Topics.Logos.com -- your help needed!

We're working on a new dataset for use in a future version of Logos Bible Software.

We have a master list of Bible-related topics (people, places, things, theological concepts, etc.) at http://topics.logos.com.

We would like your help collecting three kinds of information for these topics:

Alternate Labels -- other terms you might search for (or which books might use to refer to) this topic. So, for example, I added "Baby Baptism" and "Paedobaptism" to the topic "Infant Baptism" -- because if I was searching for discussions of infant baptism, I'd want to find resources that used those phrases, too. See http://topics.logos.com/Infant_Baptism

Web Links - really interesting or useful web links on a topic. Links to web pages that contain content that doesn't appear in a book, and which isn't just "one more sermon" on the subject. The point is to identify web links that are "the cream of the crop" for the topic, and which you would want to see presented if you searched Logos Bible Software for the topic. So the matching Wikipedia link is a good candidate, as is something unique and interesting. (The point isn't to reproduce the results of a Google search for the topic, but rather to extract the 2-3 most interesting results you'd find in the first few pages of Google results.) See http://topics.logos.com/Noah%e2%80%99s_Ark

Key Passages - Are there a few key passages that anyone searching on a topic would want quickly brought to their attention? (Or the reverse -- when reading that passage, what topics would you want brought to attention?) This list shouldn't be every mention of a subject, but rather the scriptural "home" of the topic. For example, for "The Magnificat", Luke 1:46-55. For "Kenosis", Philippians 2:7. See http://topics.logos.com/Magnificat and http://topics.logos.com/Kenosis

At the moment, this is an experiment in "crowdsourcing". We are expecting to build and improve this database ourselves, but before we assign people to fleshing it out we thought we would open it up to all of you. I imagine many of you have a few topics you are particularly interested in, or about which you have expertise. This is a chance to make sure we serve your topic well, and to help us figure out how to make our searching smarter and more relevant to your needs.

To find a topic, simply enter it in the search box in the upper left of every page. If you type an exact topic name, you'll go right to that topic. If not, the system will run a full-text search for topics containing that word or phrase. So "infant baptism" will go to the topic of that name; but "infant" will go to the "infant" topic. To find everything that contains the word "infant", even when that's an exact topic name, just put double quotes around the word when searching for it.

If you are logged into Logos.com you should see your name in the upper-right, and then you can click "Edit" to edit any page. The Wiki syntax is very simple, especially since we're just adding words and links. Don't be afraid to try things out -- you can't "break" the system, and all the revisions are stored and can be reverted.

We believe we have very thorough coverage of topics, but feel free to create a new page if you think we missed something important.

Thanks for your help, and please send your feedback!

-- Bob

Example of the wiki formatting, for http://topics.logos.com/Noah%e2%80%99s_Ark

!!!! Alternate Labels

* Ark, Noah's

* Ark of Noah

* Ark

!!!! Web Links

* [[Wikipedia: Noah's Ark >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah's_Ark]]

* [[Floating Replica of Noah's Ark >> http://www.arkvannoach.com/index.php/en]]

!!!! Key Passages

* Gen 6:9-8:19

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Comments

J.R. Miller

Neat idea, thanks for letting us be a part of this "test" fun Bob!

MJ. Smith

At the moment, this is an experiment in "crowdsourcing".

Thank you for the opportunity - and for sharing your current work. I hope we provide useful input from a wide variety of perspectives.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4700#Comment_4700

I've edited Mary's Magnificat and added Hannah's Magnificat. From my end, the system is easy to update although I would eventually want more information on how to create new entries correctly. Here I just did a copy and paste.

I tested the system by adding references from the Book of Odes - sometimes considered canonical. I was satisfied that it was accepted; I did not anticipate a link.

My only frustration was not having a way to link Mary's Magnificat and Hannah's Magnificat. I would really like a rudimentary ability to declare the semantic relationships between topics. This is especially true here where scholar's believe Hannah's Magnificat to be the inspiration/model for Mary's Magnificat.

From a Catholic perspective, I think that cross-checking topics with William A. Jurgen's Faith of the Early Fathers (3 volumes) would catch most the theological categories.

Jim Dean

Great idea, Bob!

Question re key-passages collection:
Would it be redundant for us to submit lists of passages which are basically copies of (worthwhile) lists found in such study bibles as Scofield, Thompson, Open, Life Application, Ryrie, Macarthur, etc. You have a few of these SHOULD BE notes avail but not all by any means?
That is, we would have to "manually correlate" your headings to those in the various SBib's - THAT would be a non-trivial task.
Or, have y'all already done that? It would be a pity and a waste of resources within the Body of Christ to duplicate stuff you've already done (prob much more efficiently).

If you feel this approach would be worthwhile, but you've already linked info from some such sources, please let us know which ones so we can fouc on new ones.

If you don't reply to this q I'll assume the idea is not useful and will drop it. Many many hours would be required, and it should not be in vain.

Otoh, if you think this approach worthwhile, then possibly we in the forum could voluntarily "sign up" to "link" the extant list from a given source to your list. Ideally y'all could help coordinate this. Some of these top lists are very long (esp Open Bible) - would prob need to be peace-mealed.

Final Q: will we have the ability to add verses/resource links to th formal-distrib topical lists on our own, in a transparent fully integrated fashion, once v4 hits?

TIA for your response.

Jim Dean

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4704#Comment_4704

Argh my pda cannot access the edit mode. In the prior post, "SB" was autotext-converted to SHOULD BE - I meant "Study Bible"

Bob Pritchett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4704#Comment_4704

Key Passages should be a half-dozen or fewer passages. We have lots of ways to get to longer lists on a subject, and many sources for those lists.

The thinking (right now) is that Key Passages is reserved almost for navigation -- someone types in "Magnificat", it makes sense to return Luke 1:46-55. That's an immediate, simple "answer" to the search. If someone types in "David", it's not helpful to simply list every verse he is mentioned in. The same thing for a bigger concept -- if there are more than 6 references, you're probably going to want a guide to them, and that would be one of the articles the system returns.

-- Bob

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4715#Comment_4715

It appears that you automatically loaded some Wikipedia links. It would be nice to also preload the OrthodoxWiki links. I'm not aware of one but there must be an equivalent that is oriented towards Judaism - although one might need to go with Encyclopedias (Jewish, Catholic)

QUESTION: How are person names that apply to 2 or more people to be handled? I was looking at Tobit and Tobias ... the latter from the wiki link I took to be Tobias the Ammonite. How is the other Tobias (in Ezra) to entered?

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4726#Comment_4726

How is the other Tobias (in Ezra) to entered?

Tobias (Ezra)

Tobias in Ezra

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4746#Comment_4746

My apologies ... I've messed two entries up by not finding the stub entry and therefor created duplicate files for Song of the Three Youths and for Prayer of Azariah. My apologies. I will try a wider variety of searches to see if the remaining canticles already have stubs.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4756#Comment_4756

I have started to go through the list somewhat methodically adding topics from the Jewish Encyclopedia that appear to be missing. I'll do Catholic and Orthodox lists later. Am I correct in thining that the Logos staff will handle the disambiguation?

Bob Pritchett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4859#Comment_4859

You're welcome to add these links -- we appreciate the help! -- but it might be easier for us to batch merge (and then review) the headings from these other online encyclopedias.

The pages you've added have useful info, and some obvious hand-editing, whcih would save us some time, but it seems like a time consuming and very manual way to "batch add" all the headings we don't have from these other resources.

The real value in hand-editing is in choosing Key Passages or in finding web sites that are "non-obvious" -- things we couldn't write a script to extract or match up by heading. Choosing, with human judgment, the most interesting of the top 10 or 20 web links.

Thanks!

-- Bob

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4903#Comment_4903

it might be easier for us to batch merge

I want to state that I do agree with you completely. I've found three groups of items that seem to be missing topics for which I've added a few example topics:

1. Named passages - Jewish Torah portions, Latin/Greek/Arabic names for Psalms and canticles, etc.

2. Anonymous people - man born blind (also name of a pericope), Hemorrhaging woman, cannibal mothers etc.

3. Items that have Arabic names in the Koran which I find useful in comparing the three Abrahamic religions' traditions of events. I know this would not assist your bread-and-butter user but I suspect your scholarly group would create some demand.

I've been disappointed that there has not been more activity on the topics - I was looking forward to others' resources.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/6016#Comment_6016

Check out the Magnificat entry ... it gives some real indication of where Logos is going with this and I like it.

Bob Pritchett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/9045#Comment_9045

Thanks... and plese feel free to create your own reading lists. (You might want to copy the Wiki source of the Magnificat entry as a starting point, to help get the metadata right.)

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/4903#Comment_4903

it might be easier for us to batch merge (and then review) the headings from these other online encyclopedias.

Is there any projected timeline for doing batch merges for additional topics? I understand that there may not be as Logos is clearly testing additional features. However, I keep running into topics in my research that aren't on the current Topic list. Sometimes I am uncertain whether they would be considered in or out of the intended range of topics.

Blair Laird

I wanted to work on the philosophy page. Some of the web sites I found, have search engines were you can search topics on philosophy. Are those acceptable ?

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/65591#Comment_65591

I wanted to work on the philosophy page. Some of the web sites I found, have search engines were you can search topics on philosophy. Are those acceptable ?

I would certainly think so ... but I'm not the final word. [:)] But, yes, you can take any page and add to it. Obviously, some linke are inappropriate - how to build a bomb, porn, ads for competitors ...