[General] hackspace info

[Jeff Cotten]

Hey Knox,

  I'm hoping others from our group will chip in on this conversation as
well.
In my personal opinion, the best way to start one of these groups is to find
out if there is an already existing chapter of the 2600.
2600 and makerslocal aren't affiliated, but the people that are interested
in 2600 tend to be interested in hackerspaces.
(Hackerspaces being defined as more than just computer hacking, but
mechanical hacking, and everyday hacking).

If a 2600 group does not exist, then I would start advertising the idea of a
make shop via the internet.
I know meetup.com has worked for a lot of startup groups for various
interests.

Perhaps one of the best ways to find people interested in a make shop would
be to attend one of the local similarly themed conventions.
Since there isn't one in Alabama (that I know of) then people from
Birmingham would likely make it out to one of the ones in Atlanta or
Nashville.

Another great place to advertise are livejournal communities, I believe
there's one for Birmingham already in existance that you could post to to
raise interest.


How Makers Local 256 started off was in somebody's apartment every weekend.
I can't speak from experience, but I believe that worked well when the group
was around 5 people.  When it grew to 10 suddenly an apartment was way too
small.


For the Huntsville group, IRC has really helped us stay organized.  That
being said, our group was already on IRC.
I think one of the best benefits of having a channel for your make shop is
that the other hackerspaces are also on IRC.
Great place to coordinate between the various places to get ideas and such.

"Makers Local 205" has not been reserved yet, and if it would help you get
name recognition to get people's attention and get involved, feel free to
use it.  We want as many sister organizations in existance as possible,
similarly named or no.




On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 7:51 PM, Knox Franklin <knox.franklin at yahoo.com>wrote:

> I am Knox Franklin and i live in the Birmingham area and i would like to
> start a hack/makespace here and i am trying to get some info on getting
> started. I would like to speak with someone offline about how yall got
> started and such.  Thanks Knox
>
>
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