Papers from the Trans-Tasman Research Symposium, 'Emerging Research in Media, Religion and Culture, 2005
This paper is based on the experience of designing and preparing an online biblical commentary, a... more This paper is based on the experience of designing and preparing an online biblical commentary, and adapting the material in the light of user feedback and suggestions. In the process a great deal of both anecdotal and numerical data has been gathered that relate to the use and usefulness of this online hypertext medium for delivering high quality teaching about the Bible to a wide variety of users. The initial project that has become a test bed for future developments was a commentary on Amos. This book was chosen because it is fairly short, is often used in teaching (as a typical prophetic book) and was already familiar to the author. Now that the Amos commentary (Amos: Postmodern Bible http://www.bible.gen.nz) has a stable " shape " and design (see section "Design" below) other scholars are involved in planning a second phase to produce both commentary on other books and the dictionary type articles that are needed by such a hypertext commentary. This wider project is known as the Hypertext Bible Commentary and Encyclopedia. Project Initial Dreams The idea of producing an online hypertext biblical commentary began with excitement at the opportunity offered by the Internet to make available much more widely the sort of multimedia enriched teaching that one provides to a class. That most Bible related electronic resources available were shovelware (take a text designed for print and convert it into a series of static web pages or a saleable CD-ROM) was also a motivation to produce something that made more effective use of the capacity of the new medium. Since the project began, this situation has changed for the better in two ways. Commercial Bible software has begun to offer a good range of useful reference works in formats that are increasingly interlinked to the Bible text, Libronix, Bibleworks and Accordance are the best known examples of such a "docuverse" approach to hypertext biblical study resources. 2 Of these only Accordance seems yet to have integrated much non-textual material, though a very general and cursory treatment of the whole Bible called Illuminatus is available that uses pictures and hypertext linking extensively. Although the project began with enthusiasm for the possibilities of multimedia, it quickly became clear that the move from text to hypertext, which is implicit in the move to electronic web-delivered multimedia, meant much more than a commentary with pictures and sound. A well-written hypertext allows exploration and discovery. Because readers can (but are not forced to) follow links, each reader constructs their own distinct path through the material, as well as choosing what material to look
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Papers by Tim Bulkeley