The Guild: The Rise and Fall of Syracuse's Hackerspace

thanks for coming everyone my name is Beaumanoir C I am here today to talk to you about the syracuse innovators guild which was Syracuse New York's first hyperspace you know hackerspaces makerspaces

essentially just kind of a community operated space where people come together work on projects you know socialize have fun you know the idea is to reach out to the communities who expressed an interest in tech topics and all sorts of things so I'm here today to talk about the history our group where we came where we went and so and so forth so the Syracuse innovators skills started in 2010 I was just really a bunch of people in the local community we started we our founder posted a Craigslist of all places he I don't know why he chose Craigslist really the honest truth I had found out about it I saw the post when I was looking for a

new apartment so it was a really random thing for me um you know I Emil the guy we all started meeting up at coffee shops restaurants bars just trying to dress the moment so it was just a really rough concept in the early days what you know we've formed we had formed enough interest to we felt that it was right to incorporate um we you know one of the early things that I've quickly found out about and that's I wanted to kind of convey in a group like this is that you know there's a balance that's needed in whatever endeavor that you do I don't know I mean everyone here has heard about makerspace but is is anyone here I

guess involved in organizing like this or yeah there's a couple of former organizers of the guild here but anyone that runs a let's say a small group at your local university or okay that's fine well you know the challenge behind a group something like this is that when you're trying to drive interest in any particular topic is you want to not take on too much burden but you also want to show commitment so you know during the early days we decided to form a group that would we did have I guess I don't want to say burdens but we didn't have expenses we did have things that we had to pay for as far as a an

operating space a machines tools people's time but you know we also wanted to keep those minimal and thus its we kind of failed in that effort uh long story short the group did guess far as formally incorporating adopting a home but as you can see here the group only exists now is kind of this virtual entity in a couple years ago we had to shut our doors down because we kind of jumped to too quick too soon we took way too many financial responsibilities on early on and due to various mistakes that we made the group that wasn't able to pay its bills so I'm gonna talk about a couple of those but as it stands today

the group exists as a 501 C 3 a fully a nonprofit at the federal level but we don't have an actual physical space of the shuttle so how did we get there well as I mentioned the group was founded in 2010 our founder posted a Craigslist I personally saw a few of our other members sitting up here I saw it by a meet-up meetup his was one of the best resources that our group it essentially allows us to get the word out very easily very quickly it provided us a lot of tools that we were able to quickly leverage to show it show what was happening and where so I personally thought me up was a great adapt a great

tool if you if you have a group like this I really encourage you to adopt meetup because it's cheap and it's it allows you get to work out so here I collect some aggregates just extra or this is all over the whole lifetime of it on the left you can see the meetups by calendar month and on the upper left and on the lower left you see the number attendees by specific calendar month and on the right you see the aggregate Nino's now unfortunately you know this is the complete picture I took the every single Meetup I ran the numbers and this is what the group did now I have to say that you know some things that the group did

weren't done through Meetup and you know for example some people that sign up by Meetup and show up and vice versa so this may be kept least 90% of it there's things that happen with this group outside of it that's true so there was a lot of different groups in the circus to me that was using our space for various purposes um you know I was hoping that this these graphs show would show us a little bit more as to why the group didn't but it's really you know there isn't a lot of information in this graphs besides the fact that was fairly active during the entire course of his lifetime right you can see that

there's only a few gaps in the number of meetups but it you know per month uh but even that being said you know the group was the space was being used during that time so you know just because there was an informal meetup there's an that people weren't in the space and you know working on projects socializing and whatnot um also on the left are on the right excuse me you know there really isn't it wasn't a particular time of year that was more conducive to hacking you know maybe you can see here in June and October there was more attendance but you know I don't want to really draw any conclusions so again this just goes

to show that the group was active during you know the five of the five years that was operational ah and it was doing things now here is where the story gets a little bit more interesting uh we see the average attendees by type and topic I mean left we see a very nice promising a picture that looks really good in the sense that workshops presentations social events these are accounted for more than half of the things that the group did so people that came in to visit the guild they saw that we were doing stuff about you we were doing we were working on projects we were having cool presentations we were you know having

discussions on all sorts of topics which is great this is what people come to these sorts of groups for on the flip side a really bad part was the fact organization was such a large slice you know when you come to a group like this you don't want to see people just doing like kind of a bureaucracy you know just talking about how do we make money how do we you know so and so forth this stuff is necessary you know you can't just completely discount it but you know you really require a balance and I think that's one of the key words that I want to drive in all this you need to kind of

a balance in your efforts um well in everything in life but especially with your efforts so you group like this you'd have to provide value you have to do you know technical things presentations and workshops but you also have to make money you know as much as we you know wish we could ignore it you know you have to pay the bills to keep a space open at the end of the day so you know the right balance pot in my opinion would have less on work side but you know you have to have some commitment to those type of activities and plus you know I think that people can do that work really well is be open you know

don't be don't try to foster this oh you have to be partners exclusive club to run the group you're just an attendee you know the more that you can reach out to people and say hey we need help doing stuff the more you bring in the more that you recognize people to count endeavors in an open uh you know very clear manner and the more conducive it will be to people joining your group so you know don't be afraid to discuss what you need and to help it to have to ask for help on the right side we see a nice picture we see that the group was head of weary wide diverse set of interests

um you know there was there really was any particular topic that was more interesting to others in the Syracuse community you know things may be like crypto cryptography and programming maybe a slightly more so than others but everything you know the group never shuts shut shunned anyway we had we opened our doors I never encountered any time which someone came to the group said hey I was interested in this and the group said no so I think that was something that the group did really well so here's a picture from our first home we had there's a few people in this room that you might recognize you know we had started meeting in 2010 we incorporated

in 2011 we committed our first space in 2012 early 2012 now the space was both the curstyn a blessing in my opinion I guess the cursed part was what I talked about before was that the bills way too high you know we didn't in my opinion we didn't do our homework before we moved into our space we found a space downtown which I think was the very first place recommended to us you know I myself included I didn't do any hunting as far as properties we just kind of jumped it showed commitment but you know we should've jumped into something a smaller boat we coulda man ah you know it was what it was that the

place has a special it had a special place in my heart because you know it was our first place you know we can see in our main area where we worked on projects so we had a kitchen we had on the lower right a bit of you know when you see our first wireless our first internet set up which is another keynote always have internet you know I can't survive without it their question just had something on his Lance for that that access point there was actually operating as a wireless branch from the building next door so we were next at that point we didn't even have our own internet access we're piggybacking off of somebody else but they've give us

permission to person yeah yeah there was quite a few hacks with this place I mean the the garage the parking spot hack I'm not gonna discuss cuz we may not have permission for that what what well yeah so there was our first space you know yeah downtown as I said parking is yeah one thing that the group did do right during its lifetime was we had a lot of really great presentations workshops I think this was the kind of the golden star that our group did you know I'm the upper left and the bottom right you see the hackers on a train tour Michelle Lynn came visit all the hacker spaces a lot of hacker space in the country and

can interlock in hours you know here we see it you know like early on it locks in Rochester hacker space you know when one of our organizational meetings early on our do we know de social events lightning talks you know this group as you saw in the slide a couple slides ago it was doing stuff all the time so you know I think this was one of the things that we did best as far as you know offering value to the community and you know we were we were promoting ourselves well and great effort from everyone who was we also worked on projects you know robots to 3d printers to a Bitcoin barber shop hole

that would light up whenever Bitcoin would go up and down the groups did the group did things you know it maybe not as many as as much emphasis on the projects part as on the presentations but still things were being done though you know there were a lot of projects that weren't finished you know you can see you got a robot that wasn't finished I make about this was more accomplished during the early days I know when we first started going to get we when I first got going you know people want to see what were you doing wait so I'm just kind of like crickets you know and it's it's really tough it's a tough sell you

know later on once we had some stuff under our belt we were able to you know that wasn't as big of an issue oh hey check out this cool thing or that right there was a giant uh you know keyboard that we're gonna we were building you know so you can play rock band with it it just never got finished yeah I guess that's another point um you know if you're running a group like this if you're involved with a group like this you know you might not necessarily have to finish your projects but you have I encourage you to get things to a point which you can demonstrate right it's you know it's embarrassing if you

if you don't have something to show and even if you know you have something to like it's kinda halfway there but we can use more help at least that gives people something to grasp on you what if you can't finish it repurpose it here you can see the keyboard turn into a coffee table you know this a lot of stuff came through this group that at first I was like oh my god you know we have someone showing but I actually kind of kind of liked it over time it kind of added an aesthetic to the space and you know we were all the policy was if you brought it to the space label it if you wanted to keep it

if not it belongs to the group people can use it eventually so what exactly then we had a discard pile that would eventually get sold so I think if you have a process dealing with stuff like this it's it's not as big of a shoe so out the other day why didn't we you know succeed well money you know we took on expenses that were not able to we weren't able to cover with her income here you see this was a chart that was made a fairly later on by one of her members you know you can see that we were at this point we were talking about increasing our dues and they weren't even that it wasn't

going to be enough to cover the cost in the long run so you know that's kind of a story in one picture right but you know that that chart was after you know a couple moves the first place we had was very expensive so we did find a second place kind of you know it was the Montour supposed to leave uh this space in my opinion was our best died this is my person my humble opinion you know we had a green screen room a the workshop we had a server room and just the group was really happening in this parrot during this period um watch out for landlords you know I've had every single

landlord private tried to pull shady stuff our first treasurer is smiling all right her smiling all right here um you know from people having super huge complicated lease agreements flipping things into lease agreements hoping that touched whole thing security deposits I actually sue at our first landlord because they wouldn't give us social security deposit back which she quickly did after he got a letter from the court which in that same beam I guess my advice on that would to be to quote ie Roosevelt in the sense that you know speak softly but carry a big stick you know be kind to your landlord be polite but don't be afraid to if he ever tried to refuse this year if he or she ever

tries something you know stand your ground if they try to pull some shady stuff like no it's not what we agreed to obviously in a polite way you know in almost every city across America across the world there's tons of vacant property is you know still dealing with the effect of the housing bubble and all that good stuff so use that to your advantage you know don't be afraid to negotiate run don't be afraid to say hey you know I'm involved with a smoker community group that we are we're offering a lot of value to our community you know don't you want a group like ours to be in their space you know if it

just said if you notice the space is sitting empty for a few years use that as a negotiating point so unfortunately our landlord second space kind of pulled a bait and switch the month I think our lease was due he said oh you know I rented it was due to renew I rented your space out to someone else you know well incidentally we have this other space he had this other space that was kind of going unused for a long time and now why don't you guys just move in here um you know it works you know I nice more money it was more money more space it's you know when it was when I was being using this rocking

you know it was there was a lot of fun events and whatnot but I personally yeah but we kind of took a step back because we moved from an area that was too expensive into a decent space for us and then ended up back in the same boat where we're once again paying really more than what we could have for it and it had a lot of potential and we didn't have to think there were there was good good good good and bad to it so we had no electric we did have to pay for electric right it was included so we could run space heaters right it still it was still cold in the wintertime but

you know so but all of our IT stuff that was running you know we even joked about you know setting up a Bitcoin mining in there because we weren't paying for electricity which we didn't do but um there was it definitely you know but it definitely what happened was that we you know as a group and this that was the last I came in in the second space was when I joined the group so what does it collectively as a group what we didn't learn was from that first base to the second space how much of a burden had been lifted off of us red wines yeah

yeah that's a good point I think that um you know coordinating efforts you know it's very important with a group like this it's a lot of people put a lot of hard work into this you know I think that was one of the biggest travesties you know tragedies that's what kind of was reflecting upon that it's like how did the group get to this point after putting in so much time and dedication and manpower but some you know part of it was not coordination part of it was again just some mistakes with financial financial finances and so forth and multi could add also I think that there was a big difference in vision so some

people felt that really the woodshop was like the best thing right and the fact that this plate this space had lots of room and we had we had a really large woodshop you know table saw the whole thing that that was the best you know that was the best piece of it we had an electronics workstation and everything had its place whereas the previous building everything was kind of tight and then other folks felt that you know the space really should have been heated and needed to look more professional so what we had was people's visions were kind of playing out in this in this collage rather than having a vision that everyone was behind to

support we ended up with lots of visions and I think that fractured the group in a lot of ways yeah I agree with that but I also disagree and yeah I would love to hear people's thoughts you know yeah I mean you want diversity in Cynthiana I think this goes back to what I said about balance before it's you want to reach out to be able to reach out to a lot of different people but at the same time yes you can't do everything all the time so you have to kind of focus efforts it's tough it's tough you know it's sure people that are maybe not involved in that maybe you're not even involved in organizing group but if

you're just a participant or an observer then you know you might see this as some of these things that you have meetings which so everyone's talking but nothing seems to be getting done or you know you have someone that's doing a good job on something but it's not being recognized you know every little one of these things that you know you can address and that you can try to solve a little bit even you know if you don't solve the big picture go a long way to help these sorts of groups especially in its you know incantation in the early days well here we see a kind of a more stark picture you know what kind of ultimate

reason why the group had a shot at stores you know things like rights utility use Internet they add up and it's not cheap so every time you every penny you can save the better don't be stingy you know there's again that balance that you needed me made you know look to look for in a vote innovative ways to repurpose the the tools and resources you have you know we took you know a lot of the old computers that we they were donated you know mix the match parts build a computer lab but don't be afraid to spend money on things to show that you know by 3d printer by Stephanie for workshops oh so you

know inevitable in 2015 two years ago we shut the door are the LAT the doors of our last space which you just saw the group had a fire sale we decided you know the interest wasn't there to continue operations at least for the time being what you know who knows maybe the group can spring to life again it's it's in cold storage you know I had all the stuff business you know in people's houses the community is still there I was talking to Marc outside you know circumstances would have to be right and we have it would take a lie I'm not denying what it could happen so that's where it stands the Syracuse hacker space does exist on paper but you

know don't jump in over here you get in over your heads I think that's one of the biggest things and first one here yeah sure so what would taking this post boring especially you guys an insider knowledge what are your suggestions or budgetary and ideas for this for organizations like this you think you know they should start utilizing public spaces like libraries and those sort of like endowment and then move into spaces or like what what do you think is a good strategy yeah I mean love here I like people's thoughts but the more you can piggyback on other people great you know if you have someplace someone that can offer a space for free

be careful with the endowments and the grants or something that you know we as I mentioned before we went the nonprofit route and various people will attested whether that's good or bad I'm looking at first treasurer because Chris he or he he he raised some good

mentality if we build it they will come so there was this over optimistic sort of view of okay well once we get out of space then more members will join and they'll all give us know in certain cities that might be doable in Syracuse with a stream sort of yeah I think a key thing is don't over commit yourself upfront I mean we started with you know less income than expenses so it was from day one we're like okay who's gonna throw an extra money this month to the next month and the next month and so make sure you're not overextending yourselves like that make sure you're budgeting wisely and if you can try to save money you

know and I would say to that you have to ask yourself why why do we need this space do we really have a reason is there any reason that we can't meet at the library so if you're if you're grassroots and if you're if you're you've got a grassroots movement and you're trying to build something then I think using a local library that has a space like for example we have Fayetteville that has 3d printers more than you know we've ever had but that didn't exist one dinner it didn't that that you know but today if we were going to do it again I would be in favor of like using that space for as long as we

could until we absolutely grew out of it and needed something else you know not just ego not like oh we have our own space but needed there are a couple other questions yeah is it's increase in the dues yeah yeah I think you know you it's the general philosophy is if you increase dudes you have to increase value right I mean white people people who are paying the current do is they're paying because they get that you know they feel like the value big out of space you know that's offset by that but you know if they're being asked to pay more dues yeah and we were we were also looking we were very optimistic and that

we were going to be able to pull the new members so there was a there was definitely a disagreement pretty vile a disagreement of times over whether or you know if we raise the dues is that going to make it harder for us to attract new members so we you know and it wasn't that it was very expensive but we just you know we're trying to understand why we would get good turnouts at our meetups but we wouldn't have really necessarily a really good conversion rate sure right wasn't super expensive but it was you know we did try other options besides raising dues we also tried to lower dues at one point to hopefully encourage more people to join

it did a little but it didn't have the net effect in the end of what we need

okay I think Lori on

comment Oh like I said our main outreach thing was meetup when he had we hit all the social networks Facebook Twitter someone so forth we did reach out to newspapers I mean there was something you know not frequently I think we could have used more press releases from my opinion I think I was pushing for that at one point but it never really happened but I think it could have pushed because early on like you know I always I know I was constantly every event reaching out to you know sending things to the papers so yeah just you know also know virally I felt like that was a front that maybe there was things that we could have been

proved but there's a lot of things that we did everything that we could you know in presentations and I think that the other day money was the big thing and not like Mark said not jumping into the huge financial commitment The Fool probably would still be around balance balance people

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