DC Community Hackerspaces

2017.11.21 "Inaugural" Meeting

In attendance:

• Ken Kenworthy (instigator)
• Marvin Gay, Coomunity Outreach Coordinator, Safer, Stronger DC Community Partnerships, out of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services
• Michael Dodson, Program Assistant, Safer, Stronger DC Community Partnerships, out of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services
• Dorothy Jones-Davis, Executive Director, Nation of Makers
• Enrique Cobas (ex-exchequer, HacDC)
• Julia Longtin (once and future queen / madame president, HacDC)
• Kevin Cole (Ubuntourist) (fugitive at-large, HacDC)
• Betty Amos (designer, educator, animator Betty Amos Designs)

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DC/MD/VA spaces

Following up with some of the other local maker/hacker/bio/food spaces in the area (Dorothy):

• Washington, DC
  • FabLab DC (FabLab)
  • Hac DC (Hackerspace)
  • Local Motors (Commercial Makerspace)
  • Mess Hall (Food Makerspace)
  • Taste Lab (Food Makerspace)
  • Union Kitchen (Food Makerspace)
  • MLK Library "Fab Lab" (Makerspace)

• Northern Virginia
  • NoVA Labs (Reston, VA; Community Makerspace)
  • Building Momentum (Alexandria, VA; Community problem-solving space)

• Maryland
  • Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGGS) (Baltimore, MD; Biospace)
  • Catylator (Silver Spring, MD; Makerspace)
  • Digital Harbor Foundation (Baltimore, MD; Youth Makerspace (Rec To Tech)
  • The Foundery (Baltimore, MD; Focus on economic empowerment - working with City of Baltimore)
  • KiD Museum (Bethesda, MD; Children's makerspace)
  • Open Works (Baltimore, MD; Focus on entrepreneurship)
  • Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (Hyattsville, MD; Art makerspace)
  • Station North Tool Library (Baltimore, MD)
  • Unallocated Space (Severn, MD)

Miscellaneous links

Some of the places, people and events mentioned yesterday, in no particular order (Ubuntourist)

• HacDC Space Blimp videos - very cool!
  • Space Blimp VI launch, flight and re-entry
  • Space Blimp III video with narration

• Other HacDC activities
  • Make for the Planet Hackathon, Earth Optimism Summit, Smithsonian Institute and Conservation X Labs
    • Huffington Post article
    • Tweet + Photo

• Free Geek - community-built refurbished computers, E-cycling, education centers
  • Free Geek provides jobs and free classes to the community - an article by Ubuntourist
  • Free Geek Arkansas - Formerly instigated and run by Julia
  • Governance nitty-gritty for Free Geek, Portland

• Fab Lab
  • Wikipedia: Neil Gershenfeld, Director, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms; Creator of the Fab Lab "blueprint"
  • Book: Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop-From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication by Neil Gershenfeld. (Highly recommended.)

• Potential partners locally
  • John Capozzi, Program Manager at The Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Government of the District of Columbia. He was part of the Broadband Bridge Coalition, and other progressive tech efforts.
  • Mike Lee, Senior Advisor, Digital Strategy at AARP Digital Strategy & Membership; Founder, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Learning Club DC
  • Leshell Hatley, Founder and Director, Uplift, Inc. in SE DC. A fantastic program. (LinkedIn profile)
  • Phil Shapiro, tweeter/ promoter / dreamer / writer Makezine, OpenSource.com, Twitter, LinkedIn (He can be very good at "getting the word out")
  • Greg Bloom - serial digital justice crusader / organizer (no longer in the area but still "connected" to DC)
  • Gerald Cooper - Founder, IT Computer Wizkids
  • Damon Jones, Founder / Director, STEAM America
  • Alex Dehgan, CEO and co-Founder, Conservation X Labs & Chanler Innovator, Duke University. He invited HacDC to participate in the Smithsonian Institute's Earth Optimism Summit Make for the Planet hackathon.
  • (If you talk to any of the above, drop my name.)
  • Code for DC Brigade of Code for America
  • The Open Technology Institute (OTI), a division of the New America Foundation, a progressive think tank in DC. New America Foundation has some fantastic lectures and panels on science, technology, and policy. OTI folks helped the DC Broadband Bridge group set up a neighborhood mesh network, that the DC government was hoping to model when Bryan Sivak ran OCTO. (Alas, the community got cut out of those conversations after Bryan left.)
  • Cities of Learning, DC part of Cities of LRNG (pronounced "learning"), mentioned by Ken

• Non-HacDC Past Events (a bit biased: I only know about them cuz I volunteered for and/or hosted them)
  • DISCovering TECHnology Fair I (Disco Tech I) - Bread for the City, November 5, 2011 Photos Washington Post article
  • DISCovering TECHnology II (Disco Tech II) - Thurgood Marshall Academy, Anacostia, February 25, 2012
  • Photos: Software Freedom Day at Takoma Park Folk Festival - Several years (plus some additional gatherings of the Ubuntu DC Local Community, a.k.a. the DC "LoCo")
  • Photos: Scratch Day 2013, OLPC Learning Club DC - Mike's a photo junkie and tech junkie. LOTS of good photos. See the rest of his streams.
  • OLPC Learning Club (audio) and OLPC Learning Club (slides) - Nortel Networks, August 2008

• Further afield (but in cyberspace, distance is irrelevant)
  • Detroit Digital Justice Coalition's Disco Tech Fair - The model for the DC Disco Techs, promoted at the Allied Media Conference. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: The Disco Tech 'Zine featuring articles from both Detroit and DC folks on how to run a Disco Tech (Detroit, MI)
  • Qeyno Group / Academy, co-founded and headmastered by Kalimah Atreyu Priforce (Oackland, CA)
  • ELiTE Education (Emerging Leaders in Technology and Engineering) - Executive Director, Chelsey Roebuck (New York City, NY)
  • OPEN International, Founder: Khady Lusby (Nioro, Mali but Khady lives in Arlington)
  • Barre Open Source Institute (BOSI), Founder, director and ringmaster: Paul Flint (Barre, VT)