[hackerspaces] Whipping up interest for Lake Forest, CA hackerspace

[Mitch Altman]

Yeah, it starts with community (and continues with community).  Put the word out everywhere you can -- including here, and listing yourself on the hackerspaces.org list of hackerspaces wiki.  Tell everyone you know to tell everyone they know.  There are a lot of geek people of all sorts in Lake Forest, and surrounding Orange County.  Attract the ones you want by envisioning a culture of people that YOU want to hang out with.  That will attract more people into that culture, and that attracts more!  Leading workshops is a fantastic way to attract cool people and build excitement for a space.  You can do workshops before you have a space -- friends' offices over the weekend, or at night, find a friendly nearby co-working space, at a cafe where you ask the owner or manager. . .  Find interesting and diverse people to lead workshops that will attract diverse people you want to hang out with -- How to Solder (using a cool project as an example), Arduino For Newbies (using a cool project as an example), How to Sew (using a cool project as an example), How to Weld (using a cool project as an example), How to Compost With Worms, How to Juggle, How to Make Puppets, Photography, Music, Video, the list of possibilities is endless!  Workshops are a great way to attract attention, have an ongoing stream of them.  And make sure you let people at the workshops know that if they like what they experience at the workshop, they will LOVE it when you get your own space, where stuff like this will be happening all the time, every day, 24/7!  Once you have a small group of dedicated people you like to work and play with, you can all go out and find a space.  And after you lay the community groundwork, once you have your own space, that's when things really take off.
 
All this worked great in starting Noisebridge (in San Francisco, in 2007), and it has worked great for hackerspaces around the world (starting to creep towards 1000 listed on the hackerspaces.org list!).
 
There's also more info on the hackerspaces.org wiki (including the very helpful Hackerspace Design Patterns).  And, if you can get a hold of the MAKE Magazine Ultimate Workshop & Tool Guide special issue that came out in November-2010, I wrote an article in there about How to Start a Hackerspace <http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/11/make_ultimate_workshop_tool_guide.html>.
 
All the best,
Mitch.

 

-------------------------
> Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:28:19 -0800
> From: carlynorama at gmail.com
> To: discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] Whipping up interest for Lake Forest, CA hackerspace
> 
> Ditto on stopping by CRASH Space,
> 
> I'll second the recommendation of starting the community first finding
> the space second.
> 
> On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 12:57 PM, john arclight <arclight at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Jonny,
> >
> > Your plan sounds great. Feel free to come by 23b in Fullerton if you'd like
> > to get some ideas.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Arclight
> > http://shop.23b.org
> >
> > On Jan 23, 2011 3:43 AM, "Jonny Gerold" <fsk141 at tinkerbyte.com> wrote:
> >> Hello,
> >> My name is Jonny & am planning on starting a new hackerspace in uncharted
> >> waters. I just wanted to do a shameless namedrop, and try to catch anyone
> >> that might be interested in helping/joining/donating?
> >>
> >> The name of our hackerspace is TinkerByte && hopefully we can find a space
> >> in Lake Forest, CA (I know there is some great industrial space, and it's
> >> a
> >> great neighborhood)
> >>
> >> I've setup a little setpage & the startings of a wiki at
> >>
> >> http://tinkerbyte.com
> >> http://wiki.tinkerbyte.com
> >>
> >> Any advice will be happily accepted.
> >>
> >> Thanks, Jonny
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> >
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