Should the venue be central? Can it be in the 'suburbs', say, Bukit Timah? :P

Do add additional ideas and comments into the HackerspaceSGIdeas page

suburbs should be cool, bring it underground

i would rather have a more unique hackerspace experience where the ambience is truly Singaporean - Coffee Shops and also halal food is served for our muslim fellows. (Note: Muslims can be an indian, caucasian or chinese.. and not exclusive to malays only).

Think Toastbox with computers.

I'm sorry but we're not planning to become a food and beverage place. I don't think we have the experience or the time to go into a full time food and beverage hackerspace. But thanks for the feedback. We all miss geek terminal.

Geek terminal serves only non-halal food plus it's pricey. There is no point for muslims to go there except for drinks. I may have looked at an idea of a food &beverage place and i was mistaken.

Just an idea of a location to be next to a nice 24hour eatery so you don't need to bother about food and beverages. Personally, i don't care much about gourmet food but just to fill my stomach...

If it is another geek-terminal i'd rather just not bother. To call it a hacker hangout is an understatement. ;)

Yeap. We are definitely looking into that and looking at some locations. if you can suggest locations feel free to update the wiki and add in a possible locations section and make a list. It'll help us greatly when we're finding out the prices of rents from places.

Currently rental price it the top concern. Things like location come second.

When it comes to location, I agree with Muhammad Nuzaihan. It is preferable to find a place near 24hr eatery, which also serve halal food.

However we need to take note of any legal issues that we might need to look at. Having a meeting place which is temporary (such as McD,Starbucks) do not require a license (societies Act) but looking at having a permanent location we might need to be registered under the non-profit organisation under societies act but i might be wrong but it's worth to enquire about it so as to not have issues with the law.

Even businesses need to be registered if they need an office.

F&B ??!!

Come on guys, this is HackSpace you're taking about~

Just toss a few Delivery Menus (Mac & PizzaHut & such) lotsa caffinated drinks and there you go.

What's needed is to determine, what exactly do you guys thinks that a HackerSpace should be.

It's not just someplace with wireless network and drinks, that we have starbucks, if you need beer to go with, feel free to find any pubs to negotiate a special geek's night out stuff...

Don't just start another project cause you can, start one only when you see the need.

Soldering Iron, PCB test board, EPROM chips, batteries, and such.... given the above and your laptop with an RS232 connections, if you do feels excited, then join in the club, else, join the various user groups in SG for discussions and consultancy issue, FOSA for OpenSource and Biz integration...

Operating and maintenance of a gathering group event such as HackSpace is both time and money consuming.....

Not bashing here, just wanna make sure that we're not going to waste this much efford from all participating into something that's gonna run for only a few months.....

Agreed. Thus there might be a need to comply with the law if we were to have a permanent venue. I've been to 2600 in singapore, but it was nobody in it, probably one or two guys.

Perhaps we should open it up to be more generic for 2600 or defcon singapore meetups too as the venue as well as it is very related to what hackerspace is about.

But it's not a F&B establishment, it's just a space for us to do our work, which i feel it would be a good place for jellies (http://www.workatjelly.com/) to meet up.

Of course if we have a 24/7 venue we need to replenish ourselves with a nearby eatery which operates 24/7, but if you're opting for deliveries... i don't know... but let's open up for choices, nearby 24/7 eateries and you can have deliveries.

But the main standing issue is whether we need a license for a venue (as a society) so that we will not be charged for illegal gathering. To be honest, i don't like the law, but still i don't want to get into trouble.

@Muhammad Nuzaihan: Thanks for all that comments. We will look into all the legal issues too in time to come. We *might* incorporate a company and running this like a business in order to comply with the law. Or register as a non-profit organization. Or something else altogether. If anyone knows more about this, please feel free to leave a comment or edit the wiki.

@Murphy Tok: Thanks for all the comments. Keep them coming in and add more of your concerns on the wiki. We will make sure we address each and every concern and issue there is and we can try to come up with a solution together. Your experience is valuable to the progress and realization of this hackerspace.

Thanks guys! Keep them coming in.

Should be written as :

$ cat /dev/brain | grep Ideas > HackerspaceSGIdeas
$ cat /dev/brain | grep Projects > HackerspaceSGProjects

Justin asked to to add my thoughts so I will add them here.

Main Value: I am a very spartan person so main things I will need are power and internet access. Drinks can be provided via a vending machine and maybe so small snacks from a vending machine too. I think vending machines are probably the better way to go as it cuts down on man power cost. As for the furniture, maybe a few tables for serious working and a few sofas for chit chat etc.

Community: Another thing I would like is a check in/check out system. That will increase the community feel and if I can check who is there, it will probably increase the chances that I will go there.

Location: Somewhere central but not too exp. 5-10 min walk from an MRT is fine.
Competition: National library building in Bugis, coffee shops with wireless@sg AND power plugs, LAN shops

Thks Meng for the mail. I like the concept, like the membership levels, like the location (though never been there but from map its smack in middle of town) but the membership fees are a bit high. If I were still solo'ing and on my own I prob won't mind the cost of a membership (ie $128) for the privilege of having a hotdesk (if only to have a spot in town) tho' it seems hotdesking is actually $256.

But since I *do* have an office now, hotdesking is redundant for me and just having bragging rights to plonk on hackspace sofa is a too rich for me.

This is personal opinion, I do appreciate the community efforts so far, very admirable but the pragmatic me says I can get 'hotdesk' plus books in National Library, similar in Starbucks/McD etc. Value of hackerspace is community there but price is too much for struggling entrepreneurs.

Hi,
I love this idea and would love to pledge support as a member. However, (you just knew there was a however), I'm currently working and won't be using the space most of the week (i.e. Mon-Fri). Even if I do come and use the space, I don't foresee needing to leave stuff there.
I would suggest another tier of membership between trial and regular member for individuals like me. Consider it non-peak membership (or maybe actually, in this regard, weekends are actually the peak period), peak-membership.
This new membership tier will be:
Hang out on the sofas. Use the workbench. 24 Hour access on weekends, weekdays after 6. Cost is $60 a month. Clear up after you leave. Any shit left behind is considered donation.

On another note, I'm guessing it might be hard to enforce the only after 6 on weekdays rule. It would probably have to be based on an honor system or metered system. For example, if records shows you're actually spending more than X number of hours on weekdays, then, upgrade is a must. Or you buy beer for everyone each time.

if you want to take a desk on weekends, go ahead and sign up for a regular or youth rate, and we'll re-evaluate after six months. we're in the fuzzy front end right now anyway so we'll see how things evolve, this is just a base case. we'll make it work one way or another.

and do remember to pledge publicly on the web page.

btw, hello to all eChelon guys from the e27 event today.

LOL, I was searching for hacking something and found this website. Awesome. I'm more of a supporter than a hacker here so please take me as a IT idiot, I don't mind. What I might do for this community is that I can find you guys funds in return for honest work and contributions. So something you guys might consider to get funds for this community.