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Ask HN: Tell me about your hacker space. (I'm building one in Beijing.)

47 points by sabalaba ↗ HN
Howdy Hackers,

I'm a co-founder at a high-tech incubator out of Beijing. I've been given the opportunity to put together a weekend hacker space in the 798 Art district.

The goal is to host a Hacker Lab on the weekends to BUILD STUFF, hack software + hardware, and just plain have fun exploring the boundaries of tech.

I know most of us have had great experiences with different hacker spaces, I have one at university that I often pull all-nighters in. What are some things that you love about your hacker space? What are some things that you wish were better about it?

30 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 77.5 ms ] thread
alexbosworth
Any more info on your Hacker Lab?
sabalaba
It's going to be based @ the Yuanfen~Flow new media art gallery in the 798 Art District.

Here's some pictures of what it looks like now: http://www.yuanfenart.com/index.php?option=com_content&v...

Here's the website for our incubator - Yuanfen~Flow (I'm Stephen): http://www.yuanfenflow.com/

I'm going to be creating a shoutbox hosted on yuanfenflow.com to focus the discussion and information about it as it becomes available. You can also find me in the #chinalug or #beijinglug channel on freenode

bx_bob
hello, i want to know more about the space's opening date. 你好，我想知道这个地方什么时候开放？
sabalaba
我们固定的时候我会告诉你（应该在两个星期之内），好吧？
fookyong
looks amazing! would love to drop by next time I'm in Beijing.

I was there last year for 2 months and had a great time.

btw0
Wow, a hacker space in Beijing, I for sure will come to hack.
sabalaba
great news... tell your buddies! We're probably going to do a soft opening the saturday after next (Next saturday is the Beijing LUG's Coding4Fun night--you should come!). What day do you think is the most convenient? [Friday, Saturday, Sunday]?
btw0
Saturday and Sunday are good. I think it's good to have a web page to introduce this hack space in beijing, it will be interesting to many people.
sabalaba
we're going to be getting a email list and website up soon--I'll post here when we do.
jtchang
I frequent two spaces here in san francisco bay: noisebridge and hackerdojo.

What I love about noisebridge:

- Always people there working on all sorts of projects: and not just software or hardware. Some food hackers as well.

- Lots of tools you can freely use (bandsaws, scopes, cables, etc)

- Friendly community where all you need to do is just ask someone what they are working on. Easy to make friends.

- Open all hours of the day. Governance is best described as anarchy. Number one rule is to "be excellent to each other".

jyf1987
i am also live in beijing , is there any require skils to join to your hacker space?
sabalaba
jyf1987, the only skill that is required is the open-mindedness to explore, experiment and BUILD stuff. I think the term 'hacking' can be applied to much more than just computers and technology; art hacking, food hacking, life hacking... the list goes on.

If you're willing to listen, learn, and explore together, you can stop by any time.

cglee
This is awesome. Do you have a site or email list? I go to Beijing often and would love to be kept in the loop.

ps: 798 is one of my favorite places..great choice.

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sp332
There's a whole wiki, with lots of advice for building hacker spaces: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Design_Patterns

The wiki is based on slides from a nice long talk at the 24th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin back in 2007. http://chaosradio.ccc.de/24c3_m4v_2133.html

I found another talk titled "Building Hacker Spaces Everywhere: Your Excuses are Invalid" from The Last HOPE conference. I haven't watched it yet, but it's probably really good :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxTYUw4gtv4

sabalaba
Great find. One of the guys at the Beijing LUG suggested that we hold a CCC listen-in from the new space. Thanks for the great info, time to do some reading.

Where are you located?

sp332
Northeast USA, near Boston. CCC has the most amazing talks of any hacker conference I know of. Every year I watch about 24-48 hours of CCC videos. I would watch more, but I don't speak German. Actually, I'm still seeding all the English videos from last year over bittorrent. http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=7688f1c3fdb544de90...
tstyle
My priority list would be: beanbags, large flat tables that allows for pair programming, non distracting but ever present ambient music, easy to reach power outlets, good wifi signal, cool art and space decorations(hey you are at 798 after all =)

p.s I just moved to Beijing this year, is running my own start up out of an incubator on the west side, and loves 798. So pretty excited to read about this!

sabalaba
welcome to the community, I'm a new Beijing resident myself and was pretty surprised to find that there isn't a well established hacker community here there's diverse groups (BLUG, GTUG, Beijing Coworking, etc.) but there isn't a unifying space for them all. Thus, this was born.

no bean-bags yet, however, we do have two large chairs which are replicas of Michelangelo's David's nose :), but we will certainly have nice space, tables, wifi, etc.

What incubator are you with? We're always interested in who else is in the startup space, to see if there's any opportunity for 双赢 win-win, or at least a meeting.

sabj
Great idea! 798 is certainly a good place thematically, although transportation wise it's not as accessible as some other sites...? Still, one could do a lot worse :)

Had the pleasure of living in Beijing for a few months last year, hope to be back again soon. Although back on the east coast now, would love to stay in the loop...

tstyle
It's called Innovation Works, the place is pretty cool but not comparable to SV offices =P
mpdaugherty
Sounds like an awesome idea, and something Beijing could use. I'll definitely check it out.
albahk
Check out Boot! HK which launched a few weeks ago in HK. They are only new but the guys behind it have organised some very successful events in Hong Kong.

http://boot.hk is the site for the Hacker Space.

They also run http://startupshk.com

jzycrzy
I may be able to provide some old computers for the space.

Great to see this addition to Beijing!

user24
Comfortable chairs. Large tables. Whiteboards everywhere. No music. Some geeky decorations[1] to stop it from looking like a boardroom. A few lego NXT sets / marble runs / meccano sets / knex / other geek toys dotted around for people to make interesting projects with. Sofas / armchairs grouped around coffee tables. Make sure the sofas are big enough to sleep on.

[1] like these: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/6425/

ruiwen
Great to hear there'll be a hackerspace in Beijing soon!

Ours in Singapore is at http://hackerspace.sg =)

Hope to be able to visit some time!

sabalaba
http://www.yuanfenflow.com/hackerspace

Just got it up! Right now it's a simple (bi-lingual,双语言) information page for v0.0; after our first meeting, we'll get something that's stand-alone.

If you want to be a part of this, please send me an email and we an set up a meeting prior to the launch on Dec. 11th. stephen [@t] yuanfenflow [d0t] com

Thanks for all the feedback + info! 万分感谢！