We’re happy to see some links rolling in from our call for Hackerspace introductions. This is sort of a reintroduction of The Geek Group. They’ve been around for a while and we’ve featured several interesting projects coming out of the collective (check out this pulse capacitor autopsy). You may remember some tax woes they ran into when the home base was located in Kalamazoo, but they’ve moved past the issue and moved out of town. This is their new location in Grand Rapids, MI and you can get a peek at the tour starting about 4:45 into the video after the break. Be warned, there is some mildly vulgar language in the video in the form of the ‘S’ word (you’re welcome cubicle dwellers).
We hope you’ll look at the video and see that we don’t need to you spend a week in post-production. Give us a tour by video as if we were there in person. Show us what you’re up to and we’ll be eternally grateful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJq2wO-8LS0
I like that this is a non-profit org… It surely does not solve everything, but it helps.
Not all maker joints are non-profit, and I have concerns about those that are for-profit. Why pay to build something that someone else says they own?
Thoughts?
It should be pointed out that the embedded video is of “the captain’s blog” and not the official geek group youtube channel. Their official channel can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/thegeekgroup
That’s an AWESOME facility you guys have there.
oly crap! I am from GR! Im in Japan right now working at the kagawa national college of technology but during summer break \, I will definitely be checking out hackerspace in GR….actually been trying to set up one here where unlike the lab where the students are restricted to their graduation research, they could be free to explore anything that they want….problem is real estate…comes at a premium here, including just your own desktop area…getting any new workspace comes harder than pulling teeth!
some of that video equipment looks like it came from grjc now grcc…
I live one block away from this place. I actually wasn’t sure if it was a hackerspace or not. Sweet. I drive by it every day. They moved in a little over a year ago.
Very cool. It might be worth the trek from the A2 a couple of times a week and will keep the wife’s “stink eye” in check 🙂 I’ll have to put this on the todo list. Happy about the non-profit part as it would still fit in with my own NP venture 🙂 Also NP keeps you using your mind to solve problems for the space in a cost-effective manner and promotes a community feeling as folks are more willing to share knowledge and even gear 🙂
Hacker Spaces for profit should be considered with caution. It seems like it would attract a certain type of personality :-/
This makes me both happy and sad. A few years back, I went to a small presentation in their kalamazoo lab and was quite interested, as I live in kalamazoo. Unfortunately, a year or so later when I became interested again, they had closed up shop in kalamazoo, and now it’s a fairly long drive to get to the new lab.
It’s odd that I have to learn about a local hackerspace through HAD. this place is a 20 minute drive for me. Much closer than D-town or Chicago by 2+ hours.