Being a big fan of the Greek language, I’ve always got a kick out of the fact that alot of software teams like to use Greek letters to designate how ready their product is for prime time. For those not familiar with it, let me give you a quick run down on what each of the stages of product development looks like..in a somewhat unofficial manner:

In Development (pre-Alpha) - This is the first stage of a project’s life cycle and can range anywhere from, “I had an idea for this thing and I’ll work on it some day” to “we’ve started to hack out some code and test the waters with this concept.” You’ll often hear of something being, “in development” which may or may not mean it will ever see the light of day. For instance, The City has been “in development” up until now. Not all of the features have been written; it’s really wet cement.

Alpha - A wonderful Greek letter (the beginning of the alphabet naturally), that indicates the first “real” release of a project (generally to testers, which in web app parlance means your friends). In this stage, new features and bugs are found as often as the system crashes, (ie. daily). It’s a stage where the etch-a-sketch can be shaken up and the screen reset anytime as the project is definitely in flux. Generally an “Alpha” is released in a very controlled fashion, as system stability, performance, and other factors can jeopardize public opinion if it’s too open.

Beta - The second letter in the alphabet and the next step for a project, it generally designates a more stable environment and a much more open invitation policy. This is when the press releases go out and the buzz starts to build, as more and more people are experiencing the project and can comment positively or negatively about what they see. Being “in Beta” is actually quite nice from a software perspective because you aren’t actually done, so it’s ok to be rough around the edges. Some companies like to stick the “Beta” label on their products indefinitely, kind of like a warm security blanket for the project manager.

General Release - The golden copy is ready to ship and the project is done. This doesn’t happen with web applications in the same way as, say, Office 2008, but there’s still a point where pretty much everything is good to go and the Beta sticker can be taken off.

Last night, The City went Alpha.

After a few weeks of silence, it’s time for an update on all the activity going on behind the scenes in The City Labs. In short, we have been very busy, which only makes sense as we are launching to the first Community Groups on February 18th! We still have quite a few things to do before we’ll be ready, but the Lord has blessed us with alacrity and features are getting implemented pretty handily.

What are some things we’ve recently worked on? Well, at the top of my list, even though it was trivial to build thanks to the hard working crew over at Crossway, is a little feature that allows anyone in The City to reference Scripture in a very easy fashion. Here’s my announcement from The City:

We also implemented some customization tools, so those of you that are coming from a Facebook background will feel right at home as you can drag and drop things on the screen and hide certain portions, if you want. All of this The City remembers for you, so the next time you come back, you see just the things you want to see.

In the events portion of the site, it now supports an easy to use date entry (no crazy click on the calendar and spin the wheel sort of thing), just type in human-speak and the system turns it into computer-speak. You can also see the potluck system in the screenshot below (allows you to identify items for an event, and attendees to sign up to bring them).

We have also extended the neighborhood concept so a new person in The City can see the groups and people around their home or work address and reach out to join those communities. Pretty simple addition with all the nifty mapping capabilities out there but one that reinforces the locality of each person.

I have alot of help pages to write before the 18th, so I’m going to keep this somewhat brief. If you’re in the Greenlake area, I look forward to seeing you in the first wave!