Hi Lab List,<div><br><div>I thought I'd stop lurking about unawares on the list and say hello. I'm moving up to Ottawa in August from Boston and I'd love to hang out and help out with what's been started so far in terms of a space and community for art & tech hybrid projects. </div>
<div><br></div><div>A bit about me:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><div>For 7 years I was a part of an educational company and directed the building of a new school within the company for English language teaching in Cambridge, MA. We were pretty successful but I felt a big void in the lack of creativity in the job (my degree is in art-making). </div>
<div><br></div><div>Shortly thereafter I joined a hackerspace in Somerville called Willoughby & Baltic and volunteered to curate the Dorkbot community, in which I became intensely involved. Dorkbot grew in size from 30 members to over 600 and it was through the group that I met my former business partners. My friends convinced me to quit my day job and start a company based on interactive design and art/tech projects.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We founded DINO Interactive Studios and specialized in developing games and applications for the iPhone and iPad as well as interactive web experiences. We combined our efforts with a non-profit science and educational startup called Sprout and rented a space for our offices and tools that we also made available for free to the public. We had a bit of success in making games for the kids edutainment market and organized weekend-long project hacking and making events in conjunction with the Dorkbot community. Ultimately I decided to part ways with DINO as it was increasingly difficult for me to work remotely while I spent time in Ottawa (my bf is here and I wanted to be up here).</div>
<div><br></div><div>Another fun project I'm involved in is the Awesome Foundation, which is a group of individuals giving micro-grants to fund innovative and atypical projects that usually get lost in the red tape of bureaucracy. Since it's inception over a year ago it's gone viral and others have established branches in NYC, Providence, San Francisco, London and now Ottawa with crazy smart amazing people.</div>
<div><br></div><div>My whole point to to this rambling story is that I'd like to pick up where I'm leaving off in Boston and help grow and support the hacker/maker community in Ottawa. I'm convinced that random interesting people will come out of the woodwork and want to take part in DIY open source projects and use Arduinos and Processing as I've seen it with my own eyes here! Also, I'm looking for part time or full time work so if you know of any good opportunities please send my way.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I'm findable on twitter @emdaniels and have a personal maker site at <a href="http://emilydaniels.com" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 65, 112); ">emilydaniels.com</a>. Hopefully this can start a larger conversation and I can put my experience to good use when I'm up! I look forward to meeting you at the July 14th meeting or if you'd like to meet up before then I'll be in Ottawa from July 1st until the 21st!</div>
<div><br></div><div>Emily</div></span><br>-- <br>Emily Daniels | <a href="http://emilydaniels.com" target="_blank">emilydaniels.com</a> | @emdaniels | <a href="http://awesomefoundation.org" target="_blank">awesomefoundation.org</a><br>
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