Forum Removed

Before we get to this topic I want to remind our guest that we meet every Wednesday at 7pm. Contact us if you are interested in coming.

We were never using our forum yet we were getting lots of spammers signing up for it. So I have disabled the forum and removed the link to it. We do have a mailing list but it’s kept private and is only for people who want to participate. E-mail and tell us all about you then you can get on the list.

Our Wiki and this blog will remain the two main methods of communication. The blog is more for a snap shot at what we have done and what we will be doing. The wiki is more for the business side of things such as how we raise funds and event planing.

Back to Normal

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Nick Farr stoped by Harford Hackerspace and shed some light on the 501(c)(3) process. He also shared some “good practice” points with us and The Node. Prior to Nicks arrival Harford Hackerspace and The Node had a long conversation about how the two organizations could collaborate or possibly merge. There was a lot of repetative questions asked but very little answers came of the discusssion.

Several members from both organizations put on the table the possible merge so long as the two organizations could agree on a suitable location. As of the end of the meeting on July 11th an agreement was not reached on the merge but both organizations agreed that our goals were similar and we would help each other in our efforts. A merge is not out of the question but it’s also not likely to happen in the immediate future. However the offer is still on the table from Harford Hackerspaces perspective.

Now that that intense meeting is over Harford Hackerspace will resume its normal activities on July 16  @ 7:30 pm in the Temporary Hackerspace Garage. E-mail info@harfordhackerspace.org if you ever want to attend any meetings. We may even be able to schedule a meeting around your calendar.

The Latest News

It has been a while since we posted an update but that’s because we have been busy. Here is the latest on the organization.

  1. We found a temporary place to start meeting weekly. It’s a large garage owned by one of our members. This will allow us to start working on projects and hopefully attract a few new members. We plan to start holding weekly meetings to work on our projects starting next week. Get in touch with us via IRC or the Forums if you would like to hang out with us.
  2. We have decided that our first project is going to be to build a CNC Machine capable of creating circuit boards. We are currently in the design phase and the design discussion can be tracked on our forums project board.
  3. [***FINALLY***] This is the most exciting news. We are now officially incorporated with the State of Maryland Department of Taxation as a non-stock corporation. You can look for your self at http://www.dat.state.md.us/ and searching for Harford Hackerspace. This means that we can setup a bank account and start collecting membership dues. Not being incorporated has been a big setback for us but we pushed through it and are ready to move full speed ahead.

*NEW* Forum Now Open

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We now have a forum and it looks great thanks to member bsom. Sign-up and start posting. Remeber to introduce yourself and please start brainstorming project and educational class ideas. Keep in mind that the purpose of a Hackerspace is to get out from behind your computer and interact with real people in real places. It’s often easy to forget this and get trapped in the internet virtual world. Please come to our meetings and hopefully soon our hackerspace.

A link to the forum can be found at the top of the home page for easy access. However you will need a separate account for the forum. Your wordpress account for the home page will NOT work. Sorry!

http://harfordhackerspace.org/forum

Dimdim – Opensource Webinar Software

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The opensource http://www.dimdim.com software is Free for up to 20 people and only $99/yr for 100 people.  User Brimstone from hackerspaces was nice enough to join a conference with me where we tested the software by sharing a PowerPoint presentation and a Whiteboard. I was able to call into the Free conference phone number as well as communicate via voice using a microphone.

Unfortunately, people on the microphone can not be heard on the phone. Also one other limitation pointed out was that there is no time stamp in the chat room. Other than that the software is super cool. It’s fast and full of features.

I would like to use this software to hold Free webinars and possibly even webinars where we would accept donations to help raise funds for Harford Hackerspace. This software will allow us to reach beyond our own hackerspace to teach and learn from hackerspaces all over the world.