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% hifi: hacks I find interesting % projects % 2015-09-17

I miss Hack && Tell. But, I’m glad it lives on, and am impressed by the changes made by the new team.

One thing that always bothered me about Hack && Tell though, was simply that it was so local. Local is great. Local is community, but local is limiting. There are many projects, being done by people around the world that are interesting to me. Interesting to the NYC Hack && Tell community. Interesting to the Berlin Hack && Tell community. And, certainly interesting to the global community of hackers, tinkerers, programmers, designers, musicians, and random curious persons out there.

Hack && Tell has always been successful because it’s been about the projects, and not necessarily the people. It’s about the people by extension, of course, but I never got excited because Grant Kot presented. I got excited because Grant Kot presented amazing and fascinating things like the Grantophone.

I don’t know how to build a global community, and I live in a place where my network isn’t strong enough to even consider attempting to build a chapter of Hack && Tell. So what to do?

I’ve considered many different things, even before I moved. Hack && Tell via Google Hangouts On Air? Maybe. Just start a blog? Meh.

And then I remembered something that I had fun with while running the show—the wrap up emails. James and I used to switch off on them, because they took time and we were both lazy, but I always found them to be exciting to produce. For one, I got to write little sarcastic comments from time to time, and 2, it actually had a lot of reach.

For any given event, we maybe had a venue that could hold 80-100 people. But, the Meetup group had over 2,000! For most people, the wrap up emails were Hack && Tell!

So, I started hifi. It’s a high fidelity, curated newsletter about hacks I find interesting, that I’d like to see presented at my “private” Hack && Tell. Also included will be a list of interesting blog posts, and, potentially, research papers I’m reading. I expect to deliver it no more than once a week, with snark.

If you’re curious, you should signup! And, I’d love the heck out of some feedback, so don’t be shy!