Support The Two Hands Project

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Our Friend Bilal from The Two Hands Project is heading out for a month to film the hackerspaces of America to put together a documentary film. Bilal has been working hard to pull together a team and the funds for the project. The goal is to use Jet Blues $599.00 promotion to travel to all the different spaces. The promotion ends tonight at 10:00 P.M ET and he still needs to raise $300. Let’s Help Bilal by retweeting this to everyone that we know. If you can help by donating, twittering, emailing etc… to spread the word and to help get donations he would greatly appreciate it. Every Dollar donated counts and time is running out!

Here is more information about the project from the website:

We will be documenting the projects they make, and recording the change inducing social movement that’s spreading across the USA. Maker/Hackerspaces come in all sorts of packages and flavors, each with it’s own quirks. Let’s figure out how they tick, what goes on in them, why they are important for the philosophical and economical reasons. And perhaps through this movie inspire people to start their own space, or at least build something awesome.

You can follow Bilal and The Two Hands Project for further updates and information.

Here are a few things Bilal is offering for donations:

  1. A 50 Dollar sponsor gets a Two Hands t-shirt and a mention in the credits
  2. 100 Dollar sponsor gets a shirt and a link from the sponsors page
  3. 150 Dollars gives you a logo on the sponsors page along with the above
  4. 300 Dollar sponsor gets the above and your logo printed on the back of the sponsored shirt
  5. 600+ will put you into the magical realm of being a producer logo at the start of the movie along with the above, and a special hug/backscratch from me.

To Donate go Here

Hackerspaces & Nasa article from opennasa.com

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Rolando Quintanilla from opennasa.com wrote a great article about how hackerspaces could help Nasa.

“In order for space exploration to prosper and become cost-effective robotic technology will need to be created and adapted to develop infrastructure that is necessary for human space exploration and industrial exploration.  Concepts like those behind the RepRap, will be required to be further developed so that it is possible to automatically manufacture goods as needed in space.”

To read the full story please visit opennasa.com!

“TechShop” Movement Discussion Summary

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Four individuals from i3 Detroit were able to attend a “TechShop” Movement discussion at the UofM Business Engagement Center on Tuesday evening.. We wanted to take a moment to share our thoughts and outlook from this discussion as we have had a lot of you asking for an update.

Tuesday was a giant leap for the Maker Movement in Detroit. Not only did we gather many local groups with similar interests (i3 Detroit, Detroit Industrial Arts League, a2geeks, Coffee House Coders, etc), entrepreneurs and universities, we had Make Magazine & TechShop all in the same room. The atmosphere was a mix of innovation and inspiration. It was exciting to get all the “M.B.A.s”, as Nate coined them, brainstorming and see their heads nodding during the presentations. With big names like Jim Newton, from TechShop & Dale Dougherty, from Make Magazine, it was just the ignition we needed to give the Movement in Detroit a starting platform that all of us have been trying so hard to do.

Do we think this is a replacement or a competition for i3 Detroit, absolutely not. Mark Hatch, TechShop COO, said that any growth to the industry segment is positive for both TechShop and those individual groups. This will bring more notoriety to the movement and empower people to think creatively about projects.

Some of the main points that we covered at the meeting were:

* TechShop and Maker Faire considering Detroit, but skeptical of the market/interest
* Interest is split between Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit
* Detroit is not Silicon Valley, but still has many makers
* Interest is present largely underground, and Detroit needs a way to foster communication within the creative community

The overall feeling from the i3 Detroit Members was that everyone genuinely wanted to hear about our experience with i3, and eager to work with us to help cultivate a pro-maker culture in Detroit.We feel that everyone agreed that great things would happen more often if disparate groups that don’t normally hang out together spent more time in each other’s territories. Over dinner, we discussed a number of help-for-startups opportunities provided by various groups.

We would like to Thank everyone from the UofM for putting this event on! We would also like to Thank Dale Dougherty from Make magazine as well as Jim Newton & Mark Hatch from the TechShop for taking the time to come and speak with all of us here in Michigan.

i3 Detroit’s First Build Party

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We would like to Thank Everyone for coming out and having some BristleBot Fun! Here is a Video and some Photos of the Event. Keep checking the website for future events.

Video:

Photos:

i3 Detroit will be attending a “TechShop Movement” discussion at the UofM

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i3 Detroit has been invited to what Associate Vice-Presidents Marvin Parnes
and Dan Atkins expect to be a very interesting opportunity to learn about
the “TechShop movement” and to consider a planning process for a Detroit TechShop
model that blends education, economic renewal,innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Phoenix Wang, advisor to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
Diana Rhoten, Director, Digital Media and Learning at the Social
Science Research Council,and Mark Hatch, COO of TechShop in Menlo Park,California
will be here to present and discuss TechShop and how it may be of value to Detroit.

We will make sure to provide further updates of the outcome of the event.
We would like to Thank Dug Song for making sure we were able to be involved.