

What can a hackerspace do to help self learners? - freemanindia

I would like to hear suggestions people have for how to use a physical space and non-technical staff to help people taking the Stanford classes or signed up for codeyear.org be more successful.
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kipsfi
I'm a young student who was paying membership fees at a local hackerspace over
the last six months. I feel like I'm almost exactly the type of person you're
talking about; I went there and worked on assignments for my C.S. classes as
well as solo projects.

One thing I have to say is, I think it's important to encourage interaction.
My primary goal of going was to make connections with people. I would go,
there would be maybe ten people there, and everyone was plugged in to
headphones and I think I actually spoke with people a small hand full of
times. The times I did, I approached them and was treated as an intrusion.

Of course, it's very possible I was an intrusion and they wanted to be left
alone, or I approached them in the wrong way, who knows?

Anyways, this turned in to a bit of rambling, and I'm not positive I've helped
at all, but... Hopefully I did.

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laurenproctor
I agree with kipsfi completely, if the connecting part of the equation was
built into the experience we would see a lot of added value.

I would love to see some kind of skills exchange enter the equation so
everyone feels like they can contribute. Hackerbuddy.com tries to do this
virtually, but I could see the physical world giving this idea plenty more
oomph.

Hope that's helpful.

