Your comments please, on the Users Conference

[Helen Brown]

You cannot reply to the official announcement of the Accordance Users Conference planned for next September, so I am opening this topic for your feedback. Do you plan to come, have any ideas for a subject you would like to hear or contibute, or have any other comments?

[rcdeacon]

Do you plan to come, have any ideas for a subject you would like to hear or contibute, or have any other comments?

 

I will be unable to come due to its distance from North Carolina and its associated travel/lodging costs but is there a way either the whole conference or segments of it be made available on You Tube or perhaps a live stream? Much of the proposed agenda sounds really interesting and it could be very helpful to me. I wish I were able to attend.

[Fr. Rich]

This event is on my calendar and I am hoping/planning to attend. I am looking forward to meeting folks and to learning from experts how to get the most from Accordance.

[ryangeer]

I won't be able to attend but was wondering... is there a chance that you might live stream the sessions and allow those of us unable to travel to the conference to register (for a fee of course) and take advantage of the conference that way?

[mikes]

I am toying with the idea of attending, but before I make a decision I would like to get an idea of the schedule and venue (even if it is only tentative). Is friday going to start at 6am or 6pm? Are there any organized social settings or outings being thought of? Is WiFi going to be generally available? Are the sessions going to be setup classroom style or chairs only? Is the audience primarily professional scholars and ministry staff (would a new personal bible study user feel overwhelmed and out of place)?

 

Sessions of Interest to Me

• 
   
  
• How to use Accordance to answer "tough" or controversial questions on the Bible
  
• How to do original language study on Accordance
  
• How to integrate Accordance with other Mac applications, especially related to presentation, word processors, or export in general
  
• How to use Accordance for preparing for teaching or for seminary papers
  
• How to prepare a Bible Study with Accordance
  

 

WORKSHOP IN ADDITION TO SESSION

One of my hesitations to attendance is that the majority of the conference will be that "first layer" of learning that the podcasts do such a great job of covering. Might I suggest a few multi-hour, mini-workshop type sessions that really pull the user into the role of participant and accomplish something that just cannot happen so easily over the internet. A few ideas for things I would really love to dive into would be:

• 
   
  
• Create your own user layer for your map (users present the content to the teacher to walk through creation together)
  
• Same as above for your timeline user data
   
  

If I knew there was going to be 3+ hours each dedicated and contiguous on these two topics, I would make every effort to attend because it would be unique, unattainable online, and take me to a whole different level.

 

A multi-hour workshop I would have LOVED to attend a few years ago would have been with creating, importing and using Highlights, User Notes and Tools. . . not just a "how to", but actually going through a specific guided tutorial that showed me how to fit all this stuff together would have been soooo helpful! I would be willing to help with such a workshop if requested.

 

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE MASTERS

I, personally, am less interested in the "How to..." sessions, and more interested in the "This is how I..." approach. I'm also very interested in how people use Accordance with other tools. Specifically Word Processors and the like (e.g. I use Scrivener), Web sites with unique resources, your own library of documents and notes, scripts for repetitive actions, etc..

 

I would like to see some sessions that just follow the flow that people follow when doing specific tasks - personal bible study, preparing to teach, writing a paper, learning about a specific subject, answering a difficult question, exegesis of a specific passage... I'm not so much looking for the features that enable this work, but instead being a fly on the wall watching someone like Joe Weaks on fast forward accomplishing these tasks. I'd also love to see people like David Lang, Dr J, Rick Bennett, Joel Brown, and JP Kang in action. For that matter, you too Helen! An hour long session watching three different people with different backgrounds and approaches attacking the same task would be fantastic!

 

Maybe setting up a few rooms in between formal sessions for less visible users to share how they use Accordance would be fun?

 

I'm also toying with the idea of proposing a topic/contributing/presenting (hopefully with Keynote and Accordance on an iPad by then!) Here's a list of topics I'm thinking of putting up:

• 
   
  
• User content in and out of Accordance for in depth Bible Study
  User Tools, User Notes, Highlighting, PDFs, Documents, Outlines, Web Page content...
  
• The first 10 things you should do with Accordance
  how to organize your library, create workspaces, verse lists, highlighting, define ranges & groups and create favorites
  
• "Why is this verse different in that bible?" - Amateur Textual Criticism with Accordance
  
• Accordance and Scrivener
  
• Managing your "Stuff": DevonThink and OmniFocus
  
• From Studying to Remembering
  Using Accordance & Mental Case to learn/keep up with your _______ (Greek/Hebrew/Verse Memorization...)
  

Of course, your feedback on these topics would be appreciated in addition to response to my "proposals".

 

Finally, I really appreciate the hard word that goes into something like this. For a few years I worked at an association with a yearly conference that literally took all year to plan and manage. The logistics of a conference are no small amount of work that is much appreciated by myself!

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

[Joe Weaks]

I have just confirmed some changes in my schedule so that at this point I plan on attending the Accordance Users Conference. I don't really have any clear goal in mind, but rather am looking forward to meeting some folks, and maybe taking the opportunity to be of help in a face to face way. That is to say, if I was to propose a workshop to the OakTree folks, I really am happy to work on whatever would best fill a gap that might not otherwise be covered by user-offered workshops. As I mentioned on my blog, I'm toying with the following idea, but would happily take suggestions:

 

Automating Accordance Integration: A Glimpse at the Possibilities

 

Technologies already on your Mac, as well as features of your word processors and other applications can allow you to put the power of Accordance and the convenience of repetitive tasks at your finger tips. Get quick access to scripture as you write. Enable scholarly inquiry never before possible. Some examples will demonstrate amazing practicality and some will be for the sure fun of it. We'll catch a glimpse of what's possible in automating your favorite application.

[David Lang]

One thing I personally would like to see would be a kind of hands-on workshop focused on using Accordance in sermon/lesson preparation. Rather than being "taught" by a single instructor, I would envision it starting with a facilitated discussion about how best to incorporate Accordance into that process. Each attendee might be asked to share how he or she typically uses Accordance, then other attendees or the facilitators might offer suggestions for streamlining or improving that workflow, etc. There could then be a time where each attendee could get personalized help from the facilitators in developing their next sermon or lesson. As suggestions arise that would be of help to everyone, the facilitators could call everyone's attention up to the screen and demonstrate them.

 

If you all think this would be worthwhile, I'll work up a proposal and submit it. I'll be happy to be the lead facilitator, but I'd need two or three others to help out.

[Timothy Jenney]

I think it would be fun to have a couple of sessions centered around text criticism, say perhaps one passage each in the NT and OT, but we'd need enough people well-versed in the original languages to make for a good round table discussion (rather than just a lecture).

 

In the NT, we could use Comfort, Metzger, NET, CNTTS and NA-27 apparatus, along with the various GNTs Accordance has available.

 

In the OT, we could use BHS-W4, along with the LXX and its apparatus[es], Qumran Biblical Manuscripts, Dead Sea Scrolls images, etc.

 

I'd certainly be open to leading the NT one, if there's enough interest...

[R. Mansfield]

One thing I personally would like to see would be a kind of hands-on workshop focused on using Accordance in sermon/lesson preparation. Rather than being "taught" by a single instructor, I would envision it starting with a facilitated discussion about how best to incorporate Accordance into that process. Each attendee might be asked to share how he or she typically uses Accordance, then other attendees or the facilitators might offer suggestions for streamlining or improving that workflow, etc. There could then be a time where each attendee could get personalized help from the facilitators in developing their next sermon or lesson. As suggestions arise that would be of help to everyone, the facilitators could call everyone's attention up to the screen and demonstrate them.

 

If you all think this would be worthwhile, I'll work up a proposal and submit it. I'll be happy to be the lead facilitator, but I'd need two or three others to help out.

 

David, I would be interested in participating in something like this.

[Rick Bennett]

I have just confirmed some changes in my schedule so that at this point I plan on attending the Accordance Users Conference. I don't really have any clear goal in mind, but rather am looking forward to meeting some folks, and maybe taking the opportunity to be of help in a face to face way. That is to say, if I was to propose a workshop to the OakTree folks, I really am happy to work on whatever would best fill a gap that might not otherwise be covered by user-offered workshops. As I mentioned on my blog, I'm toying with the following idea, but would happily take suggestions:

 

Automating Accordance Integration: A Glimpse at the Possibilities

 

Technologies already on your Mac, as well as features of your word processors and other applications can allow you to put the power of Accordance and the convenience of repetitive tasks at your finger tips. Get quick access to scripture as you write. Enable scholarly inquiry never before possible. Some examples will demonstrate amazing practicality and some will be for the sure fun of it. We'll catch a glimpse of what's possible in automating your favorite application.

 

I would definitely attend, Joe.

[Rick Bennett]

I think it would be fun to have a couple of sessions centered around text criticism, say perhaps one passage each in the NT and OT, but we'd need enough people well-versed in the original languages to make for a good round table discussion (rather than just a lecture).

 

In the NT, we could use Comfort, Metzger, NET, CNTTS and NA-27 apparatus, along with the various GNTs Accordance has available.

 

In the OT, we could use BHS-W4, along with the LXX and its apparatus[es], Qumran Biblical Manuscripts, Dead Sea Scrolls images, etc.

 

I'd certainly be open to leading the NT one, if there's enough interest...

 

I of course love this suggestion. But, unless we expect a more scholarly attendance for this session, I would suggest approaching it like Mike mentioned above, "Why is this verse different in the Bible?" In the NT some of the questions that I brought up in the beginning of my article would be relevant. In the OT the same thing, i.e. "what does it meant when the translations committee chose a reading from the LXX, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.?" Answer specific questions rather than simply show off our arsenal (though that is always fun to do as well). You allude to this, Tim, when you mention focusing on a specific verse.

[kdrussaw]

Good evening.

At this point, I am planning on attending. I will give some more thought to workshop topics and respond accordingly. This is going to be fun!