To Bob: Radical Idea for FL - Cortana for Bible
Hi Bob,
So I bought a new laptop and finally got acquainted with Windows 10. And then yesterday I broke down and finally enabled Cortana on it.
In the last 24 hours as I was working through Bible study and Sunday School prep, I found that I've been saying "Hey Cortana" and asking her Bible-related questions. Most of the time she would take me to a Bing search results page and most of the time the right answer was at the top of the results list.
That got me thinking. Since FL has tagged the biblical data in very significant ways, what if you:
1) Build a Cortana/Siri- like interface, where you can ask any Bible or Christianity-related questions, based on the vast library of tagged resources available to FL;
2) Make this service available on the Internet by a combination of:
a) Charging a flat subscription fee for use (no different levels of packages; go for simple - kind of like a Pandora or Spotify subscription - you're either subscribed or not subscribed; when you're subscribed you have access to the entire FL library of resources);
AND
b) Creating a marketplace for Christian-oriented ads and supporting this Biblical Cortana with Christian ad income - set up an automated system for ad placement a la Google, and allow users to choose categories of ads to view OR opt out of undesired ads.
As you seem to be rethinking and retooling FL's financial model lately, I thought I would put this radical idea for your consideration - combining a new way to harvest and leverage the rich tagging in the FL library to reach a broader, lay-oriented Christian audience, with potentially a new way of funding the ongoing operations of the company.
So far FL has been mostly targeting a relatively specialized audience - pastors and academics. I would love to see the rich content of FL reaching a wider mass market. After all, there are many, many more Christians in the pews than the number of pastors and academics added together.
Thanks for listening,
Peter