“Rebuild LibriVox” (Mellon Grant Project) Update #2

Dear All,

We are now 6 months into the Mellon-funded project, to revamp the LibriVox tech infrastructure. We have a few people paid to work on the project: Jeff Madsen (developer), Artom Lifshitz (system administrator), and Valerie Bock (project manager). To date, they have together logged 441 hours, or about 44% of paid hours budgeted for this project.

Hours Breakdown:
* System Administration: 32
* Development: 323
* Project Management: 86

We will add a fourth paid staffer this month: Sonia of Nudge Design, who will be working on the redesign of the website.

Additionally, volunteers Jo Smallheer, Cori Samuel and Hugh McGuire have been working behind the scenes to guide the project, with help and support from a host of other volunteers and admins.

In the last three months we have:

* Migrated the existing system to new servers at the Internet Archive. (Special thanks to Jo Smallheer, who spearheaded the testing effort, working closely with Artom Lifshitz, our system administrator)
* Researched and designed a new categorization system, which we believe best suits the Librivox collection (thanks to Cori Samuel for taking that project on)
* Developed the tech foundation for a smoother backend system for project management and cataloging
* Started testing the (prototype) project management/cataloging system

In the weeks ahead we will be:

* Updating the Wiki, WordPress, and Forum Software
* Completing and rolling-out a fully functional version of the new project management/cataloging system for wider testing
* Developing and applying a new website design
* Developing the API’s for the Open Catalog improvements

Overall this year long project is, at its halfway point, currently under budget and running ahead of schedule.

Thanks again to everyone who has been working diligently to make this project happen. Special thanks to the Internet Archive, and of course the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for making this project possible.