It's a new year, and time to try a new project. Being a designer involved in real world projects as well as having a background in teaching, I thought it would be interesting to join the growing global community of hackspaces. Bangkok, Thailand to my knowledge doesn't have a hackspace so I thought I would offer those interested in design, electronics, computers, and other technical hobbies a place to converge and collaborate.
The nearest hackspace appears to be in Singapore, and since I do many projects in Singapore, it would be interesting to link up with them once HackSpaceTH gets up and running. We'd also like to get involved in MIT's FabLab project which hosts a conference once a year for those interested in starting a branch of their own. For those that don't know what a FabLab is, the best description can be found in MIT's Neil Gershenfeld's explanation at his TED Talk uploaded in 2007.
Our current goal is to build up over the next year a membership to sustain our activities and perhaps even attend this year's FabLab8 which looks like it will be held in New Zealand. We're also greatly inspired by a project in Michigan, USA called the Geek Group. It claims to be the world's largest makerspace and it's easy to see why. They managed to convert an old school, complete with an indoor basketball court, into a massive makerspace featuring computer labs, a 24/7 radio station, a wood shop, industrial CNC machines and even a pair of KUKA industrial robotic arms.
So keep an eye on this spot for updates. We also plan on using this blog to cover Sci-Tech News and projects as we get going. If you are in the Bangkok area and interested in joining HackersSpaceTH, send us an e-mail at HackerSpaceTH@gmail.com. If you just happened across this page, cannot visit us here in Bangkok, but would like to get involved, check out this Wikipedia list of hackerspaces around the globe.
