AltOrgs: Hackerspace Tour 15Jan'011

[jaqeboy]

The next AltOrgs (Alternatives Organizations) tour is ready for booking:

A Hackerspace tour - we visit 3 Greater Boston area shops and enjoy dinner, drinks and music later.



We're ready to venture into the future of creativity and entrepreneurship – are you?

We'll tour nearby hackerspaces as part of the exploration of what we can do here in New-Hampshire. We'll pick their brains and scour their shops for ideas, tricks, hacks, concepts, whatever makes their shop work.

There's an idea that's been floated here for a "Shire Shop" or "The Forge" – a "Hack Free or Die" space, so we want to consider what others are doing and what works and what doesn't before we invest time, money and energy into our own shop. It looks like the nearest spaces are in Massachusetts, so we'll spend a Saturday checking out a few of them and then, checking out some local grub and watering holes afterwards.
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Hackerspaces are community co-working spaces and some even encourage starting and operating your new enterprise from the space. It's a creative new alternative that encourages the synergy that leads to new innovations. Come check it out with us.

Check out the beginnings of the 2011 Alt Orgs tour calendar and be sure to make suggestions of interesting things you think we should check out.

AltOrgs - taking new Porcs to greater heights, since April of last year

"No need to fight with the politicial system - let's build the alternative!"

[jaqeboy]

We've got some great news coming up about the potential for us setting up a Shire Shop here in the Shire. We'll get some more info when we visit these shops in Mass.

If you've ever wished you had access to some cool tools and equipment and couldn't afford them, we may have something coming up that'll solve that problem! Mech. shop, electronics shop, wood shop, fiber arts shop, and a lot more- all in one fun shop! That's what we're looking at here.

The first step is to review what's out there already, hence the tour. PM me or post here if you have any questions, or, just go to the AltOrgs site and click on the hackerspace tour - there's a way to sign up for the tour online. We're going next Saturday.

We'll pick up in Manchester at 10:30 AM and Nashua at 11 AM. You just show up and we take care of the transportation round trip. We'll stop for dinner and a fun night out at Johnny D's Uptown in Somerville. Join us to check out some cool hackerspaces!

[jaqeboy]

Artisan's Asylum is going to be involved in making snow sculptures in Union Square Saturday starting at 1PM. We can still tour their shop at noon, join them in making snow sculptures or ... We'll see. Discuss over at the tour site on AltOrgs.com to state your preferences. I'd like to make sure we get to all 3 hackerspaces, even if we start an hour earlier. Anywho, everything is in flux until the tour bus leaves Nashua...

[jaqeboy]

Looks like we'll upsize to a larger van. Let us know if you want to join in on this tour by noon, just so we have the right size vehicle. There may be a car going that'll come back before the dinner and music at Johnny D's in Somerville, for the budget traveler.

Hack Free or Die!


See you Saturday morning!

and remember: "Don't fight the system... Build a better system!"

[jaqeboy]

8 of us toured 3 hackerspaces in Mass. and got a great feel for what can be done and how to do it right (in setting up a hackerspace). We'll set up a temp. page somewhere with discussion on what we should do to set up our own space in the Shire. This might go on the AltExpo.org site, but we'll see.  The really good news is that one of the spaces wants to move to N.H. anyway and we're in discussions about merging our ideas, tools and people into one new space with a new identity. I'll keep everyone posted  and maybe we'll have an organizational meeting in Nashua soon. We will be looking for suitable rentals in the coming weeks with a 1 May occupancy goal and a 1 June 2011 open house..

If you're intrigued by this idea, first check out the world wide hacker space wiki. Maybe that's where we should post our concept anyway, hmmm...