Hi,

I'm not sure what the process is for ending membership, I've cancelled my
direct debit and there should be a box in the space that says tomwj on it
which still has a tiki-tag reader in which belongs to the space and the box
should be returned to general use. I guess any RFID cards I currently have
registered to doorbot should also be removed.

It's been interesting to see the space grow in members and size from the
old space above the archery range to the two Cremer St. business units. The
facilities and number of tools available is now huge. Having said that the
huge growth has caused its own problems a lot I think have to do with
informal arrangements not scaling well. I have various thoughts about this
but they are moot given I'm ending my membership.

I should probably say that I'm ending my membership because I've moved to
Ipswich and I wasn't getting to the space very often even when I lived in
London. If anyone else is interested in meeting up in Ipswich to discuss
setting up a Hackspace let me know (I'll start another topic for that).

Tom

Indeed it is sufficient to simply stop your payments.

Yes I think there's now a general agreement that we need to figure out how to deal with our current size. I'm looking forward to making a few changes myself, as has been discussed on this list.

Do check in whenever you're back in London!

m.

On 9 Oct 2012, at 19:10, tomwj wrote:

If you're not comfortable talking about it in public, email
trust...@london.hackspace.org.uk

--jonty

S

Hi there,

My friend, Jon Benton, is trying to start an Ipswich hackspace. The website
is http://www.ipswichhackspace.org.uk/ and they have details on there about
joining their facebook and google groups.

~Akki

Thanks, Akki I met John last night at the Curiosity Collective meeting
which was really good he mentioned someone called Heather from london this
may be you or someone else from London.

With regards to the space I think it would make sense for the different
interest groups take control of tool access of the relevant tools this
already seems to happen with the biohackers, music guys, it would probably
makes sense to do this for the mechanical/welding stuff, woodwork and
electronics. It would also help make the space a bit more personable if
they had meetings on different days ( I realise there could be issues with
this given the size of the space). 500+ poeple requires a
fundamental change in how things operate, it's very hard to run a meeting
with this many people let alone expect everyone to know each other.

There has been talk of putting access control on all the tools I think this
is a really good idea. It could give a trail to who last used the tools if
they did get damaged and there should be strong encouragement if you've
damaged something i.e. if you blunt this chisel you should have someone who
knows how to sharpen them correctly (found through sub group for relevant
tools) supervise while whoever has damaged them fixes them. This isn't
nessasarily going to be possible for everything but I think it's important
for people to be their so they understand what is involved in keeping stuff
in good working order. The other benefit is it enforces training/
confirmation that someone is competent. I guess a final benefit is it
increases somewhat the security although this doesn't appear to have been a
major issue to date ignoring people borrowing things unannounced.

Having meetings in person allows for much higher bandwidth
communications. The current email/irc based system isn't fit for purpose
anymore. Having minutes from meetings announced would be important to keep
everyone updated to what current thinking and consensus is. As for coming
to decisions I'd recommend consensus decision making, there are guides on
the internet but it's likely there is someone who could run a course on
this. It seems like the most well suited to the culture and attitude of the
hackspace. It may make sense to have raporters from the different sub
groups if the meetings get to big and unwiedly.

In summary:

   1. Formation of sub groups with ownership/control of relevant tools
   (with clear contacts)
   2. Access control put on everything
   3. Face to face meetings to discuss issues fortnightly

Anyway these are my thoughts. I don't think there is anything that is
particularly novel here but it's what I think would be the most important
things to get done to solve the major problems at the space.

Tom

Right now I know of nobody interested in creating summaries of decisions
and goings-on in the space.

Mark

On 11 Oct 2012, at 14:14, Mark Steward wrote:

I also think that physical meetings allow people to form bonds in ways that don't easily happen online. Additionally the small cost of having to actually travel for a discussion can serve as a means of keeping out snipers/casual trolls who may simply not bother to attend.

But I agree with the general observation -- not everything needs to happen in the same virtual/physical place, and it would be good to get a better sense of this. Some of the Hackspace patterns can help there, but it more and more seems to me like we need to start writing some of our own.

m.

Tom and all,

I think a week is a decent time to wait before beginning the scavenging? As
a new member I was wondering how to proceed with bringing my own storage
box on the premises, there seems to be an awful lot of boxes on the shelves
and I am not sure if I could find a space to put mine... do I just help
myself to an empty slot? and if there isn't one, any chance I could take
your Tom?
I don't expect to be leaving an awful lot of stuff on the premises as my
projects will usually Arduino/RasPi and electronic-centric but I thought it
would be good etiquette to ask the group beforehand.

Any hints much appreciated
Dario

P.S. Best of luck in Ipswich, I've been there quite a few times to visit BT
at their Adastral Park campus :-)