Month: June 2017

Is DoES Liverpool Moving?

29th June 2017
"Is DoES Liverpool Moving?"

More important news here! – 22nd November 2017

You might have seen in the news, or heard on the rumour mill, stories about Gostins Building (DoES Liverpool’s current home) being sold. It’s been on the cards for ages and is part of the reason why we’ve been looking to move and expand, but a planning application to turn the building into a hotel doesn’t sound like a new owner who wants to keep the building as a hive of alternative and interesting entrepreneurial activity 🙂

So, what does this mean for DoES Liverpool?

In truth, not a massive change.  On a practical note, the new owners have changed the opening times for reception, so the front doors will be locked after 5pm (from Monday 3rd July 2017).  We’ll have to sort out keys and a doorbell for evening meetups – more on this once we’ve worked out the details.

As to the bigger picture, it’s not ideal, but we’re weighing up two options for a move at the moment and either of those will work as a new home for us. One is the same size we are now and well within our budget. The other is twice our current size, which would let us fit more businesses in and expand the workshop (separate wood and metalwork workshops anyone?) and who knows what else? But we’d need to find something like an extra £1000/month to fund it. That’d be easy as it fills up, but we need a plan to get there.

How can you help?

Obviously we’re really excited about the bigger space and aiming for that. I’m sure we’ll be back with more concrete tasks as the plans develop but in the mean time there are two ways you can help out.

Firstly, become a Friend of DoES Liverpool. This is our bottom level membership, for people who want to support what we’re doing financially but don’t need any of our paid services. Either set up a standing order for £9/month (bank info is here) and ping an email to hello@doesliverpool.com to let us know, or click the button below to set up a recurring payment with PayPal:




Secondly, come and take a desk in the current space. That’ll help our cashflow and forecasting plus you’ll get to hang out with an amazing community of people and (most importantly 😉 ) get first dibs on desks when we move. If you don’t need a desk yourself, tell whoever you know who might.

And if you want to keep abreast of developments, join the community discussion group or our (lower traffic, a handful of emails each year) announcements mailing list:

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Week 316 – Autonomous Kayaks, MakeFesting, and More

26th June 2017
  • weeknotes
  • Weeknotes
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"Week 316 – Autonomous Kayaks, MakeFesting, and More"

Each week we’ll endeavour to publish some details of the interesting things that members of DoES Liverpool have been up to over the past seven days. You can find out a bit more about them in our introductory post.

And remember, if you’re involved with DoES Liverpool at all, let us know what you get up to so we can include it here!

Things of Note

Coming Up in the Next Week

Monday 26 June, 7:00pm-9:00pm Wearables Group
Thursday 29 June, 6:30pm-9:00pm Maker Night
Thursday 29 June, 6:00pm-7:00pm Organisers’ Meeting

Somebody Should

The DoES Liverpool to-do list is stored in the issues of our Somebody Should repository on github. Head over there if there’s something you’d like to report, or if you want to help out fixing things.

Issue counts: 184 open, 336 closed

3 new issues:

4 issues closed:

Thanks DefProc!

Community Content

DoES exists to support the community that uses DoES. If you use DoES, then you are part of that community. If you would like to publicise something related to DoES, you can email hello@doesliverpool.com with the formatted content for us to use as a new blog post. Tell us what you’re up to, and we’ll show the world what epic stuff happens at DoES!

Looking back on Liverpool Makefest 2017

25th June 2017
"Looking back on Liverpool Makefest 2017"

 

DoES Liverpool had a great time at Liverpool Makefest on Saturday. We showed off what we do and make, made new friends and got back in contact with some old ones. Thanks to everyone who helped out as exhibitors, volunteers, and behind the scenes. Also to the Makefest organisers, especially Mark and Jen who worked so hard to make the event a success.

For those who couldn’t be there, here’s a selection of DoES-related photos, mainly from Twitter and Instagram …

The Electric Liverbird (on the 2nd floor):

Made Invaders:

The DoES stand:

Repurposed Tosca screen with large DoES Liverpool logo and work by Hexceramic and SilentBelle:

See you at Makefest.

A post shared by DoES Liverpool (@doesliverpool) on

We’re right at the top left in this photo:

#LivMF2017

A post shared by Liverpool MakeFest (@lpoolmakefest) on

Paul Geering’s unique Nixie clock:

 

… and as you can’t see it in the previous photos, here’s a picture of Andy Goodwin’s ROV:

Autonomous rover prototype testing.

A post shared by Andy Goodwin (@franticuk) on

From the Fomocam:

vivian/00:14:30.jpg

Some official pictures with official watermarks(see more at https://www.facebook.com/pg/liverpoolmakefest/photos):

 

DoES maker day regulars visiting Laura Pullig’s stall:

After party:

 

Looking forward to next year.

Week 315 – Robots, Awards, and a Trip to the Zoo

19th June 2017
"Week 315 – Robots, Awards, and a Trip to the Zoo"

Each week we’ll endeavour to publish some details of the interesting things that members of DoES Liverpool have been up to over the past seven days. You can find out a bit more about them in our introductory post.

And remember, if you’re involved with DoES Liverpool at all, let us know what you get up to so we can include it here!

Things of Note

Coming Up in the Next Week

Wednesday 21 June, 6:30pm-8:00pm Friends of the Earth
Thursday 22 June, 6:30pm-9:00pm Maker Night
Thursday 22 June, 6:00pm-7:00pm Organisers’ Meeting

Somebody Should

The DoES Liverpool to-do list is stored in the issues of our Somebody Should repository on github. Head over there if there’s something you’d like to report, or if you want to help out fixing things.

Issue counts: 185 open, 332 closed

3 new issues:

1 issue closed:

Thanks jackie1050!

Community Content

DoES exists to support the community that uses DoES. If you use DoES, then you are part of that community. If you would like to publicise something related to DoES, you can email hello@doesliverpool.com with the formatted content for us to use as a new blog post. Tell us what you’re up to, and we’ll show the world what epic stuff happens at DoES!

Maker Difference

18th June 2017
"Maker Difference"

Liverpool Libraries are running a new programme of Maker activities in libraries this year. Building on the success of Make Fest and Liverpool Code Club the Maker Difference project will bring more opportunities for young people to engage in making across the city.

There will be four new mini maker spaces, with 3d printing, vinyl cutting and electronics kit available in Central, Toxteth, Speke and Norris Green libraries. This new kit will be supported by workshops and new code clubs to help introduce new makers to the tech. This funding will also support Make Fest on 24th June and a smaller Young Makefest in March 2018. There will also be commissioned projects by WeHeartTech, DomesticScience, Jen Fenner and Re-Dock.

One of the things that’s sometimes hard to capture at DoESLiverpool (despite the #weeknotes script) and the wider maker community, are the stories behind every cool thing you see at events like Liverpool Makefest that helped pave the way for MakerDifference.

Conversations in the workshop and across desks between people are where it all begins and Maker Difference comes from this place; Liverpool Library Services then making the time and space to listen to these conversations. There’s a lot of subtle advocacy at work in DoES even though we famously don’t do anything, just provide a space for people to do things. But these people often care a lot about not just what they are working on but on the wider ecosystem around their field and that means Maker Difference can benefit from the advice and support of that community without worrying they are dropping a programme on people ‘from space’ that might not feel right as can often happen.

It’s worth remembering it’s not really about 3d printers or lasers or LoRaWAN it’s how people share their knowledge and ideas; in little bursts, informally but often; and then the interesting often silly little conversations they have; or small scale tests, and prototypes that then lead to the systems and events the wider public can see. And if you share your knowledge with people surrounded by impact sensors, LED displays, Moteinos, ESP8266 boards, Arduinos, vinyl cutters, hot presses, text adventures and  microbit robots, exciting things happen.

It’s the hidden social glue and advocacy of DoES Liverpool that many makerspaces and hackspaces have but we are lucky to mix uniquely with co-working and we hope by supporting projects like Maker Difference we can pass that on so that the events, clubs, commissions all get mixed up in the way they get mixed up at DoES.

Week 314 – 100Pi Week!

12th June 2017
"Week 314 – 100Pi Week!"

Each week we’ll endeavour to publish some details of the interesting things that members of DoES Liverpool have been up to over the past seven days. You can find out a bit more about them in our introductory post.

And remember, if you’re involved with DoES Liverpool at all, let us know what you get up to so we can include it here!

Things of Note

Coming Up in the Next Week

Monday 12 June, 7:00pm-9:00pm Wearables Group
Thursday 15 June, 6:30pm-9:00pm Maker Night

Somebody Should

The DoES Liverpool to-do list is stored in the issues of our Somebody Should repository on github. Head over there if there’s something you’d like to report, or if you want to help out fixing things.

Issue counts: 183 open, 331 closed

5 new issues:

No issues closed

Community Content

DoES exists to support the community that uses DoES. If you use DoES, then you are part of that community. If you would like to publicise something related to DoES, you can email hello@doesliverpool.com with the formatted content for us to use as a new blog post. Tell us what you’re up to, and we’ll show the world what epic stuff happens at DoES!

Week 313 – Crazy Magnets, LoRaWAN Deployments, and More

5th June 2017
  • weeknotes
  • Weeknotes
  • Comments Off on Week 313 – Crazy Magnets, LoRaWAN Deployments, and More
"Week 313 – Crazy Magnets, LoRaWAN Deployments, and More"

Each week we’ll endeavour to publish some details of the interesting things that members of DoES Liverpool have been up to over the past seven days. You can find out a bit more about them in our introductory post.

And remember, if you’re involved with DoES Liverpool at all, let us know what you get up to so we can include it here!

Things of Note

Coming Up in the Next Week

Tuesday 06 June, 6:00pm-8:00pm Wearables
Wednesday 07 June, 7:00pm-9:00pm Liverpool Linux User Group
Thursday 08 June, 9:00am-6:00pm Jelly Liverpool
Thursday 08 June, 5:30pm-8:00pm Lock Picking Event
Thursday 08 June, 6:30pm-9:00pm Maker Night
Saturday 10 June, 10:00am-5:00pm Maker Day

Somebody Should

The DoES Liverpool to-do list is stored in the issues of our Somebody Should repository on github. Head over there if there’s something you’d like to report, or if you want to help out fixing things.

Issue counts: 178 open, 331 closed

5 new issues:

1 issue closed:

Thanks goatchurchprime!

Community Content

DoES exists to support the community that uses DoES. If you use DoES, then you are part of that community. If you would like to publicise something related to DoES, you can email hello@doesliverpool.com with the formatted content for us to use as a new blog post. Tell us what you’re up to, and we’ll show the world what epic stuff happens at DoES!

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