FAQ

What is Columbia Gadget Works?

Columbia Gadget Works is a group where people with common interests, usually in computers, technology, or digital or electronic art can meet, socialize and/or collaborate. Several of our members have shops of various sizes, and are usually willing to let members use certain parts of them at meetings. You can see the location of our shop on our General Info page, or come to one of our weekly Thursday meetups that you can find on our Calendar. You can see the equipment in our shop on the Equipment List.

That’s great, but what’s a hackerspace?

A hackerspace is an open technology lab, where people who are interested in working on interesting projects can meet and work together. Some people prefer to call it a maker space because of the apparent negative connotations tied to the word "hacker". The first hackerspace opened in 1981 in Berlin, Germany. According to hackerspaces.org , there are now more than 350 around the world, of which more than 150 are in the United States.

So, What exactly is a Hacker?

In home and hobby circles, a hacker is a person who enjoys exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. They may also heavily modify software or hardware of their own computer system. But its not limited to that, we would consider a hacker any one who like to build and modify stuff. You can see some of the documented group or member projects on our main page under Projects.

Ready to join?

If you think you’d be interested in joining Columbia Gadget Works you can head over to our Membership Info page and join. If you think you would like to just come to one of our meetups and learn more; you can head over to our Calendar page, or RSVP to our next hack night on our meetup page.

More Questions?

Head over to our contact page where you can communicate directly with us.