[clug] [OT] Canberra/Australia maker community

Adam Thomas adam.lloyd at gmail.com
Thu Nov 26 21:59:24 MST 2009


2009/11/27 Nemo Thorx <clug at nemo.house.cx>:
> On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 02:35:32PM +1100, Adam Thomas did utter:
>>
>> There are a few pockets of people who have had similar ideas (myself
>> included) but have not made much progress due to the fragmentation and
>> (warning:generalisation ahead) insular nature of the communities in
>> Canberra.
>
> I think insulated and fragmented communities is a better description of
> the problem in bigger cities, where enough people with a common minor
> interest can get together to make it work, but then split into more and
> more subgroups (to use an on-topic example, I've heard of LUGs where the
> RedHat people don't talk to the Debian people, etc). Canberra is small
> enough that CLUG is barely on the "linux" topic as often as not, and is
> arguably a fairly broad 'computer and technology enthusiasts'
> collective.

Those subgroups are more like forks of existing groups. It sounds like
there once was communication but now it's actively avoided because of
fallings out between members.

I think the situation in Canberra is more passive. People start new
groups because they can't find existing groups which match their
goals. There is lots of crossover potential but not a lot of
communication. I _should_ have said "lets bring the groups together
and see what happens" earlier but didn't for one reason or another.

> Rather, the problem I see in Canberra is that the people interested in
> new projects are already spread thin between existing other communities,
> so it's hard to find enough people who have the time/commitment to start
> a new community to reach community population critical mass. ie, the
> relevant people are all diluted across other communities.

I'm currently spreading myself across a few communities because there
isn't one that is dedicated to what I want to do, which is Make. I've
seen a new community (CRESSIDA) start up to bring people interested in
dark electronic music together because one of the organisers kept
getting told by different people that there wasn't anyone to
collaborate with. There has been enough interest for monthly meet and
greets and there have been a handful of outcomes already.

Canberra _can_ support multiple groups with either specific or broad
interests. If there is enough communication between the groups,
collaborations are likely to follow.

>
> Or am I just describing the same thing using a different metaphor?
>
> In terms of 'making' though, I have been thinking about welding up some
> home-made 19" racks though of varying heights, for purpose of
> entertainment cabinet use, with some notes here:
> http://wiki.thorx.net/wiki/RackCabinet
>
> .../Nemo
> --
>  ------------------------------------------ --------------------------
>                                                    earth native
>


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