For the last few months, we’ve been creating Restarters.net, a new space for people involved in community repair to meet, manage events, measure impact and share learning. We’re happy to share with everyone what we’re up to and to invite those tempted to get involved to join us.
Our first “beta” months
Restarters.net combines our tool for organising events and measuring their impact (AKA the Fixometer) with our wiki and a new discussion forum. This is the first global space for fixer volunteers to join with event hosts, and spread community repair.
Although we’re still in the testing phase, more than 100 of you have started using the new platform. This early adopter crew has helped us identify and make lots of improvements, including
- restructuring the discussion space
- translating useful resources
- reporting bugs
- helping us decide which new features we should build
We’ve also enjoyed some great conversations – everything from how to capture the full experience of a Restart Party, to sharing our favourite error messages, and discussing the latest Apple keyboard ‘scandal’.
Many of the most engaging conversations have been started by members with repair skills sharing their passion and expertise – but this is the first time that people from outside of London can join in. We’ve been enjoying these discussions and would love to see more of this!
Join us
Meeting new people and building relationships is our fundamental reason for the new space. Since we opened the platform to any current and future community repair volunteers, we’ve had newcomers self-register, from Montana in the US to Devon, here in England. There is so much potential to link repair activists and catalyse new community activity!
With that in mind, we’ve created some new resources and refreshed the Restart Party Kit, which is now available on the discussion area in English, Spanish and French (more translations are on the way). When combined with the ability to create groups, publicise events and manage group members, we’re hoping to make using Restarters.net a no-brainer for anyone interested in community electronics repair.
If you’ve always wanted to get involved with community repair, but wanted to learn more about what is involved, how to get started, and to meet people already doing it – please join us.
Registering is easy, and we’re a friendly bunch. Before you know it, you’ll be discussing design crimes, trading tips and getting involved offline too.