Hackerspace Surabaya: Share – Work – Play

Not only Bandung, Surabaya now also have hackerspace. Introducing Hackerspace Surabaya or HackerspaceSBY. With the concept as a joint office, HackerspaceSBY is also a place to develop and share the creativity of its members.

As also described by Santoso Putra as one of the initiators, HackerspaceSBY is also intended to become a place for share and develop business for its members. HackerspaceSBY originated from the chat from suWec (Surabaya Web Community) friends and Mohammad Zulkarnaian about  hackerspace in Bandung and about 'the work at jelly', they then saw a Santoso Putra's office that has unused space, the room formerly used as a seminar or workshop room is then used as hackerspace.

In addition to the reative aura and communal atmosphere filled by members with their expertise that allows exchanging opinions and share experiences and increase relations, HackerspaceSBY also provides some basic facilities like free Wi-Fi, electricity and address of the representative office. Also available is a lobby room, training room and meeting room.

Currently HackerspaceSBY already in operation and can accommodate about 15 people more. Some creative workers who have worked in this shared office are PT Otak Kanan, PT Sigra Adhi Sejahtera, CV Close Up 9 Production House, CV Santosa Putra, Zulsdesign Studio, Pecel Ponorogo Bu Tari, Pusdiklat MasterNusa, Edunema – Interactive Learning, Mata Air Communications, etc.. Membership system that is applied is also almost the same as HackerspaceBDG, the donation system. It also provided a place for free member with voluntary donations, as well as for a premium member donations ranged from Rp 250.000 - 300.000 with various facilities such as internal-member shared project facility / tools project management which is being prepared.

Quite interesting to see the composition of the members of which consist of businesses that have established and also filled by a freelancers. With the concept of sharing - work – play, surely each member can share with each other about their respective experiences. And do not forget of course the employment opportunity is wide open, because the members would have a job or projects which often require extra labor or who are in their respective field.

For programs that will run on HackerspaceSBY, described by Bang Zul, HackerspaceSBY besides being a place to hold workshops, they also will be holding various small-scale workshops, 2 times a week. This workshop is of course open to the public not only for members HackerspaceBSY only.

Surabaya itself also has suWEc as one of an active community which creates events synergized with HackerspaceSBY and other communities. Co-working space is not a new thing, but along with the growth of tech startup and a various internet-based services, including the increasing number of freelancers who develop their expertise in fields related to Internet (web), it encourages the growth of shared workspaces - such as hackerspace in Surabaya.

I myself believe, shared workspaces or hackerspace will continue to grow, not only in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and probably Bali or in various cities outside Java. It is good to see the community evolve to support each business process, especially on startup. One thing that must be noticed is the sustainability, growth in liquid communities often also facilitate members to come and go, focus on business as a business is one way for activities that remain can be run continuously. Because when we're talking about business, of course, sustainability business is an important factor, but certainly the community approach can still be a main feature. There is a synergy between the role of communities as well startup as a business.

For DailySocial readers located in Surabaya area and are interested in joining, following is the complete address of HackerspaceSBY: Ruko Wisma Mukti, Jl. Arif Rahman Hakim 14 A Surabaya – Indonesia, Phone : (031) 59 36999 | Fax : (031) 593 0 369 | SMS : 081 3380 36999, or you can contact via Twitter: @santosoputra, @hackerspaceSBY, @zulsdesign and also their website HackerspaceSBY or Facebook page HackerspaceSBY.

Thank you for Imam Muttaqin who has helped introduce me to HackerspaceSBY, photos are taken with permission, from Facebook page HackerspaceSBY.

Translated by Nita Sellya.