Logos 5: the underlying platform
June 17, 2014
(Note: while there is an almost endless variety of material available from Logos Bible Software, this compound review is based around Logos Bible Software 5, the Bronze base package, and the Gold Reformed package.)
From time to time, Logos gets a mention - and usually a kind one - on the Reformation21 blog. But what is it, is it any use, and should you be interested? The temptation in considering this product is simply to reel off a list of the material that is available, but that is a little like displaying the menu without showing you round the kitchen and introducing you to the chef. I would like to give you something of a tour.
I will divide my review into three elements, considering the underlying platform, a typical standard base package, and then a typical specialist base package. I hope, in this way, to provide a reasonable overview of the product. In writing this review, I should make clear that my reading instinct is to have an open book in one hand and a pencil in the other. I like to engage with my books, and to read them face to face, as it were. So, I come to a platform like Logos with a measure of caution, though not really suspicion, more of an old-school inclination when it comes to the reading experience. At the same time, I am not going to dwell overmuch on the pros and cons of hard and soft copies of books more generally.
First, the underlying platform is Logos Bible Software 5. The basic application is free and can be downloaded to just about any mainstream device or operating system, including PCs and all the iStuff, Android and Kindle. In other words, most users will be catered for.
The application itself opens on a desktop or laptop looking something like a busy webpage or blog. It can be fairly thoroughly customised and personalised, stripping out the extraneous stuff and advertising and giving you potentially useful streams of information, but you may still end up with flows of material you are unlikely to use. That said, that is just the splash page, and a couple of clicks takes you straight into the meat. The layout itself is fairly intuitive, and will be rapidly familiar to anyone with a modicum of computer sense. Playing with the various icons and buttons gives a rapid and developing sense of how things fit together and flip around. In similar fashion, apps opening on phones and tablets are well-designed, and have a familiar and straightforward feel about them, especially as you begin to get used to the tools available.
Of no small moment is the fact that even the standard fonts and settings are easy on the eye, with clean and bright design setting off clear and crisp texts. For those for whom reading off a screen is not natural or particularly pleasant, this is at the better end of the experience, with further options to customise as you wish. Tied in with that are the excellent utilities for highlighting and annotation. Again, for someone who likes to interact with a book, if I am going to be reading this material online, being able to mark it up like this is a genuine boon. I still have no instinct for it, but the scope is there. There is a broad variety of appearance in the highlighting, and a good and clear system for notes, allowing them to be well-organised and easily tracked.
The basic app itself gives you a lot of functionality. Even with a single Bible version, you can create your own reading schemes and memorisation programmes, start picking up the regularly-offered free resources, and being piecing together some low-level capacity. For those finding their way more slowly, and perhaps stumbling a little, my limited experience with the helpdesk is that it is staffed by proper humans who are intelligent, skilled and helpful, demonstrating the kind of persistently polite friendliness that makes Brits wonder if they are secretly being made fun of.
The available training is good - short and clear (if sometimes a little cheesy) videos, helpful tips and tricks - but you will need it to maximise your investment. For example, simply watching through a playlist will very quickly overwhelm you. Little and often will be the way forward. With so many options and countless tools, you will need the training both to work out what you can do, and then you must decide whether or not you want to do it, and then how to do it best. Like many such platforms, there is utility here that many will simply never need, no matter how much they might tell themselves they want it. Of course, for 'power users' (great phrase!) many of these tools will be meat and drink. As so often, you do not want to over-buy and end up paying for resources and tools you will never use.
The search tools are fantastic, even if they can take a little time to do all the processing with such a massive database to cover. A great deal of human endeavour (as opposed to mere mechanical data-crunching and algorithmic wizardry) has gone into connecting references, so that searching for an individual's name, for example, will throw up instances in which that individual is referred to without being named. This gives the student a far more sure grasp on the available material. Of course, the downside of so much material is that you can be overwhelmed even by the more simple searches, leaving you needing to use the search limiting functions wisely and well. A similar issue arises as you begin to learn to use the various windows and tools available. Before long, you might be thinking, "We're gonna need a bigger screen." Bear in mind, too, that there are hypertext links all over the place: potentially distracting, yes, but often these various tags and links offer rapid and brief insights and demonstrate valid connections without taking you away from the main thread.The main questions will be: do you need and can you handle the deluge of data?
(Next time . . . a typical standard base package.)
From time to time, Logos gets a mention - and usually a kind one - on the Reformation21 blog. But what is it, is it any use, and should you be interested? The temptation in considering this product is simply to reel off a list of the material that is available, but that is a little like displaying the menu without showing you round the kitchen and introducing you to the chef. I would like to give you something of a tour.
I will divide my review into three elements, considering the underlying platform, a typical standard base package, and then a typical specialist base package. I hope, in this way, to provide a reasonable overview of the product. In writing this review, I should make clear that my reading instinct is to have an open book in one hand and a pencil in the other. I like to engage with my books, and to read them face to face, as it were. So, I come to a platform like Logos with a measure of caution, though not really suspicion, more of an old-school inclination when it comes to the reading experience. At the same time, I am not going to dwell overmuch on the pros and cons of hard and soft copies of books more generally.
First, the underlying platform is Logos Bible Software 5. The basic application is free and can be downloaded to just about any mainstream device or operating system, including PCs and all the iStuff, Android and Kindle. In other words, most users will be catered for.
The application itself opens on a desktop or laptop looking something like a busy webpage or blog. It can be fairly thoroughly customised and personalised, stripping out the extraneous stuff and advertising and giving you potentially useful streams of information, but you may still end up with flows of material you are unlikely to use. That said, that is just the splash page, and a couple of clicks takes you straight into the meat. The layout itself is fairly intuitive, and will be rapidly familiar to anyone with a modicum of computer sense. Playing with the various icons and buttons gives a rapid and developing sense of how things fit together and flip around. In similar fashion, apps opening on phones and tablets are well-designed, and have a familiar and straightforward feel about them, especially as you begin to get used to the tools available.
Of no small moment is the fact that even the standard fonts and settings are easy on the eye, with clean and bright design setting off clear and crisp texts. For those for whom reading off a screen is not natural or particularly pleasant, this is at the better end of the experience, with further options to customise as you wish. Tied in with that are the excellent utilities for highlighting and annotation. Again, for someone who likes to interact with a book, if I am going to be reading this material online, being able to mark it up like this is a genuine boon. I still have no instinct for it, but the scope is there. There is a broad variety of appearance in the highlighting, and a good and clear system for notes, allowing them to be well-organised and easily tracked.
The basic app itself gives you a lot of functionality. Even with a single Bible version, you can create your own reading schemes and memorisation programmes, start picking up the regularly-offered free resources, and being piecing together some low-level capacity. For those finding their way more slowly, and perhaps stumbling a little, my limited experience with the helpdesk is that it is staffed by proper humans who are intelligent, skilled and helpful, demonstrating the kind of persistently polite friendliness that makes Brits wonder if they are secretly being made fun of.
The available training is good - short and clear (if sometimes a little cheesy) videos, helpful tips and tricks - but you will need it to maximise your investment. For example, simply watching through a playlist will very quickly overwhelm you. Little and often will be the way forward. With so many options and countless tools, you will need the training both to work out what you can do, and then you must decide whether or not you want to do it, and then how to do it best. Like many such platforms, there is utility here that many will simply never need, no matter how much they might tell themselves they want it. Of course, for 'power users' (great phrase!) many of these tools will be meat and drink. As so often, you do not want to over-buy and end up paying for resources and tools you will never use.
The search tools are fantastic, even if they can take a little time to do all the processing with such a massive database to cover. A great deal of human endeavour (as opposed to mere mechanical data-crunching and algorithmic wizardry) has gone into connecting references, so that searching for an individual's name, for example, will throw up instances in which that individual is referred to without being named. This gives the student a far more sure grasp on the available material. Of course, the downside of so much material is that you can be overwhelmed even by the more simple searches, leaving you needing to use the search limiting functions wisely and well. A similar issue arises as you begin to learn to use the various windows and tools available. Before long, you might be thinking, "We're gonna need a bigger screen." Bear in mind, too, that there are hypertext links all over the place: potentially distracting, yes, but often these various tags and links offer rapid and brief insights and demonstrate valid connections without taking you away from the main thread.The main questions will be: do you need and can you handle the deluge of data?
(Next time . . . a typical standard base package.)
