MakersFactory is a new educational maker space in downtown Santa Cruz, CA, where students of all ages will learn and use exciting new technology for 3D printing, modeling, animation, and robotics. MakersFactory students and members will be able to design, prototype, and manufacture a wide variety of items, from simple 3D objects to complex mechanical/electronic products. For more information, visit http://makersfactory.com and follow us on Facebook.

Presentations, discussions, and implementations of In-Vehicle-Infotainment (IVI) or other vehicle / automotive projects emphasizing those utilizing open source or built with open source tools.  Safety, fuel-efficiency, and innovative enabling applications beyond entertainment are especially of interest, as are fleet vehicles, farming equipment, heavy machinery, marine and aviation applications -- all sorts of intelligent transportation systems. Non-coders who are more involved in business, polic …

We've been super enthralled with what the NYC Hack and Tell group has done, and we think it's high time to bring the same format to SF. If you've ever visited Hacker News, you've almost certainly seen the "Show HN" or "Ask HN" posts. Well, it's time to get off the Internet and tell us about it face to face. We'll provide you with our honest feedback, you provide us with a great hack, or idea. We'll give you 5 minutes to show off your tool, hack, library (did you just write a library to access th …

Free Software = free society!  Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is sweeping earth bringing freedom to people everywhere.  Our little corner of the Libre Planet is the San Jose / Bay Area.  Come join the FLOSS evolution! GNU/Lindepence Hours Have an hour or so now and again to spend advocating for FLOSS? Want to get things fired up in your area? Want to raise awareness for both FLOSS and the Free Software Foundation's Libre Planet in Silicon Valley? Start an GNU/Lindepence Hour! They are …

This is a group for anyone interested in Open Source software and Open Hardware for the Internet of Things. I'd like to create an opportunity for engineers and programmers, entrepreneurs, hackers, makers, and enthusiasts from all areas to get together for networking and collaboration. The Internet and the Web today is built on Open Source software. Linux, Apache, Hadoop, Mozilla, Ajax, Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Memcached, MySQL; client and server and router software all developed by communities o …

This is a group for people who fundamentally want to have a friendly drink, mingle and party with fellow power pros. Hoping to meet regularly every couple of weeks.

This is a user group for Salt in the Bay Area. From SaltStack.org: Salt is an open source tool to manage your infrastructure. Easy enough to get running in minutes and fast enough to manage tens of thousands of servers (and still get a response back in seconds). Execute arbitrary shell commands or choose from dozens of pre-built modules of common (or complex) commands. Target individual servers or groups of servers based on name, defined roles, or a variety of system information such as hardware …

3D Printing, also known as Additive Manufacturing, is an exciting and potentially game changing technology that will dramatically alter the way products are designed, manufactured, distributed and financed. A standard digital file (.stl) of an object is created, either by using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software or a 3D scanner, and is sent to a dedicated machine which builds the object layer-upon-layer in a material such as plastic, metal or ceramic. Today the technology is mainly used for ra …

This is a group for anyone interested in Contributing to the OCP Storage Community by: - Join the OCP Storage project, read the specs, offer comments and suggestions on the specs, help shape the direction of a spec as it is developing. - Feed ideas for new projects to the incubation committee. - Test out a prototype design. - Contribute a hardware or software prototype to a project.

Silicon Valley is THE hotbed for hardware startups, so we thought it time to bring a showcase-style Meetup to the South Bay/Peninsula! We're a proud offshoot of the SF Hardware Startup Meetup, but aside from the different locale, we want to emphasize products that are, above all, smart! This means things that think for themselves, use novel materials/design, or otherwise make our world a better, more connected place. This Meetup aims to not only expose you to the newest of products, companies, c …

Fellow hardwarians, it's time the Trivalley had some hardware startup meetups. Robot Garden is a new robotics hackerspace and group located at the iGate Innovation Hub business accelerator in Livermore. We love starting hardware stuff! There are more meetups and access hours on the Robot Garden Meetup and website robotgarden.org but we want the hardware startup meetup to stand alone.

SF Surf Science is centered around group projects involving inventing and building new and cool surf-related technology. We work on group and individual projects in an open and supportive DIY environment. This is the place to share ideas about new surfing technologies, general love of the ocean, and the awesome power of surfers getting together to collaborate on group projects in the SF Bay Area. In order to get the most out of this group you will need to have: (1) A passion for surfing (2) An o …