Is the future of Logos resource dependent?

First, I want to acknowledge that Logos has many structural limitations, unnecessarily complex user interfaces, and incomplete tagging and features that need to be addressed for long term viability. But I would like to look at the longer view - what can Logos do to insure that it can remain the go-to for Christians even as free application and AI applications impinge on the Logos turf? In my thinking, Logos needs to take advantage of resources to remain relevant/dominant.

I think the RCIA package is a step in the right direction - introduce people in inquiry, conversion, and confirmation classes across as many denominations as practical to Logos/Verbum. It will take time as one must first convince the people leading the faith formation of the advantage of electronic resources but if the phone versions work well, I think this can be successful.
I think that the production of denominational position papers / minutes of official meetings as soon as possible after they are released is another no brainer. If one can get as large a selection of denominational position papers over time, Logos is offering professionals in that tradition material that is otherwise available only in many separate small documents (difficult to search) or is limited to only what is currently in print. So Logos can provide added value for the clergy/professionals/seminary staff for many denominations which is not available in the competitors. This includes denominational lectionaries and sanctoral cycles.
I would provide access to indexes and other reference books that are far too expensive to be own individually via a charge by access. This would allow scholars to use Logos rather than paying a University library for researcher access. Send the money to Logos rather than a secular library.
I would partner with the church in recent diaspora which are using the web to hold their churches together so that the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Ancient Church of the East etc. could find all their basic texts available in Logos/Verbum.
I would significantly boost the resources on worship and the liturgical service books in support of the churches whose theology tie worship and exegesis more tightly together than many Protestant Churches.
I would broaden the canon in support of authors such as Taussig and add the "alternative people's scripture" of the arts - visual, literary, musical, . . . which supports those teaching scripture and those decorating the worship space.
I would choose specific areas of study, most obviously Patristics or Church history (dogmatic, preaching, mysticism, institutional ...) and build a library sufficiently complete in original sources and seminal works that anyone studying in that area has no option other than Logos for their study.

What this means it that I would like to see the Logos/Verbum catalog to grow with more intentionality rather than simply favorite authors of the moment. I'd like to see priorities given for (a) specific use packages (b) needs of individual denominations (c) access to required research resources (d) support for the margins of Christianity where those of us in the mainstream have trouble getting accurate information (e) current literature on both sides of contemporary disputes i.e. I want the controversial works and their counterworks.

Note: the current pre-pub approach sells to existing customers rather than building the resources needed to bring in new customers.

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Comments

Mike Childs

Yes![Y]

EastTN

What this means it that I would like to see the Logos/Verbum catalog to grow with more intentionality rather than simply favorite authors of the moment.

I strongly agree with this sentiment. I'd much prefer that FaithLife have a plan for actively managing their catalog to meet the needs of their customer base than to leave it to the vagaries of what's currently popular or what publishers happen to be promoting right now. I'm sure we'd still quibble over some specific books or authors, since needs and preferences do vary between users, but I suspect it would result in much higher overall customer satisfaction.

Br Damien-Joseph OSB

One unexplored but easily rewarding set of packages would be for specific Catholic religious orders. The essential texts for formation, history, and spirituality, which would be no-brainers as add-ons for religious priests, religious brothers/sisters, oblates/3rd orders, faculty/staff at religious institutions (universities, colleges, high schools, etc.). Verbum would need to expand their catalog with some specific texts, and would really need to do good research to make sure the product they are selling is actually the core books for these religious orders (and not just all of the books Logos happens to have "on hand" at the moment). Franciscan, Dominican, Benedictine, Carmelite, Ignatian, Holy Cross, Augustinian, etc. (Verbum started making headway in this direction by bringing in a bunch of essential Franciscan texts and new translations of Thomas Aquinas' writings, but progress is slow...)

What would be most useful to us would be something like this:

A package containing 35-45 books, at around a $99-$149 price range (as an add-on for a base package or as an independent product, whichever)

Core texts (for Benedictines, this would be the Rule of Benedict 1980, the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, writings of Evagrius and Cassian, The Life of St Anthony by Athanasius)
Commentaries on those core texts (Commentaries on the RB, writings of Fr. Michael Casey OSCO, Sr. Mary Margaret Funk OSB, additional translations of the RB and Gregory the Great)
Writings on/for the spirituality of the order (Bernard's Ladder of Humility, Aelred's Mirror of Charity, Guigo II's Ladder of Monks, Bernard's commentary on the Song of Songs, Columba Marmion's Christ the Ideal of the Monk, etc.)
Contemporary writings (Thomas Merton, Jean Leclercq, John Main, Basil Pennington, maybe Rowan William's The Way of St Benedict)
History of the religious order (Hilpisch's Benedictinism through Changing Centuries, which is out of print but I'm sure LitPress would be happy to make a penny off of it again with no effort on their part; Benedictine Monasticism in the United States by Abbot Joel Rippinger, and also add a history book on English monasticism--whichever one is most in use by the English Benedictines)

An Ignatian package might look something like this:

Multiple translations and commentaries of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
The works of Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV (published through Crossroad)
Jean-Pierre de Cassaude, SJ's Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence
Probably a lot of spiritual books published through Loyola Press and Ave Maria Press
History books on the Jesuit order (missions, persecutions, their suppression and return to grace, etc)
Lives of the saints, especially the North American Martyrs, St. Francis Xavier, St Robert Bellarmine, maybe St Stanislaus and St Aloysius Gonzaga)
Especially books related to going on retreat, I would imagine (I'm not a Jesuit, but a Jesuit formator and/or Ignatian spiritual director ought to put this together)

And, likewise, rinse and repeat with all the other major religious orders (Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian, Carmelite, etc...). Like I said, this would be a no-brainer purchase for religious seminarians, religious priests, 3rd order members, faculty at religious institutions, etc... as long as it is an intentionally-designed package and not just a pile of all the books Logos already had licensed at the moment, which are (at present time) not sufficient to be relevant to these orders.

GaoLu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1297562#Comment_1297562

In general, I strongly agree with the OP.

Moving to a subscription model alarms me that it's a path to quick profits but away from future viability. I can almost hear the death rattle. What people will give money to Logos for is quality resources and resource sets. Filter out the annoying fluff--especially offensive secular fluff that suggests compromised quality.

Just today I bought two very common and popular books by Anna Hampton. Logos had one, Amazon Kindle the other. I went Kindle. A subscription wouldn't have fixed that.

Edit:

Facing Danger (Logos)
Facing Fear (Kindle)

Excellent books on Risk Analysis and Management for missionaries. Logos need both of these. I woulda bought them.

xnman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1297544#Comment_1297544

What this means it that I would like to see the Logos/Verbum catalog to grow with more intentionality rather than simply favorite authors of the moment.

I strongly agree with this sentiment. I'd much prefer that FaithLife have a plan for actively managing their catalog to meet the needs of their customer base than to leave it to the vagaries of what's currently popular or what publishers happen to be promoting right now. I'm sure we'd still quibble over some specific books or authors, since needs and preferences do vary between users, but I suspect it would result in much higher overall customer satisfaction.

I strongly agree with EastTN statement.

Paul Gibson

I agree that Faithlife needs to rethink their priorities for Logos. I subscribed to Logos Pro right after it was announced because I'm hoping I can have a small influence on how Logos is being developed. I'm a layman using Logos for my personal Bible Study, so there are a large number of features I don't need.

Rather than struggling to add new features, I'd like Faithlife to enhance the features that already exist. I primarily use Logos Mobile, and I really like the Link set Follow only feature, and I was surprised it learn it's not available on desktop. I suspect more people would appreciate that than adding AI. Then there's are some Desktop features that aren't available in Mobile (Personal Books come to mind).

Of course, adding resources is always nice. I'd particularly like Faithlife to complete books in series, like commentaries.

I'd like to see Faithlife conduct more surveys and find out where the Logos users are getting frustrated, and where Faithlife is doing well. It would be nice to make the survey results public, but that's probably asking to much.

In the meantime, I hope Logos users will browse the Logos feedback forums and vote for the features, improvements and resources they personally want.

https://feedback.logos.com/

Lew Worthington

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1297610#Comment_1297610

This may be a minority opinion, but with so many great free tools out there (none as good as Logos, but 10 years from now, it'll be a different picture; Perseus is slowly releasing a cool set of tools, e.g.) and AI filling in a huge gap, the main thing Logos will provide is this amazing library. I would love to see a slowdown in development of new features, but a focus on producing books and allowing the owners of those books to be able to access them into the day future. I also agree with MJ's view in the OP, but I see that as an extension of continued book offerings.

GaoLu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1297616#Comment_1297616

This may be a minority opinion, but with so many great free tools out there (none as good as Logos, but 10 years from now, it'll be a different picture; Perseus is slowly releasing a cool set of tools, e.g.) and AI filling in a huge gap, the main thing Logos will provide is this amazing library. I would love to see a slowdown in development of new features, but a focus on producing books and allowing the owners of those books to be able to access them into the day future. I also agree with MJ's view in the OP, but I see that as an extension of continued book offerings.

Mmmhmm. Exactly.

Make Search work and use AI technology if necessary. Don't rent internet reliant, uncertain future, expensive, paid-for outsourcing. In a couple steps we can bypass that for free and get a much better and broader job done. That capability will only grow immeasurably.

Logos Books can't compete with Amazon books for a few good morsel books in a garbage dumpster of trash. Logos users want a unique niche of quality books and Logos needs to provide that.
Logos Search can't compete with Google Search for comprehensive searching and ease. That is why Logos needs to develop a better search which most adds value to resources and product loyalty.
Logos AI can't compete with ChatGPT or related Public AI services. Logos needs to integrate AI where it enhances searching a library of quality books and leave all that other stuff to the organization that will always do it better.

No one wants to buy a baby dinosaur.