Many years ago I stumbled on Make Magazine, a magazine that gripped me instantly, in the same swooning way love at first sight does. A magazine refreshingly agnostic of genre of hobby, inclusive of all crafts and technology geekery and not at all patronising.
Later I started following the write ups on line of the Maker Faire events that were sprinkled in the states. Even checked none were anywhere near any US holidays we took there. Then Maker Faire and Titan the robot descended upon my home town of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

After lapping up the joy of Maker Faire I decided it was time to put something back in this year and so rather late than never, my submission of the application to be part of MakerFaire UK is in.

I debated doing my musical fountain idea, but its a complex project needing a year rather than a a couple of months to build, so I started trying to think of another idea. I was looking for something where kids and adults would have to interact, do something. These were the exhibits we had enjoyed on previous years and those are the exhibits that infect a new generation with Make fever.

The idea for using a hole punch to encode data and introduce people to binary numbers was the embryo of the idea. This encompassed my love of paper craft, playing with paper is awesome, inclusive and engaging. Then later I got the idea of guessing a secret code.
I don't want to keep people for two long, there is so much to see at the faire a few mins per table is enough, so guessing a number out of fifty or so seems to be enough to make many get it wrong and move on and yet provide the reasonable chance that you might hit the number.

That led to the challenge of a reward for getting it right. I started with the idea of a small gobstopper delivered down a shoot. Then decided this was too strong an intense for young kids and i'd either end up with them upset at not winning or not wanting to leave until they had. Also issues around food allergies and diabetic kids etc all got too complicated.
What else acts as an intensive for people I wondered, then I thought of the sticker charts we'd used. Stickers, yes this had legs... but how to make it more than peeling a sticker off a sheet? At work I've worked with thermal label printers for parcel and goods labeling lots. They are great as they are driven from simple text delivered by USB or serial connections. I could get the project to print a sticker.

I was very keen to include a twitter or facebook element to the project. Many ideas were mulled, but in the end fear of not having a reliable internet connection in a RF hostile environment made me give up on that dream. Although a social element to the project would have been "cool", it not working would have been a disaster.

When considering delivery of a project it is important to consider your three parameters, scope, resource and time. I can only play with two, scope and resource I can put more hours into the project, and reduce what I expect to be included in it, however it must be ready for Maker Faire so time is not a variable.

To keep the delivery guaranteed I can play with the scope, so if time runs out the printing stickers may not happen. If I have spare time embellishments like a large matrix of LEDS showing already guessed numbers may be built. Hence the application and description of the project was carefully crafted to allow adjustment of the scope to match the project velocity. Although intellectually fun, a complex project was not appropriate, there is only so much a member of the public can appreciate when talking over a table, better to keep it simple so they can penetrate the ideas, than creating a barrier made of complex concepts.

I think presentation of the trestle table will be important so laminated instructions and "educational" posters explaining binary numbers are essential to set the context of the project for visitors to warm to, who may be "cold" to the project when visiting.

As thousands of people visit I had to also ensure any resources my project uses are kept to the type I can afford to finance. I don't mind buying a few packs of paper card and a box full of thermal printer labels from ebay. Some of my other ideas involved expense that was beyond sensible means.

I have promised myself to ensure I will keep backups of all the essential parts, I don't want to be stuck with nothing working on the day. So going to purchase spares to back up key elements.

Now lets hope I'm allowed in. If not it will be time to start the musical fountain for next year's event!

MakerFaireUK