Building Shepherd - Short update today...
1,247 authors have turned in a book list for Shepherd or committed to writing one(amazing 😃).
June 26th - July 9th.
Just a short update today...
The last two weeks have been focused on mapping out the upcoming features and working on functionality specs and designs for them (topic pages, search, and an improved front page). I am sitting down with the developer on Monday to talk through everything and get his input.
I should be able to share mockups of these pages in 2 to 4 weeks once they are further along.
What is next?
The next two weeks are focused on:
Finalizing mockups with the designer around the topic pages, new front page, and search feature.
Working with the developer to map out the best way forward on topic pages... as I would like to use Wikidata and natural language processing to do some cool stuff there. We shall see :).
General clean-up as we are still working to catch up on emailing authors who requested a future check-in date.
That is about it :)
What else is going on?
I got my first vaccine shot which is awesome! I get my next in early August and I am looking forward to full protection. The delta variant is rising fast in Portugal and they are going to need to lockdown soon so the hospital system survives. We are not looking forward to another lockdown, but it seems the best plan while they get everyone vaccinated. I still don't understand why they don't ban all get-togethers, indoor eating, and gyms while leaving the other parts of the economy alone (but I do not have the info they have and respect the hard-working people in those positions).
All of Europe is heading to a new delta wave it appears. I am especially worried about my family in Arkansas. They are vaccinated but the vast majority of people are not due to misinformation. And, the hospitals are already at 100% ICU capacity. A lot more people are going to die. And, the doctors and nurses are watching as people die who don't need to.
I hope everyone has a great weekend, stay safe out there,
Thanks, Ben