|
|
| (7 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| We get a lot of emails asking us how to go about starting a hackerspace. This is what we send them:
| | This content has moved here: http://hackspace.org.uk/view/Starting_a_Hackerspace |
|
| |
|
| ==Email==
| | [[Category:Guides]] |
| | |
| Hello there,
| |
| | |
| The first steps we recommend for people attempting to start a new space are
| |
| the following:
| |
| | |
| - Set up a mailing list, anything will do, a lot of people use google groups.
| |
| | |
| - Set up some form of web presence stating your goals, again a lot of people
| |
| just use the header area of google groups for this.
| |
| | |
| - Spam the hell out of every local (or semi-local) geek mailing list with a
| |
| stirring "We will fight them on the beaches" style email about the need for
| |
| a hackerspace. We can give you examples if need be!
| |
| | |
| - If you can't think of any groups to contact, look harder, they're always
| |
| there. Good places to contact are local schools (talk to the I.T. and D&T
| |
| teachers, even if there are no interested students then the teachers
| |
| themselves might be up for it), get in contact with societies at nearby
| |
| Universities, and see if the departments at the University might let you send
| |
| and email to all the students in their dept. You want to target the Computer
| |
| Science, Chemistry, Maths, Physics and Engineering departments. Look for
| |
| local sci-fi/gaming groups, they always tend to be a good source of Hackers.
| |
| | |
| - Don't push any specific angle, eg electronics or software, just be open to
| |
| people learning, making and breaking things.
| |
| | |
| - It's a good idea to set up an IRC channel, most groups use Freenode and also
| |
| hang out in #hackspace, the inter-uk-hackspace channel. The realtime aspect of
| |
| IRC creates relationships between members who have not even met yet.
| |
| | |
| Once you have a fair number of people on the mailing list you should organise
| |
| some meetings:
| |
| | |
| - If you can (and you think you have enough people) I would announce that you
| |
| have meetings either once a month or bi-weekly. I prefer bi-weekly as it'll
| |
| get the community going faster, but either will do. Try and stick to a regular
| |
| day if you can, and make sure that day doesn't clash with anything obvious...
| |
| | |
| - Get a pub back room - most pubs will give them to you for free on quiet
| |
| evenings, and in the worst case you'll have to drink enough to make it worth
| |
| their while (which generally isn't a problem). Back rooms are great as you
| |
| can generally whip out the soldering gear without them minding too much, and
| |
| you won't get weird looks from other people in the pub when loads of laptops
| |
| appear.
| |
| | |
| - When you have meetings, pitch them as "come and hack/socialise, we're a group
| |
| of people who want to do this in a hackerspace one day", not "come and plan
| |
| how we'll build our hackerspace" - planning meetings for hackerspaces get
| |
| boring and repetitive very quickly. Build the community and the space
| |
| organisation will happen naturally as long as everyone there wants it.
| |
| | |
| That last point is REALLY important, focus on the _community_ first and
| |
| foremost, the space cannot exist without it. Spent several months building up
| |
| a group of people who want to hack together and it'll work brilliantly. Don't
| |
| even start planning the space until you have enough people to make it viable, I
| |
| can't stress this enough!
| |
| | |
| When it comes to setting up mailing lists/blogs/websites, getting it done
| |
| quickly and in an easy to use manner matters MUCH more than doing it properly
| |
| on your own servers. E.g. a google group is fine for the first few months, as
| |
| is a tumblr blog and everything else. When you have a group and you're not
| |
| spending all your time evangelising the hackerspace you can migrate! (It's
| |
| a bit controversial this one, but I've seen so many people waste time setting
| |
| things up and writing code that I think it's worth saying)
| |
| | |
| When you get to the stage of taking donations/membership fees and looking at
| |
| spaces - we can help with the formation of a non-profit and organisational
| |
| structures you can adopt.
| |
| | |
| If you'd like a subdomain of .hackspace.org.uk pointing somewhere, let us
| |
| know.
| |
| | |
| Can't wait to see how it goes, get in contact if you have any questions or
| |
| need help with anything!
| |
| | |
| Cheers,
| |
| --jonty
| |
