Talking with several people involved in both co-work spaces and
hackerspaces world wide recently at the hackerspace in Singapore, they
cautioned that you really can't do both in the same location. Not
saying that you can't have people working in a hackerspace, but the
kind of environment that you want for each is not the same. The kind
of community is not the same, and so I've been pursuing a dual
location path, with the hackerspace in proper industrial space, and
the co-work space in some more business-friendly location. Besides, I
don't think many people would appreciate having a lathe, bandsaw, or
milling machine in their office (except for me).
Basically, everyone interested in co-work space is looking at HK
Island as a first location, with the immediate Kowloon side (TST-MK)
being second choice.
For the hackerspace, it looks like we can probably get a critical mass
of people that can keep that afloat itself, especially if we are able
to make it available for group meetups or classes which contribute
some income to the bottom line each month.
If you are interested in what the Singapore space is like, you can
check out my post Hackerspace Singapore (http://
startupshk.posterous.com/echelon-2010-wrap-up-part-3-hackerspace-and-
c) or their site http://hackerspace.sg.
Personally, I think there is a distinct need for both, and they will
both take some doing to pull together. Also, I think it would make
sense to have both be cooperative (potentially) depending on what the
goals are at the end of the day.
For the co-work space, outside of the obvious need for someplace for
people to work in a more engaging and social atmosphere, I think there
is a need for an accessible space in HK Island for groups to have
meetings at a low cost in an environment that is not just a normal
meeting room but that is also more suitable than the local coffee
houses or pubs. I'm thinking of these groups that have 10-25 people at
a meetup. Off-hand I'm part of a few different groups that fit this
description, and I'm sure there are others.
And, the last note, one recommendation that I was given is this google
group: http://groups.google.com/group/coworking as being the best
resource for info from people that have done this before.
We had a meeting that was reasonably well attended, about 12 people ended up coming. After going through the results from the surveys, a plan of action was settled on.
We've agreed that starting with a space that caters towards co-work and meetings on Hong Kong Island will be the first step. The intention is to put together a network of shared spaces that have different purposes and usage/access would be covered by a single membership. The next anticipated space would be something in a more industrial location that would be suitable for a workshop and studio space and less formal social gatherings. Other locations that will be looked at in the long run would be Fo Tan and the Cattle Depot.
Since our goals are to create a broad network that encompasses a broad range of spaces, the hackerspace name is probably not suitable (as fun and engaging as it is) since we are trying to also include in business and there is some concern that it might create too much resistance for potential sponsors or benefactors. We are really trying to put something together that will be quite unique to HK, and so it is only right for it to have its own unique name that reflects that.
Next steps: 1) Start looking at properties this week in Sheung Wan. We will be looking for a total of 1000-1400 sq ft, with a target monthly cost of 15-20k, so need to find spaces that are around $15/sq ft including management fees. Ben Crox, Rod, Andrei, and myself are planning on going out and looking together, but others are welcome. 2) Need to work on a name, I've made a survey form for submitting the potential name suggestions: http://hkcowork.pandaform.com/pub/cospace-name/new As soon as there are enough suggestions to start a poll, I'll post one for selecting the final name. 3) We will need to look into the options for how to frame up the organization from a legal side. This will have an impact many different aspects of the organization, so some time really should be put into this to ensure that there is no big issue with the structure we go with. Anyone have suggestions on how to suss out these options, perhaps a lawyer friend? 4) Need to start writing materials to use when talking to potential sponsors that helps to summarize both what we are trying to do and what we need out of a sponsor.
Volunteers to run with any and all of these items are always welcome.
On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Jonathan Buford <jon.buf...@gmail.com> wrote: > We had a meeting that was reasonably well attended, about 12 people ended up > coming. After going through the results from the surveys, a plan of action > was settled on. > We've agreed that starting with a space that caters towards co-work and > meetings on Hong Kong Island will be the first step. The intention is to put > together a network of shared spaces that have different purposes and > usage/access would be covered by a single membership. The next anticipated > space would be something in a more industrial location that would be > suitable for a workshop and studio space and less formal social gatherings. > Other locations that will be looked at in the long run would be Fo Tan and > the Cattle Depot. > Since our goals are to create a broad network that encompasses a broad range > of spaces, the hackerspace name is probably not suitable (as fun and > engaging as it is) since we are trying to also include in business and there > is some concern that it might create too much resistance for potential > sponsors or benefactors. We are really trying to put something together that > will be quite unique to HK, and so it is only right for it to have its own > unique name that reflects that. > Next steps: > 1) Start looking at properties this week in Sheung Wan. We will be looking > for a total of 1000-1400 sq ft, with a target monthly cost of 15-20k, so > need to find spaces that are around $15/sq ft including management fees. Ben > Crox, Rod, Andrei, and myself are planning on going out and looking > together, but others are welcome. > 2) Need to work on a name, I've made a survey form for submitting the > potential name > suggestions: http://hkcowork.pandaform.com/pub/cospace-name/new As soon as > there are enough suggestions to start a poll, I'll post one for selecting > the final name.
For the name , I have a suggestion - E-fever space / workshop / lab / ....
The homonyms word of E-fever in Cantonese can be "意非凡" (Excellent idea).
There have a story behind the name. When I was a high school student, I tried to gather a group of hobbyist for various creation project (Robotic , or any software). They have programmer and electronic hobbyist. And then we started to think about a name of our team. Finally, we choose e-fever.org as our domain name. However, the project was dead , everybody is busy with their University life (dating ... ). The only service under the name E-fever is a BBS site , but is not running any more.
We have two domains under this project , the first is e-fever.org (now owned by my friend) and e-fever.net (owned by me). E-fever.org only have a mail service running, and nothing is running under e-fever.net . I just keep this domain for future use, but I don't see I can do anything on it anymore. So if you like the domain , I can transfer the ownership to Hackerspace / Cowork for free.
> 3) We will need to look into the options for how to frame up the > organization from a legal side. This will have an impact many different > aspects of the organization, so some time really should be put into this to > ensure that there is no big issue with the structure we go with. Anyone have > suggestions on how to suss out these options, perhaps a lawyer friend? > 4) Need to start writing materials to use when talking to potential sponsors > that helps to summarize both what we are trying to do and what we need out > of a sponsor. > Volunteers to run with any and all of these items are always welcome. > Jon
On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 11:05 AM, Bill Liang <bill.li...@gmail.com> wrote: > Just a suggestion that if we are to get a domain name for the > coworking site we may want to get a .co "dot see oh" rather than a > .com.hk or .hk at