[hackerspaces] National Fab Lab Network Act of 2010 (111-HR6003)

[Stewart Dickson]

  Hi, David,

To a certain extent, you have to trust your representatives -- it is the 
nature of *representative* democracy.
Of course, it's about money.    I see the HackerSpace I co-founded   
http://www.makerspaceu.org   as an
informal incubator for radical product design.    Believe me, non-profit 
funding is a LOT more benign than
Small Business Administration's demands for idiotic prediction of 
unsustainable growth or what a Venture
Capitalist will take from your hard-born creativity.

Here are the most stringent restrictions I see in the bill:
> NFLN shall
> > examine the ability of the organization to supply a physical location
> > for the lab, their */financial ability to pay for sufficient staff to
> > operate the lab and train its users/*, an ability to engage the local
> > community or other sufficient user base, and an awareness of those
> > long term obligations.
It's a bit of a catch-22, since the availability of funding through the 
proposed NFLN depends on the applicant meeting these criteria.

Other than that, I don't see anything objectionable in the bill as 
distributed.

-Stewart Dickson, Communications and Technology Commissioner (1998-2002) 
City of Calabasas, CA  91302

On 9/23/10 2:04 PM, David Powell wrote:
> When I think of Fab Lab I think of the commercial version of a 
> Hackerspace. Although it would be non-profit would it also be 
> inexpensive? I'm all for creating a network of Hackerspaces. But I 
> don't feel educated enough to write congressmen in support of this 
> bill. I don't think know the people behind the bill. How can I be sure 
> they have my best interest in mind and are not trying to make 7 figure 
> living through this "non-profit" like many do in other non-profits in 
> our country. How can I be sure this is really about the science and 
> technology and not about money? I would need to be better educated 
> before making a decision.
>
> On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 2:56 PM, Chris Weiss <cweiss at gmail.com 
> <mailto:cweiss at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Rose White <rose at yarnivore.com
>     <mailto:rose at yarnivore.com>> wrote:
>     > This is brilliant! Writing to the subcommittee members to say
>     "Hey, I
>     > support this!" would be a good thing to do, especially if you're
>     in the
>     > district that any of them is in.
>
>     additionally, making them aware that grass-roots "fab labs" already
>     exist in their areas will help a lot.
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