One MILLION Acts Of Kindness

Anyone who’s ever visited Inspire9 knows that if we’re about one thing, it’s community. Our space is much more than just an office… it’s a catchup zone, a lounge room, and for many of us, a second home. For this reason, we’re always interested to hear about exciting things going on in the world around us.

We were pretty delighted when Inspire9 regular and new resident Alison Plasto gave us the heads up on this wonderful initiative, called 1 Million Acts. The premise is simple… for 8 weeks, people pledge to make Australia a better place by committing random acts of kindness – for themselves, loved ones, coworkers, friends and even strangers.

We’d suggest that Australia is already a pretty wonderful place to be, but surely there isn’t such a thing as too thoughtful, too kind or too generous?

If this sounds like the sort of thing you’d like to be part of, you can sign up (it’s free) and join the Inspire9 team. On the Friday after our 8 weeks is up (July 6, 2012), we’ll be celebrating in the space with drinks, snacks and a game of pool (or ten).

Get in on the (kind) action!

Silicon Exchange: Building the bridge from Silicon Valley to Silicon Beach

In Australia, we have beautiful people, rich culture and (most importantly) a lot of great entrepreneurial talent.

This has created a hotbed of activity in Melbourne, and we think the time is right to add some more silicon.

The Proposal

We want to attempt to reverse the flow of talented entrepreneurs who head to the States to seek co-founders and VC money, and encourage those things to come our way instead.

We believe it is a myth that you have to be in Silicon Valley to launch and ship viable products, instead we believe that fostering networks across the US and APAC regions would be of benefit to everyone.

We want to create a program where Melbourne hosts interested Silicon talent in order for Melburnians to learn from the experiences of people exposed to Valley life on a regular basis.

The program also acts as an ambassador training program: when the exchange person returns home to the US, they will have a working knowledge of what is happening down under and an advocate for the work within our region.

Inspiration

Pollenizer in Sydney has started a similar program seeking co-founders interested in developing a startup in Sydney.
http://austartup.com

We believe Melbourne would make a great home to such a program.

Interested?

If you would like to be a part of making something like this happen, drop us a line at hello@inspire9.com

Juice Fest

Juice Fest is on tomorrow at Inspire9 from 8:30am.

What is Juice Fest?

It’s a mini-festival celebrating coworker health. We at Inspire9 take the health of our coworkers very seriously. Part of that had been adding a juicer to our coworking space ammunition.

It was Sam Bell who had the idea of putting our juicing powers together to create a juice rainbow! We’re each going to choose a colour (purple = beetroot, green = celery, etc), and get together Tuesday morning (tomorrow) and get our juice on.

How to get involved

Want to come to Juice Fest? It’s as easy as showing up! We’ll be in the space from 8:30am. Just bring your fruit or vegetable of choice and we’ll take care of the rest.

See you tomorrow!

A Regular Day

Yesterday was International Women’s Day and in recognition we heard from some incredible, inspirational and influential women on how they felt about the day as well as things in general.

After publishing we were thrilled to hear from some more amazing ladies we’d put the call out to. Initially we thought we’d just update our previous post but instead we decided that we shouldn’t just confine such fabulousness to one day or just one post. So in celebration of women everywhere, today is a regular day we’re choosing to remind the world that women are just as important today as they were yesterday… and still will be tomorrow.

Here’s what some more wonderful women had to say about International Women’s Day:

“IWD is a day for celebrating women. It has never been about reproaching men. For myself and many of my peers, it is a reminder that we’re in a very small minority, so I appreciated a dedicated day to shine a spotlight of those women in my community and around the world who face discrimination due to their sex.

 A stark example for me is the scenario where we ban countries from participating in the Olympics when they practise apartheid (and rightly so), but admit countries who marginalise their women and prevent them from competing. What’s the difference?

 So I look forward to a world where being male is not the default position; where women and men have equal opportunity and respect; where women are no longer institutionally repressed; and where anyone can compete at the Olympics regardless of sex.”

Zandi Baker

“International Women’s Day reminds me of just how lucky I am. People (including me sometimes) might bitch and moan about unequal pay and glass ceilings, about sexism and differing expectations, and about men who open doors and don’t let them drive. Don’t get me wrong, some of these are really important, but there are an appalling number of women in the world who aren’t given a voice, who are considered second-class citizens, or worse, not citizens at all. There are women in this world who are stifled and oppressed in the worst possible ways. On any other day I’m all about gender equality in my insignificant little corner of the world, but not this day. This day is theirs, and they aren’t even fighting for equality, just the basic right to be heard.

International Women’s Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day we looked to powerful, interesting and influential women around the world to hear what they had to say about the day… and things in general.

“If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”
Margaret Thatcher

“I’m enjoying IWD as an opportunity for me to reflect on amazing women – those who inspire me, those I know & to ponder the specialness of women and men. In the past I’ve had a few opportunities to be at women events as I’ve been charmed by being amongst these groups and the interesting conversations that flow in a group of similar people. Women, men – we’re all amazing humans with our individual talents and experience to share.”
Sam Bell

“Ladies, you have to be strong and independent, and remember, don’t get mad, get everything.”
Ivana Trump

“I am not afraid…I was born to do this.”
Joan of Arc

“I’m conflicted about International Women’s Day. Does having a gender-specific day bring us closer to, or further from equality? Or is the fact that we still have a women’s day a symptom of the state of things – that equality has not yet been achieved?”
Lou Pardi

“Real women don’t have flushes, they have power surges.”
Sandra Cabot

“While we’ve come a long way in Australia, sexism still exists in workplaces (not to mention the media!) And in many third world countries, opportunities for women to be educated and to work are harrowingly slim. We should consider International Women’s Day a chance to celebrate the amazing female (and male) pioneers who have fought for better opportunities for women, and also to remember that globally we have a long way to go before there are fair learning and work opportunities for all women.”
Hannah Colman

“If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere.”
Marilyn Monroe

“IWD is a great chance to celebrate the women who inspire us, and to take some time to think about how we all hope to inspire others. My mum inspires me, she’s brave, persistent and  is always working to help others.”
Tammy Butow

“Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.”
J. K. Rowling

“On International Women’s Day I reflect on the progress made that so that women can have brilliant careers, families or both. Contraception is one such technology. The internets is another that helps us connect, share and collaborate: I hope to do this in a way that is respectful of the privilege I’ve been given. But so many of our sisters don’t have the same privileges. It is my hope that there is peace in countries and food in bellies to allow open-minds to see their potential and actions taken to educate girls so that they too are empowered. Happy IWD to women and men who make the world a better place for women which is very good for menfolk too ! When you educate a girl, she’ll change the world. ~ OneGirl org slogan”
Cheryl Lin

We’re hiring Ruby developers: Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Revolution

Let’s agree on one thing; the zombie apocalypse is coming. Be it a Romero zombie uprising, fast rage virus zombie or undead 28 Days later outbreak, eventually at some point there will be zombies.

At Inspire9, we’ve accepted this fact as true. Vampires are so clearly last year.

But even with our steadfast dedication to the cause and our staunch ability to survive ourselves, we must concede that some of our kin will be lost to the all-consuming horde. Are you really as prepared as you could be? Are you REALLY safe?

Inspire9 is making preparations for World War Z and we think you’ll be interested. Why slum it in duct-taped shed with a machete when you can spend your time sheltered in a kick-ass converted warehouse with like-minded (and adequately-skilled) people, a pool table and appropriate supply of snacks?

We are building an impressive defensive position and looking to fill our sanctuary with the best of the best. The survivors.

After many difficult choices, it is clear that this haven must be filled with Ruby Developers.  And seeing we specialise in building apps for startups and new ventures, they have to be passionate about building for the post-revolution.

But don’t think just because you know the words to Ruby Tuesday and you own a flamethrower that you immediately qualify. We have standards.

To ensure your survival and warrant yourself suitable for defending and eventually propagating the human race, you’ll also need:

• 4+ years Ruby/Rails and 6+ dev experience
• Be comfortable working in an extremely open plan office
• Mad skillz with a pool cue (both peace time and apocalypse-ready)
• Open source/community contributions are serious advantages
• Heavily into TDD / BDD / ZDD (Zombie-driven)
• Full stack PROgrammer
• Extremely autonomously working style (solo zombie slaying)
• Experience pairing with other anti-apocalypse amigos
• Can produce beautiful frontends while talking sassy css & sipping coffee-script
• The flesh-hungry undead leave one thing behind: Backbone(js)
• Keen on NodeJS because it has a future beyond Doomsday
• Savvy with dev-ops – babs, nix, etc
• New population propagation means databases. Think Postgres / Mongo
• Knows the difference between single malt and single origin

This future sanctuary and last stand of humanity is based in Richmond, just across from the train station. Our slightly-neglected website (circa 2009) www.inspire9.com.

Send your CV, Github username and cover letter to hello+zombie@inspire9.com with the subject line “brains”.

Not worried about the zombies?  Learn about the risks.

Restoring Balance

Kealey is the events manager at Inspire9.  But everyone in the community would know that she’s so much more.  She’s an essential ingredient in the Inspire9 community and has been for some time.

On Thursday night, AngelCube had a Q&A session which attracted a crowd of around 120 people.  In order to give the eager start up audience an understanding of the environment that Inspire9 provides we made an effort to keep the desks in tact, rather than packing down completely.  During the proceedings, it seems someone picked up Kealey’s phone from her desk and quickly left before anyone could notice.

This is obviously a terrible event, and causes all kinds of thoughts about safety, security and trust within our greater Melbourne community.  Kealey was visibly upset by the incident both because it’s early days in her new business 11+12 media, too early to be shelling out for unexpected expenses, and also the fact that it happened within Inspire9 walls – a place we hold sacred.  The balance of energy within the community had been disrupted.

But then something amazing happened.  An Inspire9 resident of only a month but long time community member, Ned Dwyer decided that something needed to be done.  He shot an email out to some of the Inspire9 residents with a link to a Pledgie he’d set up with the target price of a new iPhone 4S.  Ned was going to crowd source the funds to buy Kealey a new iPhone.

Within 2 hours the funds had been raised through people in the community.  Within 4 hours an iPhone was on hold.  Within 8 hours Kealey had a brand new iPhone 4S in her hands.

The funny thing is, this has happened before.  I was speaking at a Hive event a while back and Ben Hoskings had his iPad stolen.  Within no time a Pledgie had been shot up and Ben had a new iPad to replace the stolen one.

In the Pledgie Ned put together, he attributes the effort to restoring the balance.  When it comes to community, bad things don’t stop happening, they just get resolved faster and easier because people make it happen.  There are enough people with common values who make sure when the balance is disrupted that it gets restored.

Big thanks to Ned for kicking it off.

Go join a community today.

The Community Manager Is In The House

Inspire9 is a vibrant community and it’s growing at a rapid pace. Over the last 12 months we’ve;

• Moved into our new home – Level 1 41 Stewart St Richmond
• Formalised our membership model
• Increased the number of events and workshops we run
• Host a number of community meetups in Melbourne
• Become Ceres Food Fair food hosts
• Become the home of Melbourne’s first startup incubator AngelCube
• And loads more!

With all of this in mind, we thought it was pretty important to have a community manager on board to keep Inspire9 humming.

So without further ado… meet Sam.

This is Sam

Sam joins Inspire9 whilst simultaneously working on her own project – an ethical and sustainable luxury fashion label called Bento. Her most recent “proper” job was heading up marketing for the digital division at ANZ.

As her title suggests, Sam is here to make Inspire9 an even more fantastic place to be. She’s your first point of call if you have any questions, problems, suggestions, requests or anything else within the Inspire9 walls. For now, Sam is with us from Wednesday to Friday, 11am – 6pm. Of course, anyone can still drop in outside those hours as per usual, but if you think you’ll need some extra support, that’s when she’s in the space.

You can get in touch with Sam in person or via email – sam [at] inspire9.com

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