[clug] [OT] Canberra/Australia maker community

[alex at alexandragillespie.net]

Hi Adam and Alaistair,

Alaistair as Adam has said we are keen to have some more workshop type
nights for dorkbot canberra next year so if you would like to run a
knowledge sharing workshop/s that pulls together hardware/software that
could possibly be used in an art and design project just let me know and
we can schedule it in to the program. We will run 11 sessions next year on
the last tuesday of the month Jan - November. I would just need a short
description of what you would want to do and a bio from whoever wants to
run the session.

More of what you did last week Adam would be great it would be good to mix
up artist presentations with more hands on material. I'm sure all in the
dorkbot canberra crew would be keen on this.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Alex





> 2009/11/27 Alastair D'Silva <alastair at newmillennium.net.au>:
>> I have been contemplating starting an Australian maker community for a
>> couple of months now.
>
> 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 haven't been able to make it to CLUG meetings in a while
> due to have another commitment on Thursday nights and my introverted
> nature has meant I haven't put much signal out beyond my immediate
> friends.
>
>> I have considered Dorkbot http://dorkbotcbr.wordpress.com/ but their
>> focus
>> is too artsy for my taste - I prefer projects with more function.
>
> I've been attending the Dorkbot Cbr meetings for a few months now and
> there hasn't been a lot of maker type talks. I think this is largely
> due to the contacts that the organisers have and the backgrounds of
> the people attending. At the last meeting I gave a lightning talk on a
> project I'm working on (basically an Arduino+WaveShield+OptoSwitch)
> which was pretty well received. Alex, one of the organisers, said that
> she wanted to run some workshops in the new year which might be better
> suited to your taste and may even lean on your knowledge.
>
> Dorkbot might not be the right home for a Maker community but the
> organisers' are good people and it's worth letting them know what's
> going on and seeing if they are interested. I've CC'd Alex in to try
> and break some of the ice.
>
>> Given the growing interest in CLUG about maker oriented talks such as
>> Peter
>> & my Laser Engraver & Arduino talks, and now Tridge's coffee roaster, I
>> think bootstrapping the community via CLUG might be productive.
>
> There is clearly a lot of interest, skills and resources in the CLUG
> community in the Maker area. With some word of mouth/email
> advertisement I think it would be easy to pick up interest from other
> people and groups around Canberra.
>
>> Subject: Canberra/Australia maker community
>
> The Australian maker community is growing, a few hackerspaces dotted
> around the place are providing space and nutrients for incubation.
> http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Australia. The Connected Community group
> in Melbourne is very active with a healthy LUG crossover. You may have
> met Jon Oxer (who's been writing the book "Practical Arduino") and his
> geeked out RX8 at Linux conferences around the place.
>