'Glo' Bible to engage a digital generation

Written by Staff

Thursday, 16 July 2009 02:00 PM America/New_York

The man behind iLumina, Tyndale House Publishers' popular enhanced Bible computer package, was at the show yesterday to introduce his next generation of electronic Bible resource.

Releasing in October, Glo marries a digital edition of the Bible with thousands of articles, photos, animations, videos and maps. Interactive features allow users to customize reading plans and journal, with access available from any computer and on smart phones.

With a suggested retail price of $79.99, Glo will initially be available only through Christian retail stores, with distribution by Zondervan. "We hope this will motivate stores to pick up on this in a special way," said Nelson Saba, founder and CEO of Glo creator Immersion Digital. Initial reaction to the new product had been "very encouraging," he said.

"Two entire generations have been born in a digital world who favor digital media over any other," Saba said. "But there's very little that is good interactive media that connects them with the Bible, that is designed for them. We really felt that the time was right to create a digital Bible that would connect with this generation, as an alternative to paper for them, because they don't use it."

Glo operates with a zoomable interface that allows users to browse through five "lenses"-easily navigable Bible text, a timeline, an atlas, searches of keywords and articles by scholars and teachers, and multimedia. Included in the three-DVD set are 7,500 encyclopedia articles, almost 2,500 photos and more than 450 virtual reality tours.

"We're not really just digitizing the Bible," Saba said. "We are creating a product with layers of functionality that will help make the Bible relevant and engaging to this generation."