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Protovore 1.2 was last Wednesday and we did project critiques (@Gravitational and @Kende featured above). Of all the people who showed up to Protovore 1.1 and started a project, 100% of them returned for Protovore 1.2 (well, except @johndbritton, but he had a pre-arranged Twilio event to host).  We even gained some new teams who will hopefully all show up to Protovore 1.3 and keep the project hustle going. “I Felt Safe Sharing.” - private comment from a Protovore participant While the fact that anyone came back for Protovore week 2 is reason enough to celebrate (which we will be doing after Protovore 1.6 and for which we will be building an awesome proto-trophy), what was more amazing was how open and nearly universal participation was in presenting projects to the group for critique. It’s so easy to think of something that needs doing, get excited, start building, and then realize after much effort has been expended that society most likely has zero use for what you are making.  That, or it turns out that your project is bizarrely more difficult to make presentable than initially realized. Either way, you’re in a frustrating situation. Getting up in front of an informed group and talking openly about a project after you have had time to bake it a bit (Protovore 1.1) but which is still in its very early days is a great way to mitigate these risks. It forces you to talk clearly about what you are are doing which in turn forces you to actually define and - more importantly - understand, what you are doing. There’s also the added benefit of opening yourself up to inner-community technology cross-pollination and community support.  I know that at least one technology partnership was spawned from the Protovore 1.2 presentations. ‘Buying Local’, Getting Things Made While inner-Protovore tech partnerships are extremely cool, even cooler was the ‘camaraderie’ that these presentations and critiques bred.  Not only was feedback pontificated, but actual post-critique help was delivered. People who routinely charge very good money for their time and efforts shared their expertise freely.  UX experts helped UX noobs build more usable interfaces, and UX noobs helped UX experts build better products. There was definitely something a little bit tingly and maybe slightly magical in the air last Wednesday. It seems quite popular these days for investor-types and others a bit further removed from the ‘metal’ to remark that it is ‘easier and easier to build technology.’  It can even feel sometimes like people who say this forget that this ‘tech stuff’ doesn’t in fact actually build itself or design its own interface. As easy - and incredible - as it is to type on a keyboard and create a computational system, building actual ‘technology’ is still quite hard.  It requires not only the alignment of a number of difficult to wrangle life forces, but continuously accessible creativity and an openness of mind tuned to arbitrarily constructing new perspective on deeply familiar experiences. Protovore 1.2 - through project critiques and a supportive but progress-focused community orientation - helped to temporarily lower the bar for real technology creation.  If we can continue to create this effect for Protovore 1.3 and beyond, we may just get a whole lot of something done with these six weeks. Institutional Knowledge Wrap-Up While on a whole Protovore 1.2 was absolutely a success, there was certainly some nice room for improvement and a fair amount of ‘institutional knowledge’ gained about how to best conduct a Protovore Critique Session and Protovore in generally. Here are some of the ‘lessons learned’ from Protovore 1.2: If you have food, hold off on making it available until after the critique session. Have a strict time-cap on project presentations - six minutes per team is probably good including both presentation and questions. Have presenters answer:            1. What is the goal for your project?            2. What aspects of your project have you built so far?            3. What can people do to help you so that you can achieve your project goals? Allot each presenter three questions/comments they can solicit from the group following their presentation; the presenter chooses who asks these questions. Provide sufficient community infrastructure so that new comers understand the goals of Protovore and come prepared with a project to work on or team to work with. Cultivate a culture that easily and respectfully self-regulates so that ‘help’ does not bleed into distraction. That last one is the trickiest and one we’re still working on.  It shouldn’t be as much of an issue at Protovore 1.3 simply because we’re doing ‘Lockdown’ as a theme and will be blasting Ratatat the whole time, but it’s definitely worth figuring out.  Maybe a code word or something you can repeatedly say until the ‘offender’ realizes their misstep… “Protovore Protovore Protovore Protovore Protovore.” Join Us For Upcoming Protovores and Stay Informed Protovore 1.3 is Wednesday Oct 27th 7pm at 86 Chambers Street, Suite 704, NYC. Protovores 1.4 through 1.6 are the following Wednesdays at the same time and same location. Stay up to date with Protovore by following us on Twitter and by joining the Protovore Group.

Protovore 1.2 was last Wednesday and we did project critiques (@Gravitational and @Kende featured above).

Of all the people who showed up to Protovore 1.1 and started a project, 100% of them returned for Protovore 1.2 (well, except @johndbritton, but he had a pre-arranged Twilio event to host).  We even gained some new teams who will hopefully all show up to Protovore 1.3 and keep the project hustle going.

“I Felt Safe Sharing.” - private comment from a Protovore participant

While the fact that anyone came back for Protovore week 2 is reason enough to celebrate (which we will be doing after Protovore 1.6 and for which we will be building an awesome proto-trophy), what was more amazing was how open and nearly universal participation was in presenting projects to the group for critique.

It’s so easy to think of something that needs doing, get excited, start building, and then realize after much effort has been expended that society most likely has zero use for what you are making.  That, or it turns out that your project is bizarrely more difficult to make presentable than initially realized. Either way, you’re in a frustrating situation.

Getting up in front of an informed group and talking openly about a project after you have had time to bake it a bit (Protovore 1.1) but which is still in its very early days is a great way to mitigate these risks. It forces you to talk clearly about what you are are doing which in turn forces you to actually define and - more importantly - understand, what you are doing.

There’s also the added benefit of opening yourself up to inner-community technology cross-pollination and community support.  I know that at least one technology partnership was spawned from the Protovore 1.2 presentations.

‘Buying Local’, Getting Things Made

While inner-Protovore tech partnerships are extremely cool, even cooler was the ‘camaraderie’ that these presentations and critiques bred.  Not only was feedback pontificated, but actual post-critique help was delivered.

People who routinely charge very good money for their time and efforts shared their expertise freely.  UX experts helped UX noobs build more usable interfaces, and UX noobs helped UX experts build better products. There was definitely something a little bit tingly and maybe slightly magical in the air last Wednesday.

It seems quite popular these days for investor-types and others a bit further removed from the ‘metal’ to remark that it is ‘easier and easier to build technology.’  It can even feel sometimes like people who say this forget that this ‘tech stuff’ doesn’t in fact actually build itself or design its own interface.

As easy - and incredible - as it is to type on a keyboard and create a computational system, building actual ‘technology’ is still quite hard.  It requires not only the alignment of a number of difficult to wrangle life forces, but continuously accessible creativity and an openness of mind tuned to arbitrarily constructing new perspective on deeply familiar experiences.

Protovore 1.2 - through project critiques and a supportive but progress-focused community orientation - helped to temporarily lower the bar for real technology creation.  If we can continue to create this effect for Protovore 1.3 and beyond, we may just get a whole lot of something done with these six weeks.

Institutional Knowledge Wrap-Up

While on a whole Protovore 1.2 was absolutely a success, there was certainly some nice room for improvement and a fair amount of ‘institutional knowledge’ gained about how to best conduct a Protovore Critique Session and Protovore in generally.

Here are some of the ‘lessons learned’ from Protovore 1.2:

  • If you have food, hold off on making it available until after the critique session.
  • Have a strict time-cap on project presentations - six minutes per team is probably good including both presentation and questions.
  • Have presenters answer:

           1. What is the goal for your project?

           2. What aspects of your project have you built so far?

           3. What can people do to help you so that you can achieve your project goals?

  • Allot each presenter three questions/comments they can solicit from the group following their presentation; the presenter chooses who asks these questions.
  • Provide sufficient community infrastructure so that new comers understand the goals of Protovore and come prepared with a project to work on or team to work with.
  • Cultivate a culture that easily and respectfully self-regulates so that ‘help’ does not bleed into distraction.


That last one is the trickiest and one we’re still working on.  It shouldn’t be as much of an issue at Protovore 1.3 simply because we’re doing ‘Lockdown’ as a theme and will be blasting Ratatat the whole time, but it’s definitely worth figuring out.  Maybe a code word or something you can repeatedly say until the ‘offender’ realizes their misstep… “Protovore Protovore Protovore Protovore Protovore.”

Join Us For Upcoming Protovores and Stay Informed

Protovore 1.3 is Wednesday Oct 27th 7pm at 86 Chambers Street, Suite 704, NYC.

Protovores 1.4 through 1.6 are the following Wednesdays at the same time and same location.

Stay up to date with Protovore by following us on Twitter and by joining the Protovore Group.

High-res 10/26/10 — 5:37pm Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Zvfn5y1K03iA Filed under: #Protovore 1.2  #project critiques 

Protovore 1 happened and it was awesome.

We’re setting out to make getting over that one, initial, most daunting, hurtle of all — actually starting — a non-issue.  By carving out 6 Wednesday evenings in a row for ourselves up front, getting together with like-minded future builders, and hacking it out, we are crafting a life rhythm that naturally disposes itself to making real product progress.

It’s only been one week, but judging from how Protovore 1 went, it looks like we’re on to something kind of special.  Around 30 people showed up to Protovore 1.  It was a nice mix of dedicated participants, one-off visitors, special guests (thanks @mikeyavo) and sponsors.

From those 30 people, we now have somewhere between 9 and 12 real projects underway and moving forward — not bad for a first go.

While Protovore 1 was a blast (thanks Pivotal for the food and drink!), Protovore 2 is shaping up to alter your universe.

If you weren’t at Protovore 1, but are legit and want to build the future, you should do yourself a favor and join us for Protovores 2 through 6.  Come as a participant, come as a visitor, come as a special guest, come as a sponsor (just remember to give us some free stuff first!).  Whichever capacity you decide to show up in, come, be helpful, learn from brilliant future builders, teach, and be a part of moving the world forward.

Protovore 2 is (like all Protovore sessions) this coming Wednesday evening (October 20th in this case), 7pm, at 86 Chambers Street, Suite 704. Sign up.

Get excited. Transition into startup mode. Build the future.

Notes: 1 10/18/10 — 4:06pm Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Zvfn5y1GDLc0 Filed under: #protovore