An 80 day project

The idea is to create an 80 day challenge whereby teams of 5 people collect miles as they do exercises and see how far round the world they can get in 80 days.

The aim is to create a web site where people can enter the competition and log their activities through the 80 day competition. Different activities will generate different numbers of miles.

But the 80 day concept goes beyond this. It turns out 80 days is a good timeframe to think about when working on a project. Technology is changing so fast nowadays that it is hard to look beyond that.

So, the idea is come up with your goals for the next 80 days. During those 80 days make it up as you go along, pretty much as Phileas Fogg had to on his journet.

And at the end of 80 days, just rinse and repeat.

Blog

My plan is to blog as the project progresses.

See the eighty days project blog if you want to follow the project.

I have a habit of changing blog platform from time to time. A couple of my previous blogs are jackanory and bytes and bikes.

I might go back to Jackanory at some point, but for now I am on an 80 day schedule.

80 days of coding

The aim is to launch the competition on February 1st. By a happy coincidence I started work on the project on 13th November, 2014. This gives precisely 80 days until launch.

So, a secondary goal here is to see what can be created in 80 days of coding.

Other competitions

The idea is to build open source libraries that will enable 80 day sites to be built.

Hopefully, many organisations will be interested in running competitions. Currently, the project is focussed on competitions local to Bermuda.

Further, the aim is to use the 80 days to create other Bermuda related sites around the 80 day theme.

Some ideas include:

  • Around Bermuda Bus in 80 days: how many miles can you clock up on Bermuda bus and ferry in 80 days?
  • Bermuda football: is there any interest from the Bermuda football and cricket clubs in running a competition?
  • Something related to the upcoming America's Cup

Help and mentoring

If you have ideas or want to help, just send me a message at swfiua@gmail.com or just create an issue here.

If you are not sure you have the skills but are interested in helping and learning, just let me know, another goal here is to teach others new skills whilst building cool stuff.