Day 4 of the book sprint, and counting...

It is midnight, we are busy finishing proof-reading the last chapters, after having been spoiled one more time with a scrumptious dinner cooked by an amazing Jill. After 4 days, time to put some numbers on this sprint:

• 5 squirrels,
• 8 chipmunks,
• dozen of blue jays
• 2 coyotes, and
• 1 bernese mountain dog,

and

• 11 000 words, spread around a lot of new chapters both aiming the users of CiviCRM and the developers.

Beside all the new content, pretty much all the existing chapters have been updated, improved or rewritten. All in all, that's been an amazing experience and a great opportunity to spend time with a group of great people passionate about a great product that is getting better everyday. Thanks to osi to have make it possible! Two things came as a surprise to me:

• So many design choices, implementations details and usability issues that we have been discussing for a long time online have been agreed upon in 20 minutes brainstorm sessions
• While writing a book, you are forced to thing about the logic of every feature, and what is the proper term for each item much more than when you simply use or develop it. We identified a few places where CiviCRM wasn't as coherent as what we were writing, and could find the time to correct the code so it is now as logical and simple as described in the book.

It's midnight and the snow is falling, nicely covering the road. According to the weather forecast, we can expect 2 inches by tomorrow morning, and more to come. We risk being stuck for the next 4 days. If you want us to write a book on any subject, come to #flossmanuals and tell us more about it, we will need to find something to do ;) Between the cherios and the leftovers, we probably will be able to keep writing for the next few days, after that, we'll try to catch some of the squirrels around the house. That failing, we might have to work on a reenactment of the donner party, that happened not far away from here. It's been great fun so far, hope it will stay that way, until the last bite...

Comments

These blog posts are so cool -- it's great to have a sense of the collaborative process!

Is there a specific target date for a new online version of the book? I'm eager to see what you guys come up with. We're just getting immersed in CiviCRM, and wanting the best resources available!

Adam & Michael did massage it on the way down, and here it comes:

...the new book (some edits still to come)

This is excellent. The chapter on groups/relationships etc. is a very concise and helpful explanation! Looking forward to reading the rest.