A really smart guy I met on Twitter, Ken Wehr aka Eater, a former U.S. Army Ranger who works for Google, kept telling me Freeside was like nothing else in Atlanta. No kidding! Wehr, Freeside Technology Spaces’ Founding President and Director, recently transferred to Google New York. Freeside is a totally cool hacker space, sort of a geek cave, located in historic West End in Atlanta, GA. What exactly is a hacker space? By definition, it’s a place where people passionate about science, technology, and digital projects can meet, collaborate and hang out. It can be an open community lab, a machine shop, a work shop, a studio or a combination of these where people can share resources and knowledge to build neat stuff. Here’s a San Francisco hacker space featured in Wired.
Freeside has about 50 members made up of coders, makers, and information security researchers. It’s a Georgia nonprofit organized for public benefit, a collective. It began as a group who met at Manuel’s Tavern in Inman Park and moved to its current space in June, 2009. Freeside has 5,500 square feet of awesome space in the Metropolitan Warehouses. TechDrawl Contributing Editor, Marisa Sharpe, recently visited Freeside and toured the place with Raiford Storey and Madelynn Martiniere.
Members have 24/7 access and lots of privileges, so Freeside is kind of picky about who joins, but they are a friendly bunch and welcome new members. To find an existing member to sponsor you (the first step for membership), start attending events and get involved. Read more about joining. Here are some of their awesome projects.
Freeside is funded by member dues with 10% of membership reserved for “starving hackers”– full time students or recently laid off people. They also seek grants, teach classes, and hold fund-raisers to offset monthly costs and equipment purchases.
I like the concept of free hacker classes! They offer awesome classes on things my dad never taught me like arc welding (although he did teach me how to solder). Arc welding uses a welding power supply to create an electric arc between an electrode and the base material to melt the metals at the welding point. Freeside teaches other neat stuff like breakaway glass molding and casting, Python, and circuit breaking.
Unless otherwise noted, classes are open to the public and are free. Some are recurring, informal meet-ups and others are more formal lectures or hands-on activities. However, donations are encouraged so Freeside can continue to host free classes and keep their non-profit corporation afloat.
Below is some footage of someone identified only as Matt teaching a class on how to arc weld a gap.
Here’s a video on circuit bending:
They keep a running list of stuff you want to learn and of stuff you can teach others.
So, visit Freeside’s blog (whose minimalist esthetic fits the hacker culture), follow them on Twitter, join their Facebook Group and apply for membership. Here is more info on Freeside where I want to sign up for arc welding or maybe wire bending 101!
Here’s a video on working at Google New York where Eater works:
[Photo of Eater: wiki.FreesideAtlanta.org]
