After a year of The Big Bible Project the website is about to undergo an overhaul. The website seeks to draw people into deeper engagement with the Bible, especially, but not exclusively, through the use of social media. Working with partners, we want to offer those who engage with the site a progressive journey through four distinct sections:
BigBible
This is where people will first engage with the site and it will offer a host of material about the Bible – events, good news stories, digital stories, explorations of the use of the Bible online and offline. This area will be “The Mashable of the Bible”, a place to highlight and follow stories from digital sites and projects focusing upon the Bible (Mashable is the ‘first-stop site’ for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture). CODEC is already seeking to support a new part-time theological consultant to edit/curate material relating to the Bible.
The BigRead12
Encouraging ‘bigger (digital) conversations’ around Biblical Literacy, including the pioneering work of David Wood in the North Yorkshire Dales Biblical Literacy Project. Also working with SPCK and 12Baskets, we will once again provide a Lent Resource for housegroups based on Tom Wright’s ‘Mark for Lent’. We expect the material for Lent BigRead 2012 to be available by early January.
Digital Literacy
Since we expect both of the above projects to include elements of social media to enhance what is normally on offer to readers of the site and to enable people to use social media to engage with these projects, we will provide both a list of social media training and events in the Christian sector, as well as seeking to provide some of that training ourselves. We will work with sites such as Digital Fingerprint and DigiMission to highlight training involved as well as CODEC’s own provision and the possible joint development with Premier of the Centre for New Media Excellence.
#DigiDisciple
Living biblically in a Digital Age. This is the culmination of the journey – from Bible engagement through to living out what we have learned from the Bible – the practical outworking of biblically-informed digital discipleship. In this section of the site, we will follow a number of people as they consider how they live out their faith in a digital space, and how the Bible helps them with that, or how the digital faith encourages them to engage with the Bible.
The Journey
The BigBible project focuses on the journey to Biblical Literacy in the online/offline spaces. In making the site a ‘one stop’ site, we are seeking to gain an overview of the range of provision as well as working collaboratively with our funders and with other organizations, avoiding competition and enhancing existing provision wherever possible.
Read more about The Big Bible Project as it continues to develop, and let us know if you did The Big Read 2011 (any encouragement/critique), and if you're excited by this new direction! As a digital project should do, we are keeping you in the loop for the developments as they happen.