Application

Jeff Atwood tells me that I have to keep the posts coming if I am to obtain anything from this writing process. It doesn't matter if they're good or bad - the posts must be written - sorry! He writes the excellent blog 'Coding Horror'. There's a lot of good stuff for coders in there as well as some nice humour. But it's the variety of topics that impresses me and keeps reminding me that I have to branch out a bit - perhaps.

Anyway, I'm currently looking into the possibility of taking on some kind of part time engineering course at a local community college to hone my practical machining skill's while I don't have any workshop of my own. I did find that the Thames Gateway College provides the C&G course that I have talked about before on a part time basis. However, they don't mention what 'part time' means in terms of timetable specifics. It might just mean 'three days a week' which wouldn't really work for me. I've put in an application anyway so we'll see what happens. I also got accepted on a Welding Course at Newham College but I'm not going to take it on now as I'd really like to crack on with some machining. Oddly Newham don't understand the concept of part time evening courses either. The classes are in the evenings but the enrollment is scheduled for 10:00am on a Tuesday? Work anyone?

Oh well, I could write more but the bus is pulling into Victoria now so it'll have to wait until my return journey. Should I re-title the blog: 'Elliot's banal bus blog'?

TechShop

Recently I described my wish for an inner city community based workshop resource. This would enable those of us living in limited city abodes to get workshop time on some cool machinery and thus exercise some creativity. Well it looks like something similar is already advancing well in the US and on a typically American scale too. TechShop offers its members shop-time on a wide range of equipment on a subscription basis. Furthermore it also offers classes and training to ensure that tools are used safely.

The range of the equipment is impressive and includes tools for automotive repairs, laser etching, plasma cutting, electronic engineering, and sheet metal work. Access to tools can be booked and memberships are managed with RFID tags. Memberships are reasonably priced at around £600 a year - which I personally think is pretty good - I'd rather join TechShop than some Soho members club!

The question is: When will TechShop cross the Atlantic?

Maker shop

I recently had an idea for we creative urbanites. I love living in a city but unless I happen to suddenly come into a lot of cash I'll be confined to a flat. That pretty much rules out any kind of shed, garage, or workshop where I can tinker or play with heavy machinery without upsetting my neighbours. And surely there are so many others in the same position - unable to exercise their mechanically creative bent due to lack or tools and a place to keep and operate those tools.

The same is true of exercise equipment. But thankfully - if you are so inclined - you can join a gym. So why not organize some kind of membership based city workshop? The idea would be to get together and house a collection of workshop tools in a suitable inner city location. Member subscriptions would pay for the operation and upkeep of the workshop. The cost could be split across many members who would have access to facilities beyond the reach of even the best equipped personal sheds and such! Makers living in even the tiniest studios would have a place to create and construct and the community feel would no doubt generate an excellent creative environment that would encourage the transfer of knowledge and skills.

Of course there would be some hurdles - health and safety would be a huge concern. In the gym would this is tackled by having inductions and trained supervisors. Could we not have similar in our workshop clubs?

I also think that there are a few different models of operation that we could adopt:

• Commerical operation - for profit, income from membership subscriptions.


• Not for profit collective - a group of individuals get together and run the club for the benefit of themselves


• Community project - Involve the local community, make links with technical colleges etc., gather funding from the local council.


• or perhaps a mix or some of the above?

Now I should mention that this idea is not wholly original - there was an episode of CSI where a group of combat robot enthusiasts operated a similar venture. In this instance one of the characters gave shop time to friends (and enemies as the plot required). But don't let that put you off.