District Hall is a work in progress, in the middle of a hopeful transition. 

It was a work in progress a few years ago too, when the point of the whole place could be summed up in one word: "innovation." 

That was a big, woozy goal, difficult to capture and foster. But District Hall was trying to corner it, from every possible angle. 

It was an organizational question mark, asking for participation. Asking to be surprised.

Significantly:

• Virtually all the walls were whiteboards, painted with IdeaPaint;
• Conference and meeting rooms of all sizes (small to large) lined both sides of the building; 
• The center of the facility featured comfortable chairs and scattered worktables; 
• A nook at the far end of the space was reserved for pop-up enterprises; 
• Free WiFi was provided, of course;
• A coffeeshop and a bar/restaurant were on site 

If you were skeptically inclined, you might react cynically to these trappings and programs, the ones that shout "innovation!" But think about it: What's the alternative?

And the reward if these innovation "best practices" paid off: undeniable -- for cities, and communities, and individuals. 

That's why the City of Boston helped jumpstart District Hall, and why it was maintained by CIC, the Boston-based VC-plus-workspace company, and a major real estate developer in the Seaport neighborhood. 

That's also why, personally, you were all in when it comes to "innovation" -- as a goal and an organizing principle -- to the point of being enthusiastic. There was too much potential upside at DH to be a wet blanket. 

And when you took the official Tuesday tour one rainy morning, led by Program Manager Sarah DeSimas, you got the impression that many of your fellow believers were hanging out here -- exactly the people you were looking for after a few months of trying to entice chocaholics with tech challenges. 

Sarah's message: District Hall is all potential, waiting for you. 

So, naturally, you immediately started hatching a project: a variation on Detour Flag Guy, and the Taza Spinning Paper Image of a Granite Grinding Stone, with a new augmented reality (AR) component.

A challenge.

Why add AR?

Because the Apple iPhones 8 and X had just come out, loaded with AR capabilities, and potential. Apple CEO Tim Cook had been touting AR for months before the new phones were released. And you had recently upgraded from a dying iPhone 5. 

District Hall seems like a perfect location for an AR reality check.

So:

1. You started stopping by District Hall, mostly during lunch, and trying out one AR app after another; and 
2. You shared a Google Doc in progress with Sarah DeSimas at District Hall. Working title: "The Mixed Reality Challenge."

Here more specifics about District Hall, during that era: 

District Hall Boston was managed by Innovation Studio, Inc, a 501(3)c nonprofit organization. 

The mission at District Hall was (warning: formal mission statement coming...) "to make innovation, entrepreneurship, and business ownership attainable through an empowering and inclusive network of community spaces and individualized pathways."

Communities that have traditionally been left out of the frothy world of technology innovation learn how to participate in District Hall. That was the pitch. 

District Hall was also one of the world’s first free-standing public innovation centers. 

District Hall was the result of a collaborative public-private partnership. Envisioned by the City of Boston and the Boston Planning and Development Agency in 2013, it was designed to be the central gathering space in the Innovation District, the home for Greater Boston’s innovation and entrepreneurship communities.

Most people in Boston's Innovation District (aka "The Seaport"), knew District Hall for its Lounge -- DH's free, public workspace. It was ideal for entrepreneurs, tiny startup teams, freelancers, and lonely creators who just wanted to get the F out of their apartments. District Hall offered free WiFi, writeable walls, and flexible seating. Unlike typical co-working spaces, there was no membership model or fee to work in the District Hall Lounge.

Sometimes in the Lounge, you ended up sitting next to a guy who was a little too excited about his start-up idea, judging from the way he was talking, loudly and energetically, at his Zoomed laptop. That was all part of it. That's what noise-cancelling headphones are for. 

District Hall also had conference rooms of all sizes available on short notice. Startups and Fortune 500 companies took advantage of these conference rooms when they needed a quick whiteboard-rich location to brainstorm.