a cooler mobile app icon? Really, is that brown thing really representative of the most progressive, visionary Christian on-line presence in the world?