Summer 2020 Internship Team Kickoff!

​

Agenda:

​​

• Welcome and Introductions

• Summary of Interviews and Team Selection

• Team Logistics

• Overall Technical Objectives

• Resources

• Project Kickoffs

• Crawler

​

Summary of Interviews and Team Section:

• ~40 Emails of Interest, ~32 invited to interviews, ~28 completed interview

• Very high concentration in ML/NLP/Data Analytics, with Python far away #1 skill

• No UX/UI.  No FrontEnd specifically.  Even Data Science people had little interest in visualization

• As a result, team mix is a little different than what was on the internship web page

  • 2 Machine Learning : Lu and Prakhar

  • 1 Data Analytics / Data Science:  Nikhil

  • 1 NLP: Leon

  • 1 Business Development Engineer: Kavi

  • 1 Blockchain Data Extraction: Kaushik

  • 1 Blockchain Oracle/Exchange collection: Sammy

  • 2 Development/Blockchain Generalists (DeFi, DAO, IoT...): Khushi, Parul

​​

• We are left with a few holes!

  • Data Collection -- The Crawler​

    • This is going to be our first problem to conquer as a Team!!! (more later...)​

  • UX/UI/Visualization for Blockchain Opportunity Analysis project

​​

Team Logistics:

• 100% remote, distributed team.  Time Zones are India + every TZ in Continental US.

• Other than pre-scheduled meetings, demos and planning, hours are 100% flexible -- work where you want, when you want!

• Everyone has signed agreement.  Please respect privacy of Building Blocks and Teammates

• Spreadsheet Contact info and Emergency Contact.  Add to Slack?

• Working agreements to loosely specify communication expectations (24 hours?)

• We will follow 2 week "sprints", complete with internal demos

  • Suggest Tuesday as planning/demo day​

  • Planning for the first sprint will be this week in conjunction with Project Kickoffs

  • First demo will be on June 23rd

  • Demo will be followed by planning for the next Sprint

• Personal, one-on-ones with Barb every other week, but available in Slack every day!

• Peer-to-peer one-on-ones every week

  • Would like to do round-robin, not just people on the same project​

  • At the end of 8 weeks, we should all know each other!!!

• Dedicated Slack channel for team collaboration -- Please Participate!

• Final demo on August 7

​​

Overview of Technical Objectives:

• Team Member Specific:

  • Team Work and Collaboration​

  • Planning and execution as a group of technologists

  • Honing and advancing skills in chosen area of technology

• Building Blocks Technologies:​

  • ​Laying the groundwork to execute the Business Model:  

    • https://www.buildingblockstechnologies.io/model

  • Laying the ground work to execute the Company Mission:

    • ML/NLP predictive view of blockchain space (​https://www.buildingblockstechnologies.io/ml-nlp-data-anlytics-loop)

    • Data analytics to answer questions and converge on a focus

      • Industries, skills, opportunities...​

    • In-house building of skills (Data Extraction, DeFi, Blockchain specific development)

    • Business plan for cohesive summary of objectives and a roadmap to achieve those objectives

​​​​

Resources:

• Git Repo:  https://github.com/BuildingBlocksTechnologies

  • Everyone has been added​

  • We will need to define and agree on process

• Slack workspace:  ​​buildingblock-x3w7623.slack.com

  • #introductions -- Please introduce yourself!​

  • #help

  • #blockhain-edu:  please share input/feedback on videos, articles, etc

  • #crawler:  for those of us tackling this issue!

  • Add spreadsheet with contact info / emergency contact info?

  • Add as appropriate!

• Google Documents?  IDK

  • Video Training Spreadsheet​

  • Contact / Emergency

  • Working Agreements

• Video Training (Starting Point!) : Full spreadsheet will be available by June 16th (1 Week)

  • ​Only recommending Free Sessions.  Look for "Enroll for Free" option!​

  • ​Good beginner of overview of blockchain  for Everyone

    • https://www.coursera.org/learn/blockchain-basics

  • Engineering/Developer Technical content for Cryptographic Hash Functions, Digital Sigs, etc

    • ​https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency?

    • Start with Chapter 1;  6 videos, all of interesting for developers/engineers!

  • Blockchain and AI, related to Fintech

    • ​https://www.coursera.org/learn/entrepreneurs-blockchain-technology?

    • Week #1 is worthwhile as an overview

    • Week #3 covers AI as a pillar of the "fintech revolution"

  • Proof Of Stake Summit:

    • ​https://trust-less-2020.dystopialabs.com/

​

Project Kickoffs:

• Each project will have a kickoff this week.

• Core members of the project will figure out a day/time

• Day/Times/Zoom links will be published in Slack

• All members of the team are invited to All kickoffs.  However, non-core members should minimize participation in the meeting and save questions/comments for Slack and/or one-off meetings 

• Objective of the kickoff: 

  • Agree on requirements

  • Record Major milestones

  • Sprint #1 tasking/goals

• Business Development : Kavi, Sometime on Tuesday

• Blockchain Opportunity Analysis:  Leon, Lu, Prakhar, Nikhil
  • 1 meeting with everyone​
  • Separate meetings to go through the specifics of each set of data for
    • ML​
    • NLP
    • Data Analytics
• Blockchain Data Extraction: Kaushik, Sammy
• Development/Blockchain Generalists: Khushi, Parul

​

Crawler:

• One of the major sources of the data!

• At a minimum, we need to do SOME of the things on this page:

  • https://www.buildingblockstechnologies.io/data-collection

  • (encoding, proxy, PDFs, parsing issue)

• Many people with some java

• Attempt to solve in-house

• Get help from some other source.  Friends, Slack, remotestudents, etc

​​

Lastly:

• Have Fun!

• Engage!

• Learn!

• Communicate!

​