What Changes Would You Like to See Made to Project14?

Hi Tariq,

I love the Project14 program, it's a much more relaxed environment than the Design Challenges as already pointed out by dougw. I didn't finish a couple of projects this year for the Project14 but I'll publish those at some point, while you have to publish your progress for the Design Challenge. As for the topics you've put out:

• I like the monthly new theme format, but I like when there is a special Project14 theme like the Month of Robots Project14 or something like that. I think those are great and push all of the people participating to make bigger and more complex projects.
• On the other side, I would like to see more relaxed themes as well. As ntewinkel mentioned, putting a cap on building a project for a given theme with a max budget of 10$, a lot more people would be confident to participate I think and the creativity would go higher when you have to make it work for only 10$.
• Something similar to do that could also be to maybe have some of those shorter projects which would be aimed more towards hand tools. By that, I mean projects that don't use 3D printers, CNC machines and laser cutters for example, since these are machines that can really help with projects, but not everyone has access to them.
• Another idea for shorter contest would maybe be to have a weekend style contest, since most people are off work then, where the theme can be presented on a livestream on Friday, where people could ask questions about that theme and people would have until Sunday to post a blog on the given theme.
• I think the prizes are a great size for Project14 and the value shouldn't change, but I think to get more people involved, specially who aren't a lot on the site, an addition of a gadget or something like that to the grand prize would draw more members to participate.
• Another thing on the prize side would be something that fmilburn mentioned. Besides the normal winner having a special category winner, which would come with a special prize and badge. To add onto this, if there was a rotation of those special prizes, for example, most educational, most polished, best presented, and if someone managed to get all 3 during a year, there would be a special badge. That would pose a unique challenge.
• Giveaways before the monthly theme could maybe work, but with shipping delays everywhere, I don't know if it would work right now with the monthly schedule.
• I like your idea about workshops around existing projects done by members. I think it would be fun to see what would people make based on someone's project, to see their take and unique perspective while still following a rough guideline.

Thanks for all of the hard work around Project14, it's an amazing program!

Milos

Hi Tariq,

I love the Project14 program, it's a much more relaxed environment than the Design Challenges as already pointed out by dougw. I didn't finish a couple of projects this year for the Project14 but I'll publish those at some point, while you have to publish your progress for the Design Challenge. As for the topics you've put out:

• I like the monthly new theme format, but I like when there is a special Project14 theme like the Month of Robots Project14 or something like that. I think those are great and push all of the people participating to make bigger and more complex projects.
• On the other side, I would like to see more relaxed themes as well. As ntewinkel mentioned, putting a cap on building a project for a given theme with a max budget of 10$, a lot more people would be confident to participate I think and the creativity would go higher when you have to make it work for only 10$.
• Something similar to do that could also be to maybe have some of those shorter projects which would be aimed more towards hand tools. By that, I mean projects that don't use 3D printers, CNC machines and laser cutters for example, since these are machines that can really help with projects, but not everyone has access to them.
• Another idea for shorter contest would maybe be to have a weekend style contest, since most people are off work then, where the theme can be presented on a livestream on Friday, where people could ask questions about that theme and people would have until Sunday to post a blog on the given theme.
• I think the prizes are a great size for Project14 and the value shouldn't change, but I think to get more people involved, specially who aren't a lot on the site, an addition of a gadget or something like that to the grand prize would draw more members to participate.
• Another thing on the prize side would be something that fmilburn mentioned. Besides the normal winner having a special category winner, which would come with a special prize and badge. To add onto this, if there was a rotation of those special prizes, for example, most educational, most polished, best presented, and if someone managed to get all 3 during a year, there would be a special badge. That would pose a unique challenge.
• Giveaways before the monthly theme could maybe work, but with shipping delays everywhere, I don't know if it would work right now with the monthly schedule.
• I like your idea about workshops around existing projects done by members. I think it would be fun to see what would people make based on someone's project, to see their take and unique perspective while still following a rough guideline.

Thanks for all of the hard work around Project14, it's an amazing program!

Milos

Thanks  milosrasic98 ,

>>I have always been impressed by the consistent quality of your projects and the videos you submit are great!     It would be great to see your projects.  Maybe we do something like Makevember again this year where we encourage people to revisit past themes.   This was one of the reasons we did it a couple of years ago.   Giving members an opportunity to revisit past themes they did not get a chance to participate in before.

>> I like the monthly new theme format, but I like when there is a special Project14 theme like the Month of Robots Project14 or something like that. I think those are great and push all of the people participating to make bigger and more complex projects.

This is part of the difficult thing we need to solve so this is good feedback.  I like having those special themes but I don't know how they'll fit if a shift is going to occur.    Would like to do some activity around Arduino Day,  really looking past that at this point, but something will need to consider is what to do about the special events.

>>On the other side, I would like to see more relaxed themes as well. As ntewinkel mentioned, putting a cap on building a project for a given theme with a max budget of 10$, a lot more people would be confident to participate I think and the creativity would go higher when you have to make it work for only 10$.Something similar to do that could also be to maybe have some of those shorter projects which would be aimed more towards hand tools. By that, I mean projects that don't use 3D printers, CNC machines and laser cutters for example, since these are machines that can really help with projects, but not everyone has access to them.

Another idea for shorter contest would maybe be to have a weekend style contest, since most people are off work then, where the theme can be presented on a livestream on Friday, where people could ask questions about that theme and people would have until Sunday to post a blog on the given theme.

These are all excellent suggestions and will be looking to merge something similar with the feedback we've received.   Seems to be some interest related to that. 

I particularly am intrigued with the idea of a regularly occurring livestream of some sort.   This opens up new possibilities that are worth exploring and could offer something to look forward if we shift things around.  

>> I think the prizes are a great size for Project14 and the value shouldn't change, but I think to get more people involved, specially who aren't a lot on the site, an addition of a gadget or something like that to the grand prize would draw more members to participate.

I was definitely wondering about that.   My impression was that $100 shopping cart pays for your next project and that $200 allows can be applied to something nice such as test equipment.   The only head scratcher I have is that there wasn't more participation with the Holiday Special this year, even with those bigger prizes.

I like to add product if its related to the theme but generally like to keep things to things we sell in our stores.   For example ,  energy harvesting kit for when we did an energy harvesting contest.   Shifting some things would allow us to get a hold of the the product and we could even tie it in with some kind of workshop.   Some of these topics are so big that they lend themselves naturally to other activities.

>>I like your idea about workshops around existing projects done by members. I think it would be fun to see what would people make based on someone's project, to see their take and unique perspective while still following a rough guideline.

I think workshops is definitely something I would like to see moving forward.   We've done workshops around builds as well as show & tells.    It is something we will have more of this year and makes sense with Project14.  

:-)