Location
The (Urban) Project Lodge
817 East Johnson Street, Madison WI
<br /><small>View 817 E Johnson St in a larger map</small>
Urban Project Lodge Calendar
How to Get Involved
Propose a Project – We are now soliciting proposals for projects that will be incubated at the project lodge. If you have an idea or a project you’d like to work on, please email it to urbanprojectlodge@gmail.com
In your email, please provide (at least):
• A description of your project.
• What the deliverable is (a report, a module, etc.)
• What type of people you are looking for to help you.
• What days/times you will be around to work on your project.
As long as you provide enough info, and your idea is appropriate (related to urbanism and not obscene) we will post the idea on this blog and solicit others to join your project team. Some pointers: Make sure you suggest something you yourself are passionate about. You are expected to lead the project you propose. Try and design a project that has a realistic possibility of getting something meaningful done in three days. So, if someone were to say something like "rewrite the smartcode" that's probably a dumb idea. It will take so much longer, and involving all 75 people who would want to help would create a "too many cooks" situation. On the other hand, if someone wanted to do a smartcode module, there you have the possibility of at least getting started and making the right social connections to get the project launched, and the best/worst ideas vetted.
Ultimately, we’re going to let open source rule the day. We’ll post up the projects that are going to be there on this blog. And participants can either reach out to the project leader in advance to commit to helping, or just show up and lend a hand at the event. In the next few weeks, we’ll also ask project leaders to post to this blog with more detailed information in terms of what is needed… people (experiences, skills sets), resources (printers, computers, files), pre-project work that can be done at home (take photos, download documents, format data), etc.
In the spirit of open source we are going to try and apply its core tenants to the project lodge. First, you need to show up for and lead the project you proposed. If no one shows up to help, it’s your baby (should you choose to pursue it). If you only get one volunteer, it’s a match made in heaven. Second, you should either be learning or helping. If you’re not, work on a different project, or go get a beer. Third, whereas in the open source discussions we ask someone to keep a record, here we will use the project deliverables as the end product.
