Where Next for Weatherbot

Following the Maker Faire in Newcastle we've been beavering away tidying up all the footage we shot, and also sorting out the code produced there so it's worth sharing. So now thoughts turn to where we can take the team to over the rest of the summer.

Barcamps are an obvious place, but for me at least maker Faire showed just how many more poeple can be enthused and inspired by 'home brew' tech. Of course, Barcamps are now spreading further afield- net weekend sees the first Bournmouth one! I guess given enough warning we could well take the weatherbot to a barcamp, especially if there was going to be a bit of a roboty/physical hackery focus.

I'd also like to explore the posibility of taking it along to a few Hackerspaces, and use it as a way of opening a relationship between us and this network of excellent communities across the world. My local Hackerspace- The Skiff- hosts the brighton Robotics community, and I really ought to get down there! In a few weeks I'm off to San Francisco, where (if Rowstar is very generous) I might try and catch up with the excellent Mitch Altman at Noisebridge and see how these spaces work on the US too.

Of course, the very excellent people at Tinker.it, Oomlout et al are already active in this space and we should see where they go and tag along, but while we ponder this, do please give us suggestions; I can't prommise we'll be able to take up every invite, but we'll try and spread the love around a little!

problems need solving

Ok, it appears that there are some leedle probs we need to overcome pretty sharpish.
Firstly, the procurement of bits for the trip is progressing quite slowly. We are getting support from the procurement and admin staff, but the beaurocracy is slowing us down terribly.
Secondly, I missed the cheap "toys with tracks" at Modelzone which kinda inspired the whole idea, so I think we're going to have to get some from Edinburgh, and again, procurement processes will be slow.
Finally (for now!) the co driver is having to take time off, so he won't be insured on the van, so it's just me doing the driving! I sort of get the argument his boss is throwing for this, but it's effect is bloody awkward, and if I'm being honest, I think it's a pretty unimaginative possition to take. Not wrong, just a good deal less helpful and flexible than I'd like a colleague to be.

We now have two weeks to get our code cronked, at least one robot built, feeds for the weather lined up, a process to turn live weather data into a hash table for symbols and a set of 8x8, 12 colour weather symbols designed. It's a good team, and all are keen, so, yeah, we'll do it. But damn, this is going to be close!