Workshop Report - "MoskitOS" Community build in ZAM 2024

[Repost from moskitos.org ]

Workshop feedback (in english)

During 5 days, a dozen people met in Erlangen at the « ZAM » to build 3 « moskitOS » together. It was an opportunity to start an exchange outside France, and to promote the moskitOS project more widely.

Participants feed-back

• Surprised that the moskitOS actually rolls
• I enjoyed the week
• I will be happy to do it again
• Time was flying, really enjoyed the nice atmosphere, everything was fluid
• Great pleasure to be part of this work group
• The bike is quite impressive to ride
• The moskitOS is the perfect replacement for my old bike
• I made a lot of friends
• [Participants/organization?] punctuality could be improved
• Great motivation
• Allowing the participants to come whenever they want decreases the team spirit, causes the need to repeat the information a lot and makes the planning difficult to do and less accurate → no more in the future (the free of charge workshop also probably decreased the serious of the attendance)
• I am skeptical about the bike, I think there are things to improve
• Nice to get people building something together, even better if it is a bike, and a special one
• I would appreciate a better tasks distribution
• Like the concept!
• We had no time to improve the documentation. I would have liked to take the computer and work on it
• People are autonomous quickly

Workshop highlights

All participants met for the first time during this workshop. It ranged from those who already knew the world of (recumbent) bikes to those for whom it was completely new. From Erlangen to further (Belgium). This diversity made for rich exchanges and great encounters. However, there was a lack of gender diversity.

Quite quickly, those present were able to gain autonomy and build or help others to build the various parts of the trike.

Quality time was taken at the beginning and end of the day to share their thoughts with others, so as not to be only in the action. These « weather from the soul » have been complemented by two great animations at the beginning of the workshop (« get to know eachother ») and at the end of the week (« feedback with your hand »).

Meals (breakfast, lunch and supper) were also great informal moments together.

Last but not least, Petra made a wonderful souvenir Zine (link coming soon) to document the day to day of this week.

Things to improve

Let’s take every experience, good or bad, as an opportunity to make things better.

This workshop was co-organized by ZAM and the moskitOS core-team. The distance and some communication problems meant that the course of the workshop was not perfectly aligned.

But the workshop was a success: a rolling trike, the 1st German workshop and some great encounters. It was also a great learning experience (fail and learn).

After this workshop, here’s what’s proposed for future moskitOS workshops:

1. All bike parts must be ready well in advance of the workshop. Indeed, the late arrival of components leads to too much stress during the workshop, and prevents us from concentrating on the hand tasks (helping participants to build and document their work, for example). 8 weeks in advance is a minimum. The workshop organization guide has been updated accoringly.
2. For the comfort of the supervisors, the number of participants should be known in advance, as well as the time they will be present during the workshop.
3. If the meal is organized in-house, people must either help with the cooking, or an external person can be assigned to cook the meal. Whatever happens, the cost of the meal must be borne by the participants, or at least financed in advance.
4. If the host workshop has a protocol for the use of the machines, participants should be introduced to the machines at the beginning of their stay, to enable them to become more autonomous afterwards.
5. In general, if it’s an official moskitOS workshop, the host and the moskitOS team must be able to define the course together and horizontally. But it is not forbidden to organize an unofficial workshop with a member of the moskitOS team or someone else as a speaker, simply the host takes all responsibility for the good organization of the workshop and communicates accordingly (the mention « unofficial moskitOS workshop organised without the moskitOS team » has to figure on every communication medium).

The moskitOS team thanks the great participants of this workshop. The ZAM for having opened its doors and particularly Axel for being able to seek financial and material resources to make this week possible. A first step for other adventures (see you in the Spezi ;-). And of course a special thank you to Petra for her animations and her Zine.