Questions from a new hackerspace

[Joel Stanley]

Hello All,

A group of 12 (plus latecomers) met in Adelaide two weekends ago to
discuss the formation of a hackerspace here. We had attendance from
representatives of various interest groups around the city and had
some encouraging discussions.

One of the topics we spent some time going over asked "what do you
want out of this group?". The majority of answers suggested they were
after cross-pollination - a chance to hang out with creative people
with differing skill sets, and use one other for ideas and
collaboration. This lead the discussion towards the question of "do
we really need a physical space?". The physical space represents a
financial challenge, so if we decided it was not necessary, why
bother?

Do other groups have a comment on how valuable the space, over simply
having the group meet, is?

Do you think the space is vital to the operation of your group?

Cheers,

Joel

[Leslie Hawthorn]

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 9:36 AM, Joel Stanley <jo...@jms.id.au> wrote:

This lead the discussion towards the question of "do
we really need a physical space?".  The physical space represents a
financial challenge, so if we decided it was not necessary, why
bother?

Do other groups have a comment on how valuable the space, over simply
having the group meet, is?

Do you think the space is vital to the operation of your group?

When finances are a constraint, many folks have met in their homes. It also adds a nice friendly vibe to the meeting. The Hacker Dojo [0] here in Mountain View evolved from Super Happy Dev House [1], which David Weekly hosted in his home for quite awhile.

[0] - http://hackerdojo.pbworks.com/

[1] - http://superhappydevhouse.org/

Cheers,

LH

--
Leslie Hawthorn
Program Manager - Open Source
Google Inc.

http://code.google.com/opensource/

I blog here:

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com - http://www.hawthornlandings.org

[Kathryn Small]

I agree with Leslie :)

For Robots & Dinosaurs, our members are very interested in electronics, mechanics and physical hacking.  A dedicated space is useful to us because we can set up equipment, tools and materials in one place.

But the thing I like most about our space is that you can hang out with cool, creative people.  If we didn't have so many soldering irons, we could just organise meetings at homes, in garages, in borrowed office space, etc.

If you want to create a good environment, but you don't need storage space, starting in someone's house is a great way to go.  It's cheap, it's friendly, and it's available right now :)

-- Kathryn

[Mitch Davis]

Hi Joel,

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 1:03 PM, Kathryn Small <kathry...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I agree with Leslie :)
> For Robots & Dinosaurs, our members are very interested in electronics,
> mechanics and physical hacking.  A dedicated space is useful to us because
> we can set up equipment, tools and materials in one place.
> But the thing I like most about our space is that you can hang out with
> cool, creative people.

Well, what she said too :-)

I'm from Connected Communities HackerSpace (CCHS) in Melbourne. I'd
say the ability to physically meet has been the biggest contributor to
our growth last year. We have met in a large, relatively well
equipped garage to date, thanks to the generosity of one of our
members (Andy) but we are well overdue to making the jump to dedicated
premises.

Short answer: Yes, you need a space to meet up, because it's in that
space that amazing things happen.

Mitch.