That's super sweet. A wonderfully awesome message. On 2013-06-08 12:36 AM, "Colin Stanners" <[email protected]> wrote:
> tl;dr: good job everyone, I didn't think we could go this far, keep > working hard. > > > > May 31, 2011 - two years ago (and a few days, I wanted to send this > earlier but it > fell down the todo list) a group of 20 Winnipeggers had their first > meeting on the > third floor of 125 Adelaide*, having just rented the extremely dumpy, > dirty space > at a pittance, with the goal of turning it into Winnipeg's first hacker & > makerspaces. > > I was there, but thought this was too incredible to really work. About a > year before, > I was looking to borrow/use a flash chip programmer to recover from a bad > BIOS > update and was disappointed to find Winnipeg very lacking in hobbyist > technical > groups/organizations. There were a few niche groups (amateur radio, MUUG, > WPCUG, > MWCS) but nothing like the hacker / makerspaces of legend in bigger > cities, where > 24/7 projects, constant innovation and access to great tools and community > technical > advice was the norm. In April 2011 some Googling turned up mention of > hackerspace > plans for Winnipeg; I found myself at a King's Head meeting and thought it > was a dream. > > It took a huge amount of demolishing, cleaning, building, planning, more > cleaning, wiring, > organizing, discussing, innovating, advertising, etc., but the results > speak for themselves. > Two years later, Winnipeg now has Canada's largest makerspace (in sq ft > and value of > gear; pretty high up in member numbers too) with a very quickly advancing > startup > incubator, and one of the biggest hackerspaces (in sq ft and member > numbers) at a new > location that better fits its needs. The rate of progress, efforts put in, > and resulting > community are phenomenal; a testament to both individuals' strengh and > dedication and > the caliber of people that live in this city and their desire to make it a > better place. > > There's still much work to be done - both spaces need a few more members > to be sustainable, > and especially more classes/events so as to teach and involve not only our > own members but the > public at large as well - but generally we're in great shape and the > future looks bright for our > groups and all the innovation, support, creativity and business we can > bring to our community. > > Thanks to all members and contributors, past and present, for the > whirlwind of the last two > years. Give yourselves a bit of congratulations for having done what you > could to contribute > to these great efforts, thank the others for what they've also put in, and > keep up the good work. > Filling a need is good; turning the process into a resource that keeps > giving is phenomenal. > > > ~an AW & Sksp member > > *notes at > http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Meeting_notes%5C2011#May_31.2C_2011_-_18:00_.40_125_Adelaide > > > _______________________________________________ > SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List > Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss > Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ >
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