We had another great meeting last night! I counted about 36 people present and we had a lot of cool projects that people talked about. There was great networking before and after the meeting. We ended about 9:30 and the last of us rolled out of here around 11. For those who couldn’t make it, I’ll try my best to cover the most important parts of the discussion.
As people introduced themselves, they told us what kinds of things they’re looking for. At the top of the list were robotics, Arduino, electronics, 3D technology and wearables.
To support those interests, we’re going to start some classes ASAP. If there is a particular class you’re interested in seeing, please post a comment and let us know. If you are interested in leading a class, message me a short description of the class, the max number of people who could attend, and some times and dates you would be available. I’ll follow up and we’ll get it on the calendar.
Our audience on Facebook is growing pretty quickly. When I started ramping up the HackerSpace effort in March, we had around 120 members in the group. We now have over 200! Our growth outside of Facebook is even faster and we’re starting to see participation from people who are in the community and found us through networking and word of mouth. To support the growth of the community, we will be announcing events and classes on our website and through our distribution list. We have also setup a public calendar. We’ll keep the Facebook group in the loop on everything but we realize not everyone is online all the time and it’s easy to miss things if you aren’t around when things are posted. Following are some helpful links to keep you looped in.
Subscribe to our contact list.
Join as a member
Our website (a work in progress!)
Follow us on Twitter @TampaHackSpaces
The calendar (events and when the space is open)
Our FaceBook Group
Have something to donate? We maintain a list of donated equipment.
In the near term, space access will be available 24/7 to keyholders (with a few limited restrictions) and regular members will have access any time the space is open. Essentially, this is when someone is there with a key. The calendar will show when the space is available. If you need access during a certain time, post a request and we’ll see what we can do. The better solution is to install cypherlocks and give people time-restricted codes for access. We’re putting together a working group to make that happen.
Now that we have a space, the board approved new membership plans to supercede the “We don’t have a space” plans. We have three different membership levels (individual, family, and keyholder) ranging in price from $50 to $100. Members who register now will be listed as founding members. You can get all the details on our membership page.
Now that we are officially in our space, there is lots left to do. We are already hard at work on a Kickstarter campaign. Contact Ryan Holmes if you’d like to help out.
Tom Bergeron offered to lead the group to address the access control and cypherlocks. It’s not a one man job so he’ll want some help as well.
We still need some leadership for groups to spec out and put together a security system with cameras and lighting, establishing our IT infrastructure for the space, and a person to ensure we have interesting programs at our meetings. Please contact me if you can take on any of these important projects.
Our next meeting will be on August 20th, 7:00 PM at the Tampa HackerSpace. If you want to demo some cool tech or a pet project, let us know. Otherwise, we’ll see you there!