Geekdom
One perk of being in the Entrepreneurship Hall is that we get a free membership to Geekdom. If you haven’t ever heard of Geekdom, the best way I can describe it is as an awesome collaborative workspace for entrepreneurs. The first time I visited Geekdom was with all of my classmates from E-Hall. Everyone carpooled downtown to the Westen building (where Geekdom is located) and I was one of the drivers. Everyone in the car was excited, because Dr. Martinez had told us countless times about the awesomeness that awaited us at Geekdom.
When we finally got there, we went up to the 11th floor.
Geekdom itself has two levels, but we started out on the main floor. Upon entering, you can already get a feel for the nerdy yet hip environment and can see an incredible view of the city out of the many huge windows. In the community area, some Greek gyros were on a table for Geekdom members so we all chowed down on the delicious free food. After eating, we explored the various seating areas with comfy red couches, lounge chairs, and an artsy chair that spun like a top (for us, this fun chair became the most coveted item in all of Geekdom).
Next, we took a grand tour of Geekdom facilities. We saw tons of cool office spaces, from fancy boardrooms to more niche spaces. All of the décor emphasized the creative nerd culture; for example, all the room numbers are enumerated in binary. Then, we saw the game rooms. One was more open, with a ping-pong table, an old arcade game, and nerf guns scattered around. The other game center is a console gamer’s dream. Every current console, Play Station, X Box and Wii were there in addition to some old school Nintendo consoles. They had a huge library of video games to choose from and four TVs to play on. Next we went downstairs to level 11 and saw more office space and another collaborative work area. We also got to see the recording studio Geekdom has that allows entrepreneurs to release news about their projects. We then returned to the main floor and went to the presentation area as the entrepreneur and successful businessman and professor Robert Metcalfe came to talk to Geekdom members.
Robert Metcalfe’s talk was incredible. He talked about his beginnings at MIT and how he ultimately helped invent Ethernet. He also talked about the drama that ensued as he tried to bring his product to market and how it was a struggle to start out. Eventually, though, he became a huge success and was able to eventually leave his company and focus on helping rising entrepreneurs through his professorship at UT Austin. Metcalfe then opened up to a long question and answer in which various Geekdom members asked about anything from when should an entrepreneur quit and move on to what influenced certain career decisions he made. What I found particularly interesting was his discussion on MOOCs because I had been working with a team of girls trying to create a website community for those taking online courses. Metcalfe talked about his experience with open courseware, having taken a MOOC class with his son, and he thoroughly supports the idea. He also touched on how he thinks that the communication that is lost because everything is online is something that needs to be addressed. It was great to hear such an influential professional agree with the conclusions myself and my team came to previously. I then asked a follow up question, asking if he thought in the future, students would get online accreditation for their MOOC classes and he agreed that MOOCs and such online accreditation are the future. After the question and answer was over, multiple Geekdom members who wanted to know more about my project approached me. It was a great experience to get feedback on my idea and a fantastic networking opportunity.
Leaving Geekdom, I feel that I have found a great community and environment that I belong in. Not only is the workspace itself such an incredible area, the people that make up Geekdom make it a great place to be. As we leave, I know I will be back as the opportunities here are too great to pass by.
-Kylie
When we finally got there, we went up to the 11th floor.
Geekdom itself has two levels, but we started out on the main floor. Upon entering, you can already get a feel for the nerdy yet hip environment and can see an incredible view of the city out of the many huge windows. In the community area, some Greek gyros were on a table for Geekdom members so we all chowed down on the delicious free food. After eating, we explored the various seating areas with comfy red couches, lounge chairs, and an artsy chair that spun like a top (for us, this fun chair became the most coveted item in all of Geekdom).
Next, we took a grand tour of Geekdom facilities. We saw tons of cool office spaces, from fancy boardrooms to more niche spaces. All of the décor emphasized the creative nerd culture; for example, all the room numbers are enumerated in binary. Then, we saw the game rooms. One was more open, with a ping-pong table, an old arcade game, and nerf guns scattered around. The other game center is a console gamer’s dream. Every current console, Play Station, X Box and Wii were there in addition to some old school Nintendo consoles. They had a huge library of video games to choose from and four TVs to play on. Next we went downstairs to level 11 and saw more office space and another collaborative work area. We also got to see the recording studio Geekdom has that allows entrepreneurs to release news about their projects. We then returned to the main floor and went to the presentation area as the entrepreneur and successful businessman and professor Robert Metcalfe came to talk to Geekdom members.
Robert Metcalfe’s talk was incredible. He talked about his beginnings at MIT and how he ultimately helped invent Ethernet. He also talked about the drama that ensued as he tried to bring his product to market and how it was a struggle to start out. Eventually, though, he became a huge success and was able to eventually leave his company and focus on helping rising entrepreneurs through his professorship at UT Austin. Metcalfe then opened up to a long question and answer in which various Geekdom members asked about anything from when should an entrepreneur quit and move on to what influenced certain career decisions he made. What I found particularly interesting was his discussion on MOOCs because I had been working with a team of girls trying to create a website community for those taking online courses. Metcalfe talked about his experience with open courseware, having taken a MOOC class with his son, and he thoroughly supports the idea. He also touched on how he thinks that the communication that is lost because everything is online is something that needs to be addressed. It was great to hear such an influential professional agree with the conclusions myself and my team came to previously. I then asked a follow up question, asking if he thought in the future, students would get online accreditation for their MOOC classes and he agreed that MOOCs and such online accreditation are the future. After the question and answer was over, multiple Geekdom members who wanted to know more about my project approached me. It was a great experience to get feedback on my idea and a fantastic networking opportunity.
Leaving Geekdom, I feel that I have found a great community and environment that I belong in. Not only is the workspace itself such an incredible area, the people that make up Geekdom make it a great place to be. As we leave, I know I will be back as the opportunities here are too great to pass by.
-Kylie
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