Go for Launch – Monthly Review September 2023

Go for Launch – Monthly Review September 2023

We’ve been open for about two weeks now – time for a recap of what has happened since.

Our great opening

Highlight of the month is naturally the joint Opening of temporärhaus and Haus der Nachhaltigkeit on Saturday, September 16th. The 99 reserved ticket slots were quickly booked, and, to our delight, so was the waiting list.

Transparency and Openness: We want to show to everybody what we are offering now. To stream the opening event was a matter of honour, hence, and as usual we performed this with our own resources. Visible here: ech0 with the mobile reporting rig, and Jakob explaining the electronics workshop while Jakob 2 provides good audio with a microphone.

Naturally, we aimed to include interested persons who could not attend in person. Hence, we tinkered until the end to provide everybody with a live stream – including a mobile setup for a guided tour across all rooms. Of course, we did not turn away anyone who showed up!

Already from outside the two communities filling this place with joy, love and programs are recognizable: The pull bars that used to read “SPORT SOHN” have been replaced with DIY variants that read “Temporärhaus” and “Haus der Nachhaltigkeit”.

The grand opening also marked the final stretch for most parts of the remodeling efforts which took place basically every day during the weeks before. There are still minor issues to be completed, but the opening date made it clear that the stage, all the PA and event infrastructure, the accessible toilet and a bunch of other construction sites needed to be done by that date. All these remodelling efforts have only been possible due to thousands of volunteered work hours by both our communities. And we are really proud of what we have been able to achieve together as a civic community!

Already the site of a concert after just having been finished: The stage during Kulturnacht, being used by The Dogs of The Bay. View towards the stage through a DIY room divider/planter built by HdN.

The date for the opening was purposely set for the day of Kulturnacht Ulm/Neu-Ulm. Beginning with the very first day, we wanted to open our shared house for the general public and anybody interested. Harbor songs were played by “The Dogs of The Bay”, a band with members from the Haus der Nachhaltigkeit. Meanwhile, both our groups catered all interested visitors with food and drink, led guided tours across the rooms and let them experience the exhibits: audiovisual animations of Wikipedia edits, better images for the AI hype and interactive exhibits and art by bleeptrack. We were very delighted about the great demand, since queues started to form along the sidewalk right from the minute we opened in the evening!

Right at 19:00 a first queue formed across the sidewalk. View from the sidewalk towards the entrance, with people queuing.

Regular program right from the opening

Our regular programming started immediately after the opening weekend. The re-opening of our Maker Monday on Monday, September 18th drew a crowd of about 25 people. Right on the next evening, a Live Let’s Play followed.

First public event in the workshop: Interested onlookers, while Eli tries our shaper milling machine.

Wednesday, September 27th saw the re-boot of another favourite of ours that we had previously organized for years in the old rooms at Weinhof: LoRaWAN and TTN is back in business for anybody interested in free sensor networks and IoT. As before, every other week will see either an open evening and a hack night focused on finishing one’s project on a rotational basis.
The same day saw our Temporärhaus hosting the first partner event for ZAWiW’s Fall Academy’: We demonstrated how to contribute to OpenStreetMap’s quality through the StreetComplete app.

Workshop with WMDE: Part of the in-person audience with a view towards the people participating remotely.

On Thursday, September 28th, a four-person delegation of our patron Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) stopped by our house while they were on the way to WikiCon in Linz. Together with 13 of our volunteers we held a planning workshop about what will and can happen in our rooms, how to report our activities to WMDE and how to keep the public informed about our activities.

Along all these “official” events, there is still a lot of work to be done. Some of the construction sites that were temporarily put on hold for the opening need to be completed. The wood workshop has seen a lot of progress and one tool after another becomes usable. We strive to finish all the open tasks together with Haus der Nachhaltigkeit by the end of the year.

That’s not all, by far!

We are looking forward to re-boot all the usual, regular events that you have come to enjoy in the past years. October will see the re-start of Nähcafé, our textile and sewing workshop program. There is still a lot to be done, but having finished the main remodelling tasks allows a lot of other programming to resume – both ones you have been familiar with, and others that are only possible through our new-found cooperation. As before, you are invited to participate to mold our third place for our twin cities.

From 2017 through 2020 we had created monthly activity and transparency reports for one patron and the lord mayor. We want to re-introduce this kind of chronicling – but now, finally, also for the general public, in order to create transparency and accountability.