I am writing to ask in general if you are aware of any other dubious ethical practices used by this publisher, and in particular if anyone else has seen examples of comment spam from them?
For the record if the person who wrote the comment, even had they chosen to hide behind anonymity, had interacted with my material or other comments in some way I would NOT have deleted the comment. As it is I intend to cease recommending any works audio or print published by Nelson to students and churches if a viable alternative exists from a more ethical publisher.
Addendum: [in case you do not rerad the comments] this comment is posted below, in fairness to Thomas Nelson I am copying it here so that you can read it with my post:Michael Hyatt left a comment:Blogger, unlike WordPress :( does not seem to collect (or at least does not offer bloggers a chance to see) the IP addresses of commenters, and this one was "Annonymous" but I am glad to hear that such behaviour is not approved, though puzzled since another biblical studies blogger has had similar experiences advertising your company's products. I do NOT object to anyone linking to your product pages, IF they are relevant and add something to the discussion.
I am the CEO of Thomas Nelson. We do not encourage or promote comment spam. Like you, I hate it. I spend more time than I would like deleting it from my own blog.
If you have an IP address or other information from the person who commented, I will be happy to take the appropriate action.
Labels: audio.bible, podcast, publication, publish
¶ 9:07 AM
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I am the CEO of Thomas Nelson. We do not encourage or promote comment spam. Like you, I hate it. I spend more time than I would like deleting it from my own blog.
If you have an IP address or other information from the person who commented, I will be happy to take the appropriate action.
Thanks.
By 
Michael Hyatt, at
October 22, 2009 1:05 PM
Tim,
It is quite possible that someone in the marketing arm of Nelson thought this would be a good idea and either didn't clear it with their boss or the boss didn't think to mention it to the CEO. I know that our marketing people had some problems with a young and enthusiastic staff member making inappropriate use of one of the social networking sites. It was very rapidly stopped when the person's manager found out and it was made clear to all staff that it wasn't an appropriate use of the medium. It just hadn't occurred to the manager that anyone would think to do it in the first place. It sounds as though this is a similar incident.
By Judy Redman, at
October 22, 2009 6:34 PM
With some 500 employees, we may have a rogue marketing associate doing this; I don't know. Regardless, I have sent an email to our Bible marketing people, letting them know that this is inappropriate behavior.
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Chris thus joins the existing biblical studies podcast series (the order is chronological, since style, audience and frequency offer interesting variety):
- Matt Page's Jesus Films (Sept 2006)
- My 5 Minute Bible (April 2007)
- Phil Harland's Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean (Oct 2007)
- Mark Goodacre's NTPod (June 2009)
- Steve Wiggins’s Sects and Violence in the Ancient World (July 2009)
Incidentally (but appropriately) our PodBible daily podcasts of the Bible itself from various amateur readers precedes all of these biblical studies 'casts :)
Labels: audio, audio.bible, bible.reading, biblical.studies, biblical.studies.online, podcast
¶ 7:01 AM
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The second is a summary of the ideas behind the vernacular resourcing through approximate oral translation (that I have presented before here - but cannot resist
Labels: audio, audio.bible, culture, digital, mission
¶ 5:55 PM
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Hi Tim,
That was an excellent introduction to the PodBible. I have posted about it to pass it on.
The daily chapters will continue to be podcast, but the whole Bible is now available to download chapter-by-chapter. Work has begun on two new delivery projects to develop PodBible further.
First packaging chapters to make 60 minute collections (book by book) so that people can download these "Bible60" collections to put on CDs, tapes or their car radios to listen to longer swathes of Scripture (with no TPDs added).
Then making the daily podcasts available in AMR format (much smaller files than MP3files) for download to mobile phone...
By the way, if providing Bible readings to more than a thousand people a day sounds worthwhile to you maybe you could help by taking a share of the regular tasks needed to run the podcasts, with a little training we can provide, anyone who is moderately computer literate could do what is needed in less than an hour a week... write to Tim to get more details...
Labels: audio.bible, bible.reading, podcast
¶ 10:26 AM
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The trouble is that the Hebrew audio Bible commonly available on the web, by Shmuelof, is copyright and the copyright holders are difficult to contact and might not be willing to give permission. My own Hebrew reading is not good enough. I used it for the Amos commentary, but it was criticised in Ehud Ben Zvi's review of the published version (he suggested I could have used the Shmuelof version, perhaps unaware that it was copyright protected).
There are bound to be others who would be glad of such a resource. In fact I know that Charles Grebe, who produced the magnificent Jonah Comic, as well as a load of other brilliant Hebrew learning tools online, would be. So, does anyone have suggestions of people able (i.e. with good clear voices and good clear Hebrew) and willing to start recording the Bible under a CC or public domain licence? I'd be delighted to give technical assistance and encouragement!
Labels: audio.bible, hebrew, hebrew.bible
¶ 1:33 PM
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What do you make of it?
[The MP3 was produced by a husband and wife team, and together with a very good essay explaining and justifying the performance it was submitted for the last assignment in the Genesis class I taught recently. I shared some of the thinking behind this assessment on Theologians without borders.]
Labels: audio, audio.bible, genesis, teaching
¶ 4:12 PM
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Joshua:
- Bible 60 Joshua 1-12
- Bible 60 Joshua 13-24
- Bible 60 Judges 1-11
- Bible 60 Judges 12-21
For the full list (updated as we add more) go to Bible60 @ PodBible
Labels: audio.bible
¶ 5:15 PM
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If not, and if you know of someone working or interested in the area of resourcing local churches in languages please point them to this post as I'd REALLY love to hear from them!
Labels: audio.bible, digital, education, open.scholarship
¶ 11:49 AM
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To put this video on your webpage or blog use this code:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/48fb8d0a8f9814e0/46928cc5788deb29/3b4c67e/-cpid/a2bbe86b39c0d5c1/autostart/false/repeat/false/widget.js"></script>
The photos are all from Flickr with CC licenses, here are the credits:
Photos by freecultureNYU, biblicone, kretyen, Edward B., futureatlas.com, terren in Virginia, Alan Joyce, liewcf, GeoWombats, Wonderlane, knowhimonline, the bright and morning star, nexus6
Labels: audio.bible, bible, podcast, video
¶ 8:39 AM
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That's slow?!?!
What a fabulous video!!! The images were superb. Where did you get them?
I think I was grasping at the end for a little bit more of a direct connection between the message of the video and PodBible. Maybe something explicit like "PodBible: downloadable to your mp3 player--the whole Bible." Or something like that.
Just thinking...
By David Ker, at
October 20, 2008 9:38 AM
Wait till you see the version I'm working on now ;)
The images are all from Flickr and should be credited, since I did not spot the credit slide in the show I'll add the names to the post here and the YouTube page... I hope that complies with the CC license...
I'll have to pay for Animoto to get the ability to stick a message like that on the end, but it probably is worth me paying for it.
By Tim, at
October 20, 2008 9:46 AM
Only the first and last hour of the marathon are on the normal TV channel of the state broadcaster. The rest is on one of the broadcaster's satellite channels, so not very accessible to Italians (although it can be watched live on Internet as well). This created quite a few complaints from Italians - I have had more comments on this fact than on any other on my blog. I don't believe there are only plans to distribute the video after the event. By the way, most of the readers are not celebrities, but "normal" people that signed up to read a chapter.To me this just indicates the failure of traditional models of distribution to get to grips with the possibilities of electronic media.
forget baby photos in the wallet,
they've got kid videos on their cell phones
The failure is driven by the need to be commercial, and only advertising and porn make money on the Internet. With a different model - in this case one that the Bible societies (I include many organisations with somewhat different names under this blanket heading hence the small S) have been doing for years - you could harness the possibilities of the electronic medium and maximise distribution. Set the Bible free and unexpected people will hear... and hearing they might understand.
But how can they hear if the message is hidden away! "Broadcast" on a cable channel, or sold on DVDs is very narrow casting indeed ;) And in the world of Bible distribution, that is a con. People donate money to Bible societies to distribute the Bible, the means are available to do this almost infinitely more widely and freely than ever before. All that is needed is imagination and the willingness to take a small risk. Nike have the right slogan, just do it! Video a score of NZ celebrities reading Mark's gospel as a serial story, then set the video free, you can even sell DVDs to recoup some of the costs, and watch the fun!
Labels: audio.bible, culture, digital, video
¶ 6:07 AM
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Preach it brother!
By David Ker, at
October 8, 2008 7:48 AM
Have you seen this? Pope begins Bible-reading marathonWhat a neat way to use the pope's star status!
I could not help wondering what would happen if BibleSoc and the Scripture Union's Christians in sport group (and a few others) got together and got NZ celebrities to read a gospel. It might not get on free to air TV here, but it could be cheap (by TV standards) to make, at least if the celebs volunteered their time. It could also go on DVD and YouTube so get wide distribution. Even with some imagination, become a serial story, stopping at exciting places and distributed by mobile phone as well as the other routes.
What a way to get Kiwis in touch with the Bible! And the cumulative impact of a whole bunch of celebs could really help make faith cool. Each of them would only have to give an hour or so of their time...
Labels: audio.bible, bible, culture, video
¶ 9:37 AM
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I'm quite interested in the logistics. How will it be published/archived?
An important distinction for me between this and PodBible is they are targeting bigshots rather than everyman. I can see that as being a very effective strategy in Africa where if the bishops and superintendents of churches signed up to do reading it would legitimize the translation.
By David Ker, at
October 7, 2008 12:57 PM
I don't know about the "real" PopeBible, I suspect that it will only be available commercially on TV and DVD.
What I'd envisage is using the celebs and making it as widely available as possible, just think of kids SEEING that a whole bunch of celebs think the Bible is worth spending time to read... that's my vision. Plus I don't live in a "Christian country" like Italy, in NZ we'd have difficulty getting TV time, so we'd need to go under the radar and aim for mass distribution.
By Tim, at
October 7, 2008 1:06 PM
PS, I can see how in Africa a "Bishops' Bible" could be a really good way to "sell" a new translation - <WickedThought> it would also be flattering to the bishops asked to read, which should help persuade them ;) </WickedThought>
By Tim, at
October 7, 2008 1:10 PM
To clarify something in the article: Only the first and last hour of the marathon are on the normal TV channel of the state broadcaster. The rest is on one of the broadcaster's satellite channels, so not very accessible to Italians (although it can be watched live on Internet as well). This created quite a few complaints from Italians - I have had more comments on this fact than on any other on my blog. I don't believe there are only plans to distribute the video after the event. By the way, most of the readers are not celebrities, but "normal" people that signed up to read a chapter.
Basically Bible 60 packages chapters from the PodBible audio CEV in convenient clusters.
Each package is about 60 minutes playing time. That is perfect to dub onto a C60 cassette, or write to an audio CD, for someone who's eyesight is going. It is an easy 20-30MB download you can listen to on a journey...
We've begun Bible 60 with the first book of the Bible, Genesis:
- Bible 60 Genesis 1-20
- Bible 60 Genesis 21-35
- Bible 60 Genesis 36-50
Labels: audio.bible
¶ 7:00 PM
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