RFC : A Long Running DIY Workshop

I have been seeing visibly increasing interest in folks looking to do DIY projects involving at-least some hardware. Hardware DIY has a steeper learning curve than pure software. Compared to pure software, converting an idea to reality can take longer. Further, online communication groups can only go so far, due to tedious back and forth - hard to communicate ideas an so on. Offline meets significantly accelerate the process, and help build the groups and bonds required for multi-disciplinary ideas to take off.

This lightning talk will lay out the contours of a long running in-person workshop series that I am planning to start. Idea here is simple - people who want to "do" projects get together, decide to do something by consensus (some lightweight planning), learn and do together. Theory and practice is combined in the workshops. Roles are fluid, and folks can contribute by being facilitators and learners depending on the context. Spectators are welcome for a limited time, but sooner or later they are expected to jump in and do something.

The workshop series will cover varied areas of DIY including electronics, 3D modeling and printing, and of course all the software that is required. Essentially a whole gamut of stuff from tech to elbow-grease methods involving potentially even light carpentry... Not all at the same time of course, and duly curated by the attendees based on needs. That's why this is called a "long running" workshop - it's not one session or two - this is an experiment that will run for at-least 6 months.

Finally, there is a cost involved in hardware. Not everyone wants to invest up-front. Often it's not even clear what one should spend on. To bridge these gaps, the workshop plans to be co-located with a free (as in free food!!) open hardware library. This is envisioned as a shared resource built from donor-ware, accessible to people involved in the workshops without charge. Free for experimentation, without worry of breaking stuff !

Proposed as a lightning talk to get feedback on how this can run, and see who is interested in what.