I have experience in terms of running such a thing - to some degree. I was president of the "computer science club" at my university most of the years I was there. The club was a group of CS students that were dedicated to maintaining a student run computer science lab. The lab contained tons of new and old computers, and electronics, and a library, and tables and benches and desks and a chalkboard, and refridgerator, and microwave, and coffee maker... anything the students could either scrounge up or get the CS department to buy us. The official purpose of the room was for students to work on their projects. The room came into existence in the mid 90s when most students couldn't afford the higher end / fast hardware to do projects on. As times went on, and into the mid 2000s hardware for students quickly surpassed anything the CS department needed to buy for project work, except on rare occasion.
Yes - we did project work in the room. We hung out in the room between classes. We programmed, we tinkered, built and rebuilt machines... and slept on the two sofas. It was, I think, according to what I have just read about this "hacker space" concept... a full on hacker space. But what was the number one activity? LAN parties. Yeah... seriously. For all the resources we had, and support from the CS department, trying to steer students away from playing network computer games at any hour of the day was really really really really hard. So, in that sense, while I thought it was a very positive space and a great way for geeks to socialize, I have a bit of doubt about how well the resources of the room would be utilized? Perhaps it was just that the students were not as elite and hackerish as they needed to be to make proper use of the space. Or maybe the reason they wanted to retire to the space for gaming was because everywhere else they went they had to do homework? We tried to make rules to limit gaming. The worked in limiting the gaming, but also drove usage of the room way down. It was a really cool experience, and a really neat resource for the students at my university ... but I think that every year we moved farther away from the mid 90s, the less use the room got. Like I say, maybe it was the caliber of student... maybe I was a crappy president... but I think there were other factors as well. So... that's my story. The 'hacker space' I captained for four years was awesome in many ways, but could have been more... and only existed because the CS department paid for it to exist. If we manage to find space, and funding, I worry that no matter what, the resources will still be under-utilized. And all that said. I think we should aim for two Hacker Spaces... one in Burlington, and one in Waterbury or Montpelier. And then we link them all together ... Barre, Montpelier, and Burlington. With a directory system on the WAN, we could have global user accounts... and a shared software library... etc. -Nick --- Nicholas Floersch (pr. Floor-sh) Stone Environmental, Inc. > -----Original Message----- > From: Vermont Area Group of Unix Enthusiasts > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Marc Farnum Rendino > Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:44 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: VT could use one of these... > > On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Dan Coutu <[email protected]> > wrote: > > So to take off on the multiple sites idea I'd propose that if it is > worth > > pursuing this idea then it is worth pursuing the concept of multiple > small > > locations scattered around the state rather than only two. > > Absolutely worth exploring. > > Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Can we use an > existing model, such as state colleges, CCV, the extension service, > etc.? > > Where is the cutoff? At what point do you say "The best we can do for > region X, is location Y"? > > Idea: Perhaps there's no cutoff; we can do it in a totally open way > that starts with a few and leaves the door wide open to further > locations, depending on interest and how that interest can be > translated into action. > > One more intersection between this idea (many sites) and others > mentioned: The idea of *both* logical (ex: software or networking) > projects *and* physical projects is a great one. Though, as Negroponte > noted, it's more efficient and less expensive to move electrons than > atoms, so this presents more challenges - ideas? > > - Marc This communication, including any attachments, is solely for the confidential use of the person(s) named above. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete/destroy the original. Any reader other than the intended recipient is hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited.
