There is a long history in Shoreditch and Hackney of empty buildings being occupied by squatters and this tradition appears to be alive and well in digital 2013.
Squatter, rather like the word blogger, sounds like a pernicious term. But over the past 30 years in this part of London vacant buildings have been transformed by these enlightened, rather than benighted, people.
So the Kickstarter project kicked off by Shoreditch Works is to be welcomed. The campaign is to open a ‘village hall’ in the area that appeals to local people and companies.
If East London is going to be bigger and better than Silicon Valley, then it won’t just just be innovative start-ups, back-up cash, Government initiatives, VCs, angels and the media that will make it happen. It will be nifty little ideas like these that will.
Naturally, as a tight-fisted bastard who uses words rather than money to put these things about, I haven’t contributed to the campaign to raise £25K to open up the Shoreditch Village Hall. But I would suggest that it’s worth £1, £10, £25, £35, £50, £100, £200, £365 or £1,500 of anybody’s money.
They need about £15,558 by June 9th to make it happen.
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
