[Noisebridge-discuss] South Bay Toolshop

[Christopher Rasch]

Hi y'all,

One of the spaces near the HackerDojo is up for rent.  (Jacob of Dalusso 
Design is moving to a bigger place).   Here are pics from before Jacob 
occupied the space:

http://jvlewis.com/for_lease_140d.html

I think it would make a great space for a workshop/tool lending library 
(aka "Southbay  Toolshop").   Right now, we have a great space for 
events and software development, but aside from the electronics lab, we 
don't have a good space for actual hardware hacking/fabrication/tools.  
To create a fabrication space in the existing buildings would interfere 
with their use as event space/software development (due to the noise and 
space taken up by the machines).  The 140d space would be ideal, as it 
meets the following criteria:

1) big (2800 ft2)
2) nearby (two doors down from the hackerdojo
3) owned by the same landlord
4) physically separate from Hackerdojo (no interference with existing uses)

In addition, as I'm sure is true for many of you, I have a number of 
tools that I make use of only rarely.  I would like to see these tools 
see more use.  It would also be quite nice to have access to tools I 
don't have that I need only infrequently.  A number of communities have 
created tool lending libraries to meet similar needs/desires:

http://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about_the_library/neighborhood_branches/tool_lending_library/
http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/Branches/temtll.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tool-lending_libraries
http://www.borrowtools.org/

Given the demographics of the South Bay, I think there's enough interest 
to support a tool lending library/workshop in Mountain View.

Here's a very preliminary list of what we would need to do to make this 
happen

* publicize and raise awareness among the hacker community to solicit 
pre-launch memberships
* raise the money for the lease and a few months operating expenses
* find people willing to sign the lease (likely to be 3+ years)
* approach potential corporate donors (Google, Apple, city of mountain 
view, etc.) to see if they would be willing to provide seed funding
* create a board of directors, corporate structure for the center
* investigate and buy insurance
* negotiate with landlord and sign the lease
* decide on hours, membership cost, tool lending schedule

I've created a mailing list for those who are interested in creating 
such a space:

http://groups.google.com/group/southbaytool/about

If you would like to contribute/join, please join this mailing list, and 
please forward this to anyone you think would be interested. We'll also 
be having a meeting (pending approval from the events team), scheduled 
for 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday at the HackerDojo (on the Deck) to discuss 
creating this workshop.   I'm planning to meet with the creators of 
other local tool libraries to get their input--if you know of anyone 
else who I should talk to, please let me know.

Chris