Project Journey
A living history of how BillTaylorBass.com was built - where it started, how it evolved, and where it is going next. This page is intentionally transparent: it documents the decisions, the architecture, and the versioned roadmap so the archive stays maintainable for the long haul.
Timeline
v0
Reconstruction and Discovery
The project began with a simple prompt - "List the shows I've played." That immediately expanded into a reconstruction effort across flyers, venue calendars, press, setlist sites, Archive.org recordings, and memory - always cross-checked against sources.
- Manual discovery and verification
- Early lists and notes (no stable schema yet)
- Key realization: this had to be rebuilt as structured data
v1
First Public Archive Builds
Initial static site versions proved the concept: a lightweight archive could scale, and public browsing mattered. v1 also revealed pain points - inconsistent naming, manual updates, and fragile pages.
- CSV-driven pages and basic filtering
- Show listings centralized and public
- Limits: naming drift, fragile edits, limited cross-page intelligence
v2
Re-Architecture and Insight
v2 turned the site into an intentionally engineered, data-first system. Google Sheets became the single source of truth; pages fetch live data; build artifacts are versioned; and the archive began answering relationship questions (starting with musicians and collaborators).
New framing: v2 establishes the structural discipline required for any future network modeling.
- Sheets-first canonical model (Shows, Bands, Venues, Songs, Musicians)
- Cloudinary introduced for media handling
- Versioned ZIP deployments + version stamps on every page
- v2.1.0 locked: Musicians Insight Release (collaboration analytics)
- Insight features become the first step toward relationship intelligence
v3
Network Intelligence (Seed Graph)
v3 introduces network signals without adding new data entry: relationships are derived from shows, setlists, and structured metadata. This is where the site starts building the seed graph for 6 Degrees.
- Shared-bill relationships derived from shows (Band ↔ Band adjacency)
- Opener / headliner directionality (who opened for whom)
- Relationship Intelligence surfaces: "Frequently Shared Bill With" and future edge-based insights
- Key idea: v3 builds the seed graph from existing data
v4
Explicit Relationships & Contribution (Future)
v4 is where relationships become explicit, time-aware, and verifiable. People become first-class entities, and membership edges can be contributed — but always moderated and source-backed.
- Introduce Person as a first-class entity
- Person ↔ Band membership edges (time range, role, confidence, source, status)
- Moderated user submissions (self-reported, evidence-backed, pending by default)
- AI-assisted discovery: propose, never approve
v5
Scene Graph & Exploration (Future)
v5 is where 6 Degrees becomes explorable — not just computable. The archive evolves into a scene graph that supports traversal, geography-aware mapping, and narrative discovery tools.
- Graph traversal: degrees of separation across people, bands, venues, and shared bills
- Geography-aware scene mapping (Atlanta + the Southeast over time)
- Hybrid execution layer (as needed) to support graph queries while keeping Sheets canonical
- Narrative and discovery tools (paths, clusters, "how are these connected?")
Roadmap (v2 to v5)
v2 (Locked) — Re-Architecture & Insight
Durable, Sheets-first foundation with versioned builds and the first relationship questions answered publicly.
- Sheets-first canonical model and generated dimensions
- Versioned ZIP deployments + version stamps
- v2.1.0 locked: Musicians Insight Release
v3 (Current) — Network Signals
Derive network edges from existing show data (no new heavy data entry).
- Shared-bill relationships (Band ↔ Band)
- Opener/headliner directionality
- Relationship Intelligence surfaces on core pages
v4 (Future) — Explicit, Verifiable Relationships
Make Person first-class and capture memberships with provenance and moderation.
- Person entity + Person ↔ Band memberships
- Moderated contributions (pending by default)
- AI-assisted discovery (propose, never approve)
v5 (Future) — Scene Graph Exploration
Enable degrees-of-separation traversal and geography-aware scene mapping.
- Graph traversal (6 Degrees exploration)
- Geography/time-aware mapping
- Hybrid execution layer as needed while keeping Sheets canonical
6 Degrees of Bill Taylor
“6 Degrees of Bill Taylor” is not a single feature. It is the unifying concept that spans v3–v5: show history becomes relationship signals, relationship signals become explicit memberships, and memberships become a scene graph you can explore.
Bill Taylor is the anchor point for traversal — not the subject of the story. The goal is to map how bands, musicians, venues, and communities connect over time in the Atlanta and Southeast live-music ecosystem.
Read the public explainer: What is 6 Degrees of Bill Taylor?