DorkFestBletchley11

Schedule sketch

• Thursday - arrive + set up. Camp building workshops - shelter building, solar & wind powered sculpture
• Friday - Stragglers arrive, finish camp building, evening workshops and camp warming
• Saturday - Public talks and workshop, evening performances
• Sunday - Dorkcamp talks and workshops, evening pre-tidy, barbeque
• Monday - final "leave no trace" tidy up + decamp

Tickets

Details up soon...

People

(put yourself here + the kind of thing you want to do if you want to join the camp!)

• alex + young family. Could do a visual live coding workshop. Mainly in it for the usual knitting, soldering chopping vegetables, washing up...
• Saul + maybe Selene. Cooking, demonstrating some new TV-based toys, etc.
• Greenman + maybe Loolie and Woody. Woody likes hammering, nuts and bolts, and anything with buttons.
• Adrian G. camping, cooking, I'm in it for the buttons, too. Would like to build an instrument, possibly an electronically controlled tone pipe / giant swanee whistle. or a sundial based on some pre-existing spiky feature.
• Paul M. + friend. Happy to do domestic chores. But.. won't be there 'til 19th owing to another friend's wedding.
• olizilla - Write name on moon in giant lazer. Or camping with buttons.
• Pete E + friend. Washing up, help with cooking etc. Camping and will bring buttons.
• ben goldacre - analog modular synth stuff, or talk on some nerdy battles if you're not bored of those
  • Ben your nerdy battles are good but I'd love to hear yr analogue modular synth stuff -- Dan S
  • There's an analogue computing section to the museum. I wonder if an analog computer could be set up as as a synth, or perhaps a synth controller if it doesn't have the frequency response
• jane camping and cooking and first aid and aromatherapy and reflexology
• matt h and kelly b happy to bring along a couple of telecopes and whatever tech we can fit in the Micra Of Doom
• Alex Z. I'll only be able to make it from late-ish on the Saturday. I'll bring along a couple of my stirling engines.
• Mark never been, but very interested and happy to help with stuff <-- cool how about a lock picking workshop or something?
• John Wild + Family on Saturday - General Helping out + Fire / wooding.
• tenyen : networking, notworking, keeping it oldskool and chillAxE10.
• Martin Ling - coming from Edinburgh, can bring various projects & teach electronics, or other things.
• Sarah Angliss - can be there throughout, except (poss) Sat afternoon and evening. Can offer: My new talk/performance Ghost Radio (about the strange history of broadcasting dead air). Can bring along my cardboard televisor (this is the only forum where I can say that I think it might get a good reaction) and Rocket Lolly film night. Also happy to help out at any workshops.
• Julie F General helper. Might do a moth watch.
• Dan S (maybe just for one day, depends) -- can do some generative dubstep, plus general helping out.
• Evan Raskob + maybe Dana - could build some mini hardware synth, OR do some toy hacking + arduino "workshops"
• Daniel Beunza (www.derivart.com) I could give a workshop on "finance for artists" and on high frequency trading (trading stocks with algorithms)
• Andrew K. W. (zx23.net) - field network, tasty uber dal and the number F.

Presentations

All campers are encouraged to present something, put your ideas here:

• James Larson - tbd
• Ben Goldacre
• Jag - din again; your project & din; why develop free software?; ugly & dirty & lazy gardening == bumper harvest!
• Sarah A. - talk/performance, televisor or Rocket Lolly - see above.
• Evan R - Openlab Workshop's Real Game of Life project - should have some interesting dorky tidbits from it by then (fingers crossed)

Workshops

• There's a lake. What can we do with a lake ? It doesn't seem to have any delicate ecosystem to protect - as long as we don't drown anybody or fill it with toxic waste or burn down the surrounding undergrowth we'll probably be OK.
  • Swim in it. Fish in it. Get some underwater sounds with my hydrophone (Julie F)
  • Make some little robotic boats??
  • rocket boats ? (small steam-powered boats .. can be done as a a children's workshop)
• MzTeK - shiver my teacup workshop
• FIVE GO COMPUTING five users on one computer i will build this on the spot if there is enough computer junk (mark b)

Performances

• Could be over small sound system, or if noise is a problem, over headphone amplifiers as we have successfully done in the past at scout camps.
• John Wild - Electric Fence Sound Hacking. (If there's space to set one up on site, I will bring one. It could become a sound installation/performance.)
• Dan S - generative dubstep algorithm - (will the sound system have decent bass? I'm being unrealistic aren't I?)
• The museum staff are quite proud of an adaptation to the Elliot 803 computer that makes it's processing audible, in the style of the altair Fool on the Hill hack : certain instruction sequences produce predictable notes and someone has written programs that play recognisable tunes. I think they might enjoy integrating or extending this with some of the popular dorkbot music generating sessions .. I'm imagining livecoding with punch card input .. or one of those peripheral ensembles.

Activities

• Traditional dorkcamp crafts - collaborative cooking, knitting and fire making
• The Projected Picture Trust might be persuaded to show a film. If we had a film.
  • Can we do a visual performance in there??
  • We would need permission and assistance. Ken Draper at PPT would be the man to contact. The PPT is a completely different organisation again - not BP or TNMOC. The theatre has 40 seats, a screen area and some fantastic projectors. The screen does not appear to conceal a stage but a presenter could stand in front of it.

Spaces available

• What kind of indoor spaces (if any) do we have ?
  • A large marquee, probably unfloored.
  • A small meeting room, during opening hours only. Good for a public workshop.
• Should we hire some yurts ?

Food, Cooking etc

• We may have the canteen open for us during the day, and perhaps in the evening.
  • The canteen is not recommended. It is operated by an external contractor who is not particularly cooperative. They can provide an evening meal service but it's unlikely that we'd want to pay for this - it's either mass bbq catering or corporate event style. We can use the publicly available service to buy lunch if we want (it would allow us to avoid cooking during the visitor period), but it's useless for self-catering purposes and almost certainly not what we would want as contracted catering.

There are no immediately available cooking facilities. Depending on the canteen, we may have to equip ourselves with our own communal kitchen. Some of the ticket price would go towards hiring equipment.

• Does anyone have suggestions for portable kitchen facilities ?
  • Campfire meat cookery, as demonstrated at Dorkcamp09 ?

Things that need to get done

• Going to Bletchley on a recce (a few people might want to do this)
  • There will be a Forties Family Festival reenactment event on the late may bank holiday in the park. This would be a good occasion for any interested people to perform another recce, notably because the reenactment actors also camp on the same site. However, they probably don't operate a camp kitchen and may use mostly camper vans with their own facilities.
  • food/cooking options in detail
  • accommodation issues (camping, logistics, inside spaces we can use)
  • loos/washing facilities
  • electricity supplies and network availability
  • transport options
• Dealing with the above
  • Adrian G is local and can recce pubs / run errands / do transport etc.
  • Lawrence Also lives 8 miles away and can volunteer my estate car for most of the weekend and a bit of local knowledge.
• Getting a public programme together and helping TNMOC to publicise it
  • This is important. WE DO NOT YET HAVE PERMISSION FROM BLETCHLEY PARK. Our contact is the organiser at TNMOC and is wonderfully enthusiastic but needs to convince BP trustees that we are worth having VERY SOON. Some sort of public side to our activities on the dorkcamp weekend is essential, and the sooner we can provide an outline of this the better.
  • Those dorkbotters who are reasonably well known in their fields are likely to be a particular asset in convincing the trustees that we are 'worthwhile'. Please put your modesty aside and drop Lin a line so she can point you out.
• Setting up a ticketing system and selling tickets
• Marshalling internal (dorkbot community) information and sending it out to lists / putting up website/wiki info
• Working out costs & ticket price

Local resources

• Waitrose, ~5 miles
• Sainsburys, ~0.25 miles
• Tesco, ~0.5 miles
• White Park Brewery, Cranfield
• Concrete Cow Brewery, Milton Keynes

Mailing list

The organisation of the camp is over email, as well as this wiki. To join the friendly email discussion sign up here, all are very welcome to pitch in:

mailing list

Questions

• What is the limit on the number of tickets?
  • No site-imposed limit. We just have to fit on the specified field and cope with the sanitary limitations.
• Should we create our own infrastructure for showers?
  • There are no showers available on site, so probably, yes.
  • Toilets are limited to a block near the campsite (1 disabled cubicle with basin and lobby, 1 labelled as male, with basin) and a second block near the mansion (1 disabled cubicle with basin, 1?? female, 1 male cubicle with basin and 2 urinals). Further toilets available inside museum block, during opening hours only. All can be considered unisex except the male unit near the mansion. The 2 disabled units are decently spacious so can be used for washing, but there's going to be a long queue.
• Can we use any indoor spaces, or should we hire some large tents?
  • There is a marquee approximately 12m x 33m adjacent to the lake. Photo shows no sides but they are expected to be present when we use it.
  • There is a meeting room in the museum block with a capacity of about 40 people (~10m x 8m) available during opening hours only. This is the wing of the building closest to the camping area. Might be available in the evening if we can persuade a keyholder to stay.
  • We will need a large tent for cooking together with all required cooking equipment. We might be able to use the large marquee if all cooking stuff were moved out or cordoned off during public access.
  • We will need somewhere for showers unless we choose to use some off-site (e.g. Bletchley leisure centre)
• How will we get power to the site?
  • Campsite has a power outlet with 2 16A sockets (top of field, adjacent to museum buildings)
  • Marquee site has a power outlet with 1 16A socket. Noted for tripping frequently during the vintage computer fair event last year.
  • The museum has public wifi that has coverage at one edge of the camping area. We can probably arrange ethernet from the museum if that would be more convenient. Network connections would be more difficult at the marquee.
• If we can't have fires, what should we create an alternative focus to gather people around in the evenings?
  • Bonfires are not allowed. Barbeques ARE allowed, and the museum workers regularly hold one at the top of the campsite (tarmac area adjacent to the museum and the power outlet). Note this is also adjacent to some private houses so music needs to be restrained. We could hold musical or other evening presentations near the lake, and use something like a raised firepit to make a focus for a more relaxed area near the campsite.
• Whereabouts can we camp ? Is it an area that's accessible to the public during open time ?
  • The designated camping area is adjacent to the museum, a field close to parking and to some private houses. There are a few small grass plots a little further away. This area is easily visible and accessible to the public during open hours, but is not a thoroughfare unless we make it one by providing visitor attractions there. The field is deeply rutted due to a circus that visits every year, but flat spaces can be found. We could easily extend onto another, less rutted, car-parking field once visitors are gone, but tents would have to be cleared before opening time. There is a standpipe near this area.

Google sat view The camping field is the area with 2 trees at the top centre. The plane is shown on the additional car parking area but has now been moved to the tarmac. The pale blue rectangles are houses in the process of being built : these are now complete and occupied. The computing museum itself is in the huts to the left of the tarmac, known as Block H. The huts to the top right (Block G) are less well cared for and used for storage : the grassy areas amongst them might be used for more private tent locations, but note that security will be poor - visitors might wander in this area, though most don't. The buildings and grass areas at bottom right are part of a commercial office space and should not be used, though they are not fenced and the nearest toilet block is in this area (opposite the small car park).

Followup questions

• Is there hot water in the toilets ?
• What limits are there on access to the site (Public access 9:30-17:00 every day, but I think controlled access is 06:00 to 23:00 - may be locked in beyond that time)
• Confirm whether tables & chairs are available for the marquee