Newcomer - Can you tell me about your group / yourselves?

[Rachael Craig]

Hey!

Newcomer here. :) Before I drop in and say hi in person, I thought I'd say hello here and ask a few questions.

Group:
- How big is the group?
- How do you spend your time at meetings?
- Is there anything a newcomer should know about the group? / Should I come out to a meeting?

You:
- What do you do/study?
- What are you working on right now?


About Me:

I'm a graduated B.Sc. in neuroscience currently working in the instructional design industry. I do things like developing learning games, simulations and interactive content for web-based learning and augmented classrooms. I'm interested in DIYbio and biohacking as well as more conventional hacking and making. I also like bicycles.

[Andrew Norman]

I haven't made it to any of the meeting thus far; I am only in the
city on the weekends. But, I think the club is really starting to
take shape. I am really excited by the efforts to actually get some
space - probably better than tinkering at the kitchen table.

I think it would be great to have a DIYbio element. I've got a degree
in biological engineering. And worked professionally growing
genetically manipulated microbes up to pretty high cell densities,
also worked on purification and extraction of bioactive compounds.
I've done a little tissue engineering too. I work now partly doing
pharma manufacturing, spending a fair amount of my time on industrial
controls (PLCs)/ instrumentation.

I've surfed that DIYbio site a bunch, would like to give some of that
stuff a try.

[peter greathead]

Hi Rachael, Welcome!

For starters, everyone is welcome at our meetings, but we are just getting started. This group has had a couple of false starts, and we have been meeting regularly to try to keep it going this time. Most of our meetings are spent discussing our goals and structure. We have our own website as well at www.halifaxmakerspace.org. At average we have about 5 core people attending meetings. We are just at the point of registering our group in NS as a non-profit co-operative and getting a formal space to call home. Please come out to a meeting, we'd like to meet you. On our website there is a survey which we released a few weeks ago to try to gauge public opinion for long-term planning. 

Peter

[phoenix.exe]

Hey Rachel, and everyone else. :)

I've been lurking here for a while, watching things take shape from a distance and constantly forgetting to attend a meeting (or ask where they are, though I know it's buried in my inbox somewhere).

I'm an anarcho-primitivist/transhumanist who dreams of a future life of living off the land in an intentional community, while also using recycled/salvaged materials to build machinery and robots to help my fellow villagers free up their time and reduce wear and tear on their fragile meat-bodies.

I've salvaged and dumpster dived for most of my life, so I've gotten pretty good at making broken things work, or finding new uses for their parts. However, my skills are mostly focused on the lowest levels of technical complexity-- I can hardwire a speaker system from damaged parts, but I can't modify or repair the circuity.

So, I've decided to dedicate most of the colder months to studying electrical engineering and programming, which should be enough to get started with robotics and automation.

Not at all the full extent of my interests/activities, but certainly the most relevant. Right now I'm working on a series of zines that'll teach people to use knowledge of memetics, neurology, psychology, and cybernetics, to essentially hack their minds, bodies, social environment, and even society at large. Its still just brainstorming at this point, though. Anyway, not terribly relevant, but thats what I'm working on at the moment.

PS: I love that can learn from MIT professors without spending the following decades paying off a student loan. Digital Age FTW. ^_^

[Brian Shaw]

Hello folks
another newcomer here. I have been speaking to a maker space in the UK and also here in Canada to get ideas on how they started up and raised funding for a space.

my background/hobbies are Electronics, IT, HAM radio, woodworking.

I am hoping to attend the next meeting.

Brian

On Saturday, October 6, 2012 7:30:16 PM UTC-3, Rachael Craig wrote:

[Chris McDonald]

Welcome to the Group. We have had many false starts over the past few years. Most of the people I've met with over the past few years haven't had the money to get this thing off the ground. But it seems the current group is starting to gain momentum, I'm not sure if I've met any of them yet or even who has been showing up to meetings. I might just actually make it to this weeks meeting. 

I'm an exhibits specialist at the Discovery Centre. I've studied electronics, programming and networking. I do a bit of everything related to fabrication. I do a lot of work with plastics and aluminium.

Currently at home I'm tinkering with SDR and amateur radio. I've built a few softrock SDR and many antennas.

At work I'm working on our Arduino based Nocturn project which you will just have to come see at the centre Saturday night.

73, VE1LX

Chris McDonald

[peter greathead]

Everyone posting in here:

1. Please fill out our Survey here: http://halifaxmakerspace.org/survey/
   
2. Next please make an effort to come to Monday's meeting so we can meet you. The core group has been making steady headway on formally organizing, incorporating and legalizing our group. Many of the discussions you are having here have already been discussed at our meetings. 
   
3. Talk is cheap; to get this thing moving and off the ground, we are going to need active paying participants.

Peter

On Saturday, October 6, 2012 7:30:16 PM UTC-3, Rachael Craig wrote: