Hack and Learn Meetup

Hack and Learn Meetups are low-overhead workshops where participants come together to work on online coursework in a casual environment that focuses on individuals working at their own pace, but also being able to get help and work with others when they want.

Audience

People who like to tinker and who are interested in learning more about the intersection between software and hardware.

Purpose

• Meet other tinkerers and hardware aficionados
• Learn how to hack on different types of hardware and software
• Experiment and/or bootstrap your own hardware project

Format

• Can be a short workshop of a couple of hours on a weekday, or a longer full day (8 hours) on the weekend.
• Event can be hosted as often or as seldom as desired.
• Event starts with a short kick-off session:
  • Host introduces the topic for the workshop (eg. Tessl), and introduces the concept of the Hack and Learn Meetup.
  • Host has people who are mentors raise their hands so everyone knows who to ask questions from.
  • If there is hardware provided by the host, host introduces that hardware and distributes it according the number of devices vs. number of participants.
  • Wifi password, url of online course, twitter hashtag for event (optional) should be displayed in a prominent place.

Requirements

• 1 mentor for every 8 participants
• Topic and online course chosen and set up ahead of time
• Participants must bring their own laptops (or event host ensures there are enough laptops to be shared)

Resources

• Node school workshops
• Rust by example online workshop
• Video recording of Michael Henretty introducing the meetup concept to community space stewards