What Changes Would You Like to See Made to Project14?

The main problem:

As you all probably know with my relatively often delays, you could brand me as a professional procrastinator and I didn't start the blog post for the Corgi shaped arduino until a few days before it was due despite it being built a month ago.

Also there's a level of lack of creativity.

First project14 I considered was the "proving science one".

I'm not the best at science. I also don't have any fun ideas.

hehe.

I'm also not really great at the topics.

But mainly, I procrastinate.

I dunno if bigger prizes is the key, I think the prizes are great(and that's one of the reason I managed to squeeze my entry in before deadline for the Holiday contest because I really want to win an oscilloscope and those stuff

Perhaps maybe more winning opportunities depending on how many people submit? I dunno.

I also like to add, I sometimes feel amazed by others' projects as they have an exceptional level of skill, and many of the things I am unable to even think of- additionally after failing some contests related to electronics(not from e14) I realized presentation is a key factor. Unless if it's a custom PCB(I'm certainly not the best at design and it takes time for shipping), or if there's a 3D printed case it's not very "present worthy" unless if you manage to make it like PCB art, with a beautiful and nice strip board, etc.

The only thing I can manage is a crap cardboard enclosure, since I don't have access to certain tools like CNC and 3D printing.

Tariq,

I really enjoy every aspect of the project14 competitions.  There are so many things that are right about this format, and few if any wrong.

One thought that I have is that it might help to level the playing field if we take experience into account.  What if one or more of the prizes were reserved for newer members?  This might encourage more participation from that segment of the community.

Another thought is that we might be able to shorten the timeline by enrolling judges earlier in the process, like when you publish the "Meet the Projects..." messages.  It would be nice to have everyone signed up to judge and then wait for you to announce the 'ready to judge' phase (in the event of any extensions to the deadline) to begin the actual judging phase.  This could potentially move up the winner announcements (this is a naive assumption with no knowledge of the behind the scenes steps in the process).

Thank you for looking into any potential improvements to this already great program and thank you for all of your time and effort to help make element14 the great place that it is.

Gene

A DAC challenge. I think I might bring out one of the DAC modules I have from mothball and start tinkering

>>Unfortunately it wasn't just mud that I was having to deal with.

We hit one of those "not mud" lines while digging the drain areas!

Very lucky for us, a friend who happened to just randomly pop by also happened to just randomly have the exact part to repair the pipe!

Hi Tariq,

You're doing a great job running the scheme and I like Project14 just as it is. The polling is fun, then we get to see which are chosen and get clear dates for start and end. Current prizes are spot on (although if you were to add incentives I wouldn't argue ). I think most people know if they will be free in each period and whether they have a decent idea to try out. I think it is inclusive enough across all members' skill ranges and there shouldn't be any barriers as it stands stopping any member taking part. Lastly those that haven't managed the time to make something still get the fun of judging - and just to encourage some of those sitting on the sidelines, it isn't always the shiniest and 3D printed projects that are chosen, the judges also spot the creativity and effort in projects that may have appeared at first to have failed.

There have been design challenge winners made out of cardboard....

tariq.ahmad  First off I would like to say that Project 14 has been doing awesome.  Reading through the projects is a great repository of knowledge and participation!  To improve upon it I guess we would have to have an idea of what you and E14 might imagine as improved participation!?! 

Do you want more participants?

More high quality projects?

Or perhaps are trying to expand out and bring in newer participants and get them hooked with Making and E14?

I think if the last is of interest then genebren's suggest of taking experience into account is a great one.  Just wandering through the last 7 Projects showing Winners on E14 I noticed that 5 of them all had the Grand Prize winners being a Top Member, not just a high level, but Top Members.  Personally I view the Top Members as putting out darn great work and love to read about their projects.  Incredible work, but kind of like throwing a Middle School athlete into the Olympics if you are trying to get newbies participating.  :-)  Of the the last 7 Projects, 5 of them had multiple winners being Top Members even. 

The last project, Retrofit and Recycle being of interest since while it did have 1 Top Member winner, the Grand Prize winner was a level 3, and another 1st place winner a level 3 with a level 7 rounding it out.  Nor was it a small selection if I remember correctly, something like 16 projects submitted.  So very interesting!  Avoiding lowering the quality of projects while increasing the new interest is a delicate task I am sure!

A thought might even to be taking into account experience in regards to a minor reward such as an Arduino, or RPi Zero, or similar low price product but high potential use for someone who may not have a pile of items laying in their project parts list.  So while you keep your Grand prize and 1st Prize placements maybe have a Builder prize for some of the lower level experienced makers who participate and their project is of interest and value, just not quite at the level yet to take those coveted 4 spots.  :-)

Overall the quality of projects has been awe inspiring, and along the lines of inspiring, I feel like the program helps inspire all levels of participants so Project 14 is definitely doing well.  But where are you interested in improving upon yet not hindering your great success?  :-)

Hey jkutzsch ,

Appreciate the input.  :-)

>> Do you want more participants?

More high quality projects?

Or perhaps are trying to expand out and bring in newer participants and get them hooked with Making and E14?

I would say a combination of all of the above but with some caveats.  There's been stuff we've experimented with throughout this program,  making things different, keeping the program fresh, and what I'm looking for is what works,  what you'd like to keep, and things that can use improvement.  

If there are multiple contests going on at the same time should we cut back, stay the same, or more activities.  Also, were we allowing not enough time, too much time, or just the right amount.   Frequency of activity and duration were big ones.  Wasn't sure a lot of things but this conversation is bringing a lot more clarity.  

All this feedback has been really useful and already have some ideas on how we can move things forward.

Well ya certainly hooked me to Project14 with that pi4 then the great potential prizes of the holiday special 2020!

I really appreciate you making the project14 program great. keep it up!