Category Archives: Work

verge

Posted on by
Reply

Things are getting really big, really fast.

Pulling from an e-mail I just had to write to someone, especially as I’m not sure the readership here knows all this stuff:

I’m director of Jigsaw Renaissance, a learning and making community based out of Seattle. We’re built on the image of Bucketworks (out of Milwaukee), dubbed “the world’s first health club for the brain.” We’re into transdisciplinary and intergenerational learning. We’re into helping you discover your world, and how to engage with it. Jigsaw (and Bucketworks) is (are) program(s) of the School Factory. That’s a 501(c)3 aimed at changing the way people educate themselves and interact with educational systems.

The School Factory has seen a lot more activity in the past year than in its first 8 years of existence due to a thing called The Space Federation (drawing a diagram yet? and I said corps were bulky..). Fed aims to offer a support network – fiscal sponsorship, basic paperwork, mentorship, etc – to hacker, maker, artistic, coworking, etc spaces across the US. This is a big part of The School Factory because we see these spaces as where people go to continue their educations or to find ways of learning that they didn’t get in our current educational systems.

So, all of that is fo realz. School Factory‘s new site went live last month (though it’s still not fleshed out enough for a big publicity push, so please keep it to yourselves, at least for a bit). Jigsaw got mentioned specifically by The White House.  W.     T.       F.

I talked with Beth Kolko a couple weeks ago about linking up Jigsaw with some of UW’s programs. Ezekiel and I are working on linking his certification system into education outside of academic settings. Jordan and I are working on an OpenDoor Hack-A-Thon to link up membership status with space access, potentially between spaces across the country.

And and and. AND. So that tour I went on? For Geeks Without Bounds? Well. Currently submitting proposals to become the director of GWOB as a program of the School Factory. Which would mean it would be potentially sponsored by Tropo. And other big organizations. Which would mean I would be paid to do the stuff I love doing. Set of my time to GWOB, paid; set of my time to School Factory, eventually paid; and set of my time to Jigsaw, as always. Again, the big proposal is not official yet, but my being paid is. But still. How cool would that be?! Link communities to learn to use their powers for good, which I do anyway, but on a bigger scale, and be able to eat more than ramen? Plan huge events that may or may not involve zombie apocalypse scenarios? ZOMG.

I am bouncing in my seat. And not just because I failed at not drinking coffee.

Return

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s the thing about travel. Eventually, everything blends together. Everyone is a variation of an archetype (myself included). As a sociologist, I start doing pattern recognition – quanitative view with qualitative exceptions. Everyone is an individual, but upon established patterns. Surprises still exist, but the majority of the world is fascinatingly predictable.

Similarly, each city and town has its own food specialty, its own vibe, its own layout – but after awhile, it’s just plane-bus/cab-venue-crashspace-plane-etc. I start to operate with 12-hour blinders on, oblivious to anything my phone hasn’t notified me of.

Then I get to return home. My cat is upset with me (or just had a hairball. ok, it was both), my friends are thrilled but distant, my Partner fragile and tender. Jigsaw is running, although needing some focus. Things have progressed, but I haven’t been a part of it. I’m looking into a world which has evolved outside of me.

Which is my way of saying – I have a couple more stops, then I’ll be glad to be home. PDX today, SEA Sunday, LAX Monday, MKE Wednesday (Tuesday and Thursday dedicated primarily to travel). Then I get to sit on the floor with my cat for as long as I want. Get to nuzzle a Levi, dance with my Tribe, take a shower without fear of timing or line-up.

NoiseBridge

Posted on by
Reply
Noisebridge is always one of my favorite spaces. They’ve been around for at least three years. have a big variety of disciplines they cover, and the people are just *nice*.
Diggz and Shannon picked up “build your own” Mexican food, and the presentation went off without a hitch. I talked to two lovely people from Aulstralia about the hacker and maker spaces there, and how coworking is just getting started. Mitch and I talked about our differences in opinion of what makes “hackerspace” and “makerspace” different.
The presentation itself has gotten much more smooth, with a lot of rehearsal time between James and myself, and a lot of chatting between Diggz and
myself. We’ll have an audio version up soon, and each presentation is livestreamed and recorded (links soon at gwob.org).
Now I get to go home for a few days to spend much needed time at Jigsaw, and with the people I love, and laying on the floor with my cat. It’s a hell of a start, and I’m really excited to see how the next leg goes.
Detroit is our next stop, and I leave from Seattle at 5:15 in the morning on Thursday.

CrashSpace

Posted on by
Reply

CrashSpaceLA is laid out incredibly well. The entrance is onto an area full of group projects (a way to play the building like an instrument? Yes, please!) and where meetings and co-working and collaboration occur. There’s a whiteboard, a projector, and while most of the space is occupied my more a formalized long-table-and-chairs set-up, there is also a couch to lounge on.

In the back rooms are a kitchen and server space (“for historical purposes. Don’t do this.” they told us), a space for hardware hacking, and a space for heavier equipment. It’s laid out with care but obviously in use – a delicate balance that many spaces struggle with.

We attended their regular member meeting, listened as they hashed through membership dues, tier names, and access for types. The free form of the meeting was meandering but fun and shit still got done. At the end of their meeting, Diggz and I gave the first round of our presentation (built by James, because he is amazing). Feedback was good, and people have a lot of ideas of other organizations we can check out, but next round we definitely need to focus more on 101010 and executable steps.

SEA -> LAX

Posted on by
5

I’m 39,000 feet in the air, and I’m savoring a few moments of calm between the crazy of the past few weeks and the promise of more epicness for the next month the moment we touch down.

Two weeks ago, I presented on Transhumanism at Gnomedex. Two days ago, I got the confirmation for a one-way-ticket to Los Angeles. How did I get here?

The gent who presented after me at Gnomedex, one Mr Johnny Diggz, talked about something called Geeks Without Borders. Now we’re calling it GWOBorg, for legal reasons which I might expound upon later. It’s a network of geeks set up to assist those providing disaster relief or who are affected by adverse conditions. Because, as Diggz said, “doctors need to look up shit.” We ended up sitting next to each other at the very lovely conference lunch (thanks, Chris and crew!), we talked about the OpenGov Hack-A-Thon his company Tropo was hosting. I informed him that the amount he had paid to use the nearby hotel was preposterous, and that having such events in hacker and maker spaces was a better idea on many counts. As the conversation evolved, we also decided that nodes for GWOB should be hosted out of hacker and maker spaces. I told him I would put him in touch with a slew of awesome people who might help him and his out. He asked if I couldn’t just do it – I knew the people, I knew the reasoning, I have the passion. We agreed upon some terms and I said yes.

My home is not the usual mess it’s left in for my hurried exit to the airport. The cat was mashed, the dishes (mostly) done, the carpet vacuumed. James Carlson helped me in massive ways with the presentation Diggz and I will give at each space. I’ll post it here once it’s done and the voice-over has been added. Levi wrapped his arms around me as we raced down the highway, droplets of water etching designs on my faceshield.

And so now I’m 39k feet in the air, on my way to LA for the first stop of our tour. I wonder how I would explain this to my younger self – what I’m going to do, or that I would ever accept a one-way-ticket from a person I met only 2 weeks ago, when my only liquid assets are the $10 bill in my pocket and blind determination.

Put up or shut up, it’s time to make a dent in the world.