The Hackerspace Movement: Mitch Altman at TEDxBrussels

Hi! Following my previous post about the eLab Makerspace Today I'm just going to share a video that I saw today and honestly think that everyone who loves learning, making, tinkering, should see (and everyone who doesn't should see it too!). It's a video about the history of Hackerspaces and the Maker movement that includes some valuable lessons about hacking yourself, about changing your life to do what you love. Some other messages rely on making ideas come true and how it is possible to make the "impossible" with only a few resources and a big "go for it" mentality. Basically it all comes down to three words: "Teaching. Learning. Sharing.".

Hope you liked it as much as I did! :)

Take care!

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The birth of eLab Hackerspace

Hi! Today I'll let you know about a Hackerspace that I have founded together with my friends João Duarte, Goncalo Pereira, Fábio Martins and Hugo Santos in September of 2011 inside the University of the Algarve. The electronics engineering department had been providing a room for students to do their projects for a few years but it had never got much use.

It all started with the Electronics Club some years ago which was founded by my friend Zé Luis (currently doing some cool stuff at his company, Metalideia) and some of his friends. After some years it changed name twice and became NEEST, then NOISE, but unfortunately only the names were changing and not much was being done, except keeping it "alive", which was also important. Otherwise the room would have been lost. We had been talking about how the space wasn't being properly used for a while and then we finally decided to go ahead and turn it into a real Hackerspace, eLab. As far as we know it's the first Hackerspace hosted inside a university in Portugal, having great benefits like free space, free internet and free electricity. Also, sometimes we get to borrow some tools from the electronics engineering department which is always handy.

We began by meeting once every week to clean everything, scavenge components from all the electronic devices that had been gathered throughout the years, put some shelves on the walls, organize all the components and tools and take out the trash.

(Click the photo for better resolution in Picasa Photostream)

Then we had to make the Hackerspace rules, so that everyone can use the space in harmony.

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