Even though the camp seems like a big geeky party, (which it is too of course) there are also few guidelines and rules. It's a hardcore project and we need to have multiple installations, games and projects up and running in 5 days.
Dates and commitment to the camp
Like mentioned before you have to commit for the whole duration of the camp. This means being present at all times. The camp starts on Friday September 18 - September 22 - PICNIC starts on Wednesday September 23 - Friday September 25. There is probably no time to go to the conference, but our camp is much nicer anyway!
Mailinglist
Its members are all participants of the Camp, some of the Mediamatic staff, and everybody else that helps to realize the Camp. It'll serve as main communication tool on things that everybody needs to know about, or needs to discuss with other participants.
Profile
As you probably noticed you are now member of the mediamatic network www.mediamatic.net. (Some of you already were). We would like to ask you as participants to pep up your profile on the site. It would be nice if you could write a short introduction about yourself and put a photo online as a way of introducing ourselves to each other.
How-to's
At the moment we are collecting "How-to's" on anyMeta, the Mediamatic Trac, and the Mifare RFID readers and on documenting projects. These will be made available via the Hackers Camp page and via the mailing-list. My colleagues Arjan Scherpenisse, Marco Wessel and Machiel Veltkamp will take care of this. If you have good resources to contribute - do mail us the links, we'll try to organize them coherently.
Skills
Handy for the Camp is that you name your skills there too. So no matter what you are good in, please write it on your profile. Is it industrial design, interaction design, electronics, physical computing, coding (which languages? what kind of code?).
Also skills as painting, drawing, constructing, photography or reporting are useful and shouldn't be forgotten. This information helps with forming teams and developing ideas.
Project ideas
The idea is to start brainstorming about projects that would be interesting to realize in the Camp in this mailinglist. As soon as project proposals become more or less outlined, they'll get a project page in mediamatic.net, next to the main HackersCamp page: www.mediamatic.net/page/81549/en
All projectpages will have forum functionality.
Open-sourceness of the projects
All the projects are created under a open source license. This will be explained during the first day session.
Starting point for the Camp is to play with the possibilities of the online PICNIC network (www.picnicnetwork.org) in the physical context of the picnic event. And all the visitors to PICNIC will get (or will be able to get) an RFID tag that directly links to their profile pages in picnicnetwork.org.
Teams
During the camp we will work in teams, that we expect to emerge based on the projects you want to develop, and on matching skills. People that work together all the time are stimulated to work in a different team (depending on skills as well) to spread your knowledge with other / new people. We will ask one member of each team to take care of documenting the process of projects (code, as well as design should be documented). This can all be done on our website on the Hackers pages.
Finished installations will be moved to the center of the conference
PICNIC starts on Wednesday the 23rd. Everything should be up and running by then. In the evening of the 22nd or the (early) morning of the 23rd the installations will be placed in the main building of PICNIC, the Gashouder. It's important to your team take turns during the festival to explain people the installation / project. You will be assisted by volunteers.
Gear
We have all the basic gear for the Camp you'll need. It consists of RFID tags and readers, Arduino's of various kinds, soldering kits, sensors, cables, computers, hand tools, construction tools and material etc. etc. A lot of the specific stuff that will be needed to realize the projects will be ordered last minute - during the Camp. We have a Farnell account, and shops for construction stuff are close to the location of the Camp. The teams get a budget to buy the building material like wood, plastic, etc. But also help of the volunteers. We have a transportation van available too and a really cool Dutch transportation bike!
Volunteers
We are collecting a group of multitasking volunteers that can help build the projects in the final stages, and that will help man the projects at the various locations during Picnic.
Schedule
Will be mailed next week. (7 September).
Location and how do I get there?
The exact location (besides it being on the Westergasfabriek terrain) will be mailed soon as well. For all the people from abroad a detailed route will be mailed with all the public transport information. There is accommodation available for a few hackers (besides the MIT people) let me know if you need that. Places are limited, so first come, first serve!
For all the non-technical practicalities, weird questions and general advice you can contact me at deborah@mediamatic.net