Preview of the new site.
As many of you know the tech team at bible.org has been learning a new content management system so it can better serve you and the international community. It has been a steep learning curve but they have finally said it is time for me to start posting on the next release of the Bible.org site. One of the objectives of the new site is to better engage our user community and provide ways for them to interact with the site/ the authors on the site and each other to provide ways we can mutually help Bible.org better serve the Christian Community. So I though I would use my blog this week to give you a preview of the page titled
Get Involved: Ways to enhance Bible.org to better serve the Christian Community

As you know Bible.org is about "ministry first" and we count on volunteers with a heart for ministry and serving others, to improve our ability to serve the Christian community world wide.
What are some areas that you might be able to assist us in improving?
1- User suggestions and feedback on requirements for new projects and/or site improvements

Response: We plan to set up a REQUIREMENTS TEAM to develop and oversee processes for making our project plans visible so interested parties can interact and contribute to projects that interest them.
If you would like to be part of the REQUIREMENTS TEAM to review and prioritize requirements click here

2- Here are 2 samples of areas that users have suggested improvement. (if you have feedback or issues you would like us to look at, click the problem link on the bottom of any page and tell us.

A- ... "Help sort out articles": You have some many articles its hard to find out what I should read first on a specific topic. Can you build a suggested reading list by topic that goes from beginner to expert when you have multiple articles on a single topic.

Response: We recognize this issue and are looking for volunteers who have subject matter expertise in a topic area to suggest an ordered reading list and help tag articles with beginner, intermediate and advanced tags . If you would like to help in this area let us know.

Status- PTL, we have our first volunteer in this area. Author Alexander Strauch has volunteered to take on the task for the topic biblical eldership. We asked Alex who has written a series on Biblical Eldership to build us a "yellow brick road" for understanding what the Bible says on Elders and Deacons. More are needed.

B- "The search for articles in other languages is to hard": Can you make finding articles in different languages easier? Can you show what languages various articles are available in?

Response: We are working on this issue and will make improvements in our new release of the site.

Status: We need help in setting up an environment that will better support volunteer translators of our material and one that will allow people to take our material and the NETBible and build their own curriculum in another language as a derived document.

3- Testers needed: we are working on a new bible.org site upgrade that will "hopefully" make navigation better and will allow users to rank material and provide feedback to us and other users. We will soon provide you with an early view into our new site and the ability to join a "testers group" see the new site we are working on and provide us feedback.
4- Developers needed: Our technical team could use Open systems LAMP Drupal developers. We have several projects started to enhance and move bible.org forward as a leading Christian content and social networking site. If you have time contact us as this oportunity could develop into a paid position.