Hi Everybody

[Praetorian_TMOTC]

Hi all,

Just joined the group as I've been looking at joining a hackerspace
and so perhaps this is the one for me. Not sure when I'll come around
but it's definitely on my to do list.

To be honest I would prefer something closer to home and was
considering getting some mates together in an attempt to form a local
Campbelltown (or Picton, where I work) area hackerspace. If anyone is
interested in this (or if there is already a group that I simply
haven't found), please let me know :D

Anyway, a bit about me, IT professional of 12 years with an interest
in home automation, robotics and all other things mechanical/
electrical. I also love working on my motorcycle and brewing beer.
While I haven't had a huge amount of time to focus on my hacking/
projects, as I said, I'm looking at joining a group so I can dedicate
some time to these pursuits.

Cheers,

Adrian

[Gav]

Welcome, Adrian!

Hope you can make it to the space sometime. 

Cheers,

Gavin

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[Madox]

Hello hello Adrian :)

Welcome to Internet Shoppers Anonymous :)

//Runs...

[David Lyon]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 12:09 AM, Madox <mado...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello hello Adrian :)

Welcome to Internet Shoppers Anonymous :)

perhaps 'net-shop-n-solder-addicts'

[Michael Molloy]

The NSNSA...

I am a South West Local too living near Holsworthy 

Cheers

Mick

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[Praetorian_TMOTC]

Thanks for the welcome guys :D

BTW "NSA" sounds nice in Morse -. ... .- I'm also an amateur radio
enthusiast!

-- Adrian

On Feb 22, 10:14 am, Michael Molloy <iphone.mi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The NSNSA...
>
> I am a South West Local too living near Holsworthy
>
> Cheers
>
> Mick
>

> On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 9:37 AM, David Lyon <david.lyon.preissh...@gmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > wrote:

[Terry Dawson]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Praetorian_TMOTC
<praetori...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the welcome guys :D
>
> BTW "NSA" sounds nice in Morse -. ... .- I'm also an amateur radio
> enthusiast!

callsign?

Terry

[Nathan Williams]

Hi Adrian!

It is good to see I'm not the only person from Campbelltown longing
for a nearby hackerspace!
If you ever put something together, I'll be very interested!

Cheers,
Nathan

On Feb 21, 4:20 pm, Praetorian_TMOTC <praetorian.tm...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[David Lyon]

I suggest you guys look at a semi-commercial commercial arrangement.

A few (production) jobs here and there, and it might help to pay the rent.

Also, maybe some inexpensive courses for laser cutting and cnc'ing.
People don't mind paying a small amount to learn stuff like that.

[Nathan Williams]

Sorry if this sounds ignorant, but what kind of commercial work are
you referring to?
I'm just a software engineer who plays with micro controllers, I'm not
sure what I could offer!

On Feb 23, 9:38 am, David Lyon <david.lyon.preissh...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I suggest you guys look at a semi-commercial commercial arrangement.
>
> A few (production) jobs here and there, and it might help to pay the rent.
>
>  Also, maybe some inexpensive courses for laser cutting and cnc'ing.
> People don't mind paying a small amount to learn stuff like that.
>

[David Lyon]

Fair enough.

My point was that hackerspace type machines actually are
industrial-machine-slaves given light duties at the hackerspace.

Most of the week they spend sleeping - in a wonderpark where rest-time
!= downtime which != money-lost.

[phon]

let's have a meet up and we go on from there and make it happen!

On Feb 24, 7:39 am, David Lyon <david.lyon.preissh...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Fair enough.
>
> My point was that hackerspace type machines actually are
> industrial-machine-slaves given light duties at the hackerspace.
>
> Most of the week they spend sleeping - in a wonderpark where rest-time
> != downtime which != money-lost.
>

[Michael Molloy]

I would be interested.....

[Praetorian_TMOTC]

Sounding good, looks like there's plenty of interest in a SW based
branch of RoboDino.

I've been speaking with another RoboDino member about this and he has
potentially offered up his SW based place of business as a gathering
point for further discussions. Just waiting on his response however I
suggested meeting next weekend perhaps? Again will need to confirm
with him but at least we may have something to start on.

Regarding David's comment about doing commercial work/training, I
think that if we were able to do this it would be a great idea to
offset cost however I'm not sure if that would affect things
organisationally. so I assume Gav would have to input on that part as
he would understand the current set up the best. Also I personally
don't have the skillset to produce commercial grade products, and
without knowing everyone else skillsets, we may have a shortage there
also.

One thing that would never go amiss would be sponsorship, there's
plenty of local electrical/tool type places around (Turks, TLE,
Hudson) etc that may be willing to contribute to either cost or
equipment. If you know someone that works in one of those places, have
a chat with them and you never know what could happen!

Of course membership is also a key part of any startup. So put out the
word and try to gather expressions of interest from your friends/
workmates to see if they would be interested. The more people we can
get the better!

Also Terry, thought that I'd already replied to your post, but while I
don't currently hold a valid licence anymore as I let it expire, my
callsign was VK2FURY. Really should just get my act together and do
the Standard or Advanced licence, but time always seems to work
against me!

73/Cheers,

Adrian.

[David Lyon]

The 'problem' you want to be mindful of in Australia is fragmentation.

What I mean by this, is it's going to be better to expand than have competing
hackerspaces. If commercial rents can't be paid on one, it doesn't make
sense to have two.

If you look at how much time and effort Gav and others put in, it's very
admirable.

Semi-Commercial to me means Non-Profit. Obviously, a hackerspace isn't
there to make a profit. Just to provide machines for learning, hacking, setting
on fire or whatever it is people need to do with them.

In the south-west, factories have lots of similar machines. But if you don't
have notes you're not allowed to use them. Even if you have notes, somebody
else will do the work and charge you machine-use + labour and so it can
be frustrating in industrial land getting hands-on time.

So that's why it's good to have access to a 'classic-hackerspace'.

imho There's just a few things that could be done to enhance cost-covering:

 - website selling hacker type .. junk .. (not really competing with
   existing merchants) eg TP-link routers.. (that's not going away
   anytime soon)

 - commercial advertising/sponsorship (even if just signboarding)

 - training sessions on laser/cnc at a cost

 - small job runs.. ie somebody wants a case/pcb/casting/3d-print
   if anyboy wants to do it, they get a percentage of the job, percentage
   back to the house. Admin alert on this - paperwork, hire rates, ohs,
   TMB - may be ok if person taking on the work has an ABN and
   gets treated as a contractor.

So in summary, remain within the constraints of a non-profit org.

Go a little bit more semi-commercial, but not much.

[and...@arcadius.com.au]

All good points and should be discussed at the meeting, if they aren't thrashed to death here first.

 

I agree about fragmentation - it would be nice to have one big central space that everyone could get to conveniently.  This is an option that should be worked on.

 

On the flip side, if people can't get to the central space, they won't be in a position to contribute to the operating costs (except as a donation).  So, going where the punters are is another matter.

 

If this was a pure commercial operation, market analysis would be done to assess how much a new location would poach business from existing location(s).

 

Realistically, I think there is more than sufficient separation in distance between the south west and Gladesville (or parts further east) that the impact would be small.

 

Operating as a branch of R&D would still benefit R&D generally as the usual administrative costs of a largely fixed nature can be shared.

 

Andrew

 

[Terry Dawson]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 2:58 PM, David Lyon
<david.lyon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The 'problem' you want to be mindful of in Australia is fragmentation.
>
> What I mean by this, is it's going to be better to expand than have
> competing
> hackerspaces.

bah! The more the merrier.
I agree HackerSpaces shouldn't compete with each other, but there is
no reason not to create a discrete HackerSpace if there is a viable
community to support it.

Terry

[Praetorian_TMOTC]

Just an update as a bit has happened since this first started, we now have a new group for a SW based space... https://groups.google.com/d/forum/sws-makerspace

We're still in the process of establishing something, but join up to the group if you're interested.

Cheers,

Adrian.