MashRoc - Rocket Launch at Mashed08 - The best bloopers are a click away

It's fair to say that I'm really happy with the way things went - I have some thoughts about how we can make it better next year - but by a long way the feedback we've been getting is extremely positive. The Guardian spent all weekend there, and blogged like crazy over at PDA, Ewan Spence wrote a nice piece about it over at BBC News and the O'Reilly GMT guys went video crazy.

Alan Connor from the BBC Internet blog has put together a pageflakes page - well worth a look. The photos are all over on flickr - tagged mashed08 - just over 1000 at last count

The thing that's made it worthwhile for me though is the quality of the hacks that were presented on the Sunday afternoon - we had just under 50 in total - and I can honestly say there wasn't one I thought was a bit lame, and I know the judges felt the same.

The winners this year:

• O'Reilly - Team Bob - Subterranean Homesick News
• Multimap - Twitter on TV
• Lonely Planet - Michael Stillwell - Fire Eagle and the Lonely Planet API
• Guardian - CurrentCostLive - Creating a competition out of home user electiricyt usage
• Channel 4 - Scripting Enabled - Easy BBC Audio Search and Slideshare
• Microsoft - Northenders - bablefish + voice synth freeview

• Overall BBC Best Hack award went to Northenders, bablfish hack
• BBC Best Effort award went to Social Flight Simulator

I was also going to list all the entries - but Mr Bobbie Johnson has done a much better job than me - so go read them over there.

Whilst I remember we had some lost property handed in.... if it's yours, drop me a note and I'll get it returned.

• Green bag/satchel with badges - clothes and a pink pencil case inside
• Black jacket with a red and black Algarve wallet inside
• Black Vango: Exodus 100 Lite L sleeping bag

Finally, thank you, if you came along and built something cool, if you came along and helped us lug bean bags around and build stages, if you came along, ate the free ice-cream and then gave away a prize - without all of you working together we could never have done this. I feel we're on the edge of something special here, and if we can start to bring together the astoundingly amazing people in the UK and across Europe, we'll leave the rest of the world astounded by the coolness of what we do.

http://mashed08.backnetwork.com/schedule/

Some amazing people, from the BBC (of course), NASA (yes, the people who put a man on the moon), Yahoo!, Lonely Planet, Microsoft, and The Guardian.

Talking about Robots, Social responsibility on the web, Hacking live TV, building your own iPlayer and nanotechnology.

I've just put the final batch of tickets live - so if you're not already signed up - go and grab a ticket whilst they're still there.

If you've ever fancied yourself as the next creator of a Dalek - this is the place to start. The cool people at ARM are going to be at Mashed, and as you'll have seen from the last post, there'll be loads of electronic gear on hand - so what's stopping you actually building a full size, fully working, Mashed Monster?

Here's the comp' - before next Wednesday (18th - midnight) email me - matthew.cashmore@bbc.co.uk - your idea for the next BBC Sci-Fi Monster that you could build over 24 hours actually at Alexandra Palace - and then present for the audience on the Sunday. We'll choose two ideas and fund (up to £500) you to build them.

That's it - we'll pay you to build a full size, fully working sci-fi monster to present at Mashed.

How cool is that?

We're going to fund two monsters and we'll ask the audience to vote on which is best at Mashed itself - no prize there - it's just for the fun of it - and the glory of course!

We'll be looking for ultimate killing potential, how well it can deal with stairs, and how scary the over-all effect is. Extra credit for not breaking copyright on existing monsters and not mentioning Dr Who at all.

The legal bit.....

Competition Terms & Conditions

• You will receive the money after the Mashed event.
• You must provide receipts in order to claim the money.
• The competition closes on Wednesday 18th June, no entries will be accepted after midnight 18th June.
• BBC Staff are not able to enter the competition
• Only entries received via email to matthew.cashmore@bbc.co.uk will be considered.
• Entrants must be UK residents.
• The minimum age to enter is 18.
• The winners will be chosen based on the decision of the Judging panel.
• Prize winners must present their monsters on stage at Mashed 2008 during the presentations
• Prize winners must attend Mashed 2008 to build their monsters
• The Promoter's decision is final in every situation, including any not covered above, and no correspondence will be entered into.
• The Promoter reserves the right, in the event of circumstances arising outside of its control which in its opinion makes it necessary, to cancel or change the competition at any stage.
• Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them when entering this competition. This agreement is covered by the laws of England and Wales.

I thought it may be helpful to let you know what that stuff was before you came... so here's the list

• 2 Soldering,station,WTCP50
• 1 Solder,colophony free,95.5% tin,3.8% silver,0.7% copper alloy,96SC,0.5mm,250g
• 2 kinetic,strippers,10-18 AWG,solid
• 10 Eye protection,spectacles,safety,coverspec Eye protections,clear
• 6 BREADBOARD WITH 70 PIECE WIRE KIT
• 6 BREADBOARD, SOLDERLESS
• 12 PCB,Matrix Board,breadboard,SRBP,104x65x1.6mm
• 6 PCB,Matrix Board,breadboard,SRBP,149x114x1.6mm
• 5 IC,transceiver,bus,serial,RS-232,MAX202ECSE+
• 5 IC,Sensor,Hall Effect,proportional output,SS495A1
• 20 Battery,connector,clip,press stud,twin,min,PP3
• 3 AWD,piezo,buzzer,leads,1.5-20V
• 15 IC,op amp,dual,1MHz,low-power,DIP8,LM358N/NOPB
• 8 IC,regulator,voltage,linear,fixed,3.3V,2%,1500mA,LDO,TO220,LM1086CT-3.3/NOPB
• 8 IC,regulator,voltage,linear,fixed,5V,4%,1000mA,TO220,MC7805CT 2.461 Kit,resistor,0.33W,CCR-02
• 1 Magnet,disc,14mm
• 2 Tool,handheld,stripboard,Veroboard,PCB track cutter
• 4 Switch,keypad,EAO,16 key,hex
• 1 Wire,equipment,BS4808 pt2,7/0.2mm,100m,PVC sheath,red/black
• 10 Switch,micro,sub min,SPCO,commercial,roller lever
• 1 Wire,equipment,BS4808 pt2,7/0.2mm,100m,PVC sheath,white/black
• 1 Wire,equipment,BS4808 pt2,7/0.2mm,100m,PVC sheath,yellow/black
• 1 Wire,equipment,BS4808 pt2,7/0.2mm,100m,PVC sheath,pink/black
• 5 Connector,rectangular,multipole,D,straight,tin,plug,9 way

What I can say so far is that the speakers on the Saturday morning are looking fantastic -

• Andy Smith - iPlayer
• Nick Gallon - how to hack the BBC's TV services
• Audio & Music Interactive - /programmes
• Robotics with Microsoft

There are nine talks in total and I'll release more details as the speakers confirm - there's one very special talk we're just sorting flights out for now - so fingers crossed.

Buses - filling up fast - there's only about 10 seats left on each coach now - although the Newcastle and Sheffield bus is filling up the slowest.... come on guys! I'll announce details on times and locations for pick up as soon as they're confirmed by the bus company - but suffice to say - it'll be EARLY and from the centre of each location.

I'm hoping to send out the first 400 invites for the backnetwork site later today / first thing tomorrow - that site contains all the information you need on everything to do with Mashed - from the speaker list to details of how to get there.

Remember - if you're blogging about mashed - use the tag - mashed08 - and it'll automatically appear in the backnetwork site.

That's about if for now - any questions drop me a line.

PS - Just released another 50 tickets - the last bunch will go live next week.

We're running three buses - one from Newcastle and Sheffield, one from Manchester and Liverpool and one from Cardiff and Bristol. It's not as extensive as I'd like, and I've concentrated on locations where we have an existing relationship with the developer community.

The tickets are now ready for you to register - the bus ticket is also your entry ticket for Mashed. I would ask however, as I'm expecting the buses to be heavily used, that if you do register for a bus ticket - but then can't make it - that you let me know so I can make it available to somebody else.

If you've already registered, but still want to come on the bus - no problem - grab a bus ticket and tick the 'already registered' box - this will combine your registrations.

On Wednesday evening I'll be at the Cardiff Web Scene Meet at 10 feet tall in, yeap you guessed it, Cardiff. Talking about backstage and Mashed, and hopefully answering any questions you may have about either. There's a facebook group to sign up on if you'd like to come along.

More news later in the week - just signed a massively cool speaker for the Saturday morning.....

Due to these templates not working properly I've had to post them on my own blog - copy and paste to your hearts delight from

http://www.thelondonbiker.com/blog/?p=173

Arrive on the Saturday (21st June) morning and listen to real people from the development world showing you how to build things and how to use the systems that will be available to you through-out the weekend - including a full broadcast TV station with the ability to build and hack your own interactive applications.

As the talks draw to a close the 24 hour hack begins - there's plenty of food (no it's not all pizza this year - think pie and mash) - distractions for when you need them and if all goes to plan a special event at midnight.

Sunday (22nd June) plods on to the live presentations at 2pm - hosted by a very very special guest star... if you thought last year was a great time - this year we'll blow your socks off.

It's all about you, if you want something let us know and we'll organise it.

The first 100 tickets have gone live - you can sign up at - http://mashed08.eventbrite.com/ - I'd be quick though - last year the first 100 tickets went in a little over two hours... we'll be releasing more tickets next week via the partners, but get in early if you want to guarantee your spot!

It’s very early days yet, but so far we know that it’s going to be late June, venue to be decided and we’re looking for other people to work with. Obviously we worked with Yahoo! last year (who’s idea Hack Day is) - and this year we want to work with as many people as possible.

I think the only major change will be that we plan to run some kind of conference on the Friday before the weekend event and that we wont be having a massive band on the Sunday night - rather we’ll be doing something (and this is soooo cool) on the Saturday night.

Oh… one last thing… we’re changing the name this year to avoid any confusion… henceforth it’ll be called Mashed.

More news as the planning progresses.

The focus is on the BBC website's 'Where I Live' section, and the aim
is to allow users to choose a balance of News and Local Features, as
well as varying the geographical mix. The slider may have wider
applicability depending on how useful and intuitive it proves to be.
We'd like your feedback.

Two sliders are used, the first to mix two pairs of feeds into two
lists, and the second to mix the two lists together. Stories are
given a value based on their order within the feed, and as the slider
moves across, low value stories from one list drop off, to be
replaced by high value stories from the new list.

The application is in two parts:

* a Perl script which consumes RSS feeds (using XML::FeedPP) and
generates an embedded JSON array containing the stories from all four
sources and their rank.
* a Javascript function which combines and generates the list(s)
visible on the page.

Since the timescales of 'News' and 'Local Features' differ so widely
(news changing by the minute, features dating back weeks) it was not
possible to elegantly rank the lists strictly on their publication
date -- instead we chose to simply score them according to their rank
position in the original feed.

In this prototype the source feeds are hard-coded into the script,
but this could easily be changed. Unfortunately the BBC does not have
a very RESTful interface to their 'Local Features' XML, and with no
consistency in the URL format there is no simple programatic way to
access all the BBC regions.

The slider is very basically styled, but is it intuitive? Does the
data shift as you might expect? Are two sliders too complex? Is a
slider appropriate here, or should something else be used? Is the
sorting algorithm right? What should we do about duplicate entries?
We're interested to know what you think.

http://projects.hinterland.nu/bbc/sliders

So..... What we’ve done is create a dedicated blip.tv channel for the backstage podcasts (and other associated media).

You can subscribe to the podcasts via this RSS feed

http://bbcbackstage.blip.tv/rss

Alternatively you can subscribe to it via iTunes

itpc://bbcbackstage.blip.tv/rss/itunes/

(yes I know that wont work for everyone)

I hope this will make things easier for everyone :-)

We managed to talk for several minutes before DRM was mentioned, but this is a great listen if you want to know a little about the man behind the future strategy and tech delivery of the BBC's iPlayer project.

http://blip.tv/file/539117

Or direct download at

http://blip.tv/file/get/Matthewcashmore-backstagebbccoukPodcastWithAnthonyRose192.mp3

We were also joined in the discussion by Robin Doran, Matthew Browning, Jonathan Tweed and Ben Smith - all BBC Staff who are, or were, in some way connected to the development of the iPlayer.

This was a great opportunity for the BBC to hear exactly what the Open Rights Group and the Open Source Consortium wanted to say, and a way for us at the BBC to hopefully talk through some of the more complicated aspects of what is a massive project.

I hope you enjoy it :-)

If you've got any suggestions for further podcasts in this area, or there are questions you feel are not being answered, just drop us a line via the mailing list and we'll sort something out.

Listen via blip over at

http://blip.tv/file/483043

Or download the MP3 directly from

http://blip.tv/file/get/Matthewcashmore-backstagebbccoukInterviewWithMarkTaylorPresidentOfTheOpe157.mp3

We all know the questions. Why don't we stand up to the rights holders? Why do we insist on using DRM? Why did we sign a secret deal in blood with Microsoft?

So we finally decided that these questions needed answers, and the only person to talk to was the boss.

We present 26 minutes of questions and answers about iPlayer, DRM and cross platform support with Ashley Highfield, Director Future Media & Technology.

In this frank discussion we cover the DRM issues, explain that iPlayer isn't a Microsoft only party and ask why didn't we use a non propriety solution.

Listen to the file here

Click To Play

Or get the file directly from BlipTV under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence in Mpeg3, Ogg Vorbis or AAC.