Wikis and scripture study tools
16 February 2005 01:07

I wanted to put down some ideas for a scripture study tool. I envision a tool that lets me browse through any number of "books" (Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, Apocrypha, History of the Church, etc.), and place "footnotes" anywhere I wanted to in those volumes.

The tool would allow me to browse through each volume, reading like a book, and do various forms of keyword searches. Any footnotes I have added would be displayed at the bottom of each "page" of text, with a superscripted number or letter in the text directing me to the footnote.

I envision this tool working like a Wiki does. For each "page" of text, I could hit the "Edit" button and at the point of interest in the text, add some WAFL code containing the footnote, hit save, and be on my way. The display engine in printing each "page" would auto-calculate footnote numbers/letters, and display the corresponding set of footnotes for each "page" in question.

Along with each footnote I would associate a date/time. This would allow me to browse the tool from the point of view of the footnotes, which would provide a "scripture journal" view of sorts. Each footnote would indicate the "page" and/or location in the volume that it came from.

Being able to reference "verses" in footnote text would be useful too.

The technology to do this is readily available. I could see a Kwiki plugin handling the wafl code. Whether or not to make it a public "wiki" would be up to the person putting it together.

Just an idea for the meme pool.