Book of Mormon Stories Go Social?

So, this morning, I was at lds.org reading the scriptures. That's how I do it in the morning: I wake up, check my emails, read my webcomics, and read my scriptures. Today I also checked the going price on my son's Yu-Gi-Oh cards on eBay, but that's a whole other blogstory...

I got to thinking how cool it would be to be able to do all of my Book of Mormon reading and scripture studying online. I can really do it anyway, but imagine along with me, a website where:

• I could read and bookmark my place, for linear, start-to-finish reading.
• When I have an insight on a verse that I read, I could open up a "stickynote" window and write my thought down. That stickynote would be "stuck" to that verse.
  
• While I'm writing in my sticky note, I could jump to another window, search for a different scripture and add that reference to the initial sticky note. That connection could appear in both verse A and verse B.
• I could tag both verses with keywords that help me to identify the topics and thoughts on them.
• In the stickynotes, I could even include external links to net resources, like articles, documents, blogs, videos, etc...
  

Pretty simple stuff, so far. But what if I'm not reading from Genesis to the Articles of Faith? What if I'm studying a topic? Or preparing a lesson?

• I can access scriptures from the existing Topical Guide. Those could be tagged with stickynotes, just like the others.
  
• I could look up scriptures based on keywords in the verse itself, based on topics like the topical guide, and based on keywords and tags in my stickynotes.
  
• I can create my own "Topical Guide" lists of scriptures around topics of interest to me.
  
• I can connect and interweave all of these lists, tags, and stickynotes to the myriad of publications of the church
• The scriptures
• Conference Talks
• Magazine articles
• Lesson Manuals
• Church History Documents
• (with proper security) My own Patriarchal Blessing
  

Still pretty simple. There are possibly existing software packages that do things like this. But BaBAM, let's kick it up a notch! What if we take this whole thing social!?

• I can have a profile page that shows things like:
• Where I'm currently reading
• My most recent stickynotes
• Some of "Topical Guide" lists
• blogs, lessons, and articles I've written
• My written testimony
  
• I can make any of these and more bits be public, or shared.
  
• I can have a list of friends and see some of the study points that they've made public.
• While I'm reading, or looking up scriptures, I can have access to the stickynotes my friends have left on any particular verse, maybe I can even comment on them.
  
• I can message (via email, internal messaging, or even internal chat/IM) any of my friends and ask them questions or talk about any of their stickynotes, blogs, or lessons.
• I can make any of my stickynotes, lessons, or blogs even more public by sharing them in twitter, facebook, digg, delicious, or any of a number of other social networks.
• There could be moderated topical forums and groups formed that would discuss certain topics from a scriptural point of view.
  

It'd be, like, the ultimate Mo' Social Network! More than just hangin' with friends in the ward, or playing Mafia games on facebook! This is like a Book of Mormon Book Club!

Whatdya think? It would take some serious back-end programming. Any programmers out there willing to take on a project like this one? I'd be all over promoting it!



Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.