A place for hackers and thinkers |
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| Origin | Mountain View, CA |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Years active | 2009-present |
| Category | Hackerspace |
| Founder(s) | David Weekly, Jeff Lindsay, Brian Klug, Melissalynn Perkins, Kitt Hodsden |
| Affiliated Group(s) | Noisebridge, NYC Resistor, Pumping Station One |
| Website(s) | hackerdojo.com |
Hacker Dojo is a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) community center and hackerspace in Mountain View, California. Predominantly an open working space for software projects, the Dojo hosts a range of events from technology classes to biology, computer hardware, and manufacturing and is open to all types of hackers.[1][2][3]
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The Dojo is run mostly democratically by its membership under the oversight of five elected directors. Anybody can become a member, and hardship, worktrade and family rates are available. Member votes rarely deal with specific instances, and more work with general policy on how the Dojo should run. The Dojo is primarily financed through membership dues ($100/mo), but has historically accepted 3rd party sponsorships from Microsoft[4], Google, iSocket, Twilio, AMS Dataserfs [5] and Palantir Technologies to fund expansions and renovations.
The Dojo is entirely communal space from the tools in the electronics lab to the desks to the food in the refrigerator. Anything left there is considered fair game for anybody to play with. Very few restrictions are placed upon people provided they do not detract from the experience of members or consume resources they do not replace. Any member may run an event, and event organizers are permitted to charge non-members for attendance to their event. Members are always permitted to go everywhere they wish, provided they do not consume somebody else's finite resources (such as an event's food).
The Hacker Dojo is located at 140 South Whisman Road in Mountain View, CA. The facility started as being only 140A [6] but the space expanded to include 140B in October 2009, and further expanded in October 2011 to lease units C and D, thus taking over the entirety of 140 S. Whisman. The expansion party was attended by several hundred individuals, including Steven Levy. 140A was formerly an industrial artistic glassworking facility, though the community has put the space through a significant series of renovations.
The three primary uses of Hacker Dojo are for events, as a coworking space, and for social purposes. The intersection of these three uses are what the Dojo hopes will make it consistently a nice place to be, a good place to meet people, and a place to be challenged intellectually. [7]
The 140B building has been turned into a place where events such as Random Hacks of Kindness, Startup Weekend, and BayThreat among others have been hosted. It also has invented and run its own events such as a reverse job fair call the Hacker Fair where candidates present booths of their previous independent or open source work to company engineers who are accompanied by technical recruiters [8] and the Startup Fair, where young companies have booths for investors to consider.[9][10] Members can hold events at the Dojo free of charge, subject to approval from the Dojo events committee.
A large number of Silicon Valley startups work daily out of the Hacker Dojo as their primary location, such as MicroMobs[11], Skydera[12], and NetworkedBlogs.[13] Founders Institute, which is located nearby, encourages its members to work out of the Dojo [14]
The Dojo also has movie nights and a weekly Happy Hour.