Thanks for the advice Patrik!

Something tells me that a group-led project might not work so well at SudoRoom. I hope someone can prove me wrong! It's is a big benefit that CCL/BioCurious have more "restrictions" around biohacking. You don't have to be on a computer to do it, and it does require specialized laboratory equipment.

I would like to strive to bring the "constellation" of interesting projects closer together at SudoRoom.

Could we do it at the hardware hacking sessions?

Some observations:

We had a thread last year around "My Health, My art" http://sudoroom.github.io/MRI-Art-Landing-Page/ (where we would 3D print our MRIs) - it sort of lost steam. I guess people got all excited about it, but then things petered out.
Classes are fun, but they are teaching and education. I think CyberWizard was the most successful. However, I think there are a lot of hackers at Sudoroom and it doesn't make sense to force someone, especially a woman because this is what often happens in this case, to become a teacher to people who aren't hackers.

=============================

Romy Ilano

romy@snowyla.com

On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 2:28 PM, Patrik D'haeseleer <patrikd@gmail.com> wrote:

Personally, I've always been surprised how come Sudo doesn't have more team projects. With a few notable exceptions like SudoMesh, it's mostly a bunch of individuals coming to socialize or work on their own thing.

In contrast, most activity at CCL is centered around team projects. I don't think that's due to any inherent difference between biology and software/hardware/electronics. Just that we've intentionally nurtured team projects, because we knew it would be harder to reach critical mass given the smaller audience for biohacking.

Briefly, here's what has worked well for us at CCL and at BioCurious:

1) Do a brainstorming meeting to see what topics have the most critical mass.
2) Find one or two people willing to lead/facilitate the project. They don't need to be an expert or a Leader - just someone willing to commit to show up every week and provide consistency and continuity to the project.
3) Put a weekly meeting on the calendar, and start meeting like clockwork

Having reliable, consistent meetings and someone who helps organize the group seems to matter more than exactly how decisions are being made.

YMMV...

Patrik

On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 12:36 PM, Romy Ilano <romy@snowyla.com> wrote:
Hey!

I look back on my involvement in SudoRoom and Noisebridge and I was most happy and having fun bouncing off ideas with people when working on projects. This also contributed the most fun to SudoRoom and shows what is unique about the space.

I got sucked into a bunch of interesting events, especially around teaching and helping lead Women Who Code meetups. That was very fun! I socialized with a lot of cool people and had good times. There were nice conversations.

But these kinds of activities ultimately did not produce any tangible results that I could build upon. I am not interested in being an event planner or a teacher, although those are noble activities!

How can we help make SudoRoom a bit more project-based? By putting new potential members on the path to creating projects, i think this would help with our retention.

I keep mentioning again and again to new people that it's not so much fitting in with the people, having people hug you or going to events where everyone looks exactly like you that's important... meetups are all over the bay area. it's really the projects that suck people in and help them add diversity to the space.

=============================

Romy Ilano
romy@snowyla.com

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