We need a way to find fellow hackers in real time and in real life by location

5 points by jgannonjr 13 years ago | 4 comments

It's easy to find/work with fellow hackers asynchronously through sites like github. However, what if I am bored and I post up at a coffee shop to hack on things, wouldn't it be cool if I could set a flag somewhere to say "hey, I'm here, come hack with me". I'm sure it's not an issue in San Fran, however in places like Hollywood (where I am currently posted up at a popular coffee shop), I am surrounded by film industry folks (writers, producers, etc) but I rarely see any hackers. I know there are lots of hackers around here, I have meet some of them, but there is just no easy way for us to assemble ourselves spur of the moment in real life. Someone should fix this...

lsiebert 13 years ago |

Is it enough to identify yourself as a hacker to everybody in order to potentially signal fellow programmers, or do you want to "out" yourself as a hacker only to fellow Hackers? The former is easy... slap a bumper sticker with your github on the reverse of your laptop screen. Maybe make sure you have a picture of yourself on your github (to prevent false signalling by people pretending to be you).

If the latter is what you want, though, you have to think about how do you prevent people from gaming the system to learn about you. For example, you (you being a user of whatever system you might set up) may not want people hitting on you based on your github profile.

As an aside, a quick google search brought up http://lamakerspace.com/

jgannonjr 13 years ago | |

So I feel like I'm already pretty easy to identify as a hacker when I'm out on my laptop due to the stickers that I currently have on it (not a github sticker, but others that are equally as nerdy).

There are a few hacker spaces in LA, I need to venture there sometime to meet up, it's just kind of more difficult than what I am thinking of because you have to drive there, find parking, etc. I'm basically thinking about networking with people in my neighborhood. For instance there is an awesome coffee shop around the corner that I always hang out and hack at because it's walking distance from my place. I also know there are a lot of hackers in my neighborhood, it's just hard to find them. It would be cool if I could set a status as "come hack with me" set my location on a map, and put it up for others to see so they can come hang out. Likewise others could do the same. So if I'm at home messing around, and I see there is a hacker close by who wants to hang out and hack on things somewhere close by, I can roll over to meet him. It would be a good way to network with other hackers in my area and work on cool things together.

skram 13 years ago |

Like a grindr for hackers, huh? ;)

You might try looking for local meetups and meeting people there: - http://www.2600.com/meetings/mtg.html - http://meetup.com

jgannonjr 13 years ago | |

yes exactly :)

I have tried the meetups before, but I'd like something for more spur of the moment hacking.