HACKER ON-SITE REPORT FOLLOWS

Last week I made a visit to RockIT CoLab, a co-working/makerspace, following an invitation to hackers, and noisebridge in particular, by Darren Overby. The space is comprised of 3 floors, one at ground level, one above, and one below. The street level entry is a small room/lobby that is being equipped primarily for electronic supplies, such as components and kits that will be available for purchase.

The upstairs is the main co-working space with a few tables for working and a couch/lounge area. There's room for a handful to say a dozen of people to work comfortably. There's internets, a copy machine, some computers and a large screen.

The downstairs is makerspace oriented with a center grouping of workbenches for soldering and small projects. There are also separate spaces for a 3D printer, vinyl cutter and mill.

This place is not a "hackerspace", however as I understand it, is intentionally designed to be hacker friendly, and after having spent some time talking to Darren, there are a number of opportunities. While the main space is targeted at those able to spend $10/day to $200/month, there is also a commitment to make the space available to host free classes to anyone interested. Also those willing to contribute skills/time to the space can likely work something out as well.

I plan to start working out of the space from time to time, and anyone interested in seeing or talking about the space can get in touch with me directly and I can arrange to meet with you and show you the space.

General info about the space here: http://www.rockitcolabs.com/


-J.C.
[l00nie-crew]
Hacker Ambassador

510-900-9MAN
r33Lmm[at the gmails]



On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 8:24 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss@gmail.com> wrote:
Yeah we didn't have "hacker spaces" in Phila  when I lived there, but when I came here I realized we did have them, we were calling them 'artists collectives'. 

On Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Romy Ilano wrote:
Hacker spaces aren't that new to me. I lived in Berlin and led art meetings at art squats like tacheles. Noisebridge reminds me of the squats in Berlin or NYC there just seem to be more tech than artists ... 

The community and conflicts remind me of typical art collective stuff.. 

---

Romy Ilano

On Jul 8, 2013, at 0:42, Andrew <andrew@roshambomedia.com> wrote:

Or just get over it and realize that "hackerspaces" are so far removed from any real historical context that there is no such thing as a "true" hackerspace. I could call my bedroom a hackerspace for all the good it does. and my couch a "hacker" cause it can also be a bed. Culture wars will get you nothing but shity, stale, overanalized dead horses we like to parade as culture.

--Andrew


On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 10:48 PM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss@gmail.com> wrote:
No, actual solution: people who are attached to a certain idea of a hackerspace give a hard time to people who aren't/ had a different idea. People on each side decide whether and how much to adjust their behavior or beliefs to avoid future interpersonal unpleasantness. 


On Sunday, July 7, 2013, Jehan Tremback wrote:
Possible solution: Trademark the term "hackerspace", sue those who do not meet stringent ideological requirements.


On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 9:29 PM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss@gmail.com> wrote:
hackerspaces are combination office space and utopian capital sharing experiment, not to be confused with just shared work space. A place where "all you get is a desk and an internet connection" isn't a hackerspace, it's just a shared work space, even if the people are doing programming for work.
I'm not surprised at all to see someone who's into hackerspaces for the second reason get annoyed when he thinks a hackerspce is getting confused with a work space.


On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 4:01 PM, David Rorex <drorex@gmail.com> wrote:
Seriously, give the guy a break. It's attitudes like Marc's that drive away people from the "true" hackerspaces. Live and let live: just because his space has a different organizational model than yours doesn't mean it's some sort of evil masterplan to steal all your members and get rich by squeezing money out of them. There are spaces in sf / oakland that charge $250 a month and all you get is a desk and an internet connection. There's room for a whole spectrum of spaces in the bay area. Mitch Altman's dream is a day where there are more hackerspaces than liquor stores.


On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Steve Berl <steveberl@gmail.com> wrote:
Seems like sort of a blend of Tech Liminal, Techshop, and a hacker space. Not clear why you think it's a bad thing. I don't see it claiming to be anything that it is not. 

Steve


On Monday, July 1, 2013, Marc Juul wrote:
On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 3:54 PM, J.C. <r33lmm@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 3:48 PM, Darren Overby <darren@rockitcolabs.com> wrote:
Excuse the interruption Noisebridge fans, 

In the interest of possible cross-pollination, I wanted to let you know about a new place to hack - RocSounds like a crap attempt at kIT CoLabs.   

Co-working? yes

Makerspace? yah

Tech startups? check

$200 monthly dues? yep

For profit? nothing stated to the contrary. seems likely.

Hierarchical organizational structure? assumed guilty until proven innocent

Attempt to make their business v

_______________________________________________
sudo-discuss mailing list
sudo-discuss@lists.sudoroom.org
http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss




--
ThanX,
;+)

https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Fort