Requirements and Specifications of Resources Hosted Here

The criteria for hosting resources on this site are:

• It can be legally redistributed;
• The content is what it purports to be;
• It conforms to the specification criteria of one of the following:

1. e-Sword Resource Format Specification 1;
2. e-Sword Resource Format Specification 2;
3. Pocket e-Sword 3.x;

The content of the resource is irrelevant to whether or not the resource is hosted here.

What that means:

It can be legally redistributed.
This means that if a resource is downloaded from this site, the user can distribute elsewhere, without running afoul of copyright law. The only qualifier here is that the distribution is gratis.

The content is what it purports to be
This means that if the resource claims to be Codex Aleppo, the content of the resource is a faithful represenation of Codex Aleppo. Any additions and alterations should be clearly delineated.  This also means that a resource is not rejected, purely because it uses an inappropriate resource format. 

It conforms to the specification criteria
This means that it displays content correctly, for the version of e-Sword, or Pocket e-Sword that it was created for.
e-Sword Resource Format Specification 0
I coined this term to refer to the criteria for resources for e-Sword 7.x. These resources usually do not display correctly e-Sword 8.x.
e-Sword Resource Format Specification 1
These are the specifications for e-Sword 8.0.6.

e-Sword Resource Format Specification 2
These are the specifications for e-Sword 9.0.1.

Due to some minor changes in the specifications, I dubbed the criteria for e-Sword 9.7.2 to be e-Sword Resource Format Specification 2a.  But that is purely a personal term.  Thus far, no user created resources contain the markup that triggered those minor changes.

Pocket e-Sword 3.x
These are the specifications for Pocket e-Sword.

The Last Sentence:
The content of the resource is irrelvent to whether or not the resource is hosted here.

e-Sword-users.org does not discriminate on the basis of content. Regardless of how appropriate, or inappropriate the content of the resource is, for the type of resource that it is created within, that content will not eliminate the resource from being available here, if it meets the other criteria.

This means that there are resources that do not contain the expected paraphrase of "In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth" for Genesis 1:1, or "These are the ancestors of Jesus the Christ, The Son of Abraham, the Son of Isaac, the Son of David", for Matthew 1:1.

This also means that resources that are X rated could be distributed here.  (Tim May's Translation of the Bible is one potential X rated resource that is text only. A graphic/map resource of Samson and Delialiah, or David and Bathsheeba might easilly be X rated.)

This also means that we do not reject resources, because we disagree with their theological orientation.

Things that are not mandatory, but probably should be

These are not official requirements, but make resource management much easier:

• Include The Copyright Table;
• Include The Metadata Table;

The Copyright Table
This table is where complete bibliographic data for the resource should be placed.

• Where the first hardcopy edition was published.
• Which hardcopy edition was used as the source text for the resource;
• Who gave permission for the resource to be distributed;

In short, it should answer all potential questions about the copyright status of the resource, and where to go to obtain permission to utilize the resource elsewhere.


The MetaData Table
This table should contain the complete Dublin Core Meta Data for the resource.  Furthermore, this is where the theological orientation of the resource should be placed.

Creating These Resources


BeST 2.X creates resources that contain the Copyright Table and MetaData Table. It also creates resources that conform to:

1. e-Sword Resource Format Specification 1;
2. e-Sword Resource Format Specification 2;
3. Pocket e-Sword 3.x;

The major issue for resource creators, is ensuring that the content of the resource is a faithful representation of what it purports to be.


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This was originally posted to my blog at e-sword-users.org on 25 January 2011