The Cowtown Computer Congress

Many thanks go out to everyone who helped make the grand opening of the first hacker space in the midwest exceed everyone’s epectations to create one of the coolest events to happen in the Kansas City tech scene in a long time.

The week kicked off with the conclusion of our first major fundraiser and the drawing of our winner of a MacBook Pro. We at the space cannot thank the hundreds of people around the world who donated to our cause, giving us a great deal of financial security as we move into our first year.

Monday night we opened the space to organizations who may be interested in becoming affiliates and met some great people who had some fantastic ideas. In order to help serve their needs, we’re pushing forward with some projects which will enable the Lab to function as a perfect place to film your next video podcast.

Wednesday night served as project night where saw the wide range of CCCKC members’ talents on display from Randy’s amazing alternative energy generation device and Mike’s humanoid robotic to Chaio’s textile electronics. It was great to see not only the projects, but all the visitors who came away excited about the organization and how we can have a positive impact in the community.

Thursday we had our regular membership meeting which saw the distribution of keys to our members…well…some of them. Due to a small mishap at the hardware store, one of the three keys wasn’t made from the right blank. All the keys are ready now, and members have begun settling in to work on new projects.

Friday night we gathered to hear a number of talks. Frogman and Ax0n showed that old technology isn’t necessarily useless which wasn’t without a live demonstration of how getting into old hardware dictates that you’ll need a lot of it. Turns out, it takes old technology to fix old technology. Our director of networking Asmodian X and Ax0n (pulling double duty) showed the wide range of uses for the low cost wireless device, the Fon. Vice President Ulysses really gave a tremendous overview of the history of the lock. Of course, this night brought the arrival of some out of town guests from as far away as Chicago and Des Moines.

Saturday showed exactly what can be expected to happen regularly as our calendar fills. Vince, one of our most dedicated members arrived at the space before dawn to prepare for a day of workshops. Over the course of 8 hours we welcomed over 20 guests to the space, including a local boy scout troop to learn the basics of soldering. We didn’t just stick to soldering, though. From Jestin talking about repurposing a Nintendo Wii remote into just about anything to Arduino programming to an impromptu demonstration of how to set up the laser grafftti rig the day was packed.

This is was just a preview of what’s to come.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped make this possible. From our speakers to our charter members and donors around the world. I can’t truly express my gratitude to everyone for making this crazy idea of mine possible. – jur1st