#Build — WIT Week 3
The Week That Was — 17th to 23rd Sept, 2018
After a week of working on #discovering, this week was all about pulling up the sleeves and getting down to #build things. Why #build and that too, what could you build and publish in a week?
A number of reasons, but mainly —
“It is only when your work comes out in public that you feel the compelling need to work on it and keep improving.”
This honestly spoke to me a lot. I tend to work something into perfection until I feel ready to put it out into the world, and this program has been a turning point for me in more ways than one. Even when it came to writing summaries and blog posts, the close deadlines have kept me on my toes and throw (unnecessary) caution to the wind.
So what was it that we had to build in a week? A chatbot that answered questions based on your chosen opportunity on Google Assistant, powered by Dialogflow!
I had gotten to know about Dialogflow a couple months back through a session at GDG Calicut, but never really got around to using it till now (there’s a starting point for everything, and interestingly, WIT Program seems to be mine). After reading up a bit on how to get a bot up and running, including Arya’s own blog posts and the links shared by the other resourceful members of Cohort 1, I felt ready to get down to it. It’s only then that I began to realize all the possibilities for apps using Dialogflow, specially after integrating fulfillments and webhooks — something to dig deeper into, at a later time.
The chatbot, named Outreachy Helpline, has been submitted for review. The website for the bot, including the demo video can be found here.
On Tuesday, there was an Open-House session which I unfortunately missed out on, due to an ISTE Orientation Program being scheduled the same day. However, Arya had recorded the session so that the rest of us could catch up on the discussions. The main highlight of the discussions for me was ‘Bubbles’ — the persona of a flawless person that we all have in our mind, perfect at everything that they set out to do. ‘Bubbles’ might hold a different image for each person, but the takeaway is that its only when we consciously inspect these unattainable images in our head that we can think about breaking those molds and realizing that it doesn’t have to be that way. Something interesting to ponder about.
Earlier in the evening, I also got to catch up with Amrita. Her insights are always very thought-provoking, and I can’t wait to start cracking on my Outreachy application this time, regardless of where it takes me. A detailed summary of the call can be found here.
To sum up, this week for me was all about diving head-first into tasks without over-planning — something we’ve been slowly dipping our foot into since the first week, but the impact is starting to show!
