■ FIGURE 2. Dorkbot
Austin at Cafe Mundi.
have been privately
organized and funded,
some have been
sponsored by such big
names as South by
Southwest (SXSW),
Make Magazine, Amaze
Entertainment, and the
International Game
Developers Association
(IGDA) (Figure 3).
Due to the nature
of a Dorkbot event, the
main facilitators have
changed as new folks become
interested and some of the early
movers and shakers have moved on
to other projects. Though David
Nunez and Rich LeGrand are no
longer working with Dorkbot Austin,
the current Dorkbot Austin crew of
Rodney Gibbs, Luke Iseman, Chase
Hammock, and Nick Pietraniec have
stepped in to make sure the event
lives on.
I did get a moment to chat with
PERSONAL ROBOTICS
■ FIGURE 3. Dorkbot poster by Noel
Waggener; subculturepress.com.
THERE’S NO DORKBOT IN YOUR CITY? MAYBE YOU SHOULD START ONE!
Somethingstoconsider: collaborating withpeopleinother generallyfreeevents, soyouneedto
nearby cities/towns. Maybe the be careful about spending lots of
Dorkbot meeting can travel to a money to produce them! Several
different location each month, or Dorkbots sell beer and/or food at the
maybe you can all pool your meetings to help cover their costs.
resources for a couple long-form Make sure you talk to the venue
meetings each season. before selling anything. Dorkbot.org
donates web space, email lists, etc.,
to the local Dorkbots, so there is no
administrative cost associated with
setting up a new Dorkbot.
What is Dorkbot, exactly? Each
Dorkbot event is different and is
driven by the needs and interests of
people in the local community. But
generally, the main goals of Dorkbot
are: to create an informal, friendly
environment in which people can talk
about the work they’re doing and to
foster discussion about that work; to
help bring together people from
different backgrounds who are
interested in similar things; and to
give us all an opportunity to see the
strange things our neighbors are
doing with electricity. Dorkbot isn’t
really a forum for formal artist talks
or lectures, but rather a chance for
diverse people to have friendly
conversations about interesting
ideas. The organizers of Pixelache
2008 asked Douglas to talk about
Dorkbot’s “organizational strategy.”
Here’s what he had to say:
■ Venue: Is there a place to hold the
meetings? It can be very convenient
to have the meetings in the same
place each time. Often, an art gallery
or performance space will be willing
to donate their facilities for the
occassional meeting. If you know
someone connected to a university,
you may be able to get a space
through them. It doesn’t have to be
a fancy space!
■ Frequency: How often will you
hold meetings? Some Dorkbots have
meetings every month, others just a
few times a year. It’s a lot of work
putting the meetings together, and in
smaller cities it can be difficult to
schedule enough speakers. You don’t
want to burn out!
■ Equipment: Do you have access
to presentation equipment? At the
least, you’ll probably need a video
projector, a small sound system, and
a network connection. A laptop
computer can also make things easier
on the presenters. As with the venue,
it’s best if you can use the same
equipment at each meeting. It can be
very stressful trying to track down a
video projector the day of a Dorkbot
meeting! Often, the venue you use
will have A/V equipment you can
borrow.
■ Meeting Format: Dorkbot meetings
are rather informal. There are usually
two or three presentations (about
20-30 minutes each) per meeting and
sometimes very short “lightning”
presentations from audience
members. The specific format is up
to each organizer to decide. You’ll
probably have to play with your
format for a few meetings until you
find something that works well in
your context. One thing to keep in
mind is that the Dorkbot format works
best for informal, conversational
presentations on a particular work or
topic, rather than formal artist talks or
lectures on a body of work. Thirty
minutes isn’t much time, so focused
presentations work best.
■ Locale: If you are in a smaller city
or town, you might want to consider
■ $$$: Dorkbot is a non-$-oriented
organization. Dorkbot meetings are
Whathappensnext?
If you think you’d like to start a
Dorkbot in your city, contact Douglas
at douglas@dorkbot.org for more
information.
August 2008 69