[hackerspaces] Establishing hackerspace and getting people actively involved

[Jens Christian Hillerup]

On 11/05/2010, at 04.06, Nick Farr (hackerspaces.org) wrote:

> This seems to be a reasonably universal.  (If someone has a
> counter-example of a space where >4 people worked to obtain the lease,
> please share!)

In Labitat we had a general assembly with nine participants last year.  
Before that we had one or two meetings with slightly more people. At  
the general assembly we decided we wanted to make a hackerspace, so we  
set down a board and *all* worked towards raising money for workshops  
before we had a space. Sometime in October last year we held an  
Arduino workshop paid for from some money ($3000) that we won in a  
"project battle" against ~20 other youth-related projects in Copenhagen.

In December we had sixty members that actually paid a monthly fee (>=  
$30) so we decided to sign the lease. We got the keys in mid-December,  
and everybody wanted to see the space. It was trashed. If any of you  
are interested this is what the space looked like then: http://www.jchillerup.com/labitat-lokaler-small.zip 
.

January through March 2010 we were renovating ev-e-ry-thing and only  
last month we held our public opening with journalists and media  
people. For the renovations I approximate at least 30 different people  
participated; granted, some more than others, but generally no hard  
feelings from anybody.

... and that's about it, the story of Labitat. Are we really 'sticking  
out' in comparison with other spaces?

-jc