Triangle Hackers

Splat Space – Durham’s Hackerspace (http://splatspace.org) will be participating in the global hackerspaces.org monthly hackathon this Saturday, January 15th. Visit Splat Space from 1pm+ for a full day of collaboration and innovation. Splat Space will also be hosting an Arduino Hack Afternoon as part of the hackathon.

During the hackathon, we’ll be working together on the hackerspaces.org Cupcake Challenge. For this event, all the hackerspaces in the world have been challenged to ship a cupcake over 1,000 miles to another hackerspace in tasty and pristine condition.

Since additional points are accrued for the distance the cupcake travels, we contacted some friends over at the Tokyo Hackerspace and will be sending our SplatCake overseas, approximately 7,000 miles! More details on the challenge can be found here. Come out on Saturday to participate or follow the excitement on uStream!

The Cupcake Challenge

Rules

• * Cupcake must be a standard sized or larger cupcake with frosting and at least one sugar based topper/decoration.
• * The cupcake should be home made or in the hackerspace.
• * Distance sent must exceed 1000 miles, bonus points for over seas.
• * The package can have dimensions up 1ft by 1ft by 1ft and weight up to 4lbs.
• * The package must be sent by a reasonably priced shipping method, days in transit will be considered in the scoring.
• * A video must be taken while the receiving hackerspace is opening the package and uploaded.
• * All participating spaces must also participate in the Synchronous Hackathon.

Judging Criteria

• * The creativity of method used to stabilize the cupcake
• * The stability of mixture / quality of ingredients
• * Appearance
• * Taste
• * Condition

During Tuesday’s meeting at Serena, we achieved consensus on a number of different things. Here’s a summary of the meeting for those who were unable to make it.

(Detailed recap available: http://groups.google.com/group/triangle-hackerspace)

1 Space or 2?
- Multiple spaces seem like a good idea so that we can accommodate the #1 concern we learned from the survey, proximity to home and work.
- There’s no serious opposition to two spaces preventing us from moving forward, so that’s what we’ll do, starting with Downtown Durham. Another movement to start a space in the NCSU area is underway as well!
- We’ll continue to use TriangleHackers resources to help promote the growth and development of both spaces.

Durham Makerspace
- The Durham space will be called Durham Makerspace to start
- We will incorporate as Durham Makerspace (until/unless a better name comes along, we’ll keep it!)
- We will meet next Tuesday at Beyu Caffe and will have a tour of our prospective space in the basement
- Possible move-in date as early as September 10th if we can raise the money!
- Donations accepted through paypal:

Upcoming Action
- Paperwork to incorporate Durham Makerspace filed on 9/1
- New Google Group for Durham-specific discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/durham-makerspace
- Meeting next week in Downtown Durham @ Beyu Caffe to check out space: http://meetup.com/trianglehackers
- We’re opening bank account as soon as corp paperwork is filed. Donations accepted via Paypal in meantime (durhamspace@trianglehackers.com)

Volunteers needed:
- New web presence for Durham Makerspace
- Logo ideas, graphics, flyers for Durham Makerspace
- Someone to be “in charge of” the wiki
- Volunteers to look for chair, table, equipment donations for a move-in date in the next 2 weeks, TBA
- Those with Craigslist-fu in particular demand!

Thank you everyone for a great meeting and for your continued help and support! These are exciting times, and we’re really looking forward to the first meeting in the first Triangle Hackerspace!