It’s time to look back and look forward. If you’re anywhere near Berlin in February, you should join us. Please put Friday, February 3rd 2012 in your agenda.

We reserved a slot for a symposium and get-together at the c-base Hackerspace in Berlin. It will be an official partner event of transmediale.12. transmediale is an annual festival for media art and digital culture taking place for one week in February in Berlin, Germany.

Gathering protagonists from the DIY hacker movement who build spaces for people to make and build things, we will explore a phenomenon that exploded in 2007 and has been growing ever since. Be prepared for in-depth discussions on blinking electronics, tinkering, self-organization, spaces, hacking in places like Africa, Asia, America, or Europe, and a friendly outlook on things to come.

What to expect: We’ll start at 16:00 and make use of the afternoon at c-base, before an excellent line-up of DJs will finish off the gathering of the tribes. We want to put the emphasis on the exchange of ideas and no information overflow, but we want three talks or panels on the current state of the Hackerspace movement. If you have something to share, please send a short and sweet outline to johl@hackerspaces.org

See you in Berlin!

www.TheBrainTank.net

Traveling to other Hackerspaces = GOOD
Spending a lot of money on Hotel fees = BAD

Introducing a project brought to you by the The Brain Tank, DC401, and Hackers like you, called “HackerHostel.com”.

*NOTE: This is an excellent opportunity to use your new Hackerspace Passport.

The Goal:
Negate one of the larger expenses associated with travel, namely HOTEL FEES, in order to further promote idea cross-pollination through visitor, ambassador, and Hacker In Residency programs for Hackerspaces.

How?:
A website that will allow users to view Hackerspaces with available sleeping quarters and to submit visitor proposals to participating Hackerspaces for review. Tell us about yourself and what you wish to teach during your stay at your Hackerspace of choice.
The website will help Hackerspaces manage their proposals, discuss Best Practices, as well as help raise money for spaces to spruce up their sleeping quarters if necessary.
Also, each Hackerspace would have some kind of profile detailing the space available, the kinds of classes they might be looking for, what tools facilities would be available to the HIR.

Why?:
What better way to spend a short vacation than to learn something and teach others something new?
We can further innovation and the exchange of ideas over the course of a few days by removing those pesky physical borders.

Where?:
Whatever you consider a comfortable place to stay for a brief period of time in your Hackerspace. Could be a hammock, place to put a sleeping bag, a couch, or actual bunk bed. If you’ve got a space to crash, you’ve got a Hacker Hostel. The amount of time you allow a Hacker in Residence to stay is entirely up to you.

We’ve begun setting up The Brain Tank in Providence RI as a testing ground already. We should be able to comfortably sleep 2 HIR’s (Hacker in Residence) on proper bunk beds. A volunteer will be living and innovating 24/7 at The Brain Tank helping us work out the bugs and blogging about their experience. It’s a really convenient and safe area to live in.

http://www.walkscore.com/score/350-kinsley-ave-providence-ri

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/The_Brain_Tank

Things we have:
-The website domain name www.HackerHostel.com was graciously donated to us. Thank you very much, we couldn’t have done this without your generosity.
*If anyone at all wants to be part of this website build please contact me ag3nt5@dc401.org , we could really use the help.
-Kayak (The Brain Tank is right next to a river through the city)
-E-bike (great for short distances)
-Servers and Terminals
-Tools & Scrap Electronics (lots of em)
-Coffee maker/microwave/oven/popcornmachine
-Hidden urban garden (great for relaxing or grilling outside)
-Tshirts (being designed as we speak. shirt slogan = “Sleep. Hack. Repeat.”)

Rough sketch Hacker Hostel shirt. Artist= Megan Billings

Things we may need:
-Website (A very simple booking website would be necessary to make this work. I’ve never built one before and could def use a hand if anyone want’s to chip in.)
-Shower (wouldn’t cost more than $150 total to buy & install at The Brain Tank. Once we figure out the cheapest way to build a shower we’ll release the cost and build info to all)
-Kickstarter (we can generate funding and offer cash to other Hackerspaces to improve their sleeping quarters. This will also fund the website maintenance.)

WHAT ELSE?
What do you think should be added? Changed? etc…

TL;DR

Note: This project is soooo simple to put together and would have a significant benefit to Hacker Culture. Right now all I think it really needs is a VIDEO, a WEBSITE, and a properly formed statement/description. We’d be helping to break down the barriers associated with the inconvenience and expense of travel. Making it easier for great minds and talents to move around freely teaching each other what they know.

Yes, there’s quite a bit to figure out. Each Hackerspace is different and TRUST is a huge part of the success of this project. Having guests stay at your place is a very personal thing. But if complete strangers on CouchSurfing.com can do it, I think the Hackerspace Community will have even better success as we are in fact a strong Community.
If you have any ideas, questions, or would like to help in any way, please contact me and we’ll get the ball rolling.

-Dave Johnson

ag3nt5@dc401.org

TheBrainTank@gmail.com

1-401-267-TANK (8265)

This is a copy from the Tokyo Hackerspace blog:
http://www.tokyohackerspace.org/en/japan-in-crisis

To all the people on the good planet Earth, the crew of Tokyo HackerSpace has a message that we would like to send to you:

By now, everyone knows of the crisis in northern Japan. It will still be a few weeks before life is under control here. We are looking forward to the day that the power plants are safe and the tremors have subsided.

Many of our members have been cooped up in our homes waiting out the storm, but not laying idle.

The Japanese government is doing the best that they can to manage the crisis and help people who have lost loved ones, homes, utilities and possessions.

Tokyo HackerSpace has already begun to lay plans for projects which we feel can help the people of Japan, utilizing the best of our abilities and resources.

Our first course of action has been to order up the required parts for 150 solar powered LED lanterns. We will be assembling them here and shipping them up (or delivering by hand) to aid organizations. These lanterns provide just enough light so that people can feel safe at night without power, find their way in the dark, and maintain the sense of community. They charge during the day via the sun, and will help to light the way for 8 hours each night.

We also have on the way several geiger counters and geiger tubes, from which we will be making community sensors, in order to help to keep the public in harms way informed on a minute by minute and hour by hour basis. While the initial exposure has been low, our concern is the long term effects, food and water supply, and ground soil conditions over the next several months.

Or longer term projects include solar cell phone charging stations, low energy cooking equipment, internet, wifi, and laptop loans, and other technical concerns.

We are calling upon Hacker Spaces all over the world, and friends of Hacker Spaces, and friends of friends of Hacker Spaces, to help out.

Soon we will release a list of critical equipment and supplies which we may have difficulty sourcing locally. If you have access to anything on the list, please contact us to make shipping arrangements. If not, please DO NOT ship us anything not on the list (In some cases, it may be VERY specific). Items not on our list will only crowd our space and waste your shipping money and time. If you have something specific or unique you think we could use, feel free to send us an email and inquire.

In the meantime, we ask that anyone who can, please donate to only reputable charities. Or, if you prefer, you may donate directly to us, and we will utilize it for the above mentioned projects, or give the money directly to Japanese aid organizations known to be doing good work in the area.

You can donate via Paypal to theTHSstore@gmail.com

Good night and good luck.

Attention all hackers and hackerspace members! Do you like creating with atoms instead of bits? Would you like to win fame and fortune? The Alternate Power Initiative wants YOU to design and build an alternative energy vehicle! Their second annual “Race for the Future” will be held in August, 2011 in Whiting, Indiana.

This race challenges you to:

Build a vehicle that can travel five miles powered by an alternate power source and race it through the streets of Whiting Indiana.

Here’s a subset of the rules:

Vehicle may not be powered solar energy or fuel cells

Vehicle may not be powered by a device based on existing conventional automotive or truck technology. Piston engines, rotary engines or turbines powered by detonated combustion gasses are not allowed. Piston engines, rotary engines or turbines powered by other sources will be allowed. These gasses would include but not be limited to those created by using gasoline, diesel, natural gas, propane methane or alcohol as fuel.

Vehicle must be self propelled (no pedal power)

Vehicle may not be powered by battery or capacitor stored electricity, (brake lights and turn signals may be powered by electricity).

Vehicle may be charged, (fueled or energized) before 5 mile trial but may not be charged, (fueled or energized) during run.

For full details, visit their website at http://alternatepowerinitiative.com!

Here are the rules and the entry form.

Better hurry! There are only 20 entries, and hackerspace Pumping Station: One has already claimed two of them! Who will be next?

If you sign up, please post in the comments!

Do you know a project that has greatly improved the quality of your hackerspace?

What about a project that costs much, much less than the average off-the-shelf solution?

What about an astounding innovation that you’re used to seeing from the corporate sector, but
was designed in your home town’s hackerspace?

These projects and more are what the Hackerspace Awards would like to recognize.  Over the next few weeks members of all hackerspaces are invited to suggest award categories and post  them on the Hackerspace Awards wiki page.

Projects nominated to each category will be subjectively judged by a panel made up of one member from each hackerspace.  Dates and categories are not set in stone yet, but keep watch here at hackerspaces.org for additional information.  Once set, any project may be nominated for a category, with self-nominations encouraged.

Alongside the Merit Based Awards, the Workshop88 guys have offered to make their Hackerspaces In Space (HSIS) event the Competitve leg of the Hackerspace Awards.  The HSIS competition is encouraging all hackerspaces to launch a Balloon Satallite for as light, and as cheaply as possible,  and return with pictures of the Earth’s horizon.

As of the writing of this article, there are over 18 hackerspaces signed up to compete! The launches are set to begin on June 1st, and end August 31st.

For more details on the HSIS Competition, please visit:  http://workshop88.com/space/

To get involved in the creation of the Hackerspace Awards, visit:

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Hackerspace_Awards/Brainstorm
Or send an email to awards@hackerspaces.org

Updates: As March 5th, 2009, there are 29 groups signed up to compete in the HSIS!

In an effort to kickstart more cooperation between spaces, the Hackerspaces Xchange is now open!  It’s rather sparse at the moment, but I’m hoping you all can help change that and move hackerspace cooperation to the next level.  How to use it is simple.  Just add a picture/video of what your space is wanting to swap/share with other spaces and remove the image/video when it’s been exchanged.  Pretty simple right?  So get to helping out other spaces!

What started as a few US hackerspaces having a hackathon the same weekend, has turned into an international synchronous hackathon!  Most if not all spaces will be streaming live video this weekend, Nov. 20th-22nd, at various points throughout.  So even if you’re not participating it’ll be a prime time to check out some other hackerspaces and possibly interact with them via live chat in #hackerspaces on irc.freednode.net .  The following spaces are participating as of the posting of this :

Alpha One Labs
Makers Local 256
Pumping Station: One
FAMiLab
FreesideAtlanta
syn2cat
Hackerspace_Barcelona
Hive13
Initlab
KwartzLab
TOG
Tetalab
Ann_Arbor_Hackerspace

Please see the wiki page for more details/updates, including links to the live streams.