What it is Who it is Motivation Differences Location Spirit Long Term Vision Sponsorship Membership Incubees Supporters Senseis Official Address Information

 

What it is

In the spirit of DevHouse, we're creating a physical community space for hackers and thinkers on the Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. This would be a location for events, lectures, parties, BarCamps, DevHouses, LAN parties, hackathons, knitting circles, tinkering, brainstorming, coworking, team offsites, etc. The facility will be technically run as a "members only" private club that is not open to the public - every event must have a responsible Founder / Member present. It is not the current intent that anybody live at this facility, though people may occasionally sleep over after a long event.

 

Who it is

The five Founding Directors of the Dojo are: David Weekly (co-Founder of DevHouse), Jeff Lindsay (co-Founder of DevHouse), Kitt Hodsden, Melissalynn Perkins, and Brian Klug. And, we have just over 80 Members on board!

 

Motivation

A place with plenty of parking, easily accessible by those all the way up and down the peninsula, where we can't easily offend neighbors with sound and can have many more come together in community and solidarity than would be possible in a living arrangement. Spiritual cousins include The Crucible in Oakland, Cellspace, noisebridge, and Hat Factory in San Francisco, and Bucketworks in Milwaukee, WI - all community centers dedicated to their own forms of creation and craftsmanship, and TechShop for the more hardware oriented in Menlo Park. We'd like to offer this kind of community for computer-oriented folks in the mid-Peninsula. You don't need to be a programmer to use/enjoy this space.

 

Differences

There are a number of great coworking spaces in San Francisco. But nearly all of these places are in San Francisco proper. Most of the people in the Bay Area don't live in San Francisco. By opening up a peninsula location, the many hackers and thinkers in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, etc. can have a place to call their own. It may also be worth mentioning that the intent of this space is to be first a community space and secondarily a coworking location instead of the other way around. 

 

Location

140A S Whisman Rd, Mountain View

 

Spirit

The Dojo is a community space first and foremost - this means that the focus of the layout and activities will be to lend itself to be a useful place to throw classes, host parties, brainstorm, and hang out. If you've been to a DevHouse this mixture of productive and social activities should seem familiar to you. The physical space will be more "raw" and "open" than a traditional coworking spot as it will need to be both more configurable and less expensive than an office.

 

Long Term Vision

The Dojo would like for there to be many similar facilities created around the world and similarly structured. We're looking forward to helping these sister facilities get started by providing guidance, legal templates, and possibly loans as well. Our intent is not, however, to operate multiple facilities, but to help other organizations be created to operate these other facilities. In this way, the overall idea of the project will be able to outlive any single institution's existence.

 

Sponsorship

Hacker Dojo is looking to build relationships with companies that want to get involved with the Bay Area programming community on both a financial and an educational basis. If you'd like to have a space to teach people about how to use your technologies and get feedback from the developer community, the Dojo could be a great fit for your company. Please check out our sponsor flyer for more information.

 

We'd like to thank Google, the Microsoft Web Platform team, and others for their generous sponsorship of our space as well as the excellent legal services provided on a pro bono basis by Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabin. 

 

Membership

Are you interested in becoming a member of Hacker Dojo and helping support a unique institution in Silicon Valley, throw and take classes? For $100/mo you'll be a full-time member. Since Hacker Dojo is a membership organization, this whole thing is about YOU! :) Interested in becoming a member? Join the Dojo today!

 

Incubees

Incubees (buzz! buzz!) are startups of 2-5 people who are just getting started and are using Hacker Dojo space as a temporary (<12 month) office space. Incubees are encouraged to participate in community events, and discouraged from installing permanent equipment or leaving valuables around.  Some additional thoughts on how this might work are on the Incubees page. We hope to make Hacker Dojo an ideal place to turn a technology idea into an early-stage business.

 

Supporters

Supporters may not be financially well-endowed or even local to the SF Bay Area, but want to help the Dojo by donating at least $10/mo and/or volunteering to help staff the place, assist with maintenance and setup, etc. This gets you an invite to events (classes, parties, etc...) hosted at the Dojo. Also, putting your name here lets me know you'd love to help with finding the place, recruiting others, etc. and don't mind getting emails about the Dojo. There will be a suggested donation of $10/day to visit and hack at the dojo.

 

Senseis

Senseis are experienced engineers and entrepreneurs from the community at large who are looking to pass on skills and wisdom. Hacker Dojo is looking to build a stable of passionate Senseis to connect younger coders with the veterans that helped found industries. Founding Senseis include Lee Felsenstein (creator of the Osborne-1 and a director of the Homebrew Computer Club), Mehdi Maghsoodnia (founder of Facetime and former Entrepreneur-In-Residence at both Mohr-Davidow Ventures and Trinity Ventures), and Eric Ries (co-founder of IMVU and named by BusinessWeek one of the Best Young Technology Entrepreneurs). Lee has created a page with some ideas here and an infrastructural RFID system project.

 

Official Address Information