Seeking Serendipity

This evening I attended the TechStars first HackSpace. Thanks to the kind folks at TechStars for hosting, and Gnip for feeding.

I saw a lot of computers and some studious activity, but wasn’t sure how much coding was achieved. Some corners seemed heads down, but with roughly 50 people in the room the easier opportunity was for socializing.

I chatted with a few folks I’d met before (e.g. at iPhone Dev Camp) and then met some new ones. What I found fascinating was their ideas, their apps, their sites. What they were doing was more than just interesting to me, it helped me fit my thoughts (and a few feelings) into place. Others with hopes for a site, intentions for an app or plug-in. Progress, lessons learned, challenges. Having fun and serious business. Being amongst others in similar situations was powerfully ‘right’. I learned more than I suspect I realized.

I had a great evening with wonderful people & am grateful for the event.

But, I couldn’t easily walk the whole room and check out what was occurring (I’m not the party crasher @penguin is ;-)) and hence I didn’t learn from everybody in the room. I didn’t learn all the projects, and maybe I missed some ones I’d have stopped and coded for. I didn’t know who was looking for help (if anybody) and who was offering help. What I’d like to see for the next one is this:

• A consistent Twitter hashtag for the next event (#hackspaceboulder was too long, some used #hacknite, some #hacknight but both lacked location.) Perhaps propose a short unique tag with the announcement.
• Folks to post (tweet/blog/whatever) their intention to attend, but also mention their project and their needs/wants. e.g. Anybody interested (or experienced with) OAUTH for Rails want to blah, blah…
• Folks to post their learnings (the serendipitous insights that spring from the conversations.) During and afterwards.

Again, great event, thanks…