tamberg's Blog

2011-10-17 by tamberg

Side Projects

Inspired by Gabriel Weinberg's history of (mostly failed) side projects and startups here's an attempt to list the past and present side projects I've been involved with:

  • Daffodil Entertainment – a mixtape label based in my bedroom (ca.1996)
  • Quiet Records – a record label (2001 - present)
  • Search – a radio show (2001 - present)
  • Somewhere Between – a concert label (2004 - present)
  • Kfzm – inventory management for used car part dealers (2003 - 2005)
  • Res – a mobile questionnaire app (2004)
  • Po – a mobile notes app (2005)
  • Oh a Show – an art exhibition Web site (2008)
  • Geo – a location tracking photo app (2008)
  • Wearing a mobile Web cam (2008)
  • Facebook shirt (2008)
  • Rfish – a system to count swimming laps (2009)
  • Building MakerBot #19 (2009)
  • Arduino Web LED (2010)
  • Teaching programming at a youth prison (2011)
  • Web enabled Polar heart rate monitor (2011).
  • Web controlled EggBot (2011)
  • Web controlled power plugs (2011 - present).
  • Web enabled bathroom scale (2011 - present)
  • Wearing a SenseCam for a year (2011 - present)
  • Tweeting SenseCam (2011 - present)
  • Smartphone hosted SMS Web service (2011 - present)

When I made this list and wrote a short paragraph for each of the items, I ended up with a blog post that was quite large and therefore hard to read. So I started looking for ways to cluster the projects and break up the post into multiple smaller ones. In the process I began to wonder what was the main enabler or driver for each group.

An obvious first cluster is Hiphop, which is more of a parallel part of my life, than a side project. Then, there are a number of (mobile) software projects, followed by a few projects focused on hardware. And towards the bottom, Web enabling devices is becoming the dominant theme, or in other words, the "Internet of Things". What drove the projects in all clusters are tools, places and well-connected key persons.

The next posts will cover the projects in each of those groups in somewhat greater detail. I'll try to update this post with links, or at least post them to the comments.