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Welcome to Bloominglabs, Bloomington's very own hackerspace!

A space for sharing tools and knowledge to make stuff

Bloominglabs is Indiana's first hackerspace (also known as a makerspace). We are a group of group of people who have rented a shared workshop where we can build projects both collectively and individually. Our space is located at 1840 S. Walnut Street, we are currently moving in from our old location at 1609 S. Rogers Street, Building 4. We are open to the public on Wednesday evenings from 7pm until 10pm and are family friendly.

Our next public night will be February the 7th, as we are currently moving. Warning! While we will still be open for public visits during the month of February, the space is currently undergoing terraforming to make it hacker habitable. This means dust, painting, and a general lack of equipment and space set up for hacking. A true grand reopening is planned for March 3rd

Stay informed

• Sign up to the announcement mailing list to keep up with our group.
• New! We have a discuss mailing list now.
• Our Calendar of events
• Follow us on Twitter @Bloominglabs, Facebook, and Google+.
• Checkout photos from past events on Flickr
• Our IRC server is at bloominglabs.org:6667, #hackerspace.
• We can also be reached via old fashioned email at contact (]at[) bloominglabs dot o r g.
• Send us email to get an invite to our Slack site.
• Send mail to P.O. Box 2443, Bloomington, IN 47402

Support

Bloominglabs Incorporated is a non-profit registered within in the state of Indiana and has 501(c)3 charitable status. Want to make a donation with PayPal? Please use this link:

• (Note to members - this link should not be used for paying membership dues)

Also, we have an Amazon Smile Account For Bloominglabs. If you use that link to place an order on Amazon, we get a little cut. Thanks!

Information for our members: this is how we process cash and hardware Donations.

News

Current Events (PastEvents)

• Planning Our New Space
  • BloomingLabs will be moving to a new space before the end of the year. Come to the meetings and have your voice heard. Currently we have had 2 meetings and are working with the layout below.
  • See and comment on the Proposed layout here: [1]

• Public Hack Meetings!
  • Every Wednesday from 7pm until 10pm
  • Come build projects, ask questions, teach things, and learn stuff
  • All ages and everyone is welcome

Current Initiatives

• Space Improvements
  • Shed
  • Tool and workspace arrangement

Fund Drives

• Moving
  • Our lease is ending and we need to move. We have a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/bloominglabs-needs-a-new-space

Membership

We are accepting memberships! Please see the Membership Manual for details. If you are a new member please check out the New Members page as well.

Meetings

Due to our move, public meetings are currently suspended until February the 7th, when we will resume our regular 7:00pm Wednesday night meetings at our new location, 1840 S. Walnut Street.

Currently we meet every Wednesday at 7:00pm at 1609 S. Rogers Street Building 4, Bloomington, Indiana. These meetings are open to the public; anyone is welcome to attend. We usually meet for 2-3 hours and have a lot of fun. Having access to tools is only part of the equation, socializing with people and learning from each other is another large benefit from our group. Pretty much whatever people want to work on or learn is fair game. If it's cool and interesting then we are all interested.

• Meeting_Minutes
• Bloominglabs Log - highlights of Bloominglabs events and news

Who are we?

We are a bunch of people that want to do interesting things and explore the world and technology around us. Expression of this interest takes at least as many forms as we have members, and often employs an amalgam of found and newly-constructed hardware and/or open-source and self-authored software components, but may be as simple as screwing some pieces of wood together to make a useful tool we don't have yet.

Bloominglabs was forged from the Bloomington Hackerspace Initiative and the former IU Robotics Club.

• Read our Bylaws for a more formalized overview

What is a hackerspace?

A hackerspace is a physical location where people can share resources for their own creative pursuits. It's also a resource where people can come in off the street and advance their own knowledge. In urban locations it can often be hard to find places to weld/build/make noise and keep projects on-going without having to tear down and put-up your work each evening. With a hacker space people can work on their projects and not worry about annoying their neighbors or spouses. The social aspect is also an incredibly important component. Having people to bounce ideas off of and discuss your projects with when you get stuck is a great thing.

Nearby Hackerspaces/Makerspace or initiatives:

• Cyberia (Indianapolis, Indiana!)
• Castlemakers (Greencastle, Indiana)
• The SHAK (Kokomo, Indiana)
• Hive13 (Cincinnati, Ohio)
• LVL1 (Louisville, Kentucky)
• Vault404 (Louisville, Kentucky)
• Collexion (Lexington, Kentucky) All that remains is a discussion list.
• Pumping Station: One (Chicago, Illinois)
• Dayton Diode (Dayton, Ohio)
• Detroit Facility Merged with i3 Detroit
• i3 Detroit (Detroit, Michigan)
• Makerspace Goshen (Goshen, Indiana)
• Kre8now (Lexington, Kentucky)
• The MakerHive (Elkhart, Indiana)

Other Cool Groups in Bloomington

• Indiana Filmmakers Network -- provides support, camaraderie and resources to filmmakers.
• Bloomington Amateur Radio Club
• Indiana University Amateur Radio Club
• IU Makes
• Bloomington personal Fabrication Group (IU 3D Printing Club) (no longer meeting) - also a trac hosted here
• The annual Hoosier to Hoosier event (resale trail)
• Discardia
• Press (jigsaw) Puzzles

Special Wiki Pages

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