Waterford City HackerSpace

Swinng

Hi

I looking to see if anyone is interested in helping to create a hackerspace for Waterford

A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, makerspace, or hackspace) is a community-operated physical space where people with common interests, often in computers, technology, science, digital art or electronic art, can meet, socialise and/or collaborate.

Here is link to the one in Dublin so you can get an idea of what happens on these meet ups.

http://www.tog.ie/

Here is also a link to all the hacker spaces in Ireland and clearly the South East is missing out

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Ireland

If you are interested please post below or PM me

Heathen

Interesting, i was only chatting to a mate about this last night!! we were wondering would there be enough of us in Waterford to get a successful place together to work on your own separate projects as well and people collaborating.. I was telling him about hackspaces and coder dojo's... I'll be following this thread! hopefully there will be some interest!

H

Not The Real Scarecrow

Heathen wrote: »

Interesting, i was only chatting to a mate about this last night!! we were wondering would there be enough of us in Waterford to get a successful place together to work on your own separate projects as well and people collaborating.. I was telling him about hackspaces and coder dojo's... I'll be following this thread! hopefully there will be some interest!

H

Think there's a coders dojo in Waterford.If I'm not mistaken there's a thread about it on the forum.

Swinng

Yeah Heathen,
I agree completely there may not be enough of interest in Waterford City
but we do have the County, South Kilkenny, South Tipp and Wexford. So if we could get enough together it is achievable.

Just lookin at spaces around (which there sadly are plenty of) about 600 a month would cover for the cost something like this
http://www.property.ie/commercial-property/Unit-19a-Six-Cross-Roads-Business-Park-Six-Cross-Roads-Waterford-City-Co-Waterford/111366/

But to have it work there would need to be 15 to 20 people involved willing to pay about 40 a month.

number66

I'd be interested, $40 a month might be a bit of a stretch unfortunately , Should check out the mens shed organization as they can help with insurance an stuff like that.
As a suggestion, would setting up a simple website to try organize potential members be worth a try? we could create a virtual development environment on a VPS. This could be done much cheaper($150 a year) than renting a space as a first step. I even have a suggestion for a waterford community project we could work on.
Any comments?

Regards

Swinng

Hey Number 66,

That is a good idea, lets try and get a presence out there first and see what numbers we can get before looking at spaces and costs

Can you give more details of the project your where thinking of. We currently have about 5 interested people who have contacted me so we could kick off something small

Swinng

jennygirl

there are load of space above shops in city centre, off main st shops etc that could be cheap enough, or a big house.

Swinng

A city centre location would be great but I would like to keep down the cost for when we decide to get a space so people do not feel the pinch to attend

number66

Swinng, sent you a PM.

Ballyv24

Hey, I would also be interested in something like this.

MsStroggatrix

Good to see this !

Was thinking of trying to convince friends to try and start a small one at home in New Ross as there are loads of cheap properties for rent there.

Come visit us at 091labs in Galway if you'd like to see a successful hacker space in a smaller city ! I'd say you'd be able to gather enough interest from Waterford's satellite towns too. You've got New Ross, Carrick and Tramore nearby which are reasonably large populations.

Some of the German hacker spaces are quite small.

Swinng

Thanks for the invite MsStroggatrix,

Would love to pop up and see how ye guys run things up there in Galway

Swinng

jad2007

Just a suggestion but I wouldnt rush into renting a space, IMHO the first step would be to get together as a group and make sure everyone is on the same wavelenght and agree some basic house rules for your association. Any pub would give the use of a room for a initial meeting.

Once you have your list of names I would approach the enterprise board and see if they could do a deal with a space. This is what Coder Dojo did in Dungarvan. Once you can show your serious WCC would probably do a deal on a unused city centre building.

MsStroggatrix

Don't rent a building right away. Get some members and form a committee first .

capt fantastic

Hey also form 091 Labs. great to see this initiative.
If you need any advice you can contact us.

http://091labs.com

TheCosmicFrog

Swinng wrote: »

Thanks for the invite MsStroggatrix,

Would love to pop up and see how ye guys run things up there in Galway

Swinng

By all means, you're welcome to visit us in 091 Labs. We've gone through just about everything ye should expect to encounter.

Squeeonline

Also chiming in from 091 Labs, wishing you the best of luck in setting up!

marathont

The Limerick hackerspace uses a lab in UL. They get this for free as far as I know, with the added bonus of the use of some lab equipment as well as internet access etc.

If you got properly organised, maybe you could arrange something with WIT.

Ms A

It's great to see such a great interest. I too was thinking about a hacker space in waterford so would love to meet up. I'm currently a member of Recyclism Hacklab in Dublin. Its interesting to see limerick are in UL as recyclism recently acquired a space in trinity college.

Swinng

All the encouragment on here and on twitter over the last day makes me realy want to get this up and running.
Especially from the guys from Galway and Dublin hakerspaces.

So what I would like to do is start with getting some sort of online presence (Twitter, Facebook and Web).
To get this started I think we need to get a name. So any suggestions?
Next I will need to get names and emails address of interested people to create a mailing list so everyone can be contacted about any possible projects.
Creating a virtual hackerspace to start with. We can organise an official meet up in April so everyone can chat and get a commintee together to organise the next steps.

My direct email address is swinngfinn@gmail.com and twitter @swinng if anyone would like to help out

wellboytoo

To the totally ignorant, what is a hackerspace?

Sully

wellboytoo wrote: »

To the totally ignorant, what is a hackerspace?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hackerspace

:pac:

Swinng

wellboytoo wrote: »

To the totally ignorant, what is a hackerspace?

A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, makerspace, or hackspace) is a community-operated physical space where people with common interests, often in computers, technology, science, digital art or electronic art, can meet, socialise and/or collaborate.

wellboytoo

Sully wrote: »

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hackerspace

:pac:

Touche I doff my hat to you Sir.

hellfireie

add me to the list too please

Deise_Davy

Can I be included too. i would love to get involved in something like this

Swinng

hellfireie and Deise_dave

Thank you for you interest we would be happy for ye to join us

So the plan is to organise a first meet up on Sat April 13 at 2pm

Location I was going to suggest the The Granery Cafe on the quay

Date, time and place can be moved to suit if we need to

Swinng

I have created a google group so everyone can contact each other

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/south-east-hackerspace

If you are interested please request to join the group

Luckycharms_74

What's the criteria to be able to join ?

Swinng

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

What's the criteria to be able to join ?

There is no real criteria other then been interested and willing to get involved. The first meet up will really set out our plan.

Luckycharms_74

Swinng wrote: »

There is no real criteria other then been interested and willing to get involved. The first meet up will really set out our plan.

But I assume you have to be able to hack, etc

I can't

pp_me

Applied to be apart of the Google Group.. I would be interested in being apart of this

Swinng

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

But I assume you have to be able to hack, etc

I can't

It all depends on what you mean by hack. This group will not be doing anything illegal rather using our interest in all things technical to get projects of interest off the ground and also to create a network of people interested in various topics. Check out the TOG.ie website to see what they get up to.

Luckycharms_74

Swinng wrote: »

It all depends on what you mean by hack. This group will not be doing anything illegal rather using our interest in all things technical to get projects of interest off the ground and also to create a network of people interested in various topics. Check out the TOG.ie website to see what they get up to.

Yeah, I should have checked TOG out first .
I will apply to the Google groups

guymartin

Would definately be interested in this if it was set up, myself and a friend were only talking about it recently, I've wanted to visit Tog in Dublin with ages but can never seem to get the chance. Will be watching this thread with great interest.

Swinng

Thanks Guymartin,

If you apply to join the google group you will get updates as they happen.

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/south-east-hackerspace

Swinng

First meetup of the South Eastern Hackerspace

Sat 13th April @ 2pm in The Granary Cafe Waterford

zg3409

It would be worth contacting http://www.searg.com/home.php

In the Dublin space we have at least 3 Radio Amateurs involved and at least one in 091 labs. The type of people involved in radio clubs normally have a long history of hardware hacking.

Normally the recommendation for any hackerspace is to pay for your own (small) central location and not rely on grants etc. I have a friend who is a letting agent, if you can define what you want. If considering locations you would at least need a months deposit and the first months rent collected in advance.

Swinng

zg3409 wrote: »

It would be worth contacting http://www.searg.com/home.php

In the Dublin space we have at least 3 Radio Amateurs involved and at least one in 091 labs. The type of people involved in radio clubs normally have a long history of hardware hacking.

Normally the recommendation for any hackerspace is to pay for your own (small) central location and not rely on grants etc. I have a friend who is a letting agent, if you can define what you want. If considering locations you would at least need a months deposit and the first months rent collected in advance.

I agree we need to be involved we all those groups. One of the main guys of searg works with me and is a member of the hackerspace group. So we will work closely with them.

Eventually we hope to get a nice central location but we need to see what we need. Over the next few meet-ups we should be able to get them together.

I will keep you in mind when do go looking for spaces.

Swinng

So today is our first meet up.

Hope everyone can come along.

2pm in the Granary cafe

zg3409

Meeting went well. Great to see a crowd turn up.

Swinng

Hi Guys,

just an update

The second meet up of South East Hacker/Maker space is on Sat 11th at 4pm in Revolutions bar

thekemkid

I'm a computing student in WIT, they had a hacking society a year or two ago, but as far as I know it got shut down. I don't know the details as I wasn't a student at the time, but if there was a new hacking society set up, would you guys be interested in collaboration with it? Theres also a nice grant available from WIT in setting up a society which could be a good boost. first thing you guys need is a website though, with a decent URL and you need a name. Just chiming in, let me know what you think.

0rt

Im in, theres cheap renting in the city.. alot of things can be haggled down in price!
I dont know why you didnt tell me about this heathen!

peann

I helped out a bit in the WIT Hacking Society, and gave a few talks there. Also helped organise CampusCon. Might try pop along to the next meet. I was pondering setting up a Hackerspace in Waterford for years, but just didn't have the time or energy to go through with it. Well done for getting the ball rolling.

Swinng

thekemkid wrote: »

I'm a computing student in WIT, they had a hacking society a year or two ago, but as far as I know it got shut down. I don't know the details as I wasn't a student at the time, but if there was a new hacking society set up, would you guys be interested in collaboration with it? Theres also a nice grant available from WIT in setting up a society which could be a good boost. first thing you guys need is a website though, with a decent URL and you need a name. Just chiming in, let me know what you think.

Hi thekemkid, yes would would be happy to meet up with any like minded groups and have as many people from those groups to attend the meet ups. I am in the process of setting up the next meet up. Join the google group above to keep informed of what is happening.

Swinng

0rt wrote: »

Im in, theres cheap renting in the city.. alot of things can be haggled down in price!
I dont know why you didnt tell me about this heathen!

We have currently looked at a view places but still a bit early to go in any agreement as we are currently in the process of setting up the administration and finances. Feel free to join the google group above for updates

peann

thekemkid wrote: »

I'm a computing student in WIT, they had a hacking society a year or two ago, but as far as I know it got shut down.

It didn't get shut down. It just gradually had less and less people attending. Organizer was trying to cater for different levels. It's hard to construct labs with some guys who are seasoned hackers, and other guys who have never opened a command prompt.

I would say that Kev ran the group very well, and covered lots of interesting topics.

Swinng

peann wrote: »

I helped out a bit in the WIT Hacking Society, and gave a few talks there. Also helped organise CampusCon. Might try pop along to the next meet. I was pondering setting up a Hackerspace in Waterford for years, but just didn't have the time or energy to go through with it. Well done for getting the ball rolling.

Thanks peann, experience with CampusCon would be a great help here. Join the google group above to get an update on the next meet up.

peann

Will do.

If you're not on there already, pop on irc.2600.net and join the Irish #2600ie channel. Lot's of guys involved in hackerspaces around Ireland on there.

Swinng

Just thinking the group has slightly changed its name a bit to reflect the different group of people that have joined

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/south-east-maker-space

I don’t use IRC as much as I should but I will definitely join the channel