Hacker Consortium Core Dump

Our trip to the Nashville Hacker Consortium space was fantastic. With the hours of dialog we engage in with the Nashville and Memphis guys, there was a LOT of ideas and discussion.

Let's try to capture some of it here while it is fresh. Please list the key ideas you picked up from our meeting, other ideas you had as a result here.

This is just a rough core dump - just put the ideas down now and we will sort out the bodies later.

Corporate Structure

• Benefits of 501C(3) - or not
• File papers with officers and board members appointed. Defined leadership structure.

Legal

• Release of Liability (get from Memphis guys and others)
• Bylaws (get Hacker Consortium and others)
• Identification of IP rights

Membership

• Membership tiers & fees
• Actual start promoting ourselves for real. OMG.

Meetings

• Regularly scheduled meetings at coffee house, Barley's etc.
• Presentation meetings: Designated coordinator

Space

• Check out UT Amateur Radio space, compare values to ETTAC. Decide on one and move forward.
• RFID / proxcard / other access control
• Video feed (pw protected)
• Equipment donations
  • Jack Coats of the Hacker Consortium was kind enough to donate a set of cast Mendel RepRap http://reprap.org/wiki/Mendel parts for the group, which Andronicus has taken custody of until he can lead a RepRap project/presentation.
  • The Hacker Consortium folks strongly suggested we reach out to Instructables to see if they would be willing to offer us a starting Makerspace care package.
    • And I have just sent that email off. --Sam the Giant 12:57, 17 April 2011 (EDT)

Communication

• IRC
  • Establish and regularly use and lurk on a Freenode IRC channel. Also lurk on the #hackerconsortium irc://freenode/hackerconsortium channel
    • Started IRC channel #knoxmakers irc://freenode/knoxmakers --Sam the Giant 13:18, 17 April 2011 (EDT)
      • For those Firefox users who haven't played on IRC in a while I suggest the ChatZilla extension. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chatzilla/
      • For Chrome users checkout Freenode's webchat. http://webchat.freenode.net/
• Work out best use of tools (Website, phpBB, Wiki, Wordpress, blah blah blah)
• Set up LDAP for central authentication
• Check out Knoxville 2600 /DC404 (and other) clubs for collaboration opportunity
• Central information relay methods (RSS, digests, etc. etc.)
• Collaboration tool to know who is working on what, etc. (Redmine, Trac, etc.)

Fundraising

• Startup funding sites and slush fund / bootstrap funding
• Work with eatery to get 10% kick back if we host an event with them
• Kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/
  • Guidelines http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines
  • Examples from other Hackerspaces http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/search?page=1&term=hackerspace
• Check with local recruiters/Craigslist for quick projects that can be completed on the weekends (one day computer deployments, odd jobs, etc), payment as a donation
  • This has the bonus benefit of building relationships within the community
• Look into "after school" program and associated public funding
• Sell hobby kits/widgets at local events

Projects

• Reprap
• Lock picking
• Hardware analysis and performance tuning with Linux
• Nvidia CUDA
• CoreWars
• Kiln "modernization"
• Urban gardening\composting
• DIY arc welder http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Microwave-Transformer-Homemade-Welder/
• Super low cost subtractive CNC machine/Laser cutter http://letsmakerobots.com/node/12713
• Glass blowing\lampwork
• Lost-wax\sand casting http://www.submarineboat.com/casting_aluminum.htm