Team Contests?

How about some test instrumentation that makerkaren can use over at The Learning Circuit  to help teach others ?

Could be something that enhances a previous episode or something useful for a future episode.

I'll run this by the team and see what they think!   

Could also be a fit for something like Workbench Wednesdays!

Tariq, IMHO, a specific testing tool pose a limitation that may drastically reduce the number of participants. Instead, with a so big topic, we can find nice surprised and some unexpected good project.

I voted for test instrumentation, but how many would participate? There were a total of 20 votes and 6 went to test instrumentation. How many of the 14 others would actually participate in a test instrumentation contest? Maybe a new poll could shed us some light. At the moment the theme has been decided I don't see why wait until feb or march, I would probably begin much earlier if I can find a teammate.

I'm a bit worried about that as well.  20 votes total doesn't scream a lot of interest.   Maybe have to rethink what sort of a competition would be popular to work together in teams.   Broadly speaking,  how many people are interested in team contests?   However,  it does intrigue me as it would be different than the usual competitions and it would be interesting to see how people would work together.

The best example I can think of (feel free to point out other if you find them) would be:

• Programmable Electronic Load

Would something like this work in a short 2 month period?  Would may people participate?  Hard to say for sure...   But from past experience,  testing equipment projects were very popular on the community and might be a good way to learn what works based on the popularity of both the DIY Test Equipment and Test Instrumentation.  When I brought this up it wasn't met with a lot of enthusiasm and I am guessing there is good reason for that.  This tells me that its better to move this out later than sooner than to rush something out and not get it right.  Also, right now there is too much activity around projects going on in the community and the timing does not seem right.   Also, there is currently a lot planned from now until the end of the year and if we were going to try something new than it would make sense to wait until more members could participate rather than do it when a lot of people have committed themselves to existing activities.

Also give more time for new members to sort out how E14 would work for them...

Tariq, what you say is right.

I'm a bit worried about that as well.  20 votes total doesn't scream a lot of interest. Maybe have to rethink what sort of a competition would be popular to work together in teams.   Broadly speaking,  how many people are interested in team contests?   However,  it does intrigue me as it would be different than the usual competitions and it would be interesting to see how people would work together.

In my opinion, ost of the makers in this community moves alone, probably because it is not so frequent that several makers or engineers decide to work on a team, just for the intrinsic nature of the maker, at least as we think about it. Then there is the geographic factor influencing this limitation further. For example, I and Jan Cumps have in mind to work on this experimental project, because we become friends as members of the community, then found a good feeling staying together, speaking of everything and electronics too, exchanging ideas, chatting on WhatsApp. And now the idea of a team project becomes possible as we live very near one to the other. But IMHO this is a very exceptional case. For example – I am saying without asking them before – I think that the same experience will be an exciting project teaming with shabaz as well as at least one tent of other members. But it is difficult due to the distance, we live in different countries.

What you mean with the proposal of working on teams, instead, may work if teams are already existing and one or more of them are members of the community. And probably this is not so frequent (but it is just my opinion). As I think this is anyway a good idea, maybe the case we spend some effort on starting the experiment with teams as I mentioned above while in the meantime we launch a sort of call to teams. First to know how many makers are not working alone and are already a member of the community and second because this can be a good way to launch the proposal. For example, here I know at least a couple of makers and the maker lab of the friend Cristina that I am sure they will accept enthusiastically a proposal like this.

About the testing device project, it is a good proposal to start, sure.

Enrico

"... I'm a bit worried about that as well.  20 votes total doesn't scream a lot of interest.   Maybe have to rethink what sort of a competition would be popular to work together in teams. ..."

Perhaps this number isn't really a surprise though ? The usual number of votes cast isn't significantly higher (30-40?) and one would only really expect a subset of those casting votes to be interested in a team build at this stage.

One approach which could be tried, is to launch the monthly project as per normal but add in some form of a bonus/incentive for a team submission. If the team aspect picks up sufficiently, then look at some sort of a team-only competition. If it doesn't, then nothing has been lost.

As for rethinking what sort of competition would be popular for working together in teams, then perhaps one needs to raise the bar a little from the usual monthly project themes. Themes might be more along the lines of: setting / breaking a record ; solution for a widespread issue ; creating an educational resource ; contribution to entertainment / arts / culture ; etc.

Adding teams to the usual Project14 competitions sounds like a pretty good idea to see if team competitions would take off as a separate competition. I also like the idea about breaking records, it would be easier to evaluate objectively, and it gives a clear objective on what to focus on in a project. Some ideas could be: Create the fastest wireless link, the highest resolution 3D scanner, the best ML classifying algorithm, fastest FPGA code, etc.

It seems like a nice idea. Waiting to see how this will work out