Realtime Collaboration in the Wild
Inventor, musician, author, and hardware hacker Mykle Hanson has been mashing up his interests in Portland, Oregon for years, helping make the city the creative, playful place it is known for. Recently, he started fostering a community of sound enthusiasts and cyclists, hosting Bleeps and Bloops rides which he describes as an “acoustic bicycle adventure” where people show up with drum machines, xylophones, and other sound makers affixed to their bicycles, then roll around the city making sounds and having fun. The group rides caught the attention of our local bicycle blog, Bike Portland, who featured Bleeps and Bloops in an article and video this summer.
After hosting dozens of these popular events, Mykle began to wish he could sync the cacophony, providing a unifying beats per minute (BPM) for all cyclists, while also addressing a common issue of riders showing up with only a phone in hand to create sound.
When Mykle discovered Fireproof, he realized he could create a serverless web-based drum machine to allow riders to collaborate easily without the need for downloads or server dependencies.
In just a few days, with the help of an AI coding buddy, Netlify’s easy-to-use platform, and Fireproof, he created Bloopernet which transforms any browser into a collaborative rhythm hub, allowing users to sync and play beats anywhere, even on a bicycle!
Learn more about the project in Mykle’s own words, and try it yourself here.
And here’s a video of the inaugural ride with local cyclists trying the app on for size.