I would be interested in talking with anyone who is thinking of forming a hackerspace in Austin, Texas or nearby.
While I am interested in a hacking space for hacking's sake, I also think there is a lot of un-exploited economic potential in doing certain things in a "co-op" or similar structure. The "co-working" spaces such as Conjunctured are developments in that direction. I think another good example is the TechShop in San Francisco (I have never been there).
All the people who are freelancing or contracting while trying to get some sort of start up off the ground, which includes a surprisingly large number of people even outside of this focused web site, have very similar needs and costs. A cheap place to work, possibly cheap hosting or a server room, a nice place to present to possible clients and investors, access to people with useful skills, etc.
Anything that is a cost to you, that you can reduce, increases how far you can go self-funded and makes you minimally self-sustaining at a lower level. If those costs can be reduced by sharing in any way, you come out ahead. If you can take all those overhead costs and have them handled at least initially by a monthly fee to a co-op of a couple of hundred bucks, it should often work out for the better.
Of course not everyone has the same needs, and finding a ___location that is cheap and located close enough to enough people might be tough.
While I am interested in a hacking space for hacking's sake, I also think there is a lot of un-exploited economic potential in doing certain things in a "co-op" or similar structure. The "co-working" spaces such as Conjunctured are developments in that direction. I think another good example is the TechShop in San Francisco (I have never been there).
All the people who are freelancing or contracting while trying to get some sort of start up off the ground, which includes a surprisingly large number of people even outside of this focused web site, have very similar needs and costs. A cheap place to work, possibly cheap hosting or a server room, a nice place to present to possible clients and investors, access to people with useful skills, etc.
Anything that is a cost to you, that you can reduce, increases how far you can go self-funded and makes you minimally self-sustaining at a lower level. If those costs can be reduced by sharing in any way, you come out ahead. If you can take all those overhead costs and have them handled at least initially by a monthly fee to a co-op of a couple of hundred bucks, it should often work out for the better.
Of course not everyone has the same needs, and finding a ___location that is cheap and located close enough to enough people might be tough.