[hackerspaces] Edinburgh

[Nick]

On 3 September 2010 14:38, Tom Cryer <tomcryer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Does anyone know of a Hackerspace in Edinburgh, or failing that anywhere in
> Scotland? The list on hackerspaces.org tells me there's something at The
> Forest, but there's no details on hackerspaces.org and no mention on their
> website.

Funny you should ask...

On 03/09/10 15:16, Russ Garrett wrote:
> The Forest isn't really a hackerspace - it's more of a non-profit
> community/arts space. Although it's awesome, I don't really understand
> why it's on hackerspaces.org.

A long time ago there was a thing called "Infoseed" in the dank Forest basement
which started as an Indymedia / community project about the time of the G8
conferences.  When the politicos drifted away, it later degenerated into a
computer hardware junkroom, which eventually got thrown out in a big clean-out.

We at dorkbot alba used to meet Infoseed. When it closed, we moved upstairs, and
have been there ever since.  Still, a hackerspace it isn't, and we were
constantly frustrated by the lack of any real facilities to hack on things.
Frankly we were as puzzled as you to see The Forest listed on hackerspaces.org.

> I'm fairly sure there aren't any proper hackerspaces in Edinburgh, I'm
> sure I'd know if there were.

Aha. So, there is now, as of last week.  A miscellaneous group of us, including
many of the regulars from dorkbot alba, finally found a space and enough paying
members to rent it.  It's in a studio in the Drill Hall, Dalmeny St, off Leith Walk.

This is a very recent development - we've not gotten around to announcing it
formally, we're still trying to procure furniture, storage and equipment to kit
it out. We plan an open night on the Friday 17th Sept.  Dorkbot meetings will
probably move to the "hacklab" (as it's been dubbed) instead of the Forest, if
the consensus approves.

Our nascent website is here:

  http://edinburghhacklab.com/

We're also on irc.freenode.net #edinhacklab

The wiki there should have most of the info you need to find out more.  If
you're interested in this sort of thing I suggest also joining the
dorkbotalba-blabber list (see dorkbot.org), there's a larger community there.

Cheers!

Nick