This project started when I wanted to make a countdown sign for Protospace's annual Fall Open House, to notify members in the space (because we had members show up last year during the Open House wanting to work on their projects, so apparently announcing it and asking for volunteers several times on the mailing list doesn't reach everybody). The most expedient way to display two digits at a large size turned out to be a computer monitor. (I forget who suggested that, but thanks. I never would have thought of this pivot without that.)

While working on that (which didn't get done in time) I had the idea to make it also function as a wiki kiosk during the Open House, so that guests could have a look at what equipment we have. I ended up working on it all day during the Open House (while hanging out in the electronics room to talk to guests), and still didn't get it done. But I got my Raspberry Pi online and running kweb, which actually turned out to be quite difficult. (I downloaded Raspbian Lite instead of regular Raspbian, without realizing I'd done so… many thanks to Protospace member Greg for helping me through the setup.)

Anyway, I'm going to be using kweb, which is a Raspberry Pi kiosk browser (which can also be used as a desktop environment!). I'll probably also add a screensaver to display a random wiki page or whatever notices we need to display. I'm currently thinking I'll use Docker to manage the software. I'm planning to build a physical button panel to navigate to the wiki, the membership signup form, and whatever else. Eventually I'll add the ability to log in to your wiki account using your member card and/or your phone so editing will be possible. That will likely require a MediaWiki extension.

I've never done any of the above before (including using a Raspberry Pi, despite having had one for three years or so), so this will be a very educational project for me.