In which a new digital democracy is invented. Which is sort of like regular democracy, only better.
VideoVoting, NCR Edinburgh's most gigantic team (Keir and Phil loom ominously over the Media Team during interview), have their eyes fixed on democratising one of the centre's most controversial processes: how best to decide on a technical video to watch during the twice-weekly lunchtime tech video sessions.
The approach, Keir tells us, is to emulate the interface of a certain well-known technical answers website. Let's call it, I don't know, "DuckOverflow". People can log in, vote for the video they want to watch and, using a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 & WebSockets, see the choices of their friends, peers & mortal enemies filter up dynamically and in realtime without the need to refresh the screen.
Another solution, of course, would just have been to buy a power washer so we can clean the blood off the car park after "discussions" spill outside but, hey, a software solution works too, right?
But isn't there an easier way to vote on something? Some sort of physical, limb-based system, maybe? Where we might extend our extremities and, who knows, uncurl a digit? We put this to Keir. "We're nerds. We couldn't just have a vote by sticking our hands up. We had to create a software system to facilitate it". Ne'er a truer word spoken.
Stretch goals (or "moonshots" as Keir puts it before he can catch himself sounding like management) include some nice ideas around having the TV turn on automatically before selecting the appropriate channel and navigating to the video URL. Laziness, it seems, is the real mother of invention.
Marco joins us for a catchup on day 2 (Keir obviously still wounded from yesterday's "moonshots" fiasco) and it's clear the team have been busy.
Earlier stresses have faded, some good whiteboard work has paid dividends in the design department and the team have produced a solid MVP.
The Media Team seizes the opportunity to ask Marco his thoughts on the competition - "Well, I don't know about anybody else, but I'm pretty sure we're going to finish with a useful project". Confident words indeed. And has he enjoyed the process thus far? "It's pretty good", he replies. Such gushing praise! Such fruity language! Such eloquencery!
We put the muted response down to the delirium commensurate with a full day of hardcore CodeFesting and move on. All we can do at this point is release poor Marco back into the wild so he can return to the comforting bosom of The Team.
Come demo time, VideoVoting attempt to tackle the second most controversial question at NCR Edinburgh (the first being which video to watch at lunchtime, natch) and that is: WHAT IS THE BEST PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE EVER CREATED?
Phil takes us through the choices in the VideoVoting system, listing only the BEST OF THE BEST languages spanning DECADES OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR. Could it be Scala? Haskell? Java? COBOL, even?!
"I asked Marco to create some test data", explains Phil, "and he seems to have missed Javascript off". A murmur from the audience.
In what might be the most compact CodeFest demo ever, Phil shoots us through the VideoVoting functionality. He upvotes. He downvotes. He switches poll. He creates a new poll. He updates from mobile, demonstrating the dynamic nature of the data. IS THERE NOTHING VIDEOVOTING CAN'T DO?!
"I think that's about it?" he says as he turns to the team, slightly uncertainly. "Yep. That's it".
There are no questions for the VideoVoting guys as MC Ratna BURSTS ONSTAGE, thrusts a clapperboard by way of a TOKEN GIFT into the hands of VideoVoting, before RELENTLESSLY DRIVING the audience, STILL BREATHLESS from so many COLLECTIVE GASPS, ONWARDS through the PATENTED SIMPLIFIED 6 STEP CODEFEST PROCESS. The VideoVoting team stare blankly at their prize for a moment and then just sort of slope off.
Applause.
But is it enough to win? What we really need is some sort of voting system to decide...
Keir Lawson, Marco Di Paola, Phil Holden
James Mckerral
Tags: codefest, codefest summer 2015
September 21st 2015