[dfs3] Anyone interested in electronics repair? [meet up in Feb?]

[Barry Titterton]

On 31/01/2019 14:41, James Pickstone wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I’m new to this mailing list and community, so forgive the intrusion! 
> I’m James from The Restart Project: http://therestartproject.org/
> 
> We’re a social enterprise based in London that believes our relationship
> with electronics is broken: we get frustrated when our devices stop
> working properly and throw them away too readily. 
> 
> We work with local community groups around the UK to organise and run
> electronics repair events where people can work with skilled volunteers
> to fix their broken devices, including laptops, phones, tablets and
> other electronic and electrical devices. While most repairs are
> hardware-related, we also help people squeeze more life out of their old
> or slow devices with solutions like Linux.
> 
> The idea is not only to reduce the amount of stuff we throw away and
> reduce the need to buy new stuff, but also transform our relationship
> with electronics in general.
> 
> We’re also recording data from community events and are building an open
> source database of real-world repairs that we can use to identify common
> problems/fixes and campaign for pro-repair policy at the government and
> EU level. 
> 
> I’m getting in touch because I'm currently planning a trip up to the
> North East in the last week of February and I’d be really interested to
> meet some of you while I’m in the area. It would be great to learn more
> about Durham Free Software Skill-Share and it’s always good to meet
> like-minded people.
> 
> I’ll be helping run an electronics repair event in Whitby on the 26th of
> February (10am-1pm) - you’re more than welcome to come along (and if you
> have repair or Linux skills, we could use some extra help!)
> 
> I’ll then making my way to Newcastle, potentially via Durham.
> 
> If you can’t make it to Whitby on the 26th, would anyone be interested
> in meeting up in Durham or Newcastle between the 27th of February and
> 1st of March? 
> 
> Look forward to hearing from you!
> 
> James
> 

Hi James,

Could you please provide some details, or a link to details, for the
event in Whitby? I have looked on your main site but cannot find it.

George is quite right that this site has been quiet for over a year; the
last event that we supported was in January 2018. You may get more
interest from the Transition eco groups as they are much more active,
and it was Transition Gateshead that ran the upcycling event that we
attended last year. Links below:

http://transitionwestgateshead.org/

https://transitiondurham.org.uk/

You may also be interested in a community event, that happens every
September in the Middlesbrough/Redcar area, called the Festival Of
Thrift. It has a Fix It Cafe as part of the attractions. It originally
started as an upcycling event but has recently moved more to selling
items for consumption. The positioning of the Fix IT Cafe at last year's
event was completely unsuitable for its intended purpose.

Cheers,
Barry T