History
ExpoSong was created because of a need, and a lack of software that filled the niche just right. General presentation programs were good for some things, but they did not provide an interface that was ideal for church settings. While there were other programs, such as OpenSong, it lacked user friendliness, and it did not run well on Linux. There were a few commercial products that had good features, but only large churches could afford the extra cost.
The program started quickly, and within a few months, the program was released as version 0.3, with Brad Landis being the sole developer. After a short time, it was moved to a public project page, and Siegwart Bogatscher joined to assist, and was the first to translate the program (German).
We continued to release more versions, but after version 0.6, the program lost some momentum, while Brad was finishing up his degree and working most of the time.
A year later or so, Samuel Mehrbrodt brought a lot of fresh ideas to the team. He joined on as a programming assistant, and translator. The team now consists of Brad Landis and Samuel Mehrbrodt.
Future
Our vision for ExpoSong is to be an application that can be used by anyone. Usability is more important to us than features.
Some of these ideas may not be implemented exactly as they are described, but these are our ideas that we hope to see completed soon:
- Online Synchronization: This will allow a song leader to create a song list from home through the web or through an ExpoSong installation, and it will show up on the ExpoSong installation at the church building. Presentations, schedules, backgrounds, and other data will remain synchronized.
- Bible Verses: Display Bible verses on the screen when they are called out from the podium. This should be implemented as a plugin which can be turned off if the user wishes.
The Name
The name “ExpoSong” came from the word exposition, which can mean, to set forth, to explain, to describe, or in music, the first section of a fugue or sonata form.