A lot has progressed since I first posted the central parts of MetaV. At that time, I had only converted and indexed the text of the Bible itself. Since then, I’ve managed to add cross references, topics, time lines, readability info, Strong’s Concordance, and locations. I’ve even made a number of tools to explore each “module,” and one to explore the timeline, places, and text all in one place. But, what’s next? The diagram below shows the modules I have envisioned so far to include in the database. Black outlines indicate areas of future development; white outlines are completed modules (tables).
Each sub-group has at least the main part of it complete, with one exception: People. What can I say? People are messy. I know there are a number of genealogies out there and a number of tools produced to explore them, but finding an openly available one in an appropriately structured file that’s free for public use is proving difficult. Therefore, I expect it will take significantly longer to compile such a reference on my own using what I’ve scraped together so far.
I have chosen not to upload the updated database until I at least have people identified and tagged with basic relationship information (father/son, husband/wife). After that iteration is complete, I’ll make that available and begin work on the remaining modules and other refinements at the same time as producing new, simple tools to explore the database. Any estimate on how long that will take would only be a guess.
3 replies on “Progress Update”
You my friend are nuts!! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for as I started normalizing the KJV a few weeks ago! I didn’t think to go down to the word level… but now I see how it’s THE level to which one must go in order to build a proper model.
Funny, I’m also using Tableau to dig into this data! Are you by any chance looking for beta testers for the db? Are you considering other languages at the moment?
Are you working on a particular project of your own? If so, perhaps we can combine efforts in some areas. I will have the next version of the database ready to post here sometime in late summer (I hope). After that, feel free to do whatever you like with it. That’s when I’ll begin programming a new app, probably coded using various parts of the Adobe Flash Platform to explore the database.
I was approaching this with an open mind, figuring there are many discoveries just waiting to be made if we throw cutting edge technology and some solid design principles at the Bible. I am very interested in using Tableau to create a new interface for exploring the Bible. Shoot me an email, I’d love to chat about collaborating!