2010 was the year when we did it: we built a hacker space in Leeds.
First of all thanks to everyone who donated kit – especially a big shout-out to friendly Rails host Brightbox for the latest box full of servers.
Secondly an acknowledgement that all who donated in the past year, especially our regular subscribers, who have allowed us to rent our venue and continue to keep us housed.
2010 has been a fascinating year full of plotting, sawing, soldering, coding and robot-making. Our hack space is full to overflowing with shelves of components. We appeared on BBC radio and in the local press, hosted a great summer barbecue, got shouted about at all over the city.
What we’ve achieved is well worth shouting about. However, what we’re going to do in 2011 is no less important. Here I present our Leeds Hackspace plan for 2011:
Plan for 2011
Connectivity
Due to low start-up finances and silence from sponsors, we haven’t got Internet connectivity at the space. We admit this is pretty poor and is a bit of a turn-off for some. This will be rectified as soon as possible.
More Hackers!
Of a city of close to a million inhabitants, including perhaps a hundred thousand students, I bet we can attract far more people. To this end we will encourage more guest blog posts from local hackers and makers, talk to more disparate groups and get ourselves known at Leeds’ universities. It’s worth noting that this year we may move to a more central venue, too…
Go places
In the past year we’ve talked about arranging outings. Places discussed include the historic Middleton Railway, the totally automated Farnell production line and York’s cold war bunker. We’ll be putting up a call for suggestion and polls for dates etc. in due course.
Tools!
To do more hacking we need more tools and equipment, some of which we’ll be unable to fund through our ongoing subscriptions. We’ll be conducting a poll and soliciting donations for such specific items soon.
So in conclusion, well done everyone! Let’s make 2011 the year when Leeds Hackspace gets it’s name on the map.
See you on Tuesday for a celebratory curry!