Civic Hacking Meeting This Wednesday - 8/5, 7 PM

Hi folks,

I am calling together anyone interested in the Makers’ Markers project this Wednesday for a work session, including @wandrson, @zootboy, @Opcode , and possibly you! We’ll meet in the Purple Classroom this Wednesday at 7 PM. I aim to get consensus on the aesthetics of the map before sending it to be printed.

I’ll make the various data files available tonight to those who requested them (so you can play with them on your PC & program of choice), and will hopefully have a sample sheet with several push pins & backings we can try out.

Hopefully this time will work for everyone; if not, send me your opinions, updates, pre-work, etc. Anyone who wishes to cast their opinion but can’t make it Wednesday should reply here so I can send them drafts & pictures.

See you then,
Stephen

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No push pins. Make it magnetic. Print the map and simply have a thin piece of metal in the back. Places close down and other places may have to be added. We dont want a map full of holes.

The pin should have a number that corresponds to the legend on the side. like a roll-a-dex, that way it can be easily searched and it does not take up a lot of valuable space. The rolladex could hold the Biz cards from said biz.


Wednesday, I will probably NOT make it... I will try. 

..X..

Interesting thought… I was envisioning reprinting the map every so often in order to reflect changes, incorporating new placemarks and getting rid of holes.

The alternatives: do we want printed vs. physical pinned/magnetic markers? I’m fine with printing the map out every so often and minimizing the amount of markers on the board in order to deter theft or prevent anyone from rearranging them (hopefully by accident :stuck_out_tongue:). However, physical markers will probably look way nicer (I bet), and mixing printed with physical markers might detract from the visibility of the printed ones over time.

We will certainly be printing and/or getting pins of different shapes and colors in order to indicate the place “category”, and numbering them for a legend as suggested.

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What about the black light idea? Any thoughts?

…X…

Hmm, given my skills, I’d be inclined to say this is why we should develop the “soft” version of this on the DMS website (or makersmarkers.com, which I now own) which would leverage Open Street Maps and some filters to place markers only where the desired establishments are currently open. This way, we wouldn’t need to be concerned with if the place really closes at 10 PM or 2 AM or etc., nor if it changes over time. Plus, I don’t know how many people carry around black lights nor how black light reacts with regular light. It’d certainly look cool, though, as long as the standard fluorescent light doesn’t wash it all out.

I’d also envision a system of low-power LEDs and some sort of wireless power system in order to manifest this information physically.

Anyway, I will attempt to procure a bunch of materials tonight – small samples of foam core, Gatorboard, corkboard, and a magnetic metal plate, plus generic pins of the magnetic & push variety. (Does anyone know if we already have these things at DMS?) Then I’ll print an 8.5x11 portion of the map at the desired DPI so we can get a feel for what it’ll look like physically.

The folks at Michael’s suggested I skip the corkboard and Gatorboard, and gave me a doubled-up piece of foam core. I’ll try to get a magnetic whiteboard with a couple magnets, unless we have a piece of magnetic sheet metal in the scrap heap.

What size sheet of metal do you need.

There is a commercial AC business next to one of mine, and i could get you a piece of ducting they trow out. Unrolled they can be around 3’ x 3’, still what size…?

For the sake of testing, Michaels gave me a roughly 6" by 6" piece of foam core, so the scrap metal piece doesn’t need to be any bigger for right now. I’m only planning to print an 8.5x11 demo sheet, and part of that might get allocated to the foam core.

Later on, once we pick out the material, I’ll see what size to make it (would be nicer to go bigger than 24"x36", but no need to go insane with it). With whatever we do, they recommended I frame it in order to give it extra stability (then again, I was speaking to folks from the Framing Department, so they might have a bias… ;))

I appreciate the scrap metal in advance. Thanks!

You guys might want to add the event to the Events Calendar… The Purple Classroom is still open as of right now.

http://dallasmakerspace.org/calendar/

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Maybe?
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-Specialty-30-oz-Magnetic-Primer-Kit-247596/202351175

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Yeah, the folks at Michael’s suggested I try something like that too. If it works well, I could maybe replace a possibly heavy piece of sheet metal with foam core sprayed with some of this material, then we’d have our choice of magnets & push pins (if you can still push things through the paint). :wink:

as far as I know, you can, but I’ve never actually used it that way.
I’ve only ever seen it on a wall, touched it, and hung a magnet or two…
Seemed to work OK…

Please add Rock Barrel 13650 T I Blvd, Dallas, TX 75243 (972) 231-4809 as a jewelry supply location.

http://www.rockbarrell.com/