With our move to the third floor of the Load of Fun building, Baltimore Node gained an awesome new space, with a ton of new opportunities! Unfortunately, we also lost one good feature of the old space – having a street-level entrance that we can leave unlocked while we’re in. Anyone with a key can let themselves in to the building, but folks without a key need to be let in.
We have a lot of ideas in the works for solving this problem, involving everything from RFID and electronic strike plates, all the way through a key hanging on a string. There’s no telling which of these will be our final implementation, but here is one that is ready to use now!
NodeNock is an “access system” that’s designed to be easy for everybody!
If you’re outside the Node and need someone to let you in, just call the phone number posted on the door. NodeNock will connect you to someone who is already inside.
How does NodeNock know who to call? It looks at the list of people who recently checked-in with Foursquare. Anyone who has registered their phone number with NodeNock can get the call while they are checked-in at the Node.
Registration only needs to happen once, and it’s pretty simple:
- Make a Foursquare account, if you haven’t already.
- Visit NodeNock from your smart phone, using your Foursquare account to log in.
- Register your phone number with NodeNock. You’ll get a validation link sent to your phone in a text message.
- Finally, friend Baltimore Node on Foursquare so we can see when you’re checked-in.
NodeNock certainly won’t solve all of our access problems, but it does make it easy to get on the phone with somebody already inside. For now, it should help members who forget or don’t yet have keys, as well as visitors for Open Hack and other events.
NodeNock is available on GitHub if you’d like to check out the code.
Node members – please give NodeNock a chance, and give feedback on the Node Discussion list!
