Digital infrastructure

In addition to the physical Rooms here is a summary of the information services that we rely on. A lot of it is kept in github projects under the DoES Liverpool organization github account. If you sign up to github and you can be added to the team as a member in order to maintain the wiki, issues list and codebase. The people who maintain these things can be found in the partial list of members.

Software that is not to do with the whole hack-space, such as that which runs the laser cutters or vinyl cutters, is noted for each piece of equipment.

Wiki at github.com/DoESLiverpool/wiki

Place for this page and other things, such as our lists of equipment and instructions on how to use them. This stuff needs to be kept up to date as things change and acquire more knowledge about the equipment that needs to be shared.

Issues list at github.com/DoESLiverpool/somebody-should

This is the general-purpose hack-space debugger to report, for example, if the coffee maker has broken. Stuff we're going to buy often gets discussed here.

Website at https://doesliverpool.com/

This is the official website for DoES Liverpool using Wordpress. It contains some general information that would be considered useful for new visitors and is our main promotion portal. The domains and this website are hosted by 34sp in an account that the Organisers all have access to.

The weeknotes are generated semi-automatically on Mondays using the https://github.com/DoESLiverpool/weeknote-generator code on the basis of people who tweet a message (preferably with a picture) with the hashtag #weeknotes who's account is followed by the DoESLiverpool twitter account. Generally the DoES Liverpool twitter account will follow anyone who follows it but ask one of the [[Organisers] if you have issues, then start weeknoting!

Weeknotes are also sent to the Google Group, Facebook and posted on Linked In (by Adrian)

Various Web Listings

See Web Listings

Doorbot

Our system of controlling entry to the rooms and tracking who's coming in when (for billing purposes if you have chosen to pay on a day-rate). It uses keyfobs or your RFID credit card. The code is at: https://github.com/DoESLiverpool/logcards the entry list is maintained by the Organisers and you should contact them if you need access. Most people will be given a key fob that gives them access during business hours and 24 hour access can be given on payment of a deposit.

The maintenance of the access list is not automated enough issue 166.

Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

All of the Organisers have access to the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. The Twitter and Instagram accounts are reasonably active. The Facebook account is less active although it does receive the week notes and Instagram posts and we're looking at putting more things on there.

Slack and IRC

IRC is not really used any longer although there is still a #doesliverpool channel on the Freenode network that a few people hang about in.

There are more people on slack, although again it doesn't get a lot of activity. You can sign up for Slack here: http://slack.doesliverpool.com That is hosted on Heroku, at least John McKerrell and Patrick Fenner have access to the Heroku account for that site.

Networking

The incoming fibre should provide 500MB/second and comes into the room in the networking rack behind the meeting nook.

The network comes into the Baltic Broadband router which gives us a 192.168.1.x IP currently (we are waiting on a static IP) and then our router is in front of that running in the 10.x.x.x range.

You should be using DHCP with our network and you will be served an IP anywhere from 10.0.29.1 - 10.0.32.254. The gateway should be picked up as 10.0.0.1 and subnet as 255.0.0.0.

Our router, switches and access points are configured via the UniFi controller which is installed on a raspberry pi in the network rack and accessible from https://10.0.0.2:8443/. One of the organisers or @skos-ninja has the login and can configure or reset things as needed.

We have three Unifi access points covering each of Room 29, the Events Room and the main space.

https://organisers.doesliverpool.com/#!/machines

MQTT services and automation

See MQTT services for details on the node-red and MQTT automation technology, as can be seen at the front beside the kitchen.

Shared storage

We run a Samba (SMB) network share for temporary storage on the DoES local network (#980). For example, it’s a handy way to send files from your computer to the Laser Room PCs.

• Remember: This is only for temporary file storage.
• We do not keep backups of data on this network share.
• All files can be viewed, edited, and deleted by anybody with access to the share.

Connect from a Mac

1. Open Finder.
2. Press ⌘–K, or select “Go -> Connect to Server” from the menu bar.
3. Copy and paste this into the “Server address” text box: smb://samba/does-samba, then press “Connect”.
4. If you’re given the option, tick the box to “Connect as a guest”.

Connect from Ubuntu

1. Open the “Files” app.
2. Select “Other Locations” from the sidebar.
3. Copy and paste this into the “Connect to server” text box at the bottom of the window: smb://samba/does-samba, then press “Connect”.
4. Tick the box to connect anonymously.

Connect from a Windows PC

1. Right-click on “This PC” and select “Add a network location”.
2. Select “Choose a custom network location”.
3. Copy and paste this into the “Internet or network address” text box: \\\\samba\does-samba, then press “Next”.
4. Tick the “Log on anonymously” checkbox, then press “Next”.
5. The network drive will appear as a new folder under “This PC”.

Calendars and booking

The front page website has some embedded calendars: https://doesliverpool.com/calendar/ We have google calendars known as (1) the events calendar, (2) small laser cutter calendar, (3) large laser cutter calendar.

There is also (1) laser cutting booking system for both lasers, under https://doesliverpool.youcanbook.me/ and (2) the Dinky room booking system at https://newdinky.youcanbook.me/

Some of our events show up in defnetmedia liverpool digital events calendar, a number of people including Adrian McEwen and John McKerrell have access to this calendar and try to copy events over when they remember.

Accounts and billing

This is mostly managed by Seán Gleeson, the administrator, using an on-line accounting system called FreeAgent. As a member or occasional visitor who buys time on the laser cutter, you will receive by email PDF invoices (and reminders if you haven't paid) urging you to transfer money into our Co-op bank account. Please include payment references to make it easier to reconcile the statements.

At the end of the year we need to file our accounts with the tax office and with companies house.

Future development

There is a Hack The Space evening the first Tuesday of every month, to review the infrastructure of this nature. The priority is to find a new equipment booking system, owing to the expected demise of the youcanbookme service. We have been looking at A FabLab instance to see if that software can be made to fit our needs.