Design Sprint II: "Motorin"

Following the success of Design Spring I, we are kicking off a brand new 2 week sprint and this time it’s all about motors!

Watch the video to find out how you can contribute. This sprint ends Sunday, May 24. Motorinnnn!

Head on over to the forums to follow along or add your ideas!

3D model and details of the frame can be found here: https://wiki.kinograph.cc/en/machine/frame

Announcing Kinograph Titles (and nominations)!

TL;DR

Nominate someone from the Kinograph community that has made a meaningful contribution. See title levels and departments below. 

Kinograph Titles

Kinograph exists because of its community. It is built on the belief that by combining our experience and skills we can build a lasting solution to making the world’s visual heritage accessible now and for the future. 

Our community recognizes valuable contributions by granting official titles like “Core Engineer” or “Contributing Designer.” Titles may not mean much these days in the “real” world, but in the Kinograph world they mean something special - that a community of your peers values your ideas, skills and time. Kinograph titles are earned and never expire. Take that, vague corporate nonsense! 

Hopefully one day someone at a conference or job interview proudly says they hold a Kinograph title and the person(s) listening will be impressed. 

So...how does it work?

Prior to every major release, a nomination period allows any member to propose a title for another member. Contributions might be something like...

• A forum post that leads to a change in design direction

• Organizing a hackathon

• Conducting independent research and sharing it

• Performing tests of alternative builds, new components, new methods, etc.

• Sketching wireframes that become part of the real software

• Advocating for an individual or institution to get funding for Kinograph through grants or partnerships

• Reaching out to professional societies and creating ongoing relationships

• Creating a curriculum plan based on work digitized by a Kinograph

• Contributing code or performing QA on pull requests

• Proposing alternative materials or components to make Kinograph more affordable

• Documentation of digital workflows that help minimize post-scan time or resources

• and on and on and on...

So...what are the titles I can get?

Titles are made up of two parts - a level, and a department. Here’s an example: Core Software Engineer. 

The department part is pretty straightforward. It’s based on the type of work contributed. Engineering, design, partnerships, etc. See the full list below, which will inevitably change and grow. If you don’t see your specialty here, let me know and I’ll add it!

The levels reflect the depth of the contribution and the individual’s track record over time. They are:

Consultant

Has contributed to Kinograph in a way that reflects the community’s values of openness, generosity, and collaboration. For example, someone who has contributed regularly to the forums in a meaningful way, or has contributed advice to the Kinograph project based on their experience that influenced the project in some way.

Contributor

Individuals whose input has been directly implemented in the official releases of the platform. For example, someone who designed a part, or wrote code, or designed a webpage, or wrote copy, etc. 

Core

“Contributors” who have made significant, on-going contributions to the project. For example, someone who has designed multiple parts, made multiple suggestions that were critical in how Kinograph solved its hardest issues, etc. 

Departments (not an exhaustive list - send me your recommendations)

Engineer (Hardware)

Engineer (Software)

Industrial Design

Interactive Design

Graphic Design

Business Design

Community Leadership

Partnerships

Writer

Is this common? 

Some, but not all open source projects have instituted similar systems. In the writing of this first iteration of the Community Titles, I was inspired by what postgres has done. 

Nominations

Nominations are now open and will be until April 1. There is a thread on the forums for making nominations here. 

Please send any feedback or suggestions to info@kinograph.cc. I hope this will encourage and reward participation in our community!

-Matthew

Welcome, John Arthur Kelly

I’m excited to announce the first official collaboration with a Kinograph community forum member.  John Arthur Kelly has been a solid contributor since joining the forums in 2018 when he shared his impressive custom 8mm machine and has continued to be a consistent voice of wisdom in many areas of Kinograph’s ongoing design process. 

John’s experience building his own machine and professional expertise make him the perfect collaborator for Kinograph’s next phase of work: the lighting system.  In the coming weeks, John will be collecting information, evaluating design options and performing physical tests to validate his findings. The results will be posted to the forums where the community can discuss it together.

John’s contributions will be very valuable to us all and for that reason I am paying him for his work using funds from the Colgate University grant. I hope this is the first of many collaborations with forum members. We all bring something valuable to the Kinograph community and I want to support that whenever and however I can. 

In the coming months we have work to do in a lot of different categories: CAD, a GUI interface, engineering, web/interaction design, and more. If you want to be a part of that, please reach out!

Please drop John a congratulations in the forums if you have the time. We’ll be back with the documentation mid-March.

Matthew

Colgate & TWN

“The Woman's Film”, 1971

I am happy to announce that Kinograph has received funding from Colgate University to complete the prototype for Kinograph v2.

In addition, Third World Newsreel and Kinograph have secured a matching grant for the development of Kinograph v2 and its installation at their archive.

The funds will be used to hire contractors to complete phases of work according to the designs for version 2.

Throughout the process, I will be sharing progress and all design files with the community through this blog and on the forums.

I welcome and encourage active participation in this process. Visit the forums to share your thoughts on the designs (coming in the next blog post ASAP), your wish list for features, how you see Kinograph being used for your project, and whatever else is on your mind.

Thanks to Colgate and TWN, Kinograph will finally have a real-world prototype. From there, I hope to see the design replicated and improved many times over!

Here are my next steps:

• add a project timeline to the website

• publish current designs and plans for v2

• gather feedback from the community

Onward!