[D-Space] Count me in!

[Paul Campbell]

(at this point the guys pulling out the storm damaged tree showed up without 
warning and announced they were turning off the power ... sorry the list server 
went away)

On Thu, 02 Dec 2010, Alex King wrote:
> Since I am moving to the island I have quite a bit of gear I need to 
> pass on.  Most of the junk I offloaded on e-day, the rest is working and 
> could-be-useful computers and parts.
> 
> Since I don't want fill up the space with junk, have you thought about 
> what type of gear it would be good to have there, Paul?

There are economies of scale here - mostly I'm worried about paying the rent - 
there are two good spaces in the building at the moment, both have running water 
and heat pumps (they're ex-classrooms) - one is slightly larger and has better 
light, the other smaller but gets evening sun (warmth) - the cost including GST 
is $140/week, power is extra 

(right now I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures) 

My personal preference was for the larger one it's a great space, with more 
light (east and south)

the rooms are empty - no furniture other than white/blackboards - we'll need 
benches and chairs

The building is open 7 days a week, doors are locked at 10pm (but we don't have 
to leave then) - we get 1 security key (we can get more with $30 deposits or put 
a lockbox on the door .... until the lock pickers group starts up ..... then we 
need better keys or none)

They want 4 weeks rent up front as a deposit, I don't mind fronting that, and 
will hold the room without rent for a while if we pay a deposit (I can imagine 
us waiting until the xmas/holiday rush is behind us).

$140/week is about $630 a month, add in say $30 for power (anyone want to 
guess?) comes to $750 - that's ~40 members paying $20/month - or more likely 
20-30 adults and the same number of students paying a lot less - this is what I 
mean about economies of scale - we need to pull in a minimum number of members 
to make this work financially 

> Also, Nathan from Warrington is keen to expand his 
> recycle-computers-with-linux scheme and was looking for space to use in 
> town and helpers for that too.  I wonder if that is a good fit too somehow?

I doubt we can afford a second room - at least not until we need the space 
ourselves (these 2 rooms are not next to each other anyway) - I do like the idea 
though - teaching kids to open up their computers and hack on stuff is exactly 
what we want to be about and I've seen and helped with a similar, very 
successful, project when I lived in Oakland

>WIC/Wicked have a scheme whereby if you pay them $500 up-front, they 
>will put in a wicked node (free ad-supported wireless access ap) with no 
>ongoing costs.  All we supply is power and a place to put it.  It does 
>need to have existing wic coverage, but I don't see why that would be a 
>problem.
>I'm willing to chip in part of the $500 if that's seen as a good way to go.

thanks that's a great idea (and a great offer) I'm kind of counting on people 
donating time/money/excess tools/gear to get this running well 

I'm also going to contract the local men-in-sheds guys (who I understand work 
out of the old Taieri aerodrome hanger) I think there's some possible synergy 
there (we may end up with stuff they don't have, doing stuff they don't do that 
interest them and they may have an excess of basic tools we need).

	Paul