Category: Advocacy

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Open Social Saturday

balloonsHey all, just a quick post to let you know about our regular Open Social tomorrow June 20th. The open social is a great way to see the space, hang out, and meet other members & visitors. If you’ve never been to the social, you’ll find it a great alternative Saturday evening in town. If you have some project or idea in mind, its a great opportunity to talk to other makers, hackers and do’ers. Or you can simply just hang out and chat 🙂

Hopefully, there’ll be all the usual madness of an open social. Weather permitting, there’ll be pizza. There may also be beer samples, courtesy of Capital Brewers at TOG. You might even get to pick some locks if our friendly lock pickers will show you some tricks. The space stays open until the last member is left…. usually the small hours of Sunday morning. The open social is free to attend. Our doors will be open from 7pm.

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TOG at Repair Cafe

repair_smallTOG will be at Sandymount Repair Cafe this coming Saturday (27th) 2pm – 5pm  in Christchurch Hall, Sandymount.

A repair cafe is where people come together and fix all sorts of things. Experts work along side the object’s owner and take a journey together to repair things. The hope is next time you will be able to fix something yourself .

If you have something that is in need of repair and want to know how to do it, drop by on Saturday.

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TOG in the Irish Times

TOG was mentioned in the Irish Times on 10th June 2014: No wasters: how to repair a throwaway culture.

Tog, a collaborative makers’ space or “hackerspace” based in an old warehouse on Chancery Lane in Dublin, will help out at the cafe. Tog shares knowledge and tools in everything from 3D printing to knitting. One of its innovations is the Twitter Knitter, whereby Becky Yates, a software engineer, has repurposed a 45-year-old knitting machine to knit tweets.

Next door to Tog is a marketing company, and Tog members love scavenging from its waste. One find was a quantity of rubber ducks, which have been fashioned into a Duck Matrix display. “We’re terrible for puns in this place,” says Tríona O’Connell, part of Tog and a PhD research scientist at Dublin City University.

Ireland’s second Repair Cafe takes place on June 28, at Christchurch Hall, Sandymount, Dublin 4, 2pm-5pm. Some TOG members have previously helped out with the Repair Cafe.

The Twitter Knitter has been shown at Dublin Mini Maker Faire 2013 and at HACK/CHANGE (photos).

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Recognition As A Charitable Organisation

One of the earliest questions we had when starting TOG in the spring of 2009 was how much would it cost to keep a hackerspace in Ireland running? All of us can probably think some of the regular costs; rent, electricity, gas, internet, insurance, etc.

A less common known cost is rates. Rates is a form of local property tax paid directly to the local council. It is only paid by the occupiers of commercial or industrial properties.

The amount to be paid is calculated after an independent valuation by the Valuations Office which is multiplied by an amount set each year by the local council. For TOG our local council is Dublin City Council. Continue reading “Recognition As A Charitable Organisation”