[hackerspaces] Establishing hackerspace and getting people actively involved

[Nils Hitze]

Just a short note for everyone with the Problem of missing
participation, take a
look at Jono Bacons brilliant Piece of work called: The Art of Community.

http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/

It's available as a pdf under cc-deed Licence. He has written down some
interesting opinions and his expirience as a CM for the Ubuntu Community.

Especially the BuzzChapter would be suitable for your Hackerspace.

Have you allready invited ALL UserGroups (including the RPG Players) ?

Im doing quite a lot of UserGroups, BarCamps and stuff here in Munich and i
always have to fight for new and old attendees, but still there was not ONE
person that asked me to be part of the team. We all know this problem, but
at least there are some people here that make own BarCampstyled events
now and only ask for consulting, which of course im allways willing to provide.

So about your faith, don't loose it, it is always hard and you will be (at least
in the beginning) the one that has to do most of the work. Sorry, that's the
life of a CM. Be patient. It will pay in the end, believe me.

Good luck and don't give up - Hackerspaces are to cool to be ignored.
Nils


2010/5/9 Jarkko Moilanen <Jarkko.Moilanen at uta.fi>:
> Hi,
>
> We have problems getting things started here with our hackerspace. We have
> punch of people hanging around this still virtual hackerspace. In our
> meetings, there is only about 5-6 participants. People seem to be reluctant
> to start any projetcs. The reason for this reluctancy seems to be that we
> are still missing our IRL space. I disagree partly. Not every project needs
> a separate space. To get some activity (projects) we need active
> participants. When we have activities we become more attractive and gain
> more members. Of course the space is in the top 2 wanted list.
>
> But again, no members -> no funds and no funds -> no space. We (well this
> means at least me) are now willing to lower our expectations for the first
> space and just get one.
>
> People seem to wait that 'someone else' does all the work. I have seen
> enough that type of people in my life. I was not expecting to see that type
> of people in this hackerspace 'project'. Have I gathered (lured) wrong type
> of people from the start. Where are the doers and makers? We dontä need
> people who just talk and talk. How do we get people more involved? We are
> still in the beginning and kind of stuck. We started (well I did) gathering
> people for this hackerspace about 10 months ago. The hangarounds (about 10)
> seem also reluctant to participate to community related issues, in other
> words building virtual tools and environments for the community. Community
> which is starting does not happen itself, it needs people to DO stuff.
> Moreover it needs things to be done that are not so important to single
> person but for the whole community. I am loosing my faith in establishing a
> hackerspace in Tampere. Any thoughts?
>
> cheers,
> Jarkko, mode 5w hackerspace
>
> ****************************
>  Jarkko Moilanen
>  M.Soc.Sc. (Political Science)
>  PhD Student, Information studies, University of Tampere
>  Blog: Extreme activities in cyberspace - http://extreme.ajatukseni.net/
>  -------------------------
>  Founder of Hackerspace 5w, Finland, Tampere - 5w.fi
> ****************************
> _______________________________________________
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>
>



-- 
Nils Hitze

Email: nhitze at gmail.com
Mobil: +49 179 9429701

http://www.silberkind.de
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