Six weeks ago, we announced our plans to build YouVersion, an online tool that allows people to connect media and web content with specific verses of the Bible. We have been amazed at the initial interest and response that we have received so far. We also thank all of you who have expressed an interest in participating or helping.
Since the announcement, our Digerati Team has been working diligently to develop YouVersion. Today, we are excited to announce that we have just released the Alpha test of YouVersion to a limited group of participants. We will continue a very aggressive development schedule over the coming weeks, and plan to expand the Alpha test to a larger group of participants as rapidly as possible. We look forward to the insight our test participants bring as we prepare for the Beta launch of the system to a broader audience this fall.
The Alpha release is intended to serve as a “proof of concept”, and does not include all of the features that will be a part of the public Beta release. Here are the basic features included in this release:
- Bible Reader (currently only public domain translations)
- Ability to star favorite verses
- Ability to tag verses with user-define tags
- Contribute text and associate with verse(s)
- Contribute embedded videos (YouTube and more) and associate with verse(s)
- Contribute links to blog posts or web pages and associate with verse(s)
- Journal feature
- Ability to view starred or tagged items/verses
- Overall user interface design and functionality
In the next few weeks we will be adding several additional features including search, quick chapter/verse selector, help content, and much more.
You view screen shots and read more at http://www.youversion.com/
We have been discussing YouVersion with many Bible publishers, and have received overwhelmingly positive responses regarding incorporating their various translations into the project. We have a few publishers that have already committed to the project, and we are now working at wrapping up the licensing and technical details to incorporate their translations into our Beta release.
As we expand the Alpha test, we will email additional participants with instructions on how to login. If you are interested in participating, and have not already done so, please let us know by sharing your email address with us here. You can also subscribe to this blog to get future announcements about YouVersion.