We’re giving you an early sneak peek into the Cardstack Builder with its GitHub integration!
In the latest installment of our developer series, Jen Weber shows you how the Cardstack Builder and GitHub work together as you build your own cards, with the code being generated for you automatically and your work being stored in your own GitHub repo. https://youtu.be/WjylQ7Emgwc

Developers, listen up: Here comes Dev Mode!
In the latest video of our developer series, we show you how to run the Cardstack Builder locally and how to create cards—both within the UI and within the code editor.
https://youtu.be/JEHgZ_yOM7E

Can we reboot society? That’s the question Chris poses in his blog post, where he looks at the current crisis through the lens of human psychology, surmising what comes after—what will change significantly and what’s likely to stay the same?
https://medium.com/cardstack/rebooting-the-world-after-the-covid-19-shutdown-3c53c989e499

We have completed the internal beta version of the Cardstack Builder! This demo gives you a walkthrough of the different steps and modes to build cards using our card building tool.

Next, we are working on the GitHub integration, so developers can start playing around with the builder on Card.Space soon. Stay tuned for Dev Mode!

https://youtu.be/1n4apuT-JPk

We have updated our 2020 roadmap to reflect the current status of our work. Have a look: All the items we completed in Q1 across the various layers of the stack are highlighted in pink. We are currently working on the items in light blue.

Chris is giving a talk at Consensus: Distributed tomorrow (Friday, May 15) at 10:50 am ET. Tune in to hear him speak about the “Building Blocks for the New Creative Economy”. This virtual conference is free, just register here: https://www.coindesk.com/events/consensus-2020

Chris spoke at Consensus: Distributed last Friday. The topic: “Building Blocks for the New Creative Economy.” In case you missed it, you can rewatch Chris’ presentation in this short video we put together for you:
https://youtu.be/zhdjpwbeiOA

PS: Stay tuned for a longer version of his talk, which will be published soon.

As you know, Chris spoke at Consensus: Distributed last week about the “Building Blocks for the New Creative Economy”—if you’d like to hear more about this topic, check out the longer version of his talk on our YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/TO0CsjbZXXc

Here’s a sneak peek into our media registry work!

It showcases Boxel (our design system), which provides many of the capabilities offered by other no-code tools, like Airtable. It also shows you how we integrate Card Flow (our conversational workflow system), to handle the transfer of media assets in this music industry use case.

We are currently working with Verifi Media to bring this enterprise solution to the market. It is based on our open-source technology; and we are increasing the capabilities continuously, as we run the technology through more and more sophisticated workflows.

https://youtu.be/GE3G1O5t2_Q

This blog post is based on Chris’ talk about the “Building Blocks for the New Creative Economy”. Learn all about the current state of the content distribution network, the role blockchain could play in the creative industry, and how Cardstack combines content with monetization in powerful building blocks for the world’s creators.
https://medium.com/cardstack/composable-monetization-techniques-for-creative-content-e90946ce78d3

Here’s Chris’ latest talk about the history of software distribution. He speaks about how software evolved from a product (SaaP) into a quote (SaaQ), a resource (SaaR), and finally a service (SaaS) between 1995 and 2020. Finally, it will become a tool (SaaT) that empowers both coders and non-coders, by combining off-the-shelf software with the individuality of customization.
https://youtu.be/UrnYKgTl184

Want to learn more about the history of software? This article dives deeper into software as a product, quote, resource, service, and tool (including the business model behind SaaT), while being less tech-focused than Chris’ talk about “The Evolution of Software Distribution”.
https://medium.com/cardstack/software-through-the-ages-7ae7b3debfd7

We have updated our 2020 roadmap!

In Q2, we focused on two tracks of development:

- Boxel: our design system for card-based UI templates and functional composition
- CatalogJS: the underlying build and software distribution system that will lead to the Card Catalog

On the design system front, we built upon the forms that can be assembled in the Cardstack Builder, extending the system significantly to include collections and threads, which are integrated with the Boxel Motion Engine. We are currently working on additional components, such as the action system and revision control.

To make sure that our building blocks solve real business use cases, we apply the Boxel components and our data model (enabled by the Cardstack Hub) to various POCs and usage scenarios.

We will circulate examples of the user experience we are creating, as we transition from the UX layer to a full-stack implementation, using the latest Cardstack Hub.

A blog post explaining our progress in more detail will be published soon.

This blog post dives into the details of the roadmap update we posted last week—specifically Boxel (our design system) and CatalogJS (the underlying build and software distribution system). Find out what we’ve accomplished this year, what we’re currently working on, and what our plans are for the future. https://medium.com/cardstack/catalogjs-boxel-design-system-efd1e86fb88a

Introducing the Cardstack Membership System: In this article, we give our community an overview of all the different badges that members will be able to acquire in the Cardstack network. There are numerous ways to participate in growing the ecosystem and earn corresponding rewards—whether it is as a Card Stacker, Card Maker, or Card Member.
https://medium.com/cardstack/the-cardstack-membership-system-a6b55731b81b

Get ready to meet the Cardstack Workflow!

What would you prefer: 10 tools for 1 workflow—or 1 tool for 10 workflows?

Currently, people need many different tools to accomplish their work. One app for messaging, one for document sharing, another one for task management, a separate one for transactions… The list goes on and on. Each tool is from a different SaaS company, requires its own login, and is a silo that doesn’t interact with any of the other tools. Put simply: It’s a pain. Getting work done is much harder than it should be.

That is why we have been working hard to create a powerful workflow system to end the chaos. Essentially, the Cardstack Workflow puts cards in motion, enabling users to act on those cards and exchange them between each other easily—all within one system that can be extended for individual needs.

Users will no longer have to split up their work into 10 different apps, all of which do different things and don’t talk to each other. Instead, they can do all their work in one place, managing their multi-layered and multi-faceted workflows with one multi-functional tool.

In the past few weeks and months, we improved the visual & motion design of the Cardstack Workflow, aligning this multi-party workflow system with the look & feel of our Boxel Design System, so as to offer users an exciting, seamless, and composable experience.

In the next couple of weeks, we will introduce you to the various concepts that we have combined to make this system truly special, using the example of an Ebook Editing workflow.

All in one: Chat, Email & Tasks

Don’t you love Slack and Telegram? They let you chat. You can have real-time conversations with your friends, colleagues, partners, or clients—exchanging messages and emojis to your heart’s content. But that’s it.

Don’t you love email? You can send files. And your inbox tells you at a glance which emails are new, which ones are important, and which ones you don’t have to worry about right now. But that’s it.

Don’t you love Asana and Trello? They give you tasks. You can check off the items on your to do list, while keeping track of your progress on different projects. But that’s it.

Granted, those are great apps. They’re good at what they do. The problem is, the thing they do is all they do. Your emails don’t convert themselves into tasks. You chats don’t sort themselves into categories. Your tasks don’t have live chats attached.

So what if there were a tool that gave you the benefits of chat, email, and tasks combined? A well-organized, straightforward, real-time workflow system, where you can send messages and attachments between multiple participants or organizations, while simultaneously completing all related tasks?
All features in one tool: Meet the Cardstack Workflow!

Let’s talk about the Queue

Your email inbox is great. It helps you prioritize, as it sorts your emails into categories. But does it tell you when there’s something that you need to do? Not so much.

Your Cardstack Workflow queue not only sorts your messages and gives you informative previews—it actually tells you if there is a task for you inside a thread, or that you’re blocking an entire workflow.

Take these categories, for example:
- Unread: “There’s a new message in this thread. Read it!”
- Need Response: “We’re waiting for you to take an action. Go click that button already!”
- Recent Activity: “Nothing for you to do right now. Feel free to take a nap.”

If you expand your queue, you get a full-screen view with even more categories, where you can put messages that annoy you or the ones that are no longer relevant.

Your queue is also searchable. And you can have a separate queue that’s shared among your team.

But most importantly, it’s the place where you click on a queue item to open a thread. In our example, let’s open the thread of an Ebook Editing workflow.

=> more on threads coming up