The Nevada Sagebrush

Reno Bridgewire is a nonprofit community workshop that aims to provide space, tools and community for local hackers and makers. Garrett Valenzuela/Nevada Sagebrush

For some, “hacking” brings to mind people who use their computers to gain unauthorized access to information, or who make your Facebook account send spam messages to everyone saying, “Check out this video you’re in!” or “I just found a cool way to win a free iPod!”

But in recent years, the definition of hacking has grown to include the increasingly prolific hacking and modifying community — a branch of the do-it-yourself movement that combines technology with mechanics and construction.

“‘Hacking’ has a kind of negative connotation,” said Reno Bridgewire President Jeremy Osborn. “I want to take the term back and use it more to describe people who take things and use them for unintended purposes. More and more people are interested in doing things themselves. They don’t want to open a box and have something there for its one intended purpose, use it and throw it away. We want to get more out of it.”

Reno Bridgewire is a local collective with hopes to take advantage of the hacking and modding trend to create more of a community in the Reno/Sparks area, members said. The space opened its doors last October, and has since acquired about 35 members.

Bridgewire serves as a nonprofit community workshop that provides space, tools and classes for those who are interested in altering elements of the world around them.

Those who participate in the hacking and modding movement specialize in harnessing the potential in everyday objects. Typical projects revolve around altering the natural state of an object to make it serve more than one purpose or perform functions other than those intended by the original makers.

“Most people think of hacking as, of course, people breaking into bank accounts,” said Reno Bridgewire Treasurer Dan Johnson. “But hacking is opening your VCR or your CD player or anything you own and adapting it to what you want it to do. Hacking is basically just manipulating the world around you to conform to the way you want it to be.”

Johnson said his current work in progress is a mobile swamp cooler to wheel around the workshop, which he is creating by affixing wheels and lights to a once-rusted cooler.

From metalworking and woodworking to sewing and electronics, Bridgewire provides tools for many different genres of hacking and modifying. The collaborative aspect of a group workspace is one of the advantages of Bridgewire membership, Johnson said.

“We have our individual skills,” he said. “I have a lot of electronic and electrical work. Some people are more adept with microcontrollers and electronics, some people do better with metal and welding, some people do better with woodworking. It’s kind of nice to be able to have this space and have different people come over. If you open it up to a lot more people with more skill sets, you get a lot more ideas flowing back and forth.”

Building a community at Reno Bridgewire is also important to Osborn, who hopes to make the space a community hangout where members can feel more at home.

“I want my gathering place to be more than just a local bar,” he said. “It’s a more worthwhile endeavor. It gives you more purpose to life than just the daily grind.”

The space is open 24 hours every day to members with an access card, and open to the public from 6 to 9 p.m. every Thursday night. For University of Nevada, Reno students, a Bridgewire membership is $35 per month. Full membership for non-students is $50 per month.

“We are really looking forward to having UNR students become members, work on projects, teach other people what they know, and learn from other members,” Johnson said.

1055 Industrial Way, Suite 20

Sparks

Email: dan@renobridgewire.org

Open Space Night: from 6 – 9 p.m. every Thursday.

Cost: $35 per month for students, $50 for full members and $75 for family membership.

Casey O’Lear can be reached at colear@nevadasagebrush.com.

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