Disappointment with Logos 6 Atlas and Maps

John:

Do you mean in Logos 6? At the top of the Factbook page for Hamath (which has replaced Bible Facts in Logos 5), I have three of our new Atlas maps interspersed with the Logos 5 maps (which are now in their own resource: Biblical Places Maps).

If i click on the link for "Search Media for 'Hamath'", i see more of the Atlas maps, as well as Biblical Places Maps, and images and maps from other resources (including the "classic" Logos Deluxe Map Set with the dayglo color scheme [:)]).

We invest the most tagging effort in our maps, because they function best in our software. For example, zooming in on maps in Biblical Places Maps or other atlas resources makes the image bigger: but in our Atlas maps (like the Biblical World map in Biblical Places Maps), when you zoom in you get actually more information. So you have better ability to control the level of detail you want.

In addition, both our Biblical Place Maps from Logos 5, and the new Atlas maps, are interactive: you can hover over a place and get more information, as well as link to the full Factbook page. That's not true of any of the 3rd party maps. You can even search by reference, by place, or by event. So Atlas will be the place where all Logos-created maps will appear.

We're still working on Atlas maps: our current coverage is most of the passages from the Life of Jesus era, and next up will be maps from the Early Church era. So you'll see a lot more content coming out here in the next few months. Our goal is to have a map for every story in the Bible that needs one: that's a lot of maps! But these zoomable, interactive maps are also harder to make than the previous kind.

(Atlas maps still don't have the Ctrl-F feature that Biblical Places Maps have, which enables you to search for a particular location on the current map. That's coming in a later release. )

Volume 3 is slated to have around 50 maps. I'll try to make sure the product page is updated as we finalize these lists.

The Feature Crossgrade includes all the maps, all the datasets AFAIK, and all the new media, at a reasonable price: so that's what i'd recommend.

Todd Phillips said:

Sean Boisen said:

Volume 3 is slated to have around 50 maps.

Is that approximately the same for each of the volumes?

The allocation will be approximately

• Volume 1: 100 maps
• Volume 2: 100 maps
• Volume 3: 50 maps

We're grouping Biblical Events onto maps that are related in the text and geographically: so, for example, the map for "Jesus Feeds 5000, Walks on Water, and Teaches" covers all the events from two episodes:

• Jesus crosses from Bethsaida to Gennesaret
• Jesus teaches on defilement

(Notice by the way that these higher level episodes, periods, and eras all have Factbook pages now: previously that was only true of the more focused events.)

As we're working on the maps, we sometimes split or join to make sure each map does the best job of telling these particular stories: you don't have to hunt around for Capernaum on this map, because the content is now focused on a small number of stories, with much less detail that's extraneous to this particular story (accompanied by the Biblical World maps with larger geographic context). So we're not being coy: we really don't know yet exactly how many maps we'll wind up with, other than our draft projections (about 250) and "enough".

Todd Phillips said:

Sean Boisen said:

Volume 3 is slated to have around 50 maps.

Is that approximately the same for each of the volumes?

I've posted the likely contents of the three volumes here (though it's still tentative, since we haven't made all these maps yet).

I'm sorry for the disappointment. The Atlas involved some ambitious technical challenges, and we haven't been able to deliver maps nearly as quickly as I hoped we would. Zooming in particular is much more complicated, since for a map with 8 zoom levels we have to specify what is displayed at each level. But rather than waiting until the set was complete, we decided to ship what we have and then add to it as more become available.

If you purchased all three Atlas volumes, you'll get maps covering the eras listed here, and the total number of maps will be about 250 for these three volumes. If you compare the detail of the Atlas map "From Lystra to Troas -- Paul, Silas, and Timothy" to what's in the Biblical Places map (Paul's First and Second Missionary Journeys), I hope you'll agree the increase in information, detail, and quality is substantial. We just need to get more of them shipped.

James Grohs said:

... I should think that I could type in Laodicea and have the city show up on a map. It doesn't. I would think that I could type in Rev 3 and have the 7 cities show up, but they does not.  ...

I understand why this is frustrating. There are several things going on here:

• The map for Biblical World -- The Early Church does include Laodicea, but it's not visible when you're zoomed out. Note if you start from Factbook or Media Search for <Place Laodicea>, clicking on the thumbnail automatically zooms you into the place (a bit too far, in fact: that will be improved in an upcoming release).
• We don't yet have the ability to search for a city on a map with Ctrl-F. That's scheduled for an upcoming release, and will make it easier to see places that are on a map but not visible at the current zoom level.
• We've designed the Atlas to focus on story maps rather than large overview maps. So we made a design decision that search would only return maps where the place is part of the story. Returning every map that shows a place would return dozens of maps, only some of which actually relate a biblical story about that place. Laodicea is also on the map From Lystra to Troas but only as background information, since it's in the general vicinity but not part of the episode in Acts 16:6-10 (that will also be true of several other maps that haven't been published yet): so it doesn't come up in Atlas search for Laodicea. That still seems like the right long-term strategy to me, but we may reconsider it in the interests of showing off more of what's available today.
• We plan to have a map showing the seven churches of Rev 1-3 (which will of course include Laodicea as part of the story), but that map hasn't shipped yet.

Lee said:

If you look at the marketing, the user concludes from the map that Jesus took an exceptional route. Actually, nothing in the map or the annotation indicates this.

You're right that the map itself doesn't indicate the contrast between this route through Samaria, and the more typical route that avoided it (which you can see in the continuation of this travel on Jesus' Last Trip to Jerusalem, Up to the Triumphal Entry, where the event Jesus is rejected at at a Samaritan Village [presumably Ginae] causes a detour, presumably to the east along the Jordan River.)

There's actually quite a bit of commentary that could go along with each one of these maps, illustrating particular historical or geographic details that the text doesn't necessarily explain: I hope we'll create such a product in the future! But for now, our focus is on clearly indicating what the text says and what reasonable scholarship can infer about the actual locations of biblical places and events, and associated travel routes.

James Grohs said:

The bottom line is really this with regard to maps and the Atlas feature (and the story-oriented approach are good approaches):

If I am teaching out of any chapter in the entire Bible, I would like to type the chapter into the Atlas and get a map. That map need not be anything other that a map of Italy showing were Rome is (if I am teaching out of Romans) and perhaps where Paul was when he wrote the book. Not always possible; Hebrews, Song of Songs, for example) But if a Psalm was written at a particular time and place where a map would be useful the place should come up. If in Revelation, I type in "Rev 3) a map of the 7 cities should come up. Rev 16 should show where the big battle will take place (if anyone actually knows). Finding maps that fit is a big challenge which is why Logos has taken so long to address it. Paging through map sets and hope something is available is what we are trying to get away from.

Of course, it would still be nice to type in a city, mountain, lake, country into something and have it show up on a map, but that is secondary to doing as I say above-- to set all of the scripture into its physical context through easy access to appropriate maps.

My main concern with my complaint at this point is whether I was missing something or whether there was still more that needs to be done.

These are good suggestions. Our current plan is to provide a map for each biblical passage (primarily narratives) that needs one: that would include most everything that references a place name, but not most chapters from Romans.

You can currently enter various place names and find maps that include them as relevant to the story: for example, here are maps where the Sea of Galilee is part of the story (which again is far fewer than every map that includes the Sea of Galilee).

The Bible Book information in Factbook includes a media overview of each book: here's the one for Romans, which has a map showing Rome and several other important NT cities.