Maker/Creative Space in the South Island

[Ben M]

Just read a post from Robyn (Tangleball) and I was wondering; is there a
functional or even dysfunctional Maker/Creative Space in the South
Island similar to Tangleball?

Or have the recent events focussed priorities on basic life/work rather
than tech-type hobbies?

Since I spend an inordinate amount of time here, was wondering if there
was something I could do?

TIA, Ben.

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[Paul Campbell]

Post by Ben M
Just read a post from Robyn (Tangleball) and I was wondering; is there a
functional or even dysfunctional Maker/Creative Space in the South
Island similar to Tangleball?
Or have the recent events focussed priorities on basic life/work rather
than tech-type hobbies?
Since I spend an inordinate amount of time here, was wondering if there
was something I could do?

well we're functional, not sure if we're "similar to Tangleball" - we have a
space in Dunedin in the old King Edward Tech building (an old science lab we
think) - we hold a talk every Thursday night, alternating between hardware and
software topics and have an open workshop every Saturday afternoon.

We have a small workshop created with donated tools and a couple of reprap
mendels for people to play with - we have an active viral reprap breeding
program.


Dunedin Makerspace
www.dspace.org.nz

Paul
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[Ben M]

Hi Paul,

Great to hear, sounds like a fairly active group, with a Thursday night
and Saturday arvo per week. Unfortunately I have made the all-too-common
mistake of thinking that the "centre" of the South Island is
Christchurch. Alas, I err!

Should I ever be working in Dunedin on either of those days, I'll drop in.

Amending my query; Is there a Maker/Creative Space in Christchurch?

Post by Paul Campbell
well we're functional, not sure if we're "similar to Tangleball" - we have a
space in Dunedin in the old King Edward Tech building (an old science lab we
think) - we hold a talk every Thursday night, alternating between hardware and
software topics and have an open workshop every Saturday afternoon.
We have a small workshop created with donated tools and a couple of reprap
mendels for people to play with - we have an active viral reprap breeding
program.

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[Nick Rout]

Post by Ben M
Hi Paul,
Great to hear, sounds like a fairly active group, with a Thursday night and
Saturday arvo per week. Unfortunately I have made the all-too-common mistake
of thinking that the "centre" of the South Island is Christchurch. Alas, I
err!
Should I ever be working in Dunedin on either of those days, I'll drop in.
Amending my query; Is there a Maker/Creative Space in Christchurch?

I am not sure but you might want to try chch robotics. Not the same as
makerspace, but there are a lot of makers there :)

http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/chchrobotics

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[Ben M]

Thanks Nick.

Post by Nick Rout
I am not sure but you might want to try chch robotics. Not the same as
makerspace, but there are a lot of makers there :)
http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/chchrobotics
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[Robin Paulson]

Post by Ben M
Just read a post from Robyn (Tangleball) and I was wondering; is
there a functional or even dysfunctional Maker/Creative Space in the
South Island similar to Tangleball?

there's this, not sure what happened to it though - last edited 2009:
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Chchspace

and i'm sure i recall something called spaceship - can't find it now
though. jaco or nevyn, do you remember?

[Paul Campbell]

Post by Robin Paulson
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Chchspace
and i'm sure i recall something called spaceship - can't find it now
though. jaco or nevyn, do you remember?

sorry, I should have followed up once you'd decided that Chch was the whole
South Island - there is a Chch Makerspace group but they've been without a space
since a little before the first 'quake drop Phil - ***@rancidbacon.com a
note

Paul
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[Ben M]

Thanks Paul, will do.

No disrespect to you and the other wonderful South Islanders intended
... as an Aussie from 1 of the big 3 eastern cities, you tend to forget
that there is life outside the concrete jungle.

Post by Paul Campbell
sorry, I should have followed up once you'd decided that Chch was the whole
South Island - there is a Chch Makerspace group but they've been without a space
note
Paul

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[Paul Campbell]

Post by Ben M
No disrespect to you and the other wonderful South Islanders intended
... as an Aussie from 1 of the big 3 eastern cities, you tend to forget
that there is life outside the concrete jungle.

none taken, maybe I should have included a :-) in there to indicate I was
kidding

Paul
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[Ben M]

Thanks Robin with an "i".

Post by Robin Paulson
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Chchspace
and i'm sure i recall something called spaceship - can't find it now
though. jaco or nevyn, do you remember?

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[Nevyn]

Post by Robin Paulson

Post by Ben M
Just read a post from Robyn (Tangleball) and I was wondering; is
there a functional or even dysfunctional Maker/Creative Space in the
South Island similar to Tangleball?

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Chchspace
and i'm sure i recall something called spaceship - can't find it now though.
jaco or nevyn, do you remember?
--
robin (with an 'i')

Yeah I remember looking at a website. They had the old Singer sewing
machine with a power drill though bits seemed to just drop off and
disappear and eventually they just had a site with what should have
been a google map though there was something about something being
expired thus not even the map was showing.

This is the only mention I've found to it after a 2 second search.
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Chchspace

Ben - I would suggest if there isn't then "someone" (and by someone, I
mean a small core group who will work together because that "someone"
might as well be you and a few others) should start one.

Start talking about it. Present the idea to other people. Invite them
along to a discussion. Make up a crappy website. Find that most people
at the discussion came in from the crappy website rather than you
talking about it. Make sure you're really clear about yoru aims.

i.e. make things physical where possible vs. mostly web based
communication, non-profit vs. profit orientated, strict leadership vs.
chaotic ... not even sure what to call it etc.

When promoting - do you best to create connections rather than
spamming or alienating potential supporters.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

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[Ben M]

Great points, thanks for that. I'll have a good hard think and perhaps
I'll pester Robin off-channel about his views, given his awesome work so
far with TB (Not forgetting Jaco).

Post by Nevyn
Yeah I remember looking at a website. They had the old Singer sewing
machine with a power drill though bits seemed to just drop off and
disappear and eventually they just had a site with what should have
been a google map though there was something about something being
expired thus not even the map was showing.
This is the only mention I've found to it after a 2 second search.
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Chchspace
Ben - I would suggest if there isn't then "someone" (and by someone, I
mean a small core group who will work together because that "someone"
might as well be you and a few others) should start one.
Start talking about it. Present the idea to other people. Invite them
along to a discussion. Make up a crappy website. Find that most people
at the discussion came in from the crappy website rather than you
talking about it. Make sure you're really clear about yoru aims.
i.e. make things physical where possible vs. mostly web based
communication, non-profit vs. profit orientated, strict leadership vs.
chaotic ... not even sure what to call it etc.
When promoting - do you best to create connections rather than
spamming or alienating potential supporters.
Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/
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[Nevyn]

Great points, thanks for that. I'll have a good hard think and perhaps I'll
pester Robin off-channel about his views, given his awesome work so far with
TB (Not forgetting Jaco).

Dude!

There were a lot of people involved. Myself - I was one of the drivers
originally (though distanced myself due to wanting to avoid being
grumpy due to differences), Abhishek was always in there as was Robin,
Calvin and Ed who pushed things along in the physical, Jaco in the
cyber, Wayne who does a hell of a job of stressing over financial
matters etc.

In other words, you're probably better off talking to the group by and
large rather than one or two people.

One of the things that Robin and I talked about soon after the whole
thing got started was the idea of status.

Very early on I threw a bit of a hissy fit as I perceived one of the
main drivers of the effort as being given all of the credit while I
felt I had put in a hell of a lot of effort in things like the
website, the promotional material, not quite so much as I probably
should have in the promoting to groups, but the organising of the
venue for the first meeting etc. as well as the money - web hosting,
hireage of the venue for the first meeting, printing etc.

In other words, while there was all sorts going on in terms of
promotion (each of us were presenting to 3 or 4 groups a week), there
was all the stuff going on in the background.

So while Jaco and Robin appear to be the face of things, there's
definitely a lot more to be gained by realising there are other people
and perspectives to be had and that their views and take of things
may, not only be different, but reveal how things work - possibly
better than those who put themselves forward as the fact of it.

Regards,
Nevyn
http://nevsramblings.blogspot.com/

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[Robin Paulson]

Post by Nevyn
Dude!
There were a lot of people involved. Myself - I was one of the
drivers
originally (though distanced myself due to wanting to avoid being
grumpy due to differences), Abhishek was always in there as was Robin,
Calvin and Ed who pushed things along in the physical, Jaco in the
cyber, Wayne who does a hell of a job of stressing over financial
matters etc.

....plus cheng eu chew, rob carter, claire dann, vik olliver, michael
dance, dominic from the welly maker space...and probably thousands of
other hackers/makers round the world who did ground work, without us
knowing their names. the hackerspaces wiki was so valuable - to give
credit to one, two or even 10 people would be grossly inaccurate (and i
guess this is the founding ethos behind floss also).

Post by Nevyn
In other words, you're probably better off talking to the group by and
large rather than one or two people.

yep. plus visiting wiki.hackerspaces.org, and looking at web sites for
'noise bridge', 'tech shop' and as many other *spaces as you can find

Post by Nevyn
One of the things that Robin and I talked about soon after the whole
thing got started was the idea of status.
Very early on I threw a bit of a hissy fit as I perceived one of the
main drivers of the effort as being given all of the credit while I
felt I had put in a hell of a lot of effort in things like the
website, the promotional material, not quite so much as I probably
should have in the promoting to groups, but the organising of the
venue for the first meeting etc. as well as the money - web hosting,
hireage of the venue for the first meeting, printing etc.

this is true

Post by Nevyn
In other words, while there was all sorts going on in terms of
promotion (each of us were presenting to 3 or 4 groups a week), there
was all the stuff going on in the background.
So while Jaco and Robin appear to be the face of things, there's
definitely a lot more to be gained by realising there are other people
and perspectives to be had and that their views and take of things
may, not only be different, but reveal how things work - possibly
better than those who put themselves forward as the fact of it.

absolutely.

[Jaco]

there's definitely a lot more to be gained by realising there are

other people and perspectives to be had and that their views and take of
things may, not only be different, but reveal how things work

Thanks for the mention, but some of us are only more "visible" than
others because we take on some tasks that may be more public-facing at
times in these groups than others.
These are fairly small/trivial functions compared to the more unpleasant
ones, such as dealing the the money & legalese; Nevyn dealt with some of
this in the beginning, but Wayne & Co deals with a lot of this at
present, and sometimes this is a bit of a thankless job.

The one thing I've leaned from all of this, is that it takes a good,
diverse mix of people to make it interesting enough for people to
participate in.
The more varied the membership, the richer the experience!

If I were to guess, we probably have around a dozen full-time members at
present that pay on a regular bases (not counting the Tumeke Cycle
group; they're pretty significant themselves), but even so we're still
looking for more people with different skills than our own that are able
to participate (such as more creatives & we need more women to give us a
different perspective on things)

But if you're in town, please drop on by for a beer

- J

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[Ryan McCoskrie]

Post by Ben M
Just read a post from Robyn (Tangleball) and I was wondering; is there a
functional or even dysfunctional Maker/Creative Space in the South
Island similar to Tangleball?
Or have the recent events focussed priorities on basic life/work rather
than tech-type hobbies?
Since I spend an inordinate amount of time here, was wondering if there
was something I could do?
TIA, Ben.

I've been trying to start a rural hacker space in Amberley which is about an
hour north of Christchurch. At the moment all that has happend is that some
people have signed onto a largely inactive mailing list.

Probably not what you want but I just feel that putting on the record will
make it a little more real.

Come to think of it has there ever been a rural space (not counting "bloke
sheds")?

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[Paul Campbell]

Post by Ryan McCoskrie
I've been trying to start a rural hacker space in Amberley which is about an
hour north of Christchurch. At the moment all that has happend is that some
people have signed onto a largely inactive mailing list.
Probably not what you want but I just feel that putting on the record will
make it a little more real.
Come to think of it has there ever been a rural space (not counting "bloke
sheds")?

I think you just have to do it - I'm a big fan of running a "do-ocracy" where
you empower people to do stuff - make sure everyone talks so noses don't get out
of joint but don't get in the way of people who will actually get stuff done

I looked for a space for about six months, trying to find somewhere close to the
Uni and bus routes, and eventually settled for something a little harder for
students to get to - once I had a space I mailed as many local lists as possible
and called a meeting (in a pub before the local LUG meeting) and was amazed when
so many people showed up - we elected a committee (need a formal society to open
a bank account) and got amazing people to donate money to get us started - once
we moved in we got lots of donations of tools to build a workshop

I've talked to the local bloke's sheds people (they donated hand drills!) and
recently the model engineering people (make model steam trains and stuff) partly
to make sure they don't see us as competition

Paul
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