The Future of the Tagged Tanakh

It seems like everyone these days is talking about the future. Will people still read books? Can global catastrophe be averted by not eating meat?

According to the CEO of Google, in five years we’ll be surfing through mostly Chinese content online. According to a former muckity-muck at Facebook, the future is not information, but networks. While architectural students in London envision a future made up of, “car-crash spaces that occasionally come into focus as giant mechanised spindly crustacea.”

If the future is not our own, then how can we shape it? If entire conferences dedicated to the future of the web can’t predict how Google Wave will change our lives then how can us regular folk develop content and technology strategies that don’t become redundant thanks to the actions of Amazon or Twitter?

Originally we had imagined building the Tagged Tanakh in private development. We wanted to design and then release to the public a fully populated and rendered experience of accessible, relevant, and dynamic Jewish content. Our plan was to curate and refine the Tagged Tanakh and include all the bells and whistles: bi-directional Hebrew/English display, integration of third party datasets like The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, or cool APIs.

But now we see the error of our ways. It’s actually better to share our work with the public sooner. This will help populate the Tagged Tanakh, identify usability issues, and clarify which features are the most beneficial. As founder of Meebo, Seth Sternberg recommends, “Launch fast and light, and listen to your users for feedback.”

So when will the fast, light, and PUBLIC version of the Tagged Tanakh be available?
Stay tuned to this blog for more information.