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<br/>> On April 13, 2013 at 6:23 PM hellekin <hellekin@hackerspaces.org> wrote:
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<br/>> On 04/13/2013 04:48 PM, Matt Joyce wrote:
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<br/>> > Many spaces are tiny. Helping to bootstrap them is something that
<br/>> > hackerspaces.org was setup to do. In fact I am pretty sure one of the very
<br/>> > first things posted there was design patterns docs.
<br/>> >
<br/>> *** It reminds me of a conversation I had last time I visited <<</>>.
<br/>> The Dresden chapter of CCC is an awesome little community with great
<br/>> hackers, and great projects. But they're a very small group, and would
<br/>> benefit from a much larger space that, unfortunately, they cannot
<br/>> afford--rent in Dresden is pretty high, and they currently benefit from
<br/>> a zero EURO electricity bill that's difficult to beat.
<br/>>
<br/>> I suggested that they could share that concern with the rest of the
<br/>> community to see whether they can get help finding the financial
<br/>> resources to expand their available working space. I believe a
<br/>> Hackerspaces Foundation could help in that kind of situations.
<br/>>
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TL;DR version of what follows: partnerships.
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I'm acquainted with a makerspace composed of really sharp individuals, that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Their space is rather run-down and their activities are often poorly-attended. If that's fine for them, well, okay, although it's my understanding some members are disgruntled with the organization sort of idling and not taking full advantage of its collective potential.
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They seem to always be asking the question: "How do we get funding for such and such?" The answer always seems to be member fees. Of course there's a practical limit to such funding and you tend to implode quickly after reaching it.
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When I started down this path of crafting a local maker foundation, I took lessons learned from my friends in Europe and focused on community first, space second. There was push-back but I stood firm and managed to ultimately persuade the other natural leaders of the merit. So we proceeded to first define our community and its goals, while our only space was a prototypical garage shop some member gracefully offered.
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Some members got impatient with our slow but steady progress and asked, "how do we get funding for such and such?". My answer was: "We first look for FREE solutions."
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We makers have a great deal to offer our communities and businesses. It's not asking much to expect something in return. With that in mind many of us began networking, sharing the make gospel (along with our needs) with any who would listen and just months after starting this it's paying off. Two local libraries, it turns out, were looking for US even as we were looking for them. Both have offered completely FREE space, including utilities (taxpayer funded, that is). In return we are to offer training courses sharing our various skills-- something we had always planned anyway.
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Win-win.
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Libraries may not be ideal for every organization, and in fact at one we will be unable to deploy loud machinery... but the two we've started working with will address 80% of our needs. And we're not through yet. Our foundation is designed to be an umbrella entity that fosters all sorts of maker habitats and ventures.
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Surely there are also corporations in just about every community with extra unused space, and a need for our skills. Embedded makerspaces could perform as free R&D service providers in exchange for space within an engineering or manufacturing firm.
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Bottom line, define your goals and offerings, then get the word out. Odds are someone is looking for you, too.
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Randy
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