No announcements for ETS/SBL?

[Soxfan23]

It seems a bit odd to me that there have been no new announcements preceding or during ETS/SBL. This is obviously the best time to announce new things so they can be demonstrated for the scholars & students and they can be persuaded to purchase BW. Wasn't the ESV study Bible supposed to be released as an add-on module? Are there no surprises before the holidays?

I have only been using BW for 3 years, so maybe I don't understand how things work as well. Is it pretty much just one of those deals where every 3 years they just blow you out of the water with a new version and all kinds of new features/modules? That should take place next year, so I hope to be blown away. I'm perfectly content as it is, but the competition seems to be making pretty big advances with new versions & mobile apps, so I'm hoping BW does something to keep up. Regardless, thanks for making my time at seminary and my teaching on Sunday mornings so much easier!

[bkMitchell]

It seems a bit odd to me that there have been no new announcements preceding or during ETS/SBL.

WAIT A MINUTE!

The SBL 2010 Annual Meeting starts on November 20th and ends on the 23rd. The meeting hasn't even really begun yet, and it certainly isn't over, yet.
Also, next summer there is an international meeting as well.

Now, don't get me wrong I also heard (or read that):
(1)the ESV study bible notes (http://www.bibleworks.com/forums/showthread.php?3428-ESV-Study-Bible/page3&highlight=ESV+study+bible),

FYI we are wrapping up development on the ESV Study Bible for BibleWorks. Glenn has put a massive amount of time in on this and I think it will be one of the most useful implementations of the Study Bible out there. It will appear in a new tab and also if you prefer in a CHM file. Distribution will be a challenge because we have decided to distribute the images at full resolution and the final total is around 250 megabytes. We have to figure that out before release but it is looking very good and the price will be low enough that we think a lot of people will want it. The implementation allows use with any Bible version, not just the ESV.
Mike

(2) the CNTTS (http://www.nobts.edu/Publications/News/CNTTSDatabase.html) database

As soon as CNTTS releases the final product (soon we hope) we will have it available for BibleWorks users as a module. We are also planning a release of the first 7 of our own manuscript transcriptions (full searchable transcriptions with images and a robust set of transcription, collation and tagging tools) soon, probably about the same time as the CNTTS material. You text critical geeks are about to get an overdose. These two items complement each other very well. Amazing how the Lord coreographs these things.
Mike


(3) and Bibleworks original transcripts of few Greek manuscripts were going to be announce or released or announced, this year.

Our hope is that we can release a handful of major manuscripts next year (Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, Bezae and Washingtonensis), complete with transcriptions, images and morphological tagging...


But, Soxfan23 please try to be patient, perfection takes time.

[Michael Hanel]

But, Soxfan23 please try to be patient, perfection takes time.

Yeah I think Brian is right. I'm not sure exactly what announcements will be made, but I think they do have stuff that they have been holding on to for the SBL meetings that will be announced, but SBL only officially begins today, so we'll see.

See for instance here (http://zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/some-session-stuff-and-some-upcoming-stuff/):
First, in the pics, you’ll see Jim Barr of BibleWorks. He and I chatted about a fascinating and exciting new project that will be of great interest to students of the New Testament.

[jdarlack]

. . . please try to be patient, perfection takes time.Not only does 'perfection' take time, but BibleWorks has this habit of not releasing 'vaporware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware)'. So, they tend to avoid making huge announcements about products that seem to never actually materialize!

[bkMitchell]

...

I have only been using BW for 3 years, so maybe I don't understand how things work as well... but the competition seems to be making pretty big advances with new versions & mobile apps,
so I'm hoping BW does something to keep up...

I think this excerpt will help better address your concerns:



“The purpose of BibleWorks, LLC is to provide pastors, teachers, students, and missionaries with the tools they need to "rightly divide the word of truth"(2 Timothy 2:15).

There are other companies that exist to do this as well, but BibleWorks comes to this task with some unique differences in approach and philosophy: We exist to serve the church, not to make a profit, and all of our business decisions are made with that in mind.

Our goal is to provide a complete package containing the tools most essential for the task of interpreting the Scriptures in the original Greek and Hebrew, and to do it at a price that poor pastors and students can afford. To accomplish this task we routinely make marketing and sales decisions that many would consider to be bad business but which serve our primary goals.


On the other hand, because everything that we do reflects on our real employer, the Lord Jesus Christ, it is our desire to provide a professionally executed and supported software package, while at the same time compensating employees with reasonable salaries that are competitive with the rest of the software industry. We try to treat both our customers and our employees as we would like to be treated ourselves. We are thankful that the Lord has blessed our efforts thus far and look to the future with expectations of further blessing, for as long as the Lord desires.


http://www.bibleworks.com/about.html

[Michael Hanel]

One thing I've noticed over the years is that you will almost never see a post from a BW employee on here on a Sunday. There might be a few exceptions, but I think they only prove the rule.

Some might say that's a really poor business decision, but to me it's a vivid reminder that they see their business not as an end above all other things, but subservient to God's business. Would that we all lived by the same example.

[MBushell]

My advice is that you try to not get caught up in the hype at SBL and ETS. We are at SBL to provide a mechanism for users to meet our staff and communicate their concerns (and thanks) facetoface. We are also there to provide our staff with an opportunity to talk to other companies about cooperative efforts. We are not there to hype our product or go toe to toe with the "competition" to see who can boast the loudest or impress people the most with our latest plans to rule the world. We are what we are - a small company that tries to provide a carefully focused product to our users at the lowest possible price. Marketing hype is a lot like politics - people can only take so much of it before they start to tune out and refuse to believe anything that they hear. We go out of our way to avoid it as much as possible. It is a waste of your time and our resources. But having said that, the items mentioned by several of you in this thread are still queued for release as soon as we can get them ready. All of them are close and most are available for preview to interested users at ETS/SBL. But we did not want to announce anything officially until we have a release date. That is bad for us and not fair to our users. So please be patient. We have a dedicated staff and are working hard for you.
Mike Bushell
BibleWorks,LLC

[ISalzman]

Thanks Mike. Very well said!

[Dan Witte]

[...] the items mentioned by several of you in this thread are still queued for release as soon as we can get them ready. All of them are close and most are available for preview to interested users at ETS/SBL. But we did not want to announce anything officially until we have a release date. That is bad for us and not fair to our users. So please be patient. We have a dedicated staff and are working hard for you.
Mike Bushell
BibleWorks,LLC

I was at ETS. I'll second everything that Mike says, and add that Jim, Charlie and Glenn in particular went "above and beyond" to answer my questions, show me some of what's coming, and generally be helpful.

I was left with an even stronger impression than I've had since I started with BibleWorks in 1999-- these are the kind of people you want to work with for years to come.

Dan Witte

[Glenn Weaver]

Thanks for the kind words, Dan. It was great to see you.

ETS and SBL are great opportunities to meet BibleWorks users and see how we can best meet their needs. I met a lot (A LOT) of really great people at the conferences. We helped a lot of people to be able to use the program better. We are tired at the end of the day, but it is a good tired. Helping people use BibleWorks in order to better accomplish their ministries is what it is all about. We are glad to be a part of their ministries in this small way.

Blessings,
Glenn