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Radical Personal Finance

164-An Introduction to Hackerspaces and Makerspaces: Interview with Jessica Fong, President of the South Side Hackerspace in Chicago

Radical Personal Finance

Joshua J. Sheats, MSFS, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CASL, RHU, REBC, CAP

Self-improvement, Business, Education, Investing

4.21.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2015

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Years ago I heard of the concept of a hackerspace/makerspace. In essence, a hackerspace is a community-operated physical place where people can meet and work on their projects.

But, the work that can come out of those spaces is far more impressive than that description makes it sound like.

I've wanted to bring you the concept but since I'm not an expert, I needed to do it in the context of an interview. I was thrilled when a listener of the show recommended that I interview Jessica Fong, president of the South Side Hackerspace in Chicago.

In the show, Jessica shares details on:

  • What hackerspaces are and some of the great things that have emerged from them.
  • How their organization was started.
  • Advice for others interested in founding such a venture.

Enjoy the interview!

Joshua

Links:

Transcript

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0:00.0

Radical Personal Finance is a community project.

0:03.0

It was created by me, but it's funded by you,

0:06.2

much like the theme of today's show.

0:08.9

For information on how you can get involved

0:10.9

in supporting the show, please go to radical personal finance.com

0:15.6

slash patron.

0:19.2

Today on the show, we're going to dig into the concept of hacker spaces.

0:25.0

Not sure if you're familiar with this concept or not,

0:26.8

but a hacker space is a beautiful idea

0:28.8

that you need to know about.

0:29.8

That's why I'm bringing it to you on the show.

0:31.7

In essence, it's a way for communities to come

0:34.9

together and create a space for people to create stuff, to simply come up with and

0:41.2

create cool stuff.

0:43.4

And the variation and the possibilities of this

0:47.3

are huge.

0:48.8

It's also potentially life changing for many people,

0:51.2

including maybe you. Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. My name is Joshua Sheets and today is Thursday March the 5th, 2015.

1:15.0

Today I bring you an interview with Jessica Fong.

1:19.0

Jessica is one of the founding members of the Southside Hacker Space in Chicago.

1:24.5

And if you're new to this concept for this idea, definitely pay attention to this show.

1:29.2

It's a concept that has the potential of revolutionizing many neighborhoods.

...

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