Caught up with Chris Beckett at the recent Barcamp Sydney 5 and heard all about an incredible new place he’s set up in Sydney under the Hackerspace title.

From their site:

Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects.

Our goal is to form a self-sustaining local group of totally dedicated technology enthusiasts, who meet regularly and form collaborative teams to learn, share and make things.

I pulled out my new Creative Vado HD (not a paid plug, juts me wanting to promote a cool new toy that I love) and did a quick interview with Chris which explains more about what he’s up to.

I was amazed at what Chris and the Hackerspace people have managed to set up at Kogarah. I won’t spoil the video but it really takes our efforts to build places where tech startup people can come together and hang out to a whole new level.

We spoke more after the interview and I have to say that Chris is a really impressive guy, with a real drive to improve the local scene. I can’t wait to see what comes out of the Hackerspaces Sydney project.

Re: the interview, the whole idea of doing interviews on the fly is a bit new to me, i.e. not being able to go back and forth with questions and then penning a post over time, so don’t be too harsh on me I plan to do more of these interviews from now on so hopefully I can get them up to a suitable standard.

For now, though - sit back and enjoy (and check out the cameos from some of Sydney’s top tech startup people in the background). Also, make sure you check out the Hackerspaces wiki when you can.