A coalition of directors from different workshops from across London have been meeting for the past couple years.
Our next meeting is the 8th March, if there are any folks who are directors/trustees/staff managing or running workshops please ping me a message for an invite.
It’s been a great way for folks running these spaces to discuss shared issues, find out about funding, talk about events and activities at different spaces.
Although it’s based in London, folks from outside London are welcome to join us.
Sure. I think the other issue is people wouldn’t necessarily want to have their conversations open to being recorded. It changes the context from being a friendly meet to something more formal.
What do the other attendees think? Participants in the meeting can be vetted/referred if you’re worried? Seems unfortunate in the modern world of video conference to limit participation due to geography.
FYI: The name Open Workshop is a term that comes from Open Workshop Network openworkshopnetwork.com which is also a London centric website.
The term Open Workshop is a way of broadly encapsulating:
Makerspaces
Hackspaces (Foundation)
Hackerspaces
Fablabs
Mensheds
And anyone who does’t label themselves as such, including:
Bike repair
Arts/sculpture/print making spaces
It’s a very broad definition of a workshop that is open to the public in some form, either for training or bookable or open access making.
So Open Workshop London includes a range of spaces including reps from London Hackspace, South London Makerspace, Building Bloqs, Fablab London, Makerversity, London Sculpture Workshop, Imperal Advanced Hackspace, Blackhorse Workshop, Machines Room and a number of others.
This is a good idea, pragmatically, there’s no way I could travel to London regularly, likely the case for others, so if these sessions aren’t to be streamed or online interactive in any way then it’s a bit weird opening it up and then closing it.
In an ideal world this would be under one, being the foundation, and foundation rep’s could be at these meetings and sub meetings for it being a two/multi-way conversation #wishfulthinking
Format: Isn’t conducive to streaming, it’s a chat round a table having some food and drinks. I don’t see how this would work. Imagine inviting a mate to a buffet via Skype… This isn’t a presentation or talk.
Privacy: I don’t think everyone will be okay being filmed.
Confidentiality: Some conversations may be business sensitive.
Technical: Having tried many times it’s nearly impossible to pick up the audio from a room using a phone or computer in a way that is easily heard by people on Google Hangouts, or Skype, and then for the room to hear those online clearly either. Even with a proper audio interface, HD camera, projector and speakers, I’ve never managed to get it to work properly, and those online can’t participate.
The reason I posted this was because there are likely spaces outside Greater London who could relatively easily attend a quarterly meeting and might wish to.
I recognise that those further outside, in the South West, and North aren’t going to be able to attend, and are welcome to organise a local meet in their own city or region, however there are other opportunities already out there such as the Hackspace Foundation meet up at UK Maker Faire, EMF and although slightly different in content another event I am also involved in called Maker Assembly which has place all over the UK: London, Belfast, Sheffield and Manchester, in March we are holding one in Edinburgh.
That said, it would seem that if there is sufficient demand that we could organise a online Open Workshop UK + Ireland Google Hangout event that would avoid these technical problems as everyone would have their own microphone and headphones.
Who would be interested in doing something like this?
If so I would be open to organising one as a trail.
Sorry to say that I can’t make it after all this time because of an important personal commitment, but I hope I can make it next time, as it sounds like a great opportunity to network and learn from other more experienced folk in the community. And to bring our communities closer together too…