Dan (Jul 22 2025 at 14:39): Dan (Jul 22 2025 at 14:39):Phil and I were floating around ideas after this weekend's meetup. He mentioned Somerville.
I was wondering if we could have a hacking afternoon at a hip Somerville cafe? Afternoon, just because of the aesthetic of it I guess, and also because I like coffee. But evening with beer would work as well (hashtag ballmerpeak). And then we could end with a social hour.
Though it's just now occurring to me that a mid-day hack would be an even harder sell than evening beers in the summer, unless it's like an outdoor place with power outlets. So maybe this is more of a winter thing?
Only rule I guess would be to bring something fun to work on!
Dan (Jul 22 2025 at 14:42):@Philip Durbin I was mentioning a place in Somerville similar to Time Out Market but smaller and shell shaped. I was thinking of Bow Market: https://www.bowmarketsomerville.com/ It's at Union Square.
There's Remnant Brewery, but I think they sell coffee in the day. I knew someone who occasionally worked from there with her laptop in the mornings I think.
Dan (Jul 22 2025 at 14:46):https://www.bowmarketsomerville.com/tenants/remnantbrewing Nice patio just for the brewery.
Dan (Jul 22 2025 at 14:49):But the center of the market has a shared patio as well. However I'm not sure about power outlets. Other than inside the brewery, pretty sure they have some. And maybe there's some "almost outside" seats if they open the wall up, but it's been a little while since I was there.
bow-market-1.jpg
bow-market-2.jpg
Dan (Jul 22 2025 at 14:56):Maybe autumn would be the sweet spot. Not quite as much demand for outdoor time but it's nice to sit at a cafe/bar with fresh air.
Philip Durbin (Jul 23 2025 at 01:21):Bow Market looks great!
Philip Durbin (Jul 25 2025 at 12:02):We could also try having a hack meetup at CarGurus (see #boston > CarGurus), but I assume they would prefer a weeknight rather than a weekend afternoon.
I assume we're talking about a weekend afternoon at Bow Market (or wherever).
Shane Curcuru (Jul 26 2025 at 15:32):Thanks Phil for the email ping and reminder - I'm on a beach vacation this month, but come fall would love to start connecting with all the interesting FOSS folks in Boston again, so I'll try to keep a Zulip window open!
Philip Durbin (Jul 27 2025 at 14:17):We'd love to have you @Shane Curcuru!
Philip Durbin (Jul 27 2025 at 14:18):I'm looking a bit more at Bow Market. It's only a 23 minute walk from my office. I'll try to wander by and check it out soon.
Philip Durbin (Jul 27 2025 at 15:17):I just posted some afternoons I'm free over at
Philip Durbin (Jul 27 2025 at 15:51):It's pronounced "bow" as in "bow and arrow", apparently: https://www.reddit.com/r/Somerville/comments/1ltfmyt/how_do_you_say_the_bow_in_bow_market/
Philip Durbin (Jul 28 2025 at 22:04):I walked around Bow Market today. Seems really nice.
Dan (Jul 29 2025 at 15:56):Did you look for power outlets?
Philip Durbin (Jul 29 2025 at 23:09):D'oh! I totally forgot! :sweat_smile:
Dan (Jul 30 2025 at 15:47):No worries I don't think I specifically said we needed to investigate
Dan (Aug 19 2025 at 18:56):I'd like to do this in Sept or Oct just to get that ideal fall weather. If it rains oh well the power outlets are inside anyway.
Dan (Aug 19 2025 at 18:57):I saw a guy give a talk about hosting regular hackathons at H.O.P.E. and I'm kind of hyped about it.
Dan (Aug 19 2025 at 18:59):I think it would be good if we could coalesce around one or two projects. I'll throw a couple out to gauge interest. Emoji if you're interested.
Dan (Aug 19 2025 at 19:02):Phil expressed that he would like to do something related to the Boston Bike Stress Map.
I don't know exactly what he has in mind so he can elaborate. But I think it'd be a cool project to contribute to. I know a thing or two about OpenStreetMap. But it should be something bite sized that we can improve in a couple hours of coding.
Dan (Aug 19 2025 at 19:08):Having been to a couple Porchfest events (Malden, Plum Island, Portsmouth NH). Houses volunteer their porches or front yards as stages for local bands.
I think we can do better for a website on your phone while out on the walk, including:
I could take an example Porchfest data set and put it on an OSM backdrop. And then we could be ready to pull it and hack on it. All front end, all javascript, easy to jump right in. I just want a prototype to show Porchfest organizers so we can talk about making it better on their end. Or maybe work with an existing project, though if the front end was independent and drop-in, it would be more useful.
Philip Durbin (Aug 19 2025 at 22:17):I like the porchfest idea! Brookline (where I live) has one.
Dan (Aug 19 2025 at 23:05):Cool! Give emojis though so we can gauge interest.
Philip Durbin (Aug 20 2025 at 00:39):Done! We can vote more than once, right? :sweat_smile:
Dan (Aug 20 2025 at 02:23):Yeah I did
Philip Durbin (Aug 22 2025 at 13:37):Dan said:
Did you look for power outlets?
I was there yesterday after work and didn't see any outside.
Dan (Aug 22 2025 at 13:39):Okay so we can hang out in the bar if we run out of juice. Still fresh air hopefully. Thanks for checking.
Philip Durbin (Aug 26 2025 at 02:36):We're doing this! See #boston > 2025-09 meetup!
Dan (Sep 01 2025 at 13:45):Okay since you like Porchfest I'm gonna just selfishly say that that will be the official project. I've been thinking about this the last few days and I have a pretty good plan. I started on a repo and I'll set up our "dev environment" for the day of so we can quickly iterate and test.
Dan (Sep 01 2025 at 13:46):I'll post more about it close to the event date.
Dan (Sep 01 2025 at 13:46):Or maybe sooner, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have some feedback and new ideas.
Philip Durbin (Sep 01 2025 at 17:34):Sure, sounds good. I mentioned the Porchfest idea to @Maria Dolgareva and she liked it.
Philip Durbin (Sep 03 2025 at 00:38):The Porchfest app could be useful for big conferences where there are lots of tracks. I'm thinking of FOSDEM, for example. Of course, they do have their own app: https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/mobile/
And the Porchfest app will probably cover a much larger area than than even a big conference. You might need to get to the other side of town. Hmm, maybe I'm talking myself out of the similarities. :smile:
Philip Durbin (Sep 03 2025 at 00:41):Hmm, "raw schedule data" on that page is interesting. No lat/longs that I can see, which I'm sure we'd need.
Dan (Sep 03 2025 at 00:43):Yeah I already pulled the data from Malden porchfest. And yes the distance the main interesting factor.
Dan (Sep 03 2025 at 00:44):I've been formulating what I think is a great idea, I just need to put it in a README.
Dan (Sep 03 2025 at 00:45):I've also thought about what could make a normal conference easier to navigate quickly. Whova didn't impress me much, though the communication aspect of it was pretty cool I'll admit.
Dan (Sep 03 2025 at 00:47):The "pentabarf" thing (raw schedule data on FOSDEM) works with an app called Giggity which is in F-Droid. I was curious to look more into that, though I think I peeked at it and the UI might be underwhelming. But it's cool that there's a standard "conference app" and format. Something to build off of I suppose.
Dan (Sep 03 2025 at 00:59):Oh interesting this could be a PWA as a future step if it works out. Just realized that looking at FOSDEM.
Philip Durbin (Sep 03 2025 at 11:10):Yeah, Giggity is the one I've used.
Dan (Sep 03 2025 at 15:18):Is it any good? I wonder if I should go around recommending conferences to try it.
Philip Durbin (Sep 04 2025 at 01:02):Hmm, I don't think I've used it since FOSDEM 2020 and it didn't leave a big impression on me, sorry.
Philip Durbin (Sep 04 2025 at 01:14):Are you going to massage the Malden data into any particular format? At https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/mobile/ they have Pentabarf XML, iCal, and xCal.
Dan (Sep 04 2025 at 01:32):Nah just some json blobs. I already have it showing up on a map in very manual fashion (i.e. a for loop to add each marker). I was thinking we should just hack this out and make a working demo to show people. If people like it we (or I) can clean it up.
Dan (Sep 04 2025 at 01:33):The main focus is, I'm an attendee, I go to the website, I see the map, oh it's actually really useful. We'd want to test with people without explaining it to them at all.
Dan (Sep 04 2025 at 01:34):The Malden website (actually the archive dot org copy!) had the json blobs right in the html source. Got lucky it was so obvious. const bands = {... const gigs = {... const porches = {...
Philip Durbin (Sep 04 2025 at 01:41):Sounds like a plan!
Dan (Sep 09 2025 at 13:34):By this weekend I promise I'll have something up. Just got tied up
Philip Durbin (Sep 09 2025 at 21:46):Ha, no worries
Philip Durbin (Sep 09 2025 at 21:47):We'll be at a place that serves beer, as usual. Having a drink can be plan b. :smile:
Dan (Sep 09 2025 at 21:50):I'm not too worried about making it work this weekend. Got some stuff cleared up last week.
Philip Durbin (Sep 12 2025 at 23:04):@Dan check this out: like a porchfest this bike block party has locations and times for events (and it looks like fun; it's on Sunday: https://www.bikewayblockparty.org
Dan (Sep 12 2025 at 23:11):That's an awesome idea
Dan (Sep 12 2025 at 23:12):Oh but that's a big distance hah
Dan (Sep 12 2025 at 23:12):A modular synth showcase?
Philip Durbin (Sep 12 2025 at 23:58):neat, huh? :smile:
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 00:06):I set up a Linode for development. For two reasons:
I set up a repo on it. If you DM me your ssh public key I can add it to the list so you have full access to it.
I also set up a cron job to update the web server with the latest version every minute. Again, the benefit is testing with phones.
http://66.228.40.225 (change "master" to "dan" or "phil" to see our respective branches. I can add however many more)
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 00:06):But, if you do want it on Github now feel free. Maybe easier for ppl. I figure it belongs on the Boston Open account if we all put work into it?
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 00:21):Otherwise we could just as well wait until after.
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 00:32):Here's my ideas:
http://66.228.40.225/readme.html (rendered with pandoc from master/README.md every minute)
Open to feedback
Philip Durbin (Sep 15 2025 at 01:26):@Dan sure, here are my public keys: https://github.com/pdurbin.keys
Philip Durbin (Sep 15 2025 at 01:27):No objection to MIT license.
Philip Durbin (Sep 15 2025 at 01:30):I like the "favorite a gig" idea.
Philip Durbin (Sep 15 2025 at 01:31):It might be nice to color code by genre.
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 02:02):Markers, or the schedule?
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 03:15):BTW you should be able to access the repo. dev@66.228.40.225:~/a-better-porchfest I think is it.
Philip Durbin (Sep 15 2025 at 11:20):I'm able to clone the repo, thanks.
Philip Durbin (Sep 15 2025 at 11:23):Markers. What if the color of the marker indicates the time (maybe on a gradient?) and the shape of the marker indicates the genre.
Philip Durbin (Sep 15 2025 at 11:25):Also, can we have filters? For example, "I'm only interested in folk music from 2-4pm."
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 14:51):Hmm we could try that. I'd be worried about too many features. But maybe we could find a way to just make the UI versatile enough to handle it without it being more complicated. Maybe we add a "end" slider? Genre picker? Starts to get complex.
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 14:52):Worst case, we could make a different UI to just try out an unrelated idea.
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 15:00):Could you find a place for your ideas in the README?
Dan (Sep 15 2025 at 15:28):Maybe there can be a "Find something near me" vs "Find music I'm interested in". Two different buttons that lead to two different interfaces.
We do want to have a catalog of musicians regardless. Maybe the user can do your genre and time filter there, star some items, and then it'll show up in their "near me" map?
Philip Durbin (Sep 16 2025 at 00:17):Ok, I add my marker shape idea to the README.
Philip Durbin (Sep 16 2025 at 00:18):Also, only one metal band at the Malden porchfest. :smile: Oh, but two punk/metal bands. :rock_on:
Philip Durbin (Sep 16 2025 at 00:19):Eight Americana bands. I don't even know what that means. :thinking:
Philip Durbin (Sep 16 2025 at 00:31):I also added the filters idea.
Philip Durbin (Sep 18 2025 at 12:31):The Brookline Porchest map is up: https://www.brooklineporchfest.org
Philip Durbin (Sep 18 2025 at 12:34):Here's the data as KML: brookline.kml
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 12:44):Oh wow. And they have a kml.
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 12:45):Wow that's a lot of porches.
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 12:45):Maybe we could try to have that as an alternate test data source.
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 12:46):Shit the fact that they have a KML. I was thinking maybe we could have a KML export but figured nah who needs that except for FOSS weirdos like us. But they have it
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 12:47):And wow that's a lot of porches! Didn't realize Brookline was so active on that.
Philip Durbin (Sep 19 2025 at 22:02):This is how I got the KML:
Screenshot 2025-09-19 at 6.01.34 PM.png
Screenshot 2025-09-19 at 6.01.38 PM.png
Philip Durbin (Sep 19 2025 at 22:02):The JSON format for Malden is bespoke, right? Not based on a standard?
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 23:28):Lol oh it's Google Maps.
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 23:29):I could do the same for Portsmouth heh.
Dan (Sep 19 2025 at 23:31):AFAIK yeah, the Malden data is just js objects defined right in the HTML. I prettied it up and put it in data.js. It has porches bands and gigs so I don't think it can just be represented as KML.
Philip Durbin (Sep 19 2025 at 23:35):Yeah, I played around with it a bit.
Philip Durbin (Sep 19 2025 at 23:37):% cat bands.json | jq '.[].genre' -r | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr
34 Rock
28 Other (specify below)
14 Singer/Songwriter
10 Alternative
8 Pop
8 Americana
6 Jazz/Swing
6 Indie
6 Folk
6
5 Country/Bluegrass
4 Hip-Hop
3 Blues
2 R&B
2 Punk/Metal
2 Classical
1 Metal
1 Funk
Anyone just showing up here should read my message here (above) and maybe the immediate convo after just to get up to speed.
Dan (Sep 20 2025 at 17:43):If it's confusing please feel free to ask for a clarification! And anyway we'll figure it all out on site worst case.
Dan (Sep 20 2025 at 18:55):At Porchfest in Portsmouth NH now. https://mastodon.social/@ill_logic/115238135433085425
Philip Durbin (Sep 22 2025 at 21:08):Should we have a dedicated topic for the app? :thinking:
Dan (Sep 22 2025 at 22:29):To keep it separate from what? Discussions of Porchfest in general?
Philip Durbin (Sep 22 2025 at 22:40):Well, I guess this is already the dedicated topic. :smile:
Maybe we could just add "(porchfest app)" to the end.
Philip Durbin (Sep 27 2025 at 18:01):Brookline Porchfest has started! My ukulele club goes on in an hour!
Philip Durbin (Sep 27 2025 at 21:24):WhatsApp Image 2025-09-27 at 3.46.25 PM.jpeg
Last updated: Nov 11 2025 at 06:28 UTC