A few weeks ago I tweeted about holding some kind of code-oriented meetup here in Edmonton. This was prompted by a conversation Paul, Adam, Jordan and myself had at Railsconf. We were talking about how DemoCamp, while loads of fun, doesn’t fully satisfy us. The demos are usually interesting and the networking is always great fun. But for those of us who love the act of building shit, DemoCamp doesn’t scratch the entire itch. I want to build stuff, check out what others are building, and learn about a bunch of awesome geek stuff that I haven’t had a chance to experiment with myself. DemoCamp isn’t the place for this.

Whisk quickly responded and took some initiative by getting everyone on Twitter to organize their thoughts on a wiki (which has since been moved here). I was pretty surprised by the amount of interest we generated in such a short time, and we decided to start using the hashtag #yegspace to follow discussion on Twitter.

Last night was the first official yegspace meeting. We had about 12 people show up, which was awesome! It was strictly a preliminary meeting to determine the common vision of yegspace. It went a little bit longer than I had expected but I’m very happy with the progress we made. After some introductions, we went around the table and listened to everyone describe their ideal yegspace. As it turned out, everyone largely envisioned the same thing and we managed to turn out a mission statement:

“To facilitate technological creativity, innovation and education in an open and collaborative workspace within Edmonton.”

As corny as mission statements can be, I think it was really useful for us to develop one. It’s helped articulate the direction we want to take this thing. We also cam up with a list of central tenets.

Some of the main points from last night:

• We want to provide an environment where people can go work on pet [technical] projects, without commercial pressure
• We want to promote collaboration between members. Members will be encouraged to explore other member’s projects and should expect to be asked about theirs
• In addition to the open work time, we’ll hold regular educational sessions, tutorials and demos
• There will be some kind of formal membership, including a membership fee
• We need a permanent physical space that’s easily accessible by public transit and is available 24/7
• For legal and administrative reasons, the group will likely become become a non-profit organization

Although they’re listed on the wiki, the full meeting notes look like a work in progress. Watch that page for updates if you’re interested.

The big focus, in my opinion, is encouraging collaboration between people. It’s going to be very informal; just show up and work on whatever interests you. Projects can be all across the board, from writing software to building robots. And you should feel comfortable asking others about their projects and sharing your own.

Another major aspect is the fact that there is no pressure for members to commercialize their projects. It’s building for the sake of building. Of course if someone wants to commercialize their projects, that’s totally cool. But the point of yegspace is to create a place where innovators can invent without being hassled with the ubiquitous “What’s the business model?” question.

So the next step will be finding a permanent space. This is going to be a challenge, especially while maintaining reasonable membership fees. I think we all agreed that there may be a few month of bootstrapping that require members pay a higher amount (ex: $200/month) to cover all the expenses. Then, as membership grows, we can reduce individual fees. Also, because yegspace will likely be structured as a non-profit corporation, it may qualify for government funding and sponsorship. The details for generating sufficient revenue will need to be discussed more in depth, but I think there are a number of possible options.

At this point, I have two concerns:

1. I don’t want this to turn into a co-working location The idea of co-working is very cool (and Edmonton needs one!), but that’s not what this is about. Last night we discussed the possibility of having some “office” space so members could occasionally meet with clients if necessary. At the time I was okay with the idea, but the more I think about it the more I dislike it. The purpose of this group is to provide a space that lets people create collaboratively. Providing office space doesn’t really align with our mission statement. If you’re looking for cheap office space, go to the Edmonton Research Park. I think we’ll just have to play this one out and see how it goes. As long as it doesn’t take away from the main purpose, then I suppose it doesn’t really matter.
2. Cost. People were tossing around numbers like $200 per month. That’s silly. That high of membership fee is going to make this completely inaccessible to a large number of people. I realize that’s what renting a space would cost, but $200/month is prohibitively expensive. We need to explore alternatives first—for example, the city or another organization might be willing to donate or partially subsidize space. We might also qualify for some of government funding. In any event, people last night seemed too willing to accept a high membership fee. Keeping this accessible is crucial, and we have to work within the constraints of keeping it financially feasible.

The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 28. Again, this will be a planning meeting to further discuss renting space and membership fees. We haven’t decided on a time or location, so watch the wiki and Twitter if you’re interested in attending.

You can follow the #yegspace discussion on Twitter (the name yegspace is likey going to change, however, so keep your eyes on the wiki).

Thanks again to everyone who showed up, and especially to Don and Chris for letting us use the ProTraining boardroom!