Welcome to Infoseed!

Infoseed is a Free/Libre Software1 hacklab and resource centre for community and activist groups in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the basement below the 'Edinburgh University Settlement' offices and The Forest free arts and events space/cafe.2

Free Software Community and Activist Resource Centre

Infoseed is to be used for research, activism, planning, learning and dissemination of information for social change.

We provide access to computing, Internet and free/libre software, tutorials and workshops, a space to hold meetings and events, a radical infoshop and more. Sometimes people donate us their old unwanted computers and we recycle and reuse or redistribute them, replacing that nasty Microsoft or Apple stuff with healthy Free Software. Our resource centre is used by groups involved in free software, activist and community movements, hobbyists, and other deviants.

Infoseed is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit, pay-what-you-can project. It is open to all, owned by all, consensus-based and user-supported. It has to be the coolest place on the planet. Why not pay us a visit and get involved? :) Just drop-in and please join the mailing list.

We like donations of computer bits and donations towards our running costs. If you can afford it, please consider dropping one off when you visit us.

Our general Opening Times (drop by, hang out, help out) are Monday-Saturday 4pm-8pm, but we recommend that you call before visiting, as we can be a little irregular. Some of our regular events:

Reclaim Your Computer!

Wednesdays 4-8pm: regular Linux and Free Software drop-in workshop at Infoseed.
Reclaim Your Computer's regular session has been suspended for now :( If you're looking for help with or looking to learn about free software, please join the Infoseed mailing list (above) and let us know who you are and what you're interested in learning. Once we have a few people looking for help, we will arrange a workshop...

Ready and willing geeks will be here to help you install a Linux-based operating system on your computer or laptop, help you fix problems, give you demonstrations and tutorials, basically anything to do with Free Software. Drop in, ask us questions, bring your computer!

We can also teach you what we know about making websites, computer programming and building computers.

Dorkbot Electronics Tinkering Workshop

Second Tuesday of every month at 7pm in Infoseed, hardware and electronics tinkering workshop. Next Meeting - Tues 13th March

Ever had an idea for a clever gadget or contraption, but not known how to start building it? Want to learn more about hardware and electronics? Got some interesting parts you pulled out of a skip years ago thinking they might be useful? Or maybe you're already a well-established basement inventor, and want to help teach others?

Then come along. More information at the Dorkbot wiki page.

Free Software, Free Society.

1 Free Software is a matter of freedom: people should be free to use software in all the ways that are socially useful. Free software is socially developed and maintained software that everyone is free to use, copy, distribute, study, change and improve.

2 Aside from being located in the same building as The Forest and helping them out with computers, Infoseed is not affiliated with The Forest and does not wish to tarnish their good name.