FW: 2/23/13 Hack-a-thon

[Neditch, Nicole]

I reached out to the library to see what rooms were open on 2/23 for a potential hack-a-thon. Here's what we've got. Let me know if you want me to book one of them. The libraries have fast and good wifi and will already be open on Saturday, so there wouldn't be any additional costs. They will help do outreach and promotion to get members of the library community to come. 81st Avenue Library is a beautiful space.

These rooms fill up quick, so let me know as soon as you can. Thanks! Nicole


-----Original Message-----
From: McKellar, Sharon
Sent: Fri 1/18/2013 4:18 PM
To: Neditch, Nicole
Subject: 2/23/13 Hack-a-thon

Hi Nicole,



Happy Friday!  So, I wanted to get back to you on the idea of hosting the Hack-a-thon at a library location.  I've been in touch with all the locations that have meeting spaces, and the vast majority of them are already booked that day, but there are a couple of options.  If it is something you want to pursue, we should probably act fast and book a room just to make sure someone else doesn't snag it first!  The branches with available space are:



81st Avenue Branch - http://oaklandlibrary.org/locations/81st-avenue-branch 

Might be nice to have something in that part of the city, especially after the conversations that were going on at CityCamp around the idea of making this kind of event more accessible to the whole community.  They are also such a nice big beautiful new library, it's always good to show it off! 



Melrose Branch -  http://oaklandlibrary.org/locations/melrose-branch

Also a location further East, but obviously not as far as 81st.  Parking might be a bit harder here than at 81st.  It has the opposite feel of 81st, in that it is a Carnegie Library, opened in 1916.  The meeting room there is a less modern space, but it does open into an enclosed outdoor courtyard, which is really nice.



Let me know if you want me to book something, even if just tentatively.  I have more information/data etc to get to you next week on other topics.so will be in touch again soon.



Have a good weekend,



Sharon McKellar

Community Relations Librarian, Oakland Public Library

125 14th Street, Room 202

Oakland, CA 94612

510-238-3513

[Spike]

Thanks Nicole. 

Couple of quick things:

How good is their good new wifi? Is it handle 50 laptops good?

How big is the room/rooms- if we were to hope for a max of 100 ppl, will it work for a least ten tables for coworking and other quieter areas too? We certainly dont need Kaiser center hugeness for hackathons but tiny isnt great either. Does the library have room photos online- I looked but couldn't see room specs/images.

Only other question for our members- as a temperature test- for those developers in our crew, would you be cool to get down to 81st st for an event?  Given the 121 people who showed for the county hackathon at a library in Castro Valley away from BART I'm less concerned about this than I used to be, but Oakland and south county are different beasts. 

For Nicole- do you think Cris's idea of getting some/all projects, apps suggested by city staff using the new opendata or data to be provided and opened for the day? With Engageoakland could that work  for  you/Deaanna?

Other option could be  Mosswood park  too.

Spike

Sent from a keyboardless device, please forgive typos.

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[Tonya Love]

If we are sincere about having OpenOakland be open to everyone, we need to be open to having events in other locations. 

It's just fair. I think you should go to 81st. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Nicole Neditch]

The wifi is what we had at citycamp. We borrowed spare library hotspots for that and are now in the process of permanently installing them in city hall hearing rooms.

It is a large meeting room -- max capacity 216.

Yes, I like that idea of using data that has recently been released. Let me check in with the rest of my team, but I think it could work.

Thanks, Nicole 

Sent from my iPhone

[Adam Stiles]

I think we all agree that accessibility is a priority, but far east Oakland is much less accessible to residents of West Oakland. And 81st Ave branch is 1 mile from the nearest BART. Nice building though!

I'm not sure the goal should be to have events in as many different locations in Oakland as possible, as much as the goal should be to have events in the most easily accessible locations. Accessible seems like a combination of easy to reach by public transit, and/or as close to the "center" of Oakland as possible. 

Then it's a matter of doing effective outreach to all parts of Oakland: connect with local communities (east/west/north/south) well before the event, make the event relevant to them, provide clear directions to get there.

I also see value in the gesture of traveling to many places, but we shouldn't confuse this with being accessible to the widest number of Oaklanders. If we do take this approach, we should be systematic going forward; for example, next event is in West Oakland (which will exclude some in East Oakland), then central, then ...

Adam

Adam Stiles
510.280.4862

[Spike]

Adam- that's a good assessment. I would like to have presence across the city but that doesn't mean every sort of event needs to be held everywhere.

That said, if we dont go for the library where should we try for in a short time frame.

Spike

[Adam Stiles]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying it shouldn't be at 81st. Maybe weighing all the considerations, that's the place. Just saying accessibility is not as simple as going in all directions of the compass.

[Spike]

Wish we asked ppl from other hackathons about their transport mode.. Would help in making some decisions like this. I'll see about sending out a follow up poll for code for oakland to see if we can get some firmish numbers. I know a lot used BART, a bunch rode too.

To some extent every event is an experiment so I'm cool to try 81st, parking is easy there, just not so nice for the BART walk in Feb weather and that could impact attendance.

That I know of, the other downtown locations that are viable include:

• Mosswood Park (not quite downtown) but close. OK broadband and space.
• The Cal Endowment- free space for us, but only M-F 9-6 availability.
• East Bay Community Foundation- some good rooms, one good big room, likely free as needed. Unsure about weekend access too.
• USC offices- free anytime but main room only holds 45ppl comfortably.
• Oakland Body and Fender (I'm not kidding, it's pretty tight)
• City Hall...
  

Most other places I checked have serious reasons against them, but love to learn of other options too from anyone! A lot of city spaces require rental fees. There are smaller spaces for some events- Solesides, TechLiminal.

Spike

[Eddie Tejeda]

I don't own a car and neither do most of my friends, so I am biased towards being close to BART. Don't have much more in terms of preference.

Eddie A. Tejeda

@eddietejeda

2012 Fellow, Code for America

http://codeforamerica.org

[Tony Barreca]

I think that the location of the Alameda County hackathon was chosen, in part at least, for its proximity to the Castro Valley BART station.  This is a tough one.  I think Spike's point about the BART walk in February weather merits serious consideration.

However, accessibility, especially for a key East Oakland neighborhood, is also a critical desirable.  Perhaps the right answer is a more central (i.e., downtownish) location for the Feb hackathon and the 81st St. library for a spring/summer event.

Tony Barreca
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tonybarreca
Skype: tonybarreca
Twitter: tbarreca
Mobile: (510) 710-5864

[Mike Linksvayer]

FWIW it's also 0.4m from 1/1R stop on International.

Mike

[Nicole Neditch]

Hi All, the library rooms fill up quickly, so I went ahead and secured the 81st Ave library until a decision is made. City Hall is not free on Saturdays, unless funds can be raised to pay security/custodians (It came to $1000) for CityCamp. We covered it last time, but not sure that we could do it again in this fiscal year.

I would be happy to shuttle people from BART...