BibleTech 09 Round-Up

The second annual Bible Tech 2009 conference was like no other conference I have ever attended. The first session had each attendee stand up and introduce themselves to the other 118 participants. It was as awkward and endearing as you could imagine a room made up of techies, biblical scholars, linguists, missionaries, and two Jews (Ellen Frankel and myself) would be.

The conference was sponsored by Logos(pronounced like the Portuguese city rather than the branding device), a company that has licensed digital content from JPS for the last decade. The various Logos staff I met were quite congenial, from JD the event coordinator, to Bob the company head, to Phil the publisher relations manager. I was really impressed with how laid back and happy they all seemed with their work. I have blogged before about positive and creative work environments and from what I observed and who I met, the banter and interactions among Logos staff bodes well for the company.

The conference lasted for two days with concurrent 45 minute sessions running from 9am-5pm with a surprisingly tasty lunch served in between. Ellen’s session on “How the Rabbis Invented Web 2.0 Before their Time” (look for a related blog post soon) was well attended and received. We were even asked to present an additional impromptu demonstration of the Tagged Tanakh prototype at the end of Day 1, so that was both encouraging and flattering.
Ellen Frankel presenting at BibleTech09

An active Twitter feed recounting the conference coupled with summaries and thoughts from attending bloggers provide a good sense of the scope of the conference and the main issues raised there. The major take away that I got from attending, beyond seeing and learning how Christian organizations and individuals are using technology to reflect their faith, was a sense of camaraderie and good will. Even though there might be more Christians than Jews we need not feel threatened or squirrely about sharing resources and information. Today, more Christian Americans are curious and open to dialogues with Jewish people than ever before. We have a wonderful opportunity to share the wisdom and insight of Jewish tradition not just with fellow Jews, but with all those willing to listen. I am happy to report that at BibleTech 09 many people were listening.

One of the more thought-provoking, and in-fact the last, sessions at the conference dealt with the topic of Future Studies and how shifts in resources and demographics would shape the world of 2040. What happens when the data around the central texts of our faiths becomes more useful and relevant than the source texts themselves? What does it mean when more Christians will be in China reading the Bible with characters, rather than with letters? The following video highlights some of the startling statistics shaping our world and casts an interesting light on JPS Interactive’s activities.

Stay tuned to this blog for updates on the event horizon.