The Nexus Weblog

The Results Are In!

2006-02-21T07:57:00.000Z

It's taken a little longer than we hoped, but we are pleased to announce the results of our first beta release are now in. That means we're one step closer to a public beta release, currently scheduled for March.

A hectic schedule over Christmas (for us and our testers!) has meant a longer delay than we we'd hoped, but here's a list of just some of the ideas our Beta testers have come up with -- we hope to include some of them in time for the next release.

Series ordering. Initially we forwent series in favor of tagging. Well our testers have pointed out that without series they can't put books in the 'right' order.
Export to... While no two testers could agree, there was a definite push for exports of your collections and wishlists. Some of the export suggestions included spreadsheet or CSV, XML and HTML/CSS, and upload to any and all of the many online book collections including the Amazon wishlist.
Ebay Integration. You know where you can buy secondhand books? We've got definite plans for eBay integration, so you can build or sell your collection on eBay right from The Nexus.

Stay tuned for more information closer to the next Beta release. We're still looking for testers, so if you're interested drop us a line.

Closed Beta 1 Released

2005-12-13T16:05:00.000Z

After nearly a year, the first private beta release of The Nexus has been completed and is currently being run through its paces by a team of ~~book freaks~~ dedicated testers.

The current beta is optimised for books, with full support for DVDs and CDs planned for the next release (hopefully before the end of the year!).

Here's a quick preview of what to expect.

The Nexus History

2005-12-13T15:48:00.000Z

The Nexus was written during 2005 in a quest to catalogue all my books, CDs, and DVDs before they were boxed, shelved, and stored prior to a move from Australia to London. What started as an experiment with Web APIs for downloading covers, quickly turned into something bigger.

I talked to some friends with collections larger than most state libraries, most of them had written their own home-brewed solutions. The process of combining all their 'must haves' together with my own formed the basis of The Nexus.

Now, after almost a year of development, The Nexus has been released in closed beta to those friends and colleagues who helped shape the project. Once they're done poking holes, we'll release a public version for the masses to enjoy.

Until then, we're very keen to hear your 'must haves' for a book/CD/DVD library system. To find out what's there already check out the website.