Prishtina Hackerspace
By: Georges Labrèche September 18, 2014
It’s been almost two months now that the digital community in Prishtina has been enjoying their very own hackerspace. Launched in July by the guys over at FLOSSK, Prishtina Hackerspace places Kosovo in a worldwide community of digital actors who gather in workspaces around the globe to exchange ideas and engage in digital experiments.
We caught up with Altin Ukshini, one of the co-founders of the Prishtina Hackerspace, to get the run down on what’s been brewing these past two months:
Configured and set up a SmartCitizen Kit: Created using Arduino, an open-source hardware board, the SmartCitizien Kit crowdsources environment monitoring. Kosovo Innovations Lab has brought the kits to Kosovo and initiated their use. By assembling their own kit, the guys at Prishtina Hackerspace are actively contributing to real-time localized monitoring of Kosovo’s environment. Data collected includes levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, long with the temperature, sound levels, and humidity. Check out all of the environment data collected in Kosovo, in real time, over here.
Wiki Loves Monuments Shqipëri dhe Kosovë: This is one of the latest projects crafted at the hackerspace. It’s an international photographic competition for monuments that will serve to contribute towards documenting Kosovo’s cultural heritage. The project is implemented in collaboration with Wikimedia, FLOSSK and Open Labs.
Meeting space: The hackerspace provides a space for digital actors to get together and hold meetups. The upcoming Software Freedom Kosova Conference is being developed in the hackerspace. There are also a few students from the University from Business and Technology (UBT) who find the hackerspace to be a much more appealing alternative study room to that of crowded university libraries. Community groups around software development such as Java User Group and Girls Coding Kosova have also found a home at Prishtina Hackerspace.
The hackerspace is open to everyone, you don’t have to be a member to join in, work or meet at the hackerspace. There is also a membership plan that will soon be launched for those who want to further contribute to the development of the space.
Doors are always open for visitors so do pay a visit to the space and you’ll see how things work.
You can support Prishtina Hackerspace by going to the following link and donating:
http://www.prishtinahackerspace.org/donate/
You can also donate equipment:
http://www.prishtinahackerspace.org/donate-equipment/
Keep up to date with Prishtina HackerSpace’s activities by visiting their website and through social media.
Website:
http://www.prishtinahackerspace.org/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/PrishtinaHackerspace
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/PRNHackerspace
Georges Labrèche
CEO and Founder of Assemblio LLC; a Prishtina-based ICT company with a team of software engineers dedicated to social good and open data for good governance, transparency, and accountability. Founders of Open Data Kosovo.
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