[00:01.780 --> 00:08.440] Before I get started, I would like to invite everyone to just look across the room, maybe look across your shoulder, and look at the next person next to you. [00:09.060 --> 00:15.780] And just remember that they're present, that you're present, that you showed up today at HOPE. [00:17.580 --> 00:18.700] And that's important. [00:18.960 --> 00:20.340] I think that's something we should be grateful for. [00:21.600 --> 00:25.080] So, give yourself a clap and give HOPE a clap for another year. [00:28.800 --> 00:36.800] Alright, the nervousness is settling in now, so I'm gonna take a minute, and I invite you to as well, to join me and just, like, we're center. [00:37.600 --> 00:42.220] So a little bit of silence for a brief moment, and then we can get started. [00:52.800 --> 00:56.640] Maybe you can take this time to be just grateful for being here. [00:57.780 --> 01:04.080] Or maybe you prepared the slides last night, at the last minute, and you just need some shut-eye. [01:09.510 --> 01:09.970] Okay. [01:09.970 --> 01:18.090] So, my name is William, and I'll be giving a talk about building a tech community in your neighborhood. [01:19.090 --> 01:24.750] And how to start, and how to get one hackathon at a time. [01:25.290 --> 01:29.970] But before we start, I just want to see how many builders we have. [01:30.590 --> 01:31.710] So, just raise your hand. [01:32.150 --> 01:33.630] Does anyone like building stuff? [01:34.690 --> 01:36.190] Okay, so that's most people here. [01:37.970 --> 01:40.850] Well, so do I, and a lot of people at Flushing Tech. [01:42.030 --> 01:53.050] So today, I would like to share with you my experience of how we built a thriving tech community in our neighborhood, Flushing, with short, fun, two-hour mini hackathons. [01:54.510 --> 01:59.310] All with zero community organizing skills, and with minimal resources. [02:00.430 --> 02:08.450] And then, I'm also going to be excited to share some practical guidelines about how you can start one in your neighborhood today. [02:10.490 --> 02:10.970] Okay. [02:11.030 --> 02:12.810] So, my name is... [02:12.810 --> 02:14.950] So, let me just introduce myself, real group. [02:15.550 --> 02:16.730] My name is William Hudson. [02:17.450 --> 02:19.270] And I'm an immigrant from Guyana. [02:19.470 --> 02:21.550] And I've been living in Flushing for about five years. [02:22.610 --> 02:24.430] I'm a software DevOps engineer. [02:24.810 --> 02:25.850] Any DevOps engineers? [02:27.110 --> 02:27.470] Yay! [02:28.690 --> 02:30.410] It's always like one or two people. [02:30.770 --> 02:31.210] I don't know why. [02:31.810 --> 02:32.450] DevOps is fine. [02:33.230 --> 02:39.630] For about 20 years, I enjoy building a lot of stuff in my workshop, in my apartment. [02:40.830 --> 02:42.050] I like to stay active. [02:42.410 --> 02:44.050] I like to think a lot. [02:44.050 --> 02:49.190] And I like to volunteer, mostly in civic spaces. [02:50.590 --> 02:52.310] You can contact me on my... [02:52.310 --> 02:54.370] I have a website, whudson.gy. [02:54.990 --> 02:58.090] GY is Guyana, TLD, just FYI. [02:58.390 --> 03:00.050] And as you can see, none of this... [03:00.050 --> 03:02.830] You're really quiet in the room, so I'm going to speak closer into the mic. [03:03.010 --> 03:03.230] Thanks. [03:04.570 --> 03:04.830] Okay. [03:05.130 --> 03:05.610] Yeah. [03:05.810 --> 03:06.610] This is a little better. [03:06.850 --> 03:07.090] Yeah. [03:07.750 --> 03:10.990] And as you can see, none of this requires any organizing skills. [03:10.990 --> 03:15.990] Like none of my background has a lot of community management skills. [03:17.650 --> 03:19.270] And here I have the flag of Guyana. [03:19.750 --> 03:25.590] Here is me at the top of my head in the immigration court, where I'm volunteering at this organization called New Sanctuary. [03:26.970 --> 03:33.010] And pretty much what we do there is we help immigrants through their court systems. [03:35.310 --> 03:39.130] And there's a bunch of guys there with a lot of masks. [03:39.670 --> 03:41.450] They're being very socially distant. [03:43.190 --> 03:44.290] And then here... [03:44.290 --> 03:45.290] Does anyone know what this is? [03:47.390 --> 03:47.870] Close. [03:48.790 --> 03:50.310] This is an F47. [03:52.510 --> 03:53.730] Okay, I just thought it was fun. [03:54.230 --> 03:55.370] So that's enough about me. [03:58.490 --> 03:59.910] So what is flushing tech? [04:03.330 --> 04:06.230] Technology is at the core of our society. [04:06.530 --> 04:10.690] Making tech communities important spaces where everyone must be able to port spit. [04:12.130 --> 04:19.010] Flushing Tech was born out of the idea that local community impact can be powerful, scalable, and sustainable. [04:19.430 --> 04:22.050] When it's easy, fun, and accessible. [04:23.710 --> 04:30.030] It's an experiment demonstrating how global impact can be unleashed by maximizing local participation. [04:31.190 --> 04:34.710] So that's sort of like the high-level idea about what flushing tech is. [04:34.830 --> 04:36.670] And we'll get into more details in a bit. [04:40.250 --> 04:41.850] And what is our vision? [04:42.770 --> 04:45.910] So this is hard to explain, so I decided to go with an analogy. [04:47.930 --> 04:51.410] Signal is a privacy-focused app that a few people enjoy. [04:51.810 --> 04:56.610] And if everyone starts to use Signal, the world becomes a much more private place. [04:57.730 --> 05:01.810] Nextcloud is used by some organizations and governments to exercise control of their own data. [05:02.630 --> 05:07.510] If every organization starts to use Nextcloud, the world regains ownership of its data. [05:08.170 --> 05:09.410] And does anyone use Signal? [05:10.490 --> 05:11.850] Okay, that's most people here. [05:12.130 --> 05:12.650] How about Nextcloud? [05:13.910 --> 05:15.110] Okay, that's about half. [05:15.210 --> 05:15.590] That's nice. [05:16.310 --> 05:30.090] So our vision, in the same way, is when every neighborhood is empowered with a thriving tech community, the entire world becomes a powerful, scalable, sustainable network of participants. [05:30.870 --> 05:32.910] So that's where we're trying to head. [05:35.850 --> 05:39.510] So why build a thriving tech community in your neighborhood? [05:43.700 --> 05:45.820] Flushing tech knows flushing. [05:48.340 --> 05:52.600] Locals understand community needs firsthand because we live there. [05:53.780 --> 05:57.320] Visiting participants experience the neighborhood and its challenges. [05:57.620 --> 06:00.720] So people come to our events and they experience flushing. [06:02.000 --> 06:05.060] Flushing tech directly experiences the impact it has on flushing. [06:07.520 --> 06:15.420] Flushing tech volunteers build for flushing and can directly see their handiwork being used in flushing just by stepping outside. [06:15.420 --> 06:20.140] So what you build isn't sent off into the Internet and never seen again. [06:20.940 --> 06:23.500] You can actually see and you can talk about it with your neighbors. [06:25.500 --> 06:39.640] For example, a flushing tech volunteer who builds a web AR app to help other volunteers navigate to the hackathon might meet their users at a local boba shop in the next day. [06:39.640 --> 06:42.620] So let's look at Boba because in flushing, there's a lot of boba shops. [06:42.860 --> 06:43.480] It's delicious. [06:43.800 --> 06:44.540] Anyone tried Boba? [06:45.460 --> 06:45.940] Okay. [06:46.280 --> 06:46.900] A few people. [06:47.040 --> 06:48.720] The rest of you should really try Boba. [06:51.380 --> 06:51.860] Um... [06:51.860 --> 06:57.560] Flushing tech is as agile as flushing, which again is because flushing tech knows flushing. [06:59.560 --> 07:00.120] Uh... [07:00.120 --> 07:00.340] Uh... [07:00.340 --> 07:00.540] Uh... [07:00.540 --> 07:04.540] Flushing tech can react to changes faster than anyone else in flushing. [07:06.160 --> 07:07.860] Flushing tech is focused on flushing. [07:08.500 --> 07:11.400] Focusing on a neighborhood we know makes it easy... [07:11.400 --> 07:15.240] It makes it much more easier to organize and manage with minimal resources. [07:15.800 --> 07:16.360] Um... [07:16.360 --> 07:19.220] And this idea is sort of integral with how you can get started today. [07:19.840 --> 07:20.400] Um... [07:20.400 --> 07:23.900] Because if you focus on one neighborhood, uh... [07:23.900 --> 07:26.320] Instead of like an entire city, uh... [07:26.320 --> 07:31.280] You get to focus on a bigger impact in a smaller area, uh... [07:31.280 --> 07:33.840] Without having to think about logistics in a wider area. [07:35.460 --> 07:35.940] Um... [07:35.940 --> 07:36.860] So if you focus... [07:36.860 --> 07:39.380] If you narrow your focus, sorry, uh... [07:39.380 --> 07:41.700] You'll be able to organize and be very nimble. [07:43.980 --> 07:48.360] So those are some reasons why building locally is... [07:48.360 --> 07:48.860] Might be a good thing. [07:51.620 --> 07:52.100] Uh... [07:52.100 --> 07:53.100] By the way, uh... [07:53.960 --> 07:54.260] Disclaimer. [07:54.420 --> 07:55.140] I totally forgot. [07:55.440 --> 07:55.760] Uh... [07:55.760 --> 07:56.700] There's a guy taking photos. [07:56.740 --> 07:57.840] He's only thinking of me. [07:59.020 --> 07:59.500] Um... [07:59.500 --> 07:59.680] Okay. [08:02.640 --> 08:03.120] Uh... [08:03.120 --> 08:03.720] So... [08:03.720 --> 08:07.160] How did we build a driving tech community in our neighborhood? [08:09.720 --> 08:10.200] Uh... [08:10.200 --> 08:10.880] We started small. [08:12.640 --> 08:13.120] Uh... [08:13.120 --> 08:17.120] Way down in the corner there on the right-hand side is one of our first events. [08:17.220 --> 08:18.640] As you can see, it's very casual. [08:19.040 --> 08:21.400] People just came together and decided to build stuff. [08:22.560 --> 08:23.160] Uh... [08:23.160 --> 08:26.640] To get that started, we just invited folks with an online ad. [08:26.940 --> 08:27.540] Uh... [08:27.540 --> 08:30.100] For a casual in-person tech meetup in Flushing. [08:30.780 --> 08:31.940] And people showed up. [08:33.440 --> 08:34.040] Uh... [08:34.040 --> 08:35.680] We tried many things at first. [08:36.040 --> 08:37.220] We tried... [08:37.220 --> 08:37.980] Uh... [08:37.980 --> 08:38.880] Networking events. [08:39.360 --> 08:40.480] We tried happy hours. [08:40.880 --> 08:41.700] I'm a big drinker. [08:41.720 --> 08:42.500] Any big drinkers? [08:43.600 --> 08:44.180] Good. [08:44.480 --> 08:44.860] Very healthy. [08:47.060 --> 08:47.640] Um... [08:47.640 --> 08:48.620] Talks and presentations. [08:49.360 --> 08:49.720] Uh... [08:49.720 --> 08:51.180] And we tried hackathons. [08:51.960 --> 08:53.540] Networking events didn't work. [08:53.740 --> 08:53.920] Uh... [08:53.920 --> 08:54.580] People networked. [08:54.760 --> 08:55.320] And then they left. [08:55.500 --> 08:56.040] Uh... [08:56.040 --> 08:56.820] Like most conferences. [08:58.380 --> 08:58.960] Um... [08:58.960 --> 08:59.480] Have... [08:59.480 --> 09:00.500] Uh... [09:00.500 --> 09:01.440] Happy hours were fun. [09:11.900 --> 09:12.480] Uh... [09:12.480 --> 09:13.980] Me speaking for an hour here. [09:14.860 --> 09:15.660] Keeping you from your lunch. [09:17.580 --> 09:18.120] Um... [09:18.120 --> 09:21.040] But hackathons was the missing part that everyone liked. [09:22.900 --> 09:23.440] Um... [09:23.440 --> 09:26.280] Hackathons struck a chord because they were extremely engaging. [09:26.820 --> 09:27.260] Uh... [09:27.260 --> 09:27.560] Because... [09:28.210 --> 09:29.020] They were hands on. [09:29.220 --> 09:29.800] Very hands on. [09:30.680 --> 09:31.180] Um... [09:31.180 --> 09:33.160] They encouraged natural socialization. [09:36.200 --> 09:36.700] Uh... [09:36.700 --> 09:37.360] Because... [09:37.360 --> 09:37.860] Uh... [09:37.860 --> 09:40.120] A big part of the hackathon is to form groups. [09:40.760 --> 09:41.100] And to... [09:41.100 --> 09:42.840] And constantly engage with other people. [09:44.300 --> 09:44.800] Um... [09:44.800 --> 09:48.640] They were deeply rewarding because you got to take home what you built. [09:49.700 --> 09:50.200] And... [09:50.200 --> 09:53.180] You got to help someone else build something as well. [09:54.560 --> 09:55.060] Uh... [09:55.060 --> 09:56.200] They were very informative. [09:56.200 --> 09:58.900] A lot of people come to the hackathons and they learn new stuff. [09:59.360 --> 09:59.680] All the time. [10:01.400 --> 10:01.900] Um... [10:01.900 --> 10:02.440] And... [10:02.440 --> 10:03.020] Very durable. [10:04.000 --> 10:04.500] Uh... [10:04.500 --> 10:06.380] People would build stuff and it wouldn't... [10:07.300 --> 10:09.640] It wouldn't be isolated to that one hackathon. [10:09.920 --> 10:10.240] Uh... [10:10.240 --> 10:12.160] A lot of people continue building it with other people. [10:12.920 --> 10:13.420] Uh... [10:13.420 --> 10:14.620] Very long after the hackathons. [10:15.420 --> 10:15.920] So... [10:15.920 --> 10:16.340] Uh... [10:16.340 --> 10:17.880] The experience of the hackathon. [10:18.300 --> 10:21.340] The events last for probably a lifetime for a lot of people. [10:23.320 --> 10:25.160] So that's how Flushing Tech started. [10:28.080 --> 10:28.540] Uh... [10:28.540 --> 10:30.520] And just to give you an idea of what the hackathon is like. [10:32.740 --> 10:33.200] Um... [10:33.200 --> 10:34.280] The hackathons are bi-weekly. [10:34.620 --> 10:36.160] Which means that, uh... [10:37.820 --> 10:38.280] Uh... [10:38.280 --> 10:38.980] It's a... [10:38.980 --> 10:41.560] It's an expectation that, uh... [10:41.560 --> 10:44.140] There is going to always be another hackathon to experience. [10:44.480 --> 10:46.540] It's very consistent and people like consistency. [10:48.940 --> 10:49.380] Um... [10:49.380 --> 10:52.300] And the way that it usually starts is there would be some... [10:52.300 --> 10:52.960] It's very... [10:52.960 --> 10:54.020] It's a very simple format. [10:54.500 --> 10:56.640] Very bare bones, which is a part... [10:56.640 --> 10:59.540] Which is a big part of why it should be very easy for anyone to start. [11:00.200 --> 11:00.640] Uh... [11:00.640 --> 11:02.440] There's some welcome and then there's some introductions. [11:02.440 --> 11:04.640] The instructions are super important. [11:05.040 --> 11:06.540] Because that's where everyone... [11:06.540 --> 11:09.440] That sets up the stage for everyone to start engaging with each other. [11:10.440 --> 11:10.920] Um... [11:10.920 --> 11:14.040] So everyone who shows up gets a chance to introduce themselves real quick. [11:15.480 --> 11:15.960] Um... [11:15.960 --> 11:16.580] Then there's... [11:16.580 --> 11:18.080] We go straight into the hackathon. [11:18.080 --> 11:21.780] We start ideating different ideas about what people want to build. [11:22.340 --> 11:25.160] And they would usually start with something that they heard about during the week. [11:25.680 --> 11:29.040] Or some trending technology that they want to explore. [11:29.320 --> 11:30.660] Or maybe they already have an... [11:30.660 --> 11:32.420] An existing project that they want to build. [11:33.060 --> 11:33.540] Um... [11:33.540 --> 11:36.180] So people would just dump all the ideas possible. [11:36.660 --> 11:38.220] And then, uh... [11:38.220 --> 11:41.960] We'll start sort of like forming groups around the biggest ideas. [11:43.080 --> 11:44.440] I should have brought some water here. [11:47.580 --> 11:48.060] Um... [11:48.060 --> 11:49.520] Then we start building stuff. [11:49.700 --> 11:50.940] We spend like an hour and a half building. [11:52.480 --> 11:53.000] Uh... [11:53.000 --> 11:55.020] Whatever fun stuff everyone wants to... [11:55.020 --> 11:55.860] Wants to build. [11:56.340 --> 11:58.800] And then after that, after an hour and a half, uh... [11:58.800 --> 11:59.280] We present. [12:00.200 --> 12:00.720] Um... [12:00.720 --> 12:02.120] And then we do some friendly competition. [12:02.720 --> 12:03.240] Uh... [12:03.240 --> 12:06.280] These are a little different than bigger hackathons. [12:06.460 --> 12:07.440] Where there's money. [12:07.960 --> 12:09.260] There's big prizes. [12:09.760 --> 12:10.280] Uh... [12:10.280 --> 12:11.020] These hackathons. [12:11.180 --> 12:12.800] They're small, but they're consistent. [12:13.840 --> 12:14.360] Um... [12:14.360 --> 12:17.880] And the reward is the joy of building something. [12:18.060 --> 12:19.440] Engaging with someone else. [12:19.960 --> 12:20.580] Meeting new people. [12:20.980 --> 12:21.580] Getting a new friend. [12:24.320 --> 12:24.800] Um... [12:24.800 --> 12:25.880] So that's the competition. [12:26.800 --> 12:28.040] And then at the end, uh... [12:28.040 --> 12:29.280] We get to close with some networking. [12:31.780 --> 12:32.260] Um... [12:32.260 --> 12:34.380] And enjoy our company. [12:35.220 --> 12:35.700] Uh... [12:35.700 --> 12:36.760] So it's very bare bones. [12:37.060 --> 12:38.260] Anyone should be able to do this. [12:38.460 --> 12:40.520] And we do this every two weeks in flashing. [12:44.420 --> 12:44.980] Um... [12:47.320 --> 12:47.880] So... [12:47.880 --> 12:49.440] What happened 18 months later? [12:50.200 --> 12:50.760] Uh... [12:50.760 --> 12:51.260] Where... [12:51.260 --> 12:51.900] Where are we? [12:52.400 --> 12:52.960] Uh... [12:52.960 --> 12:54.200] Right now we have... [12:54.200 --> 12:55.100] We... [12:55.100 --> 12:55.520] We... [12:55.520 --> 12:56.520] We started on Meetup. [12:56.680 --> 12:57.500] We're mostly on Meetup. [12:57.680 --> 12:59.000] Anyone uses Meetup here? [12:59.980 --> 13:00.540] Okay. [13:00.660 --> 13:01.240] So a good chunk. [13:02.000 --> 13:02.560] Uh... [13:02.560 --> 13:03.680] We have about 700 people. [13:04.280 --> 13:04.840] Uh... [13:04.840 --> 13:05.380] On Meetup. [13:05.640 --> 13:05.960] Um... [13:05.960 --> 13:06.760] We also have Discord. [13:06.940 --> 13:07.700] Any Discord users? [13:08.900 --> 13:09.300] Okay. [13:09.440 --> 13:09.780] Very good. [13:10.340 --> 13:10.580] Yeah. [13:10.660 --> 13:12.300] I was wondering if you use Discord or Slack. [13:12.960 --> 13:13.360] Uh... [13:13.360 --> 13:14.460] Seems like you can go either way. [13:15.000 --> 13:15.400] Um... [13:15.400 --> 13:16.040] So we use Discord. [13:16.160 --> 13:16.940] And we have a bunch of people there. [13:17.160 --> 13:19.120] We have a lot of people active on Discord. [13:19.560 --> 13:22.700] And then we have about 10 people on average attending each event. [13:22.940 --> 13:25.200] And remember, each event happens every two weeks. [13:27.260 --> 13:27.660] Um... [13:27.660 --> 13:29.100] So this is one of our events. [13:29.660 --> 13:30.700] And that's someone presenting. [13:30.920 --> 13:31.420] I remember that. [13:31.980 --> 13:35.660] That is actually someone who made a wearable, uh... [13:35.660 --> 13:36.200] With an Arduino. [13:36.940 --> 13:37.860] That was very fun. [13:38.180 --> 13:39.880] And they're presenting what they built. [13:40.200 --> 13:41.500] And what they learned building it. [13:42.480 --> 13:42.840] Uh... [13:42.840 --> 13:45.720] So it's a very casual setting, but still very hands-on. [13:47.140 --> 13:47.500] Um... [13:47.500 --> 13:49.500] We did 38 bi-weekly hackathons. [13:50.140 --> 13:51.100] And we're still going. [13:51.280 --> 13:53.020] A lot of people, uh... [13:53.020 --> 13:53.640] Uh... [13:53.640 --> 13:54.280] Have a lot of fun. [13:55.300 --> 13:55.660] Uh... [13:55.660 --> 13:56.880] We have a 4.7 rating. [13:57.120 --> 13:57.940] I don't know if that's high or low. [13:58.040 --> 13:58.900] That sounds pretty high to me. [14:01.820 --> 14:02.180] Um... [14:02.180 --> 14:04.540] And then we have about 140 projects built. [14:04.540 --> 14:07.380] Again, because these hackathons are every two weeks. [14:07.680 --> 14:10.200] So there's always constant opportunity to build projects. [14:12.420 --> 14:12.900] Okay. [14:13.060 --> 14:14.100] I'm going really fast. [14:14.380 --> 14:15.100] I'm going to try to slow down. [14:15.340 --> 14:16.220] I'm going to try to slow down. [14:18.400 --> 14:18.880] Uh... [14:18.880 --> 14:20.940] So that's what happened after just 18 months. [14:21.160 --> 14:24.000] And this is our experience now starting this idea. [14:24.000 --> 14:26.040] I imagine that, uh... [14:26.800 --> 14:29.540] As all the people build similar hackathons in their own neighborhoods. [14:30.100 --> 14:30.580] Uh... [14:30.580 --> 14:31.860] It's not going to take 18 months. [14:32.040 --> 14:34.380] You can probably hammer a lot of this stuff out. [14:34.580 --> 14:35.820] In six months maybe. [14:37.320 --> 14:40.180] And maybe you'll get way more members in your neighborhood. [14:40.420 --> 14:41.100] Depending where you are. [14:44.140 --> 14:44.660] Um... [14:44.660 --> 14:46.740] So how do you go, uh... [14:46.740 --> 14:49.260] Go about building a traveling tech community in your neighborhood? [14:51.060 --> 14:53.940] And this is where I'd like to, uh... [14:53.940 --> 14:55.380] Introduce something that we put together. [14:55.620 --> 14:56.900] The Flushing Tech Manifesto. [14:59.020 --> 14:59.540] Uh... [14:59.540 --> 15:01.120] With all of our learnings. [15:01.640 --> 15:03.660] To help you get started from scratch. [15:05.060 --> 15:05.560] Um... [15:05.560 --> 15:06.460] And it's very simple. [15:06.720 --> 15:07.040] It's very... [15:07.040 --> 15:07.940] It's direct. [15:08.220 --> 15:09.240] And very bare bones. [15:09.780 --> 15:10.160] Um... [15:10.160 --> 15:11.200] Exactly so that... [15:11.200 --> 15:12.580] You don't have to go through a lot of stuff. [15:12.840 --> 15:13.140] As... [15:13.140 --> 15:14.440] Because we know that... [15:14.440 --> 15:17.360] Not a lot of people have a lot of skills in organizing these things. [15:17.560 --> 15:19.360] They just want to go to these hackathons. [15:19.640 --> 15:20.640] And start building. [15:21.080 --> 15:22.020] And engaging. [15:22.320 --> 15:22.920] And having fun. [15:23.360 --> 15:25.500] So the Manifesto is very... [15:25.500 --> 15:26.080] Simple. [15:26.340 --> 15:27.360] Easy to use, hopefully. [15:27.860 --> 15:28.720] And it's open-source. [15:28.900 --> 15:30.580] So if any one of them has any improvements. [15:31.620 --> 15:32.100] Um... [15:32.100 --> 15:33.200] We can definitely make it better. [15:33.320 --> 15:33.780] Over time. [15:35.960 --> 15:36.440] Um... [15:36.440 --> 15:37.520] And it's published online. [15:37.920 --> 15:38.680] For everyone to use today. [15:42.130 --> 15:42.610] So... [15:42.610 --> 15:43.150] Uh... [15:43.150 --> 15:44.830] I'll give you a QR code at the end of the... [15:44.830 --> 15:45.670] At the end of the deck. [15:46.990 --> 15:47.470] Um... [15:47.470 --> 15:48.090] But that... [15:48.090 --> 15:49.650] It's always at FlushingTech.org. [15:49.890 --> 15:50.710] Slash Manifesto. [15:51.150 --> 15:52.190] And just... [15:52.890 --> 15:53.370] Uh... [15:53.370 --> 15:54.970] A little... [15:56.530 --> 15:57.010] Additional... [15:57.650 --> 15:58.130] Uh... [15:58.130 --> 15:59.290] Thought here is that... [15:59.290 --> 16:00.610] All the stuff... [16:00.610 --> 16:01.350] We built... [16:01.350 --> 16:02.290] It was built in hackathons. [16:02.490 --> 16:03.650] The website was built there. [16:04.250 --> 16:04.650] Uh... [16:04.650 --> 16:05.770] The Manifesto was built there. [16:06.230 --> 16:06.630] Uh... [16:06.630 --> 16:08.090] So that's one thing that you... [16:08.090 --> 16:08.510] That you have. [16:08.670 --> 16:10.170] Is that once you have your group running. [16:11.190 --> 16:11.590] Um... [16:11.590 --> 16:12.550] You can build your own stuff. [16:13.030 --> 16:15.010] And people in your group are gonna wanna build stuff. [16:17.390 --> 16:18.990] And the idea is that... [16:18.990 --> 16:20.030] You know... [16:20.030 --> 16:22.270] You build stuff and you share it with all the groups in all the neighborhoods. [16:22.570 --> 16:23.490] And so... [16:23.490 --> 16:23.970] It spreads. [16:24.090 --> 16:24.710] It's really fast. [16:25.870 --> 16:28.170] So here are some things that you can find in the manifesto. [16:32.620 --> 16:33.020] Uh... [16:33.020 --> 16:34.000] And there's gonna be... [16:34.000 --> 16:34.780] Like I said... [16:34.780 --> 16:35.220] More coming. [16:35.400 --> 16:37.000] There's gonna be way more improvements. [16:38.200 --> 16:38.600] Uh... [16:38.600 --> 16:40.480] There's gonna be some guiding principles and values. [16:47.200 --> 16:47.600] Uh... [16:47.600 --> 16:49.700] Some thoughts and ideas that... [16:49.700 --> 16:52.100] Would focus your... [16:52.100 --> 16:52.500] Uh... [16:52.500 --> 16:53.040] Because... [16:53.040 --> 16:53.580] Uh... [16:53.580 --> 16:56.380] When you have a group of people, there's a lot of directions that you can go to... [16:56.380 --> 16:56.840] Go into. [16:57.780 --> 16:58.220] So... [16:58.220 --> 17:00.800] Having a set of like core beliefs and... [17:00.800 --> 17:01.600] A compass... [17:02.220 --> 17:02.640] Uh... [17:02.640 --> 17:03.240] I think... [17:03.240 --> 17:04.020] It's gonna help you. [17:04.240 --> 17:05.520] Again, this is there for you. [17:06.920 --> 17:07.360] Uh... [17:07.360 --> 17:08.560] Whatever you... [17:08.560 --> 17:08.940] You can use. [17:10.200 --> 17:10.640] Um... [17:10.640 --> 17:11.060] But it's there. [17:11.980 --> 17:12.420] Uh... [17:12.420 --> 17:13.240] We have some values. [17:13.580 --> 17:13.920] Like... [17:13.920 --> 17:14.760] Uh... [17:14.760 --> 17:15.240] You don't... [17:15.240 --> 17:17.560] We're not coming there to build something to... [17:17.560 --> 17:18.140] To ship it. [17:18.600 --> 17:18.880] Uh... [17:18.880 --> 17:19.340] A product. [17:19.880 --> 17:20.040] Uh... [17:20.040 --> 17:21.040] We're coming there to... [17:21.040 --> 17:21.940] Make connections. [17:22.260 --> 17:23.220] Learn from each other. [17:23.760 --> 17:24.200] And... [17:24.200 --> 17:24.920] Um... [17:24.920 --> 17:25.360] Have fun. [17:25.760 --> 17:26.540] So those are... [17:26.540 --> 17:27.560] That's an example of a value. [17:27.800 --> 17:28.440] I'm sorry. [17:28.520 --> 17:30.560] We're having an issue with the slides and... [17:30.560 --> 17:31.260] On the stream. [17:31.480 --> 17:31.820] Oh, sorry. [17:32.020 --> 17:33.600] So I'm just gonna read out of this. [17:34.260 --> 17:36.680] So that's a blessing because I think I'm going way too fast. [17:37.980 --> 17:38.380] Thanks. [17:38.380 --> 17:38.920] You're doing great. [17:39.220 --> 17:39.420] Thanks. [17:39.580 --> 17:39.940] You're really good. [17:40.140 --> 17:40.380] Thank you. [17:44.510 --> 17:46.370] I'm trying to reboot in this box here. [17:46.710 --> 17:46.910] Okay. [17:49.290 --> 17:50.090] So we... [17:50.090 --> 17:52.030] Hopefully your slides are right here. [17:55.210 --> 17:56.950] We unplugged it and we plugged it back in. [18:05.570 --> 18:07.750] This would be some nice time for some elevator music. [18:10.290 --> 18:11.910] Has anyone been to any other talks? [18:12.810 --> 18:13.130] We... [18:13.490 --> 18:13.810] Okay. [18:14.270 --> 18:14.590] So... [18:14.590 --> 18:14.670] Okay. [18:17.750 --> 18:18.630] There are tech issues... [18:18.630 --> 18:19.830] Tech issues at most of them. [18:22.230 --> 18:24.430] Can I ask you a question while we wait for it to reboot? [18:24.510 --> 18:24.890] Yeah, definitely. [18:25.550 --> 18:27.730] What have you learned on the other side of this that you would... [18:27.730 --> 18:31.370] What have you learned on the other side of this that you would tell us you want to organize things like this? [18:32.590 --> 18:32.910] Um... [18:32.910 --> 18:34.510] That's what the whole deck is about, kind of. [18:35.870 --> 18:36.410] All right. [18:36.590 --> 18:37.130] It's back. [18:37.310 --> 18:38.150] We can put a pin in that. [18:38.270 --> 18:38.550] Okay. [18:38.730 --> 18:38.830] Okay. [18:39.950 --> 18:40.390] All right. [18:40.450 --> 18:41.230] Let's keep going. [18:42.430 --> 18:43.050] Remind me, though. [18:43.330 --> 18:43.510] Yep. [18:44.870 --> 18:45.350] Um... [18:45.350 --> 18:45.430] Yeah. [18:45.590 --> 18:46.750] So here are some things that we... [18:47.410 --> 18:48.050] That we... [18:48.050 --> 18:49.610] That you can find in the manifesto. [18:49.830 --> 18:50.310] Uh... [18:50.310 --> 18:52.570] Some guiding principles and values. [18:53.430 --> 18:53.790] Um... [18:53.790 --> 18:55.570] Some of the more useful things... [18:55.570 --> 18:58.490] Practically useful things are the roadmap and a lot of checklists. [18:58.490 --> 19:03.650] Because, again, a lot of us are not professional community managers. [19:05.170 --> 19:05.570] Um... [19:05.570 --> 19:08.830] So, a lot of these resources hopefully are going to help you get started right away. [19:09.390 --> 19:09.790] Uh... [19:09.790 --> 19:11.850] And I'll go into the roadmap and some checklists later on. [19:12.470 --> 19:12.870] Um... [19:12.870 --> 19:14.830] There's a lot of tools that you can use right now. [19:15.070 --> 19:17.430] Because we've been doing this for 18 months. [19:17.690 --> 19:19.290] And we built some tools that might help. [19:20.030 --> 19:20.430] Um... [19:20.430 --> 19:23.410] And we have a lot of supporting materials as well that you can use yourself. [19:24.310 --> 19:24.710] Um... [19:24.710 --> 19:26.190] Again, all of this is out in the open. [19:26.950 --> 19:27.350] Uh... [19:27.350 --> 19:28.030] We're a non-profit. [19:28.690 --> 19:29.090] And... [19:29.090 --> 19:30.610] All of the stuff that we produce is yours. [19:35.770 --> 19:36.170] Um... [19:36.170 --> 19:38.570] So, some of the tools and supporting materials are... [19:38.570 --> 19:39.990] Things like, uh... [19:39.990 --> 19:40.870] The agenda templates. [19:41.110 --> 19:41.850] Email templates. [19:42.130 --> 19:42.890] To get... [19:42.890 --> 19:43.670] To get your venue. [19:43.890 --> 19:45.650] I think that's going to be a big thing for a lot of people. [19:46.670 --> 19:47.070] Um... [19:47.070 --> 19:48.690] It's actually super easy to find venues. [19:49.250 --> 19:49.650] Uh... [19:49.650 --> 19:51.090] You just need to go out and get it. [19:51.290 --> 19:53.810] So, I think an email template is going to help a lot of people. [19:55.610 --> 19:56.010] Um... [19:56.010 --> 19:57.410] We have social media. [19:57.690 --> 19:58.250] Uh... [19:58.250 --> 20:00.270] So, you can use our profile descriptions. [20:01.110 --> 20:01.670] Um... [20:01.670 --> 20:02.410] Our... [20:02.850 --> 20:03.490] Posting templates. [20:04.170 --> 20:04.710] Um... [20:04.710 --> 20:05.290] That's all yours. [20:06.650 --> 20:07.210] Um... [20:07.210 --> 20:08.030] We're on Meetup. [20:08.250 --> 20:09.510] So, you can use our event descriptions. [20:11.070 --> 20:11.630] Uh... [20:11.630 --> 20:12.850] Pretty much everything that we... [20:12.850 --> 20:14.210] That we use, you can use. [20:15.890 --> 20:16.450] Um... [20:16.450 --> 20:16.710] Uh... [20:16.710 --> 20:17.270] We have Vote. [20:17.730 --> 20:19.150] Which is a... [20:19.150 --> 20:20.410] I'll go into Vote a little bit. [20:21.370 --> 20:23.110] Vote is also built by... [20:23.110 --> 20:23.490] By... [20:23.490 --> 20:23.530] By... [20:23.530 --> 20:24.330] In the hackathons. [20:25.030 --> 20:25.370] Um... [20:25.370 --> 20:27.090] And it was built out of the... [20:27.090 --> 20:27.810] Um... [20:27.810 --> 20:31.350] Need for some platform to manage all the ideas that are coming through. [20:31.630 --> 20:36.030] And for people to be able to vote easily on which idea they thought was the best. [20:36.770 --> 20:37.250] Um... [20:37.250 --> 20:41.030] So, it helps streamline a lot of this stuff so that people can focus on the hackathons themselves. [20:41.030 --> 20:41.690] And focus. [20:42.410 --> 20:42.850] Um... [20:42.850 --> 20:43.470] And just have fun. [20:45.110 --> 20:45.550] Um... [20:45.550 --> 20:46.110] So, that's... [20:46.110 --> 20:47.030] That's yours as well. [20:47.210 --> 20:48.030] That's open-source. [20:51.390 --> 20:51.830] Um... [20:51.830 --> 20:53.090] And a lot more. [20:53.330 --> 20:55.350] So, as you build your own... [20:55.850 --> 20:56.290] Uh... [20:56.290 --> 20:58.810] Hackathons in your neighborhoods, I'm pretty sure you're gonna come up with stuff. [20:59.150 --> 21:00.230] That, uh... [21:00.230 --> 21:00.730] A lot of... [21:00.730 --> 21:01.590] A lot of people can use. [21:01.810 --> 21:06.250] So, feel free to dump that into the manifesto as well. [21:10.050 --> 21:10.490] Um... [21:10.490 --> 21:10.990] Uh... [21:10.990 --> 21:12.010] I think I just went through this here. [21:12.830 --> 21:16.890] So, like I said, we have some event descriptions that you can use. [21:17.010 --> 21:18.730] You can use them on Eventbrite, Luma, etc. [21:19.730 --> 21:20.090] Uh... [21:20.090 --> 21:21.330] Because we use them on Meetup right now. [21:22.890 --> 21:23.250] Um... [21:23.250 --> 21:25.750] Social media profiles, posting templates, and then vote. [21:27.690 --> 21:28.050] Um... [21:28.050 --> 21:31.490] This is a picture of one of our templates that... [21:33.290 --> 21:33.650] Uh... [21:33.650 --> 21:34.050] Uh... [21:34.050 --> 21:34.150] Or... [21:34.150 --> 21:37.470] We have a marketing committee that, uh... [21:37.470 --> 21:39.370] Helps with this sort of stuff that they put together. [21:40.310 --> 21:40.730] Um... [21:40.730 --> 21:43.050] We have a picture of what vote UI look like. [21:45.090 --> 21:45.510] Um... [21:45.510 --> 21:46.790] And then we have a picture of... [21:46.790 --> 21:48.370] Our Meetup page. [21:49.510 --> 21:52.570] So, all of this stuff is there for you to get started right away. [21:52.990 --> 21:54.310] Like, you can use this stuff today. [21:54.490 --> 21:57.250] And you can probably start organizing your next hackathon today. [22:00.330 --> 22:00.750] Uh... [22:00.750 --> 22:00.970] Okay. [22:00.970 --> 22:02.030] So, this is... [22:03.550 --> 22:04.370] A lot of... [22:04.370 --> 22:05.090] A lot of stuff. [22:05.490 --> 22:05.790] Um... [22:05.790 --> 22:07.310] I'll try to go through very... [22:07.310 --> 22:08.290] Through this very slowly. [22:09.130 --> 22:09.570] Um... [22:09.570 --> 22:10.650] And it's pretty much the... [22:10.650 --> 22:12.290] Roadmap to help you launch. [22:12.470 --> 22:14.190] It's a roadmap to help you launch. [22:14.570 --> 22:15.010] Uh... [22:15.010 --> 22:16.210] Feel free to modify it. [22:16.510 --> 22:16.950] And... [22:17.450 --> 22:18.490] Extend it as... [22:18.490 --> 22:19.330] As you need. [22:19.430 --> 22:21.370] Because I know that each neighborhood is very different. [22:21.370 --> 22:22.670] And your... [22:23.730 --> 22:24.170] Uh... [22:24.850 --> 22:25.290] Your... [22:25.290 --> 22:26.570] Environment is probably gonna impact... [22:26.570 --> 22:27.810] How you execute the roadmap. [22:29.790 --> 22:30.230] So... [22:30.810 --> 22:31.250] Uh... [22:31.250 --> 22:32.150] Equipped with a framework. [22:32.510 --> 22:34.650] And the support that you need in the manifesto. [22:34.790 --> 22:36.510] I think you're ready to start planning your... [22:36.510 --> 22:37.210] Your launch. [22:37.770 --> 22:38.210] Uh... [22:38.210 --> 22:40.350] Which is gonna be pretty much your first hackathon. [22:42.090 --> 22:42.530] Um... [22:42.530 --> 22:44.530] The launch roadmap is broken up into three phases. [22:44.990 --> 22:47.310] Which can be, as I said, resized as needed. [22:49.330 --> 22:49.770] Uh... [22:50.230 --> 22:50.670] And... [22:51.130 --> 22:51.570] So... [22:51.570 --> 22:53.010] In the first phase... [22:53.010 --> 22:53.610] Uh... [22:53.610 --> 22:54.690] You initialize your community. [22:55.310 --> 22:55.750] Uh... [22:55.750 --> 22:56.190] Which... [22:56.190 --> 22:57.790] I think most people can do in a month. [22:58.170 --> 22:58.930] We have a checklist. [22:59.270 --> 23:00.910] And the checklist is broken up into four weeks. [23:01.750 --> 23:02.190] Uh... [23:02.190 --> 23:03.370] And it's very... [23:03.850 --> 23:04.570] Well-paced. [23:04.810 --> 23:05.210] So... [23:05.210 --> 23:07.290] In a month, I think you can get your first hackathon going. [23:10.290 --> 23:10.730] Um... [23:10.730 --> 23:11.390] Next... [23:11.390 --> 23:11.510] Uh... [23:11.510 --> 23:12.110] Your computer... [23:12.110 --> 23:14.410] Your community can start scaling up... [23:14.410 --> 23:15.930] Over the next two or three months. [23:16.970 --> 23:17.410] Um... [23:17.410 --> 23:19.030] And that would mean stuff like, uh... [23:20.750 --> 23:21.470] Uh... [23:21.470 --> 23:22.790] Launching supporting events. [23:23.730 --> 23:24.150] Um... [23:24.150 --> 23:25.170] Like... [23:25.170 --> 23:26.510] Uh... [23:26.510 --> 23:27.250] Office hours. [23:27.670 --> 23:28.190] Workshops. [23:28.330 --> 23:28.990] Q&A panels. [23:29.390 --> 23:30.070] And so on. [23:30.150 --> 23:31.250] In addition to the hackathons. [23:32.610 --> 23:33.330] Um... [23:33.330 --> 23:36.030] You might start inviting community members to take on... [23:37.750 --> 23:38.470] Uh... [23:38.470 --> 23:40.910] Roles that you've been doing as an organizer. [23:40.910 --> 23:41.910] Uh... [23:41.910 --> 23:42.550] Like, uh... [23:42.550 --> 23:42.850] Hosting. [23:43.870 --> 23:44.430] Uh... [23:44.430 --> 23:44.710] Social media. [23:45.310 --> 23:46.310] And moderation. [23:47.190 --> 23:48.010] And you... [23:48.010 --> 23:50.870] You might also start forming committees to distribute that work. [23:52.570 --> 23:53.130] Uh... [23:53.130 --> 23:54.370] And then... [23:54.370 --> 23:54.910] Uh... [23:54.910 --> 23:56.370] For the next six to twelve months. [23:56.650 --> 23:58.030] You might start... [23:58.030 --> 23:58.570] Growing. [23:59.610 --> 24:00.170] Uh... [24:00.170 --> 24:00.650] And that might... [24:00.650 --> 24:01.990] That's where Flushing Tech is at. [24:02.270 --> 24:02.970] Right now, actually. [24:03.650 --> 24:03.850] Uh... [24:03.850 --> 24:05.230] Now we're looking into... [24:05.230 --> 24:07.490] Delivering solutions for local businesses. [24:09.010 --> 24:09.450] Um... [24:09.450 --> 24:10.710] And developing... [24:10.710 --> 24:11.670] Sponsorship relationships. [24:12.490 --> 24:13.550] And community partnerships. [24:14.310 --> 24:16.490] And this is gonna help a lot of people who... [24:17.390 --> 24:17.830] Uh... [24:17.830 --> 24:19.070] Are in the hackathons right now. [24:20.990 --> 24:21.430] Um... [24:21.430 --> 24:22.830] Sort of give back to the community. [24:23.190 --> 24:24.050] Cause right now... [24:24.050 --> 24:25.110] We're building stuff... [24:25.750 --> 24:26.550] That we... [24:26.550 --> 24:27.330] We just think are fun. [24:28.250 --> 24:29.130] But, um... [24:29.130 --> 24:30.750] There's a lot of reward as well. [24:31.190 --> 24:32.830] When you build stuff that has an impact. [24:34.210 --> 24:34.650] Um... [24:34.650 --> 24:35.710] So I think this is gonna help... [24:35.710 --> 24:36.850] A lot of people. [24:37.910 --> 24:39.170] Really feel that impact. [24:39.810 --> 24:40.910] When they're able to like... [24:40.910 --> 24:42.110] Give back to their local communities. [24:42.890 --> 24:44.450] So this growth phase is gonna be very important. [24:44.610 --> 24:45.010] For a lot of people. [24:46.390 --> 24:46.830] Um... [24:46.830 --> 24:47.430] And I then... [24:47.430 --> 24:48.550] I put at the end there. [24:49.310 --> 24:49.750] Uh... [24:49.750 --> 24:50.290] Evolve. [24:50.790 --> 24:51.230] Because... [24:51.870 --> 24:52.750] I think... [24:52.750 --> 24:53.150] Uh... [24:53.150 --> 24:53.550] Once you're... [24:53.550 --> 24:54.190] Once you're launched. [24:54.390 --> 24:55.410] And you have something running. [24:56.530 --> 24:56.970] Uh... [24:56.970 --> 24:58.290] You can take it in whatever direction. [24:58.830 --> 24:59.270] Your... [24:59.270 --> 25:00.390] Neighborhood feels like. [25:00.650 --> 25:01.070] Your... [25:01.070 --> 25:02.050] Your local... [25:02.050 --> 25:02.870] Neighborhood tech community. [25:03.070 --> 25:03.510] Feels like. [25:03.510 --> 25:03.690] Going. [25:04.110 --> 25:05.510] And you're gonna just naturally... [25:06.050 --> 25:06.890] Organically evolve. [25:07.150 --> 25:07.670] In... [25:07.670 --> 25:08.310] Whatever direction. [25:10.650 --> 25:11.170] Um... [25:11.170 --> 25:12.550] So that's the roadmap. [25:12.690 --> 25:14.150] And that's I think what you can expect. [25:16.750 --> 25:17.790] In about... [25:17.790 --> 25:18.390] Uh... [25:18.390 --> 25:19.550] From one month to like a year. [25:21.990 --> 25:22.510] Um... [25:22.510 --> 25:22.770] Okay. [25:26.760 --> 25:27.280] Um... [25:27.280 --> 25:27.940] So that's it. [25:29.300 --> 25:29.780] Uh... [25:29.780 --> 25:30.300] And... [25:30.300 --> 25:31.560] I just wanna end with... [25:31.560 --> 25:32.640] That all of this... [25:32.640 --> 25:34.020] Is only possible... [25:34.020 --> 25:34.460] With... [25:34.460 --> 25:35.100] With you guys. [25:35.800 --> 25:36.240] Um... [25:36.240 --> 25:38.560] If you believe that a thriving tech community... [25:38.560 --> 25:40.140] Can make your neighborhood better. [25:40.620 --> 25:42.560] And that your neighborhood can make the world better. [25:43.400 --> 25:43.880] Uh... [25:43.880 --> 25:44.960] I invite you to... [25:44.960 --> 25:45.620] Sign up now. [25:46.160 --> 25:46.640] And... [25:46.640 --> 25:47.420] There's a QR code. [25:48.320 --> 25:48.800] Uh... [25:48.800 --> 25:49.800] To the manifesto page. [25:49.980 --> 25:50.580] And there's... [25:50.580 --> 25:51.580] A sign up button there. [25:52.040 --> 25:53.440] And that's just gonna... [25:53.440 --> 25:54.140] Get us in touch. [25:54.960 --> 25:55.440] And... [25:55.440 --> 25:56.940] We can help you get started. [25:56.940 --> 25:58.820] Or you can get started right away by yourself. [26:01.300 --> 26:01.800] Um... [26:01.800 --> 26:02.320] Uh... [26:02.320 --> 26:04.000] I also invite you to export resources. [26:04.400 --> 26:05.080] To maybe... [26:05.080 --> 26:06.020] What's your first hackathon? [26:07.800 --> 26:08.300] Uh... [26:08.300 --> 26:08.960] And to... [26:08.960 --> 26:09.980] Join Fleshing Tech. [26:11.120 --> 26:11.620] Uh... [26:11.620 --> 26:12.400] Fleshing Tech... [26:12.400 --> 26:13.680] Is in Queens College... [26:13.680 --> 26:14.150] In Fleshing... [26:14.900 --> 26:15.160] Uh... [26:15.160 --> 26:15.720] Every two weeks. [26:15.860 --> 26:17.400] So you're definitely invited to... [26:17.400 --> 26:18.700] Just come by and see what it's like. [26:20.880 --> 26:21.380] Um... [26:24.900 --> 26:25.560] So yeah. [26:25.740 --> 26:27.240] None of this is possible... [26:27.240 --> 26:29.100] Without somebody taking a first step. [26:29.100 --> 26:30.840] And just running your own hackathon. [26:32.580 --> 26:33.060] Um... [26:33.060 --> 26:33.820] I came up here today. [26:34.280 --> 26:34.640] And... [26:34.640 --> 26:36.060] I have to give this presentation. [26:36.380 --> 26:37.460] This is my first presentation. [26:38.740 --> 26:39.220] Anyone... [26:45.140 --> 26:45.620] Anyone... [26:45.620 --> 26:45.740] Anyone... [26:45.740 --> 26:47.020] Has a first presentation coming up? [26:48.440 --> 26:48.920] Okay. [26:49.460 --> 26:49.940] Well... [26:49.940 --> 26:50.720] You're gonna be fine. [26:50.720 --> 26:52.440] I survived all the way to the end. [26:53.320 --> 26:54.580] And the world is still here. [26:55.380 --> 26:55.820] So... [26:55.820 --> 26:56.060] Same thing. [26:56.560 --> 26:56.780] Uh... [26:56.780 --> 26:57.980] You're gonna launch your first hackathon. [26:58.680 --> 26:59.120] And... [26:59.120 --> 26:59.580] You'll be fine. [27:00.680 --> 27:01.120] Um... [27:01.120 --> 27:02.640] You're gonna have a lot of people support you. [27:03.360 --> 27:03.800] And... [27:05.440 --> 27:07.680] A lot of people are gonna be better off... [27:07.680 --> 27:08.700] For you having done it. [27:09.680 --> 27:10.120] Um... [27:10.120 --> 27:12.080] So I encourage everyone to give it a shot. [27:14.900 --> 27:15.340] Um... [27:15.340 --> 27:16.600] And one last thing. [27:17.020 --> 27:18.100] Is that, um... [27:19.120 --> 27:19.940] I tried... [27:19.940 --> 27:21.960] I got a bunch of stuff like I mentioned before. [27:22.200 --> 27:22.940] In the first slides. [27:23.560 --> 27:23.680] Uh... [27:23.680 --> 27:24.460] Which were at network... [27:24.460 --> 27:24.860] Uh... [27:24.860 --> 27:25.220] Network events. [27:25.580 --> 27:26.420] Talks and so on. [27:26.840 --> 27:27.640] And they failed. [27:27.880 --> 27:29.020] And you might try stuff. [27:29.320 --> 27:30.300] And they might fail. [27:32.140 --> 27:32.580] Um... [27:32.580 --> 27:34.900] But each failure I think we all know. [27:35.040 --> 27:35.620] As builders. [27:36.080 --> 27:37.560] Is an opportunity to get better. [27:38.080 --> 27:39.740] And you can come up here one day. [27:40.040 --> 27:40.980] And you can be teaching me. [27:41.340 --> 27:42.000] The next time. [27:42.580 --> 27:43.740] Something that might... [27:43.740 --> 27:44.860] Be better for... [27:44.860 --> 27:45.560] For... [27:45.560 --> 27:46.740] A tech community in a neighborhood. [27:47.600 --> 27:48.040] So... [27:48.040 --> 27:49.140] Look forward to your failures. [27:49.200 --> 27:49.700] Is all I'm saying. [27:50.180 --> 27:50.600] Um... [27:50.600 --> 27:51.200] And then you can... [27:51.200 --> 27:51.820] You can share it. [27:52.140 --> 27:53.020] You can share what you learned. [27:53.200 --> 27:53.780] With other people. [27:55.880 --> 27:56.320] Um... [27:56.320 --> 27:56.620] Okay. [27:56.920 --> 27:57.220] So... [27:57.220 --> 27:58.580] Thank you for sitting it out. [27:58.940 --> 27:59.880] I venture that. [28:02.700 --> 28:03.640] Super fast. [28:05.320 --> 28:07.500] And we have like half an hour for questions. [28:10.300 --> 28:10.820] So... [28:10.820 --> 28:11.180] Any questions? [28:12.660 --> 28:14.000] Thank you so much. [28:14.160 --> 28:16.560] I'm going to be fielding the questions in the chat room. [28:16.740 --> 28:19.060] I want to ask the first question actually. [28:19.320 --> 28:21.440] So I'm taking advantage of my position here. [28:22.000 --> 28:22.520] Um... [28:22.520 --> 28:24.160] My question for you is... [28:24.160 --> 28:26.080] I noticed that there's like a voting system. [28:26.320 --> 28:29.040] So I'm assuming it's kind of like a democratic type situation. [28:29.040 --> 28:33.620] But I'm very curious about what kind of government governance model that you're using. [28:34.580 --> 28:35.100] Um... [28:35.100 --> 28:37.260] And what kind of things... [28:37.260 --> 28:38.540] Like what have you explored? [28:38.740 --> 28:38.920] And... [28:38.920 --> 28:39.520] And... [28:39.520 --> 28:39.920] Um... [28:39.920 --> 28:41.080] What your thoughts are around that? [28:41.200 --> 28:41.500] Thank you. [28:43.040 --> 28:44.320] It's a very good question. [28:46.360 --> 28:46.880] Um... [28:46.880 --> 28:49.980] The whole point of the hackathon is to bring neighbors together. [28:50.980 --> 28:51.500] Um... [28:51.500 --> 28:52.040] So... [28:52.040 --> 28:56.580] The governance model is pretty much how you would want to live in a neighborhood. [28:57.920 --> 28:58.460] Um... [28:59.320 --> 28:59.860] So... [29:00.820 --> 29:01.360] We... [29:01.360 --> 29:03.100] It's based on a lot of trust. [29:04.080 --> 29:04.620] Uh... [29:04.620 --> 29:05.710] We expect everyone to... [29:06.960 --> 29:07.500] Uh... [29:07.500 --> 29:08.760] Help out in their own roles. [29:09.640 --> 29:10.180] And... [29:10.180 --> 29:11.580] Develop their own... [29:12.320 --> 29:13.620] Ideas of how they want to... [29:13.620 --> 29:14.900] Be a part of the community. [29:15.640 --> 29:16.180] And... [29:16.180 --> 29:18.860] Being a part of the community means that you behave in... [29:18.860 --> 29:19.580] Certain ways... [29:20.220 --> 29:20.760] Um... [29:20.760 --> 29:21.880] That would help your neighbors. [29:23.420 --> 29:23.900] Uh... [29:24.780 --> 29:25.260] So... [29:25.260 --> 29:26.000] Uh... [29:26.000 --> 29:26.880] In terms of voting... [29:28.740 --> 29:29.220] Um... [29:29.220 --> 29:30.120] You know... [29:30.120 --> 29:31.100] There's stuff like... [29:31.100 --> 29:33.100] You'd be able to vote twice in the system. [29:33.560 --> 29:35.920] And we leave it up to people to do that if they want. [29:36.660 --> 29:37.140] Um... [29:37.140 --> 29:38.420] The whole point is to... [29:38.420 --> 29:39.980] Be very casual. [29:40.320 --> 29:40.880] Be very... [29:42.540 --> 29:43.020] Uh... [29:43.020 --> 29:44.100] Sort of neighborly. [29:44.440 --> 29:45.220] In your... [29:45.220 --> 29:45.700] In your groups. [29:49.580 --> 29:51.940] Is it okay if we take one from online first? [29:52.240 --> 29:52.640] Okay. [29:52.820 --> 29:54.140] I have a question from the Internet. [29:54.340 --> 29:54.940] Can you use the mic? [29:55.500 --> 29:55.840] Yes. [29:58.260 --> 30:00.220] The question from the Internet. [30:00.500 --> 30:03.940] I don't see a code of conduct anywhere in that manifesto. [30:04.740 --> 30:07.140] Has that not been needed for flushing tech? [30:09.720 --> 30:10.920] It's a very good question. [30:11.380 --> 30:11.860] Uh... [30:11.860 --> 30:14.220] And that's been on my to-do list for a long time. [30:15.120 --> 30:15.600] Um... [30:15.600 --> 30:15.940] It... [30:15.940 --> 30:18.220] It hasn't been the need for a very long time. [30:18.420 --> 30:19.860] Part of it is because... [30:19.860 --> 30:20.940] The space we use... [30:23.320 --> 30:23.720] Um... [30:23.720 --> 30:24.600] Is in Queens College. [30:25.940 --> 30:26.340] And... [30:26.760 --> 30:27.160] So... [30:27.160 --> 30:29.040] A lot of the people that come there... [30:29.040 --> 30:29.460] Um... [30:29.460 --> 30:30.900] Are in the space of a college. [30:31.500 --> 30:31.900] So... [30:31.900 --> 30:33.700] The code of contact is sort of implied. [30:34.440 --> 30:34.840] Um... [30:34.840 --> 30:37.200] As opposed to like a more public space where... [30:37.200 --> 30:39.740] People are not sure how they should be conducting themselves. [30:40.900 --> 30:41.300] Um... [30:41.300 --> 30:42.580] But it's very useful to have. [30:42.960 --> 30:44.800] And it's been on my to-do list for a very long time. [30:45.620 --> 30:46.100] Um... [30:46.100 --> 30:46.460] So... [30:46.460 --> 30:48.700] I think that's gonna be the priority for the manifesto next. [30:48.940 --> 30:49.640] Is to add that. [30:50.920 --> 30:51.400] Um... [30:51.400 --> 30:52.220] Because... [30:52.220 --> 30:52.540] Uh... [30:52.540 --> 30:52.620] Yeah. [30:52.760 --> 30:53.960] You're gonna be opening... [30:54.560 --> 30:56.780] Your own tech communities in your own neighborhoods. [30:57.020 --> 30:57.820] In your own spaces. [30:58.680 --> 30:59.080] Um... [30:59.080 --> 31:00.100] And people might not know... [31:00.100 --> 31:01.320] The best way to conduct themselves. [31:02.080 --> 31:02.560] So... [31:02.560 --> 31:02.820] Uh... [31:02.820 --> 31:03.880] That should be a priority. [31:08.670 --> 31:09.150] Okay. [31:09.410 --> 31:09.670] Good. [31:10.530 --> 31:10.890] Um... [31:11.430 --> 31:11.790] So... [31:11.790 --> 31:12.630] I was curious. [31:12.790 --> 31:14.450] You said like at the beginning you put out an ad. [31:14.630 --> 31:15.190] I guess on Meetup. [31:15.570 --> 31:16.090] And then... [31:16.090 --> 31:18.050] You also did socials and stuff as it went on. [31:18.230 --> 31:18.910] So like... [31:18.910 --> 31:20.750] How many people did you get from each type of thing? [31:20.910 --> 31:22.370] Is it really worth putting time on Instagram? [31:24.150 --> 31:24.710] Thanks. [31:25.330 --> 31:25.550] Okay. [31:25.630 --> 31:26.370] So the question is... [31:27.370 --> 31:27.930] Uh... [31:27.930 --> 31:29.870] We've done Meetup and we've done social media. [31:30.730 --> 31:31.290] And... [31:31.290 --> 31:31.570] Uh... [31:32.270 --> 31:34.030] Is it worth doing one over the other? [31:34.310 --> 31:35.150] And which one is better? [31:37.090 --> 31:37.650] Um... [31:37.650 --> 31:38.130] So... [31:38.130 --> 31:40.190] The ad itself was on Meetup. [31:40.630 --> 31:42.070] Social media came afterwards. [31:42.970 --> 31:43.370] Uh... [31:43.370 --> 31:45.710] Meetup worked really well because a lot of people... [31:45.710 --> 31:47.810] That's where they go to when they want to meet people. [31:48.250 --> 31:48.610] Uh... [31:48.610 --> 31:49.210] In group settings. [31:51.070 --> 31:51.630] Um... [31:51.630 --> 31:53.010] And that's worked really well. [31:53.110 --> 31:54.230] And we use it right now. [31:54.690 --> 31:55.090] Uh... [31:55.090 --> 31:56.050] Because it works really well. [31:57.010 --> 31:57.410] Um... [31:57.410 --> 31:59.730] So definitely you want to spend time in some platform. [32:00.070 --> 32:02.130] I think Eventbrite is going to give you the same results. [32:02.310 --> 32:03.810] Loom is going to probably give you the same results. [32:05.990 --> 32:06.390] Um... [32:06.390 --> 32:08.310] And social media came afterwards. [32:09.150 --> 32:09.390] Uh... [32:09.390 --> 32:14.270] Social media was meant to keep the community up to date with what's going on in the group. [32:14.930 --> 32:15.330] Um... [32:15.330 --> 32:16.450] Not necessarily to like... [32:17.310 --> 32:18.030] Bring people... [32:18.030 --> 32:18.570] More people in. [32:19.230 --> 32:19.630] Um... [32:19.630 --> 32:21.050] However, it does a really good job at that. [32:21.650 --> 32:22.050] Um... [32:22.050 --> 32:23.350] We have a really good marketer. [32:23.790 --> 32:28.950] That's a digital marketer that really spends a lot of time and effort building up our social media content. [32:29.430 --> 32:29.830] Um... [32:29.830 --> 32:32.770] Because what happens is that there's a network effect that happens. [32:33.110 --> 32:38.330] People see the content and they're like, oh, I want to share this to someone else that might be interested and they might come. [32:39.150 --> 32:39.550] Um... [32:39.550 --> 32:43.150] So I definitely think it's good to spend time in both areas, but for different reasons. [32:45.590 --> 32:46.370] Go ahead. [32:46.830 --> 32:48.770] You mentioned, um... [32:48.770 --> 32:48.810] Okay. [32:48.990 --> 32:51.650] Having office hours and... [32:51.650 --> 32:51.830] Yeah. [32:53.130 --> 32:53.670] Uh... [32:53.670 --> 32:55.670] Office hours and running workshops. [32:55.950 --> 33:02.570] Are those currently, um, internal to the members who are coming for the hackathons? [33:02.870 --> 33:05.070] Or are those outward facing serving the community? [33:06.810 --> 33:07.490] Uh... [33:07.490 --> 33:08.070] That's a good question. [33:08.070 --> 33:10.130] So the office hours... [33:11.010 --> 33:11.570] Sorry. [33:11.770 --> 33:18.990] So the question was, um, uh, the office hours and all these other events, if they're internal or, uh, public facing. [33:30.970 --> 33:31.530] Um... [33:31.530 --> 33:33.650] There is no such thing as an internal membership group. [33:33.750 --> 33:33.970] I think. [33:34.230 --> 33:35.090] It's all volunteer based. [33:36.950 --> 33:37.390] Um... [33:37.390 --> 33:37.610] And... [33:38.590 --> 33:39.030] Uh... [33:39.030 --> 33:42.390] The second thing is that, um... [33:42.990 --> 33:46.490] The office hours and the Q&A panels and so on. [33:46.930 --> 33:47.370] Um... [33:47.370 --> 33:48.490] Those are all voluntary run. [33:49.110 --> 33:49.550] So... [33:49.550 --> 33:51.350] You might partnership with someone else. [33:51.510 --> 33:53.330] You might partner with a group as well. [33:53.670 --> 33:55.450] And they might have certain specifications. [33:55.450 --> 34:03.890] Like, hey, I want to, uh, invite, um, uh, a certain segment of the population. [34:04.050 --> 34:07.910] Like, for example, um, I remember we did one workshop for, for seniors. [34:08.410 --> 34:13.470] Um, and so you might lean towards trying to get the marketing out to attract more seniors. [34:13.770 --> 34:17.330] But other than that, most of the stuff that you do are probably gonna be public facing. [34:19.590 --> 34:21.810] Uh, the person in the back had their hand up for a while. [34:22.270 --> 34:22.890] Oh, yeah. [34:22.890 --> 34:28.990] So, what I wanted to ask was, um, so, like, I've had, like, the experience trying to get something that started off. [34:29.150 --> 34:38.950] But, like, one of the things I've noticed is, there's a lot of difference when you're, like, starting with, like, let's say, two or three people who, uh, already have, like, a pre-existing connection and, like, form a base to start this. [34:39.070 --> 34:42.390] Versus, like, starting it on your own and trying to find the first three people. [34:42.810 --> 34:44.250] To kind of, like, steam that door. [34:44.630 --> 34:50.910] I was wondering, like, in that latter case, because I know there's a lot of people , who might just be alone in their state. [34:50.910 --> 34:54.790] And they're trying to find other people too, even like start to have a club frame-driven past that. [34:54.990 --> 34:59.550] Like, how do you really get through those initial stages, you know, of even like forming a community in the game? [35:00.010 --> 35:00.410] Right. [35:00.890 --> 35:01.730] That's a hard question. [35:02.030 --> 35:08.630] So the question is, for example, if you were in an area where there's not a lot of population to build a group. [35:08.950 --> 35:13.990] Or even just like in an area where like, you don't, you're not doing this with like sort of friends, right? [35:14.070 --> 35:15.610] You're just trying to find people, right? [35:15.730 --> 35:20.350] You're just trying to find people and like, that first meeting, everybody might just be like strangers or whatever. [35:20.350 --> 35:24.670] And you have to keep coming back each meeting with the same retention until you can get to the point where you draft. [35:24.910 --> 35:26.830] Like, have you had that experience? [35:26.950 --> 35:27.830] And how has that been for you? [35:27.990 --> 35:30.230] Or have you just gotten in with like a couple of people to serve it? [35:31.110 --> 35:31.430] Yeah. [35:31.430 --> 35:33.810] So we started with just a couple of people that showed up. [35:34.050 --> 35:35.630] And a lot of times those people changed. [35:37.430 --> 35:38.550] And that happened for a while. [35:39.430 --> 35:45.410] And it was funny enough for the people who came to keep on coming. [35:46.110 --> 35:47.690] So I think it would depend on that. [35:47.890 --> 35:52.410] It would depend on like, if people come and they get value from the, from coming together and building stuff. [35:52.810 --> 35:57.670] But our experience was that yes, people enjoyed coming, even in very tiny groups. [35:59.030 --> 36:01.250] And it just organically naturally grew from that. [36:01.750 --> 36:03.650] So how do you like break the ice in the beginning? [36:05.410 --> 36:06.310] That was hard. [36:06.710 --> 36:09.570] So the question is, how did we break the ice in the beginning? [36:12.130 --> 36:13.350] It took a couple iterations. [36:13.950 --> 36:16.930] The one thing that helped a lot was that everyone came for a purpose. [36:17.230 --> 36:22.110] They wanted to meet people that had similar interests and wanted to do sort of the same thing. [36:22.510 --> 36:24.910] Finding out what that thing is exactly took a while. [36:25.130 --> 36:26.370] Like I said, we tried a lot of stuff. [36:27.590 --> 36:35.650] So having just a bunch of people with similar interests are gonna sort of like naturally bring up those icebreakers. [36:36.230 --> 36:42.090] For us, it was just nerding out over like stuff that we were talking about at the time. [36:43.510 --> 36:44.130] Go ahead. [36:48.260 --> 36:54.360] So we have a group, like you said, finding a venue is easy. [36:54.360 --> 37:02.460] We have like a small, not small, but like medium-sized boss libraries, Internet in a box effort in the Boston area. [37:02.720 --> 37:07.500] And finding a venue at times, like for workshops, has been challenging, right? [37:07.660 --> 37:11.420] It's like multi-weeks of legalese negotiations and figuring that out. [37:11.520 --> 37:13.200] So curious if you have tips and tricks on that. [37:13.340 --> 37:17.300] And then second, you mentioned like common interests at the Hacktops. [37:17.440 --> 37:19.740] Like what are you guys hacking on? [37:20.240 --> 37:21.100] Curious about that. [37:22.260 --> 37:23.220] Very good questions. [37:23.760 --> 37:29.740] So the two questions were, the venue, some tips on getting the venue. [37:30.820 --> 37:34.100] And then the second question is... [37:36.080 --> 37:37.140] What are you hacking on? [37:37.280 --> 37:38.440] What are we hacking on? [37:38.600 --> 37:39.720] And I should have put a slide in there. [37:39.840 --> 37:43.040] That would have been one of the best slides, what we've been building. [37:43.620 --> 37:47.160] So the first question, the venues, were a challenge for us as well in the beginning. [37:48.360 --> 37:52.500] But again, our first ad was just, hey guys, anyone wants to come together? [37:52.720 --> 37:53.440] We'll figure it out. [37:54.260 --> 37:57.340] But does anyone want to come together and just talk about tech? [37:58.480 --> 38:02.760] So people said yes, there were signups on Meetup, and we just went to a cafe. [38:04.280 --> 38:07.040] So that's probably a good start for most people. [38:08.140 --> 38:12.400] But eventually what I learned is that you can walk into a lot of public spaces and just ask [38:17.160 --> 38:17.560] a particular thing. [38:18.400 --> 38:22.700] Would you be interested in getting a space for us for a little bit, for like an hour or so? [38:24.640 --> 38:26.880] So I went to places like community centers. [38:27.920 --> 38:31.580] At the time I was volunteering at two or three community centers in Flushing. [38:33.900 --> 38:35.120] I went to the library. [38:36.540 --> 38:38.760] I went to Queen's College and I just went there. [38:38.960 --> 38:42.720] I showed up and I asked them if they would be interested. [38:42.980 --> 38:44.300] And they always said yes. [38:46.000 --> 38:54.240] So I think just finding public spaces, going to them and asking them is a good first step. [38:56.020 --> 39:05.640] What I learned as well is that you can actually go to your representative's office and they have a lot of connections usually in your neighborhood. [39:05.640 --> 39:14.800] So like your council person, your community boards, they usually have a lot of connections to people who would definitely be very interested in bringing people to your spaces. [39:16.500 --> 39:19.720] So those are very useful places to find venues. [39:21.020 --> 39:25.940] The second question was, what are we hacking on? [39:26.180 --> 39:32.100] So some of the things that we build, most of the stuff that we build are apps. [39:32.780 --> 39:34.440] People like writing software together. [39:35.380 --> 39:37.940] It's very, there's a very low barrier to entry. [39:38.300 --> 39:40.300] So you can just bring it out and you get started. [39:41.880 --> 39:44.340] Recently, we've also been exploring 3D printing. [39:44.660 --> 39:46.280] So that's another thing that we've been doing. [39:50.200 --> 39:52.200] We try to do some hardware as well. [39:52.680 --> 39:56.000] That's the next thing that we'll probably explore a little bit in Flushing. [39:56.880 --> 40:04.460] So stuff like hard windows, stepper mortars, microcontrollers, that kind of stuff. [40:05.680 --> 40:07.580] There's a question from the Internet. [40:09.400 --> 40:13.180] It's relatively easy to get people to join events. [40:13.360 --> 40:18.440] It's much harder to get them taking ownership of organizing work. [40:18.820 --> 40:21.060] How do you handle this recruitment? [40:23.300 --> 40:24.280] Very good question. [40:26.100 --> 40:37.000] So luckily for me, and I am pretty sure this is going to be your experience as well, is I think this is, again, a big part of because everyone comes there, because they have shared interest. [40:37.620 --> 40:43.300] Um, you do that for a little bit and people really feel a part of your group. [40:45.800 --> 41:02.260] I think Flushing Tech, I don't think we're, I'm very grateful and maybe we were lucky, but I think having people come and really be part of something that really gives them a rewarding experience, just naturally brought out people who wanted to own stuff. [41:03.380 --> 41:11.840] As an organizer, and if there's any managers in here, you probably know this really well, is that you just have to find them. [41:11.980 --> 41:13.060] You just have to find these guys. [41:13.720 --> 41:18.800] And see who wants to do, to do what, and then encourage them to take that step. [41:20.240 --> 41:23.620] And I think, yeah. [41:28.170 --> 41:36.810] I was curious, at the stage of this development, are you starting to connect with other similar organizations? [41:37.030 --> 41:41.170] Like I know also in New York, there's like Beta NYC and a few other orgs. [41:42.790 --> 41:47.290] So the question is, have we been trying to connect with other similar organizations? [41:48.590 --> 41:50.290] That would be fun right now. [41:55.430 --> 41:58.570] I volunteer slash participant at Beta NYC. [41:58.970 --> 42:02.170] I volunteer at their open data conferences sometimes. [42:02.790 --> 42:06.290] Um, and it would be fun to do partnerships. [42:06.730 --> 42:08.430] Um, I haven't explored that too much. [42:09.130 --> 42:16.070] Um, but, uh, yeah, I can see a lot of value with exploring those partnerships, if you, if you have the bandwidth. [42:16.610 --> 42:18.430] Uh, but, uh, unfortunately I do not. [42:20.170 --> 42:21.470] Uh, go ahead. [42:22.210 --> 42:33.370] Um, I, I see in the agenda that you've sketched out, that there's, like at each hackathon, there's maybe an hour and a half set aside for the build phase. [42:33.750 --> 42:39.830] And like my first impression is that seems very short, but also I haven't organized this kind of thing. [42:39.990 --> 42:44.430] I guess I'm curious, have you experimented with like longer, more intense periods? [42:44.490 --> 42:46.170] Or like, why did you end up settling on that? [42:47.390 --> 42:55.550] Um, so the question is, is, uh, the building time, which is 1.5 hours in the agenda, if that's enough. [42:55.690 --> 42:59.210] And if we experimented with different times and if that's sort of intentional. [42:59.890 --> 43:01.430] Um, so it wasn't intentional. [43:01.730 --> 43:04.990] Uh, we had this space in Queens College for two hours. [43:06.530 --> 43:11.870] And the first parts of the agenda usually took up like half an hour. [43:12.130 --> 43:18.050] Um, so it just happened as a, as a, as a, as a factor of how much, how much time we had in the space. [43:18.730 --> 43:23.910] Um, what I do know from experience is that sometimes we run over it. [43:24.230 --> 43:30.030] Uh, the space is very, uh, very forgiving about running over the time. [43:30.410 --> 43:34.490] Um, and when we do run over, it's a longer period. [43:35.070 --> 43:45.550] Um, I think it dilutes the the energy and the excitement of having that short period. [43:46.170 --> 43:58.690] Um, so 1.5 does actually feel like a very nice time to just spend, just hammering into, uh, hammering one feature or one part of a feature, um, out with a bunch of people next to you. [43:59.210 --> 44:10.450] Um, and I think that same thing, uh, as we work in our own jobs is that to hammer out a task, I think takes four to an hour and a half maybe. [44:11.210 --> 44:14.950] And once you get that done, you can grab a cup of coffee and feel very reward. [44:15.650 --> 44:20.770] Um, so I think that makes, I think it's a, it's a, it's a nice natural time span that you can aim for. [44:24.000 --> 44:24.440] Okay. [44:24.480 --> 44:25.940] So we have a couple more questions. [44:26.980 --> 44:28.900] Let's get these guys that I haven't been. [44:29.040 --> 44:29.320] Go ahead. [44:29.980 --> 44:37.840] How would you recommend determining the size or scope geographically of the community, especially in the suburban area where everyone's so spread out? [44:39.900 --> 44:40.920] It's a good question. [44:41.160 --> 44:48.320] So the question is how do we determine the size that we should be for, uh, trying to aim targeting, uh, the geographic size? [44:49.360 --> 44:49.700] Um, [44:53.040 --> 44:55.380] that's a good question and I don't have a good answer. [44:56.240 --> 45:08.040] But what I'm thinking initially is that a neighborhood, um, is a good target because, um, so the reason that you would probably choose a neighborhood is because, uh, they usually share a couple of things. [45:08.180 --> 45:16.360] They share like, uh, a favorite coffee shop or they like share, uh, rep, uh, government representatives that they can talk about at the hackathons. [45:16.640 --> 45:21.200] So any space that shares a bunch of similar characteristics, I think is a good target. [45:21.400 --> 45:25.500] Like any geographic area that has similar characteristics is a good target. [45:25.500 --> 45:29.020] Um, physical boundaries, I don't think mean that much. [45:31.060 --> 45:31.680] Go ahead. [45:32.100 --> 45:37.440] Um, I always want to do another plug for libraries as a place for these kinds of things. [45:37.580 --> 45:37.680] Yeah. [45:37.960 --> 45:49.940] So just saying that, uh, as a librarian, I'm also really curious, you mentioned, um, wanting to shift to trying to do projects that support local nonprofits or organizations. [45:50.420 --> 45:53.760] Do you have any examples of things you've done or what you'd like to do? [45:54.620 --> 45:57.900] Uh, so we got a plug for using libraries. [45:58.500 --> 46:05.260] Um, and if we've tried to do anything for nonprofits in libraries or any, any... [46:05.260 --> 46:11.000] You mentioned that as, as sort of a next step, um, to do things to serve the community. [46:11.460 --> 46:11.680] Yeah. [46:11.800 --> 46:13.260] And if we've done anything for the community. [46:13.460 --> 46:15.920] So we haven't done anything really as yet. [46:16.260 --> 46:20.620] Um, we're still sort of like building a lot of stuff for fleshing tech itself. [46:20.620 --> 46:23.980] So like the full thing app, like you saw the website, like you saw the manifesto. [46:24.080 --> 46:31.980] We're building all this stuff, which in the long term is going to benefit flushing as a whole, uh, because we're going to have a strong community there, but we haven't like reached out to other nonprofits. [46:32.460 --> 46:36.040] I think that's a going to be a very rewarding next step, but we haven't done that as yet. [46:36.660 --> 46:46.300] Um, uh, some places that I'm looking at is, uh, local nonprofits, um, because, you know, hands are, uh, there's a lot of funding that's lost. [46:46.300 --> 46:49.600] There's a lot of, there's very few hands in nonprofits usually. [46:50.060 --> 46:58.940] Um, and there's a lot of tech needs, um, and the skill sets in nonprofits are usually more focused on their impact and not on the tools to bring them to that impact. [46:59.340 --> 47:05.180] Um, so you can, anyone in, in a neighborhood can really help a nonprofit by just volunteering those services in a group. [47:06.040 --> 47:15.160] Um, uh, businesses would be also very rewarding, uh, because, uh, in your neighborhood, you might make a lot of connections that are going to be very strong. [47:15.680 --> 47:21.420] Um, so nonprofits, local businesses, I think those are good, good first targets. [47:22.920 --> 47:23.780] Any other questions? [47:23.940 --> 47:24.040] Go ahead. [47:24.560 --> 47:30.280] Kind of related to that, um, because you only have about a 30 minute ideation phase. [47:30.740 --> 47:39.620] Um, when you were starting the hackathons, did you struggle getting ideas on what people would build in that first hour and a half? [47:39.620 --> 47:46.420] I feel like over time, it probably got better because there's rollover, but how did the ideation at the start go? [47:46.800 --> 47:47.700] Very good question. [47:47.940 --> 47:50.680] So the question is about ideation and how does ideation go? [47:51.680 --> 47:56.440] Um, uh, ideation actually happens very much more quickly than 30 minutes. [47:56.680 --> 48:05.100] Um, everything before the building phase is 30 minutes, but ideation itself is about five, 10 minutes really quick. [48:05.320 --> 48:09.120] Uh, so like you literally come in and just off the top of your mind, what do you want to build? [48:09.840 --> 48:12.320] Um, and even to this day, it's very hard. [48:12.980 --> 48:20.380] Uh, part of it is because a lot of people come in and they don't read the full event descriptions that are not super prepared. [48:20.540 --> 48:21.240] And that's okay. [48:21.440 --> 48:24.220] If people come, they just want to see what this new experience is like. [48:24.920 --> 48:28.420] Um, so even right now, it's a challenge and there's some tools. [48:28.420 --> 48:31.840] I'm not too sure if it's in a manifesto as yet, but they'll go up there soon. [48:31.840 --> 48:45.800] Um, is that, uh, there's a couple options, uh, you as an organizer, or maybe you might see a couple of people that always have really good ideas before the event, you might ask them, or you might put together a list of possible options that you might start off with, [48:45.820 --> 48:49.380] um, just to get people thinking about some options that they can build. [48:50.060 --> 48:52.960] Um, so you can prepare beforehand. [48:53.280 --> 49:01.320] Uh, I really like the idea of just like putting people on the spot and like forcing them to really think about stuff that they want to build that's close to their hearts. [49:01.320 --> 49:10.580] Um, but it turns out that if you want to run it smoothly as a group, um, you've got to do some preparation sometimes, and you've got to like prepare some ideas beforehand. [49:10.900 --> 49:15.060] Um, it does help the group as a whole just to really hammer out some good ideas. [49:15.620 --> 49:20.180] Um, we have an agenda for each hackathon as a, as a slide as well. [49:20.280 --> 49:22.420] I should have put it up as, as an attachment. [49:22.420 --> 49:23.980] I'll send it out, whoever signs up. [49:24.400 --> 49:41.800] And in there are some, um, things that you can think about, like, uh, when you're thinking about what ideas and having a visual, um, a visualization of what, of some things that you might build, uh, helps people come up with those ideas. [49:42.240 --> 49:44.900] Uh, all in all to say is that it's going to be hard. [49:45.040 --> 49:47.460] It's still hard for us today to get people to come up with ideas. [49:49.020 --> 49:49.480] All right. [49:49.540 --> 49:50.340] I think we're at time. [49:52.040 --> 49:52.400] Okay. [49:52.440 --> 49:53.140] So we're at time. [49:53.300 --> 49:54.160] So thank you all. [49:54.320 --> 49:56.020] If any more questions, uh, just.