Swipe card system for members

[Bianca Rico]

I'm pretty sure weve discussed this topic a couple of times, but in
case, I was wondering if any larger coworking spaces use swipe card
systems like you would use in a gym, in order to track members usage.
We are looking into this as we have 80 shared members and growing and we
think this will help us keep track. Asking members to track themselves
just wont work for us in this case.

--
Sincerely,
Bianca Rico
Client Services
MiamiShared.com
Tel: 305-929-8688, ext. 143
Fax: 305-397-1250
http://www.miamishared.com

[Joshua Marpet]

I dont know if anyone is using it, but they're pretty cheap to set up.  If money is tight and tech skills are good, buy a reader from Dealextreme.com or ebay.  Figure 80 bucks at most.  Buy a crapload of cards for 50-100 bucks.  write an access/mysql database to track card use. the readers simply act as a keyboard, so write a page where the writer keys in the digits on the card to a field which then pulls up a record from the db.  add a digicam (webcam) and have pics of the members in the database to make sure cards aren't being passed around.

If money is not so tight, there are plenty of systems out there for not much money.  But it might not do exactly what you want.  Tradeoffs.

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[Jerome Chang]

We're about to specify passport-technologies.com.  Add this box to an electric strike door, and tie into your membership app, which for us is MindBodyOnline.com, since they've already made an API for it.

contact: k...@passport-technologies.com

Jerome

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BLANKSPACES
"work FOR yourself, not BY yourself"

www.blankspaces.com
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036
1450 2nd Street (@ Broadway), Santa Monica, CA 90401

323.330.9505 (office)

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[Bianca Rico]

Hmm... Money is always tight hehe, but the first idea sounds like we could actually manage doing. 80 bucks also sounds like an awesome deal!

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[Alexander Lang]

an alternative to using swipe cards can be to put a login form on your
wifi. people who want to use the wifi then have to log in before they
can access the internet, and this also allows you to track attendance.
cobot conveniently supports that :)

cheers,
alex

[Jacob Sayles]

I think this is one of the key features of Cobot and like that it's been implemented cleanly and thoughtfully.  For example regular users do not have to authenticate every day which would be a pain for the folks that have more then one device (computers, phones, dev machines, etc).   It's unobtrusive and simple.  Just my $0.02. 

Jacob

---
Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation
http://www.officenomads.com -  (206) 323-6500

[Angel Kwiatkowski]

re: swipe cards.

I get the impression that they were talking about access to the
building not wifi. If cobot had a plug and play solution for keycard/
rfid electronic access that tracked that a member came in now THAT
would change my life.
Also, I'd be able to program the door locks to be open and closed at
certain hours AND control building entry-ways with a droid phone app,
I'd about die of pleasure.

Angel

[Mark Gilbreath]

if anyone is interested in a mobile app checkin solution with integrated door access, wifi authentication/access and member tracking please let me know.   seeking input from any/all space operators (Angel - this means you :)... and anyone else for whom this might be appealing)

Best

Mark

LiquidSpace

[Joseph K.]

Bianca,

What you (or others) are looking for would be a door access system
that can be audited via a network.

For nearly 6 months, we have been using a compact 7" access controller
that reads Fingerprint/RFID with a manual keypad. The device is
connected to our network via a simple Cat5. Usage, authorisations,
expirations, and all can be managed even remotely via a secured port
from our network. In turn, this access controller opens/closes the
door, with the aid of a closer arm/hinge that could be found in any
hardware store. The entire setup is under $500, and depending on model
choices, it can be within a budget of $300. The number of members it
can audit is under 5,000 records. DIY-able, obviously. Hope this
helps.

Cheers all,

Joseph
CoWorkUnlimited.com
"Coworking in Singapore never seems easier"

[Eric Richardson]

I've been lurking here for the last few weeks but haven't introduced myself yet.  I'm one of the partners in Indie Desk, a space that we've just opened in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles.  

I built out our keycard system using John Arclight's Arduino-based open-access-control board, which he designed for the 23b hacker space in Fullerton.  

http://code.google.com/p/open-access-control/

Total build-out including cards, reader and hardware for a swinging, glass storefront door was under $1000, and would have been cheaper if I had had the time to order an offbrand reader from Hong Kong.

Now that the core system is up and running, my next step is to build out a management GUI that allows cards to be associated with accounts and tracks back to our main database.  That's a project that I'm intending to open-source if anyone if anyone is interested.

--

Eric Richardson

Indie Desk: Community...one desk at a time

http://indiedesk.com

[David Clinton III]

Heck yes. This sounds amazing. 

--

David Clinton III

714/469-6925

(Sent from my iPhone)

[Josh Aberson]

Also very interested, what is this Mark?

Josh Aberson

Meso

[William Liang]

We've hacked together our RFID key card system at our cowork space,
BootHK, in Hong Kong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nN1Q72yfX4

The total cost is < USD 100 + a cheap Linux netbook. It also Tweets
that I am at the cowork space everytime I open the door! Please
contact me if you need help putting it together.

PS HackJam is our Hong Kong hackerspace group, which currently
operates out of the cowork space.

On Jun 11, 11:04 pm, Josh Aberson <jjaber...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Also very interested, what is this Mark?
>
> Josh Aberson
> Meso
>
> On Jun 10, 2011, at 5:43 PM, David Clinton III wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Heck yes. This sounds amazing.
>
> > --
> > David Clinton III
> > 714/469-6925
>
> > (Sent from my iPhone)
>

> > On Jun 10, 2011, at 3:35 PM, Mark Gilbreath <mfgilbre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> if anyone is interested in a mobile app checkin solution with integrated door access, wifi authentication/access and member tracking please let me know.   seeking input from any/all space operators (Angel - this means you :)... and anyone else for whom this might be appealing)
>
> >> Best
> >> Mark
> >> LiquidSpace
>

> >> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.

>
> >> --
> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group.
> >> To post to this group, send email to cowo...@googlegroups.com.
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[Jonathan Yankovich]

William,

Could you release your code on Github and possibly add a comment to
the OpenDoor project at Hive 13?

This is an open-source project to create access control for
hackerspaces and coworking spaces. It sounds in-line with what you've
developed.

http://wiki.hive13.org/Opendoor_Project

Jonathan

[Colin Loretz]

I just finished building our locks. I'm working on a post mortem post now that will detail the process, hardware needed and the code so anyone can replicate it. The total cost for our system was around $200. I'll be sure to share it here and on twitter when it's up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqdIZYXpnfA

At the top level it consists of an arduino, ethernet shield, lock and some basic components. The way I've built it currently allows me to administer the users through WordPress (which we use for our members already). Each member has an RFID code associated with their WordPress account and each time you pass a card over the reader, the arduino sends an HTTP request to the WordPress server and tries to find a match. In this case, the arduino is like a web client but the next step is to make it more into a server so that we can use other devices to open the door like an iPhone, android or even SMS/phone through Twilio.

If you want a prebuilt system that allows you to open your door with a mobile phone, I'd check out Lockitron (https://lockitron.com/). They are a YC company.

Happy coworking!

Colin

---

Reno Collective Coworking

[Samir Madi]

We're using Biometrics "Clock In" machine here.

First time coworkers just register their fingerprints and every week
we take a report for billing. Simple and effective.

[Alex Hillman]

First time coworkers just register their fingerprints and every week we take a report for billing. Simple and effective.

If we've learned anything from history, people just loved punching their timecards in factories. ;)

Even as we approach 150 active members, Indy Hall can't be the only place that values a human interaction as the foundation of a transaction. Who else is actively avoiding swipe card systems and looking to introduce efficiency in other ways?

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

[Toby Morning]

Hey Everyone,

 

We have been using www.lockitron.com for over a year before the public release last month, and we love it. It's about $300 per lock, comes with everything you need to manage keys using a smart phone, and for members without a smart phone, they have an SMS feature you can use to to lock and unlock. We currently use it to manage keys to multipule locations, the interface is super simple, and intuitive.

 

They recently released an IPhone app, but also have a mobile site accessible from most smart phone browsers, we have tested it on Andoird, IPhone, IPad, Blackbery, and Windows Mobile, and it works very well. They also have an API, although we have not intergated this into our home brewed member management system yet, we plan to do this in the next month or so.

 

 

If you have any questions, drop an email to Cameron, cam...@lockitron.com and will be happy to answer any questions anyone may have.

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Toby Morning
Citizen Space

Chief Evangelist

Direct: 408-556-9769

Skype: citizenspace

http://www.citizenspace.us

Twitter: http://twitter.com/citizenspace
"A Nicer Place to Work"

 

 

 

---

From: cowo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cowo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Alex Hillman
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 6:03 PM
To: cowo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Coworking] Re: Swipe card system for members

[Marc Harrison]

"Even as we approach 150 active members, Indy Hall can't be the only place that values a human interaction as the foundation of a transaction. Who else is actively avoiding swipe card systems and looking to introduce efficiency in other ways?"

Interesting.  I don't think of such automated systems in this way at all.  For me, even though we don't have such a system, I regard them as a service to members, not a hindrance or lack of human interaction.

If I put myself in the position of a space member and I was given a choice between (a) an automated system and (b) the ultimate honor system whereby I am just asked each month to tell the space owner how many days I came in and pay the correct amount, I would chose the former without a doubt.

My thinking is...   would I rather just get a correct invoice each month and just pay it, or would I rather have to keep my own diary of attendance, worry that I forgot to record a day and bug people about whether than can remember if I was in on day X, and then pay hoping I got it right because I don't want to unintentionally take advantage of my wonderful trusting space owner even if they promise me they don't care?  I would MUCH rather have the automated system that takes care of such a trivial thing (even taking the money straight from my bank account if that could be arranged) so I can spend my time and energy on working on projects with other members or playing our pinball machine and the attendance and fees just take care of themselves by me doing nothing more than touching a button as I come in each day!  But that's just me, and I understand I often see things differently to others.  :-)

Marc
www.six8bromham.com
 

[Ann Kingman]

Alex,

With almost 150 members, I would guess that there may almost always be someone on site. Is that the case?

Though our space is not open yet, we are going back and forth on this idea. The real value in an automated system for us is that as a startup, we won't have many members for awhile. So the choice would be to have the space open only business hours when my husband or I can be on site, or offer an automated solution so that members can access the space when they need it. I'm not so concerned about keeping track of member usage as I am allowing them access and keeping some semblance of control over who is going in and out of the building.

We're looking at all options, without any kind of technical/programming knowledge whatsoever. Maybe the human option would be best, I'm not sure.

Ann
Books on the Nightstand: illuminating conversation about books and reading
http://www.booksonthenightstand.com

[Thomas Riboulet]

g'day all,

as starting space catalyst I'm also wondering about this stuff, and some comments make me think of two things :

- access

- accounting

obviously the first one can be handled in different ways : keys, rfid, swipe cards etc ... at the moment, without any "field experience" I wonder what's the cheapest and most effective way in the medium to long run (keys can be lost, and then changing all bolts cost an arm, while changing swipe or rfid keys is not expensive). there is tons of ways to do that, hacker spaces have implemented several clever and secure ways (ex: certificates you put on usb sticks to open doors fitted with a usb reader, and some others listed before in the thread).

for the accounting part I think that Alex Hillman's thought is the most needed and logical if you try to stimulate respect, trust and community spirit in the space. I would probably go for it once the space is running but I wonder what cultural differences (comparing United States to UK, Australia, Scandinavian countries, or France for example) would imply in practice.

-- 
Thom

[Bianca Rico]

 I agree, as much as we would love to have the honor system, members are far too busy to worry about tracking their own days. The honor system in our space would not work given our hours and access, while MiamiShared employees arent here. Plus, they really dont mind when we track and  weve noticed when we invoice members for additonal days, they actually upgrade, because they realize they use the office more than they thought.

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-- 
Sincerely,
Bianca Rico
Client Services
MiamiShared.com
Tel: 305-929-8688, ext. 143
Fax: 305-397-1250
http://www.miamishared.com

[Alex Hillman]

Our office manager role is "part time" in the capacity that it's someone who's at Indy Hall full time (open to close), but works on other things for themselves. This role has been one of personal and professional development for all three people who've done it for us, and it's now a very sought-after role in the office.

This means that we DO have a person who is responsible for tracking attendance, which we've simplified to day-rates only. Also, only full-time keyholding members are able to enter the space during staff hours - though they can stay as long as a keyholder is present.

It's not so much about "minding" being tracked - again, we do it too but we do it in a way that intentionally humanizes the transaction.

We're not anti-automation, mind you. We've automated a lot of our systems, but prioritized the automations of systems that don't provide a clear opportunity to interact with a member. 

I've written more about this here, including some examples of what we've chosen to automate.

http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2011/06/how-to-automate-your-coworking-space-and-why/

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia