doug's blog

Now both Google and Alexa are Scripture enabled, thanks to YouVersion!

You're sitting around the dinner table and you want to close with a reading from "Our Daily Bread", or "Tabletalk", or one of many other devotionals.  Usually, the reading lists a Scripture passage that the mediation is based on, and so we usually pull out our phones and start searching for the text to read.

Can forgetfulness be part of God’s plan?

Having spent the last ten years doing extensive travel, I have a pretty good idea how to pack for a trip. My packing list is quite detailed, and special care is taken to pack my computer bag. After all, what is in that bag are the tools of my trade: training Bible translators in technology to advance Bible translation. This last trip to Cameroon for a ten-day workshop, so I got my computer bag all ready: thumb drives, adapters of all sorts, back up hard drive, foreign plug adapter, and power strip.

Inexpensive Ministry Video Production -- with or without the drone!

I was recently asked by a Fulani friend and pastor in Mali, West Africa if I could bring him a laptop that he could use for making videos of church functions and events.  While I love to help, this perplexed me a bit.  First of all, I've never really mastered the art of video production myself, and if I got him a laptop, I'd also have to get some high end software to make it happen.  There are not many free options that are worthwhile or easy to use.

Technology for Scripture Translation and Access

The Eurasia Media & Distribution Consultation held in Zelhem, Netherlands was bigger than ever this year. People involved in Scripture engagement came together from all over, making the word Eurasia highly inoperative in its title. My interest in going was to discover more tools and technology that people I support in language technology roles should know about, so that they in turn can better support field teams. It is for this purpose that I attended and from this perspective I am reporting. 

Zapping asteroids with my eyes

CeBIT exhibition in Hannover Germany, March 14 2014

I received a free ticket to attend the CeBIT exhibition in Hannover which is in northern Germany, about a six hour Drive from where I live. Thankful for the opportunity to get plugged in to the modern technology scene, I hopped a train and traveled overnight to get there for the last day of the event. The grounds where the event was held were enormous, and I wouldn't be surprised if I walked 20 km, since I was on my feet and going booth to booth from 9 AM to 5 PM. What follows is a list of significant technologies that can have an impact on Wycliffe's field teams around the world.

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