OSIS  (Open Scriptural Information Standard) is an XML standard for encoding Bibles and other biblical research texts, which enables ministries and other organizations to collaborate more easily. Traditionally, these organizations have stored their documents in disparate, proprietary markups, making it difficult when they wish to share in service with each other. OSIS provides a common markup for multiple visions. Developed in a collaboration with CrossWire Bible Society, the Society of Biblical Literature and American Bible Society.

To make the OSIS Bible Tool's full library of downloadable XML resources easier to browse, this article displays the library's content for your convenience. You can download the XML text to Bible versions in many languages, commentaries, daily devotionals, lexicons, and dictionaries. (Their website requires navigating a collapsible menu in the left sidebar.)

Are you thinking about building a new software, website, or app with the full text of the Bible? For a Bible app to be useful to a larger audience, having popular Bible versions accessible is essential for adoption and on-going Bible engagement.

But some versions and translations of the Bible have copyrights and requires licensing for use in software. It used to be that you would have to contact each copyright holder or publisher one by one to request permission and to discuss terms of use and associated fees. That's not great use of your time and effort.

Now there's an easy way to access many popular English Bible versions, whether they have copyrights or not. This is available now in the Digital Bible Library (DBL)!

DBL provides the convenience of accessing and licensing use of multiple Bible versions in one stop and accelerate software development by making the Bible text in a common format for scalability. 

At the time of this post, these are the popular Bible versions that are available for use through the DBL:

The Digital Bible Library® (DBL) is an online digital asset and licensing management platform developed and maintained by the United Bible Societies. 

DBL gathers, validates, and safeguards a large collection of quality, standardized, digital Scripture texts and publication assets, in hundreds of languages — all contributed by a growing number of partnering translation agencies. 

DBL enables the secure licensing and distribution of these resources to approved internal or external ministry partners. ​

This marks the beginning of our research to help developers get information to obtain the proper licensing or whatever permissions are necessary to use Bible verses with copyrights in your app or website, with a clear conscience and as a law-abiding citizen. Each version has its own copyright holder and publisher; each would probably have its own rules, terms of use, and potential usage fees.

This will be the starting point. Let's start with these 10 most popular Bible versions mentioned on Twitter in 2010: 

• The Message
• HCSB
• NASB
• ESV
• NLT
• NKJV
• KJV
• NIV

KJV is the King James Version and the text itself is in public domain. However, certain formats of packaging the data may be copyrighted. See the Bible download page here for freely available KJV Bible text.

ESV is the English Standard Version, copyrighted by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. According to their Permissions page, "Crossway allows you to access the ESV Bible text from our server and include it on your website or app, free of charge for non-commercial use. To learn more or register for the API, visit api.esv.org." For other usage, contact Crossway at crossway.org/permissions/digital/​

NIV is the New International Version, with copyright held by Biblica, Inc. To obtain licensing information and permission to use for commercial or non-commercial purposes, contact the corresponding point of contact listed on the page, How do I license the NIV for additional use? Note there are different contacts for commercial use in the US and Canada; commercial use in the UK, EU and EFTA; and, non-commercial use.

The Message is a popular reading Bible translated by Eugene Peterson; its copyright holder is NavPress and they're represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. According to their Permissions Information page, "Permission to quote from THE MESSAGE in projects produced for sale may be accompanied by a fee. The amount of this fee is based on the percentage of the total text that is represented by quotes from THE MESSAGE as compared to the total amount of your text in the final product, the distribution of that material, and whether it is for commercial or non-commercial use. All fees are established to protect our copyrighted material." To obtain written permission, fill out the Permission Questionnaire. The more details you provide about your project, the quicker they can process your request. Allow 2-4 weeks for a response.

More to come...

[update 1/07/2019] See the next blog post in this series for the one place to get easy access to multiple Bible versions for software development. This is a huge time saver!

Hackathon.Bible received this idea recently, and if you can help, please add a comment to help a brother out. Thank you.​

For those of us that live in a technology-saturated world, so many different things are vying for our attention. Smartphones have become the place where people spend more and more of their time, energy, and attention. One research found this:

At risk of stating the obvious, two of the biggest attention grabbers are entertainment and advertising. But, people are made for more than being mere consumers of content and products.

People are made in the image of God and have much more worth as the Bible describes the deeper truths about our human condition and the value of life.

How can the timeless truths of the Bible better engage more people in today's digital generations right there where they are? 

At the upcoming Kingdom Code BUILD hackathon in London on October 19-20, 2018, Christian technologists and developers are tackling this challenge to increase Bible engagement in the 21st century--

Read the full article and make plans to be there for the Kingdom Code BUILD 18 hackathon.
​

On the weekend of October 21-23, 2016, Code for the Kingdom connected 12 cities around the world for a Global Hackathon that brought together hundreds of software developers, programmers, designers, creatives, and coders to work on over 30+ projects. One of the special moments was sharing in a group video chat with all 12 locations and to pray together in real-time!

The .BIBLE registry team (Pat Walker and DJ Chuang) was on-site at the Dallas location for this global hackathon and the .bible top-level domain was one of the sponsors for the entire global hackathon around the world to help raise awareness for this new digital neighborhood that seeks to be the trusted online source for all things Bible. 

Among all the global hackathon projects posted at the devpost.com website, we were encouraged to see these projects related to the Bible:

Bible Chat- an accessible Alexa skill for people to discover the Bible

UBride automated Bible journal - An app with scripture in the local language and the ability to real time chat with Christians from their culture.

Scripture distribution for the Middle East - An app with scripture in the local language and the ability to real time chat with Christians from their culture

Gospelbot - A.I. that aims to spread the truth about Jesus' life, God's word, and what the gospel means for mankind.

Daily Liturgy - Chrome extension to easily access today's Daily Office and check the current Church calendar 

Moses Rod 3D Bible Adventure Game Programming Tutorial - Expand the Existing Moses Rod 3D Game Programming Tutorial for Kids & Teens to include RPG Inventory & Quests

The mission of .BIBLE is to encourage Bible engagement, translation, innovation, and global partnerships so that all people may experience the life-changing message of the Bible. And our team is eager to see many of these projects go from development as a prototype into a publicly-launched website or app to help more people engage with the Scriptures.

​When we learn of when these projects are launching, or other Bible website and apps getting launched, we'll be sure to spread the word via our .bible blog at get.bible/blog!

The .bible registry team was encouraged to see innovative project ideas getting developed at the San Francisco Bay area hackathon in September 2016. Among all the hackathon projects posted at the devpost.com website, 6 out of 15 projects were related to the Bible:

Echo Audio Bible http://devpost.com/software/alexa-audio-bible

WeChat Gospel Guide bot http://devpost.com/software/wechat-bible-bot

Treasured Word http://devpost.com/software/treasured-word

AskGod http://devpost.com/software/askgod

ReadScripture.org Chrome Extension http://devpost.com/software/readscripture-org-chrome-extension

Ocean's Deep Encounters http://devpost.com/software/ocean-s-deep-encounters-guided-christian-meditation-po27i3

This is one of the main reasons that .bible was launched, as stated in our mission statement: The mission of .BIBLE is to encourage Bible engagement, translation, innovation, and global partnerships so that all people may experience the life-changing message of the Bible.

And on this coming weekend, October 21-23, our .bible registry team will be at the Dallas location for the Code for the Kingdom global hackathon. With a total of 12 locations for this weekend's hackathon, we hope to see at least a dozen good Bible hackathon projects!

You can find an available .bible domain name at one of the accredited .bible registrars—get a domain name that ends in .bible that's memorable, meaningful, shorter, and available! 

For the upcoming Code for the Kingdom hackathon, the .BIBLE Registry (operated by American Bible Society) will be awarding a .BIBLE domain name—with a value up to $10,000—to the winning Bible-related project.

The winner will be able to choose any available .bible domain name to be associated with the project. What's important is for the .BIBLE domain name to quickly convey the value of the project more than the market value of a domain name. By providing the opportunity to win a premium-priced .BIBLE domain name, the winner will choose from a larger number of available .BIBLE domain names. 

You may notice that the retail price for .BIBLE domain names are higher than that of generic domain extensions like .com or .org. Just like .org domains are the trusted brand for nonprofits, .BIBLE domains are the trusted online source for all things Bible. Our higher price will help to defray the operating costs for managing the top-level domain and keeping it safe with content monitoring as well as encouraging .BIBLE domains to be actively used. 

Some .BIBLE domain names have a premium price that were set by an independent third-party valuation process based on current market value. For more background, read this article, "Why Premium .BIBLE Domain Names Matter."

In other words, not all domain names are equal. For example, these are some premium domain name that a hackathon winner may choose from: 24.bible, abc.bible, devotions.bible, discussions.bible, interpreting.bible, personal.bible, qt.bible, topics.bible, use.bible, and many more.

You can check on the availability and retail price of any .BIBLE domain name at one of the accredited .BIBLE registrars. 

Get.Bible is coming to the San Francisco Bay area hackathon on September 23-25, 2016, hosted by Leadership Network and Code for the Kingdom! The best Bible engagement website or app will win a .bible domain name with value up to $10,000! This is an excellent opportunity for coders, software developers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and people who love the Bible! Learn more at hackathon.bible. 

Get.Bible is the official website of the .bible top-level domain registry operated by American Bible Society, that makes it possible to have domain names ending in .bible as the internet namespace to be a trusted online source for all things Bible.

With the internet getting bigger every day, how will people find what your Bible website or app? The best way to reach people is a memorable, meaningful, and short .bible domain name! Learn more at  Get.Bible.

About Code for the Kingdom

Code for the Kingdom is a weekend hackathon and ongoing ecosystem where global issues are tackled from a Christian perspective. Join an incredible group of individuals who are applying their skills and experiences to advance common good and serve God’s Kingdom. In collaboration with innovative nonprofits and churches, we’ll write code and create technology to help release the oppressed, teach God’s Word, heal the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and support the church and the body of Christ. Make a difference by writing much-needed code or designing beautiful interfaces. Find a community of peers who want to have fun while serving the Lord.