A visit to the London Hackspace

I’ve been obsessed with open source and the culture surrounding it since I downloaded my first BASIC file back in high school. Me and the rest of the DarK KnightZ (our hacker “gang” in school, we were N00bz, but we didn’t know it, but no one else did either) would repurpose the code that generated tunes like the theme to The Muppet Show for use in our projects. I think we probably irritated our Comp Sci teacher to no end with those horrendous 8 bit beeps. I like to think he was secretly proud of us for finding and reusing them though. Thinking back on it now, those computer science classes were my first REAL taste of working collaboratively on a project (sometimes encouraged by the teacher, other times on the sly when we should have been working independently).

What I realize now is that what the DarK KnightZ lacked was a cool clubhouse (and probably money). Enter the London Hackspace. When I was living in New Jersey, I often followed the exploits of NYC resistor, a group/space often mentioned by the likes of Bre Pettis and Cory Doctorow. As I’m never too old to have heroes, these guys definitely qualify. The London Hackspace is in the same vein as NYC Resistor, so this visit has been a long time dream for me, if a bit anti-climactic. But I digress.

The London Hackspace is a “lab” in a somewhat grimy part of London. A diamond in the rough as it were. I was able to find a decent pub after a short walk (I *think* it was The Haggerston, awesome pizza for London), but I don’t know the area, so there may be other gems nearby. Beer was my saviour. According to our guide, there is normally beer at the Hackspace, but they were out when we looked. I like the idea of everyone chipping in and sharing, but I should have gone with my gut (or possibly my girlfriend’s persistence has paid off) and not gone empty handed. There were lots of cool toys/tools to play with, but the ones that caught my attention initially (Makerbot, Laser Cutter, Vinyl Cutter) all require training of some kind. We did try and make conversation, and this is where things got awkward. You see, the problem with getting a bunch of hackers together, is that they act like hackers. While it didn’t seem very clique-ish, the conversations were exactly like what you’d expect. Of the 2 or 3 conversations we had while wandering around, ALL of them felt forced and awkward. It may have been me, it may have been my colleague, or it maye have been who/what we were talking to/about, but my guess is that it was a combination of all 3. I think the most dissapointing thing for me, was that I REALLY wanted to love this place. I enjoyed walking around and seeing technology and projects in action I’ve only read about otherwise, which was great, but I wanted to walk into a place and be greeted knowingly by people who were friendly and intelligent. It didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean that everyone wasn’t friendly. I think it just means, that like any new social situation, there needs to be some time invested (by me).

I’m on the lookout for an event that appeals to me, as I’m not sure I can bear the anxiety that comes with trying to run around ane make friends for a few hours. I can do it, but I think I’ll go back on a night where there is something else to distract me. If I keep at it, the friendships will come. It’s like going back to high school, but they’re all like me.

Note to self: Next time, bring beer, snacks, and something to hack!