[hackerspaces] Next steps -
James Carlson
james at schoolfactory.org
Mon Apr 15 02:00:20 CEST 2013
Yves, we accept any space that is, in general:
* Not a private club i.e. there is some way a member of the public can
become a member of the space
* Not for profit
* In general supporting some level of learning activity by hosting or
offering at least one class or event periodically which is for members and
non-members to learn something or practice some skill (this could even be
open hack day.)
We also work with a lot of groups that are forming their space--in this way
we act like an accelerator to help new spaces form.
We do help spaces find grants; often it is the space that finds a grant and
then we help them make it bigger, or we find a grant that can apply for
many spaces and then, because the program or idea can apply in many cities
at once, we can enlarge what is being asked for and have a greater impact.
We also coach spaces and share between spaces the ideas that we can use to
raise funds without grants, such as event rentals, or sponsorships, or
other activities. The idea is to keep spaces financially sustainable
through a mixture of sources.
On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 5:01 PM, Yves Quemener <quemener.yves at free.fr>wrote:
> This just looks awesome. Thanks for sharing it. A lot of things on your
> site seems tied to the US system, which is fine : I think that a federation
> can only grow by starting regionally. Can you tell us a bit more how you
> choose to accept a space or not in your federation?
>
> Do you help spaces to find donations and grants?
>
>
> On 14/04/13 22:26, James Carlson wrote:
> > I've been following this conversation and appreciate the discussion.
> >
> > In the U.S., we've formed the Space Federation
> > -- http://schoolfactory.org/spacefed -- which is 53 spaces and is
> growing.
> > It's federated, decentralized, and since we do the taxes for everyone, we
> > know it is also profitable--i.e., for the 23 spaces for which we act as
> the
> > charity and process funds, in 2012 the ecosystem of spaces created more
> > money than it spent.
> >
> > We're transparent, democratic, and open--not controlled by private
> > interests, a public charity.
> >
> > In other countries, we've been trying to stimulate the start of more
> spaces
> > through efforts like GEMSI (http://gemsi.org <http://gemsi.org/>) and in
> > '11, went to CCC to share the story of the Space Federation and learn
> from
> > other spaces what's working, what's not, and share collaboration.
> >
> > We've been doing this since 2009 (our organization was founded in 2002),
> > and what we've learned is:
> >
> > * It works
> > * We can have our autonomy and independence, and collaborate too
> > * It doesn't have to be top-down
> > * Spaces are financially sustainable
> > * Ecosystems of spaces are financially sustainable
> > * We can get a lot of financial resources but not come to depend on
> them:
> > in 2012, if we subtract the gifts from foundations and corporations,
> > the spaces were /still/ profitable (see finances from 2012
> > <
> http://schoolfactory.org/content/space-federation-2012-financial-results>)
> >
> > Our goal and aim is to imagine the future in which these spaces are 'the
> > schools'--they take the place of what we currently see / think when we
> say
> > 'school' because we're pretty sure the current implementation of 'school'
> > needs refactoring. That future is a way off, but it's getting closer and
> > closer all the time.
> >
> > I'd appreciate the chance to collaborate with hackerspaces.org
> > <http://hackerspaces.org/> on this. We've got a healthy model in the
> U.S.
> > and even though the laws and taxes are different in each nation, we can
> > separate what changes from what stays the same and provide an active
> > support to each other.
> >
> > What can we do to help?
> > 1. Host the site?
> > 2. Manage it with accountability to the community?
> > 3. Assume the costs?
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 3:04 PM, James Carlson <james at schoolfactory.org
> > <mailto:james at schoolfactory.org>> wrote:
> >
> > I've been following this conversation and appreciate the discussion.
> >
> > In the U.S., we've formed the Space Federation --
> > http://schoolfactory.org/spacefed -- which is 53 spaces and is
> growing.
> > It's federated, decentralized, and since we do the taxes for
> everyone,
> > we know it is also profitable--i.e., for the 23 spaces for which we
> act
> > as the charity and process funds, in 2012 the ecosystem of spaces
> > created more money than it spent.
> >
> > We're transparent, democratic, and open--not controlled by private
> > interests, a public charity.
> >
> > In other countries, we've been trying to stimulate the start of more
> > spaces through efforts like GEMSI (http://gemsi.org) and in '11,
> went
> > to CCC to share the story of the Space Federation and learn from
> other
> > spaces what's working, what's not, and share collaboration.
> >
> > We've been doing this since 2009 (our organization was founded in
> > 2002), and what we've learned is:
> >
> > * It works
> > * We can have our autonomy and independence, and collaborate too
> > * It doesn't have to be top-down
> > * Spaces are financially sustainable
> > * Ecosystems of spaces are financially sustainable
> > * We can get a lot of financial resources but not come to depend on
> > them: in 2012, if we subtract the gifts from foundations and
> > corporations, the spaces were /still/ profitable (see attached
> > finances dashboard)
> >
> > Our goal and aim is to imagine the future in which these spaces are
> > 'the schools'--they take the place of what we currently see / think
> > when we say 'school' because we're pretty sure the current
> > implementation of 'school' needs refactoring. That future is a way
> off,
> > but it's getting closer and closer all the time.
> >
> > I'd appreciate the chance to collaborate with hackerspaces.org
> > <http://hackerspaces.org> on this. We've got a healthy model in the
> > U.S. and even though the laws and taxes are different in each nation,
> > we can separate what changes from what stays the same and provide an
> > active support to each other.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 1:45 PM, Yves Quemener <
> quemener.yves at free.fr
> > <mailto:quemener.yves at free.fr>> wrote:
> >
> > > which involves admitting that none of us
> > > knows the perfect answer - and come up with a solution that
> most
> > think
> > > will work
> >
> > I am not sure if this will qualify as 1. or 2. but I still don't
> > understand
> > the problem you are trying to solve. I think I read all the
> messages in
> > this discussion, and I only identified three things that could be
> > solved by
> > a central entity :
> >
> > A. centralization of legal resources (for which countries?)
> > B. giving a Goal, an Aim and an Inspiration to the hackerspaces
> of
> > the world.
> > C. Give a sens of unity to the movement.
> >
> > There has been other proposals, but all the other I have seen can
> > be or are
> > currently solved by independent projects that it makes sense to
> > rely on.
> >
> > More importantly, I see no task that any hackerspace would be
> > willing to
> > give money for, except maybe the legal help, but then again, the
> > EFF may be
> > a safer bet if you are in US. IF you are targeting hackerspaces
> > outside US,
> > are you ready to cover all the legal systems out there?
> >
> > B. requires a charismatic leader or a strong driver in an awesome
> > project.
> > This is a pre-requisite, you have to have it first before making
> a
> > foundation or council.
> >
> > C. is actually doable without funds but has been attempted
> before.
> > It could
> > take the shape of a charter (maybe a modular one, a la creative
> > commons?),
> > that hackerspaces agree or not to follow. Fablabs actually have
> > this sort
> > of things.
> >
> >
> > On 14/04/13 17:12, Sean Bonner wrote:
> > > The way I see it we have two choices at this point.
> > >
> > > 1. We decide to work together - which involves admitting that
> > none of us
> > > knows the perfect answer - and come up with a solution that
> most
> > think will
> > > work (I'm aware there is no way to ever make everyone happy)
> and
> > try to
> > > create a resource that is valuable to people interested in
> starting
> > > hackerspaces as well as valuable to people already involved
> with
> > them.
> > >
> > > ~or~
> > >
> > > 2. We continue being snarky and bashing/insulting each other.
> > >
> > >
> > > I'm cool with either option. While I think there's massive
> > potential for a
> > > shared resource and I point people to the hackerspace patterns
> > all the
> > > time, my hackerspaces won't live or die based on anything that
> > happens on
> > > hackerspaces.org <http://hackerspaces.org>
> > <http://hackerspaces.org>, one of the benefits of a
> > > decentralized system such as this. And I have over 9000 hours
> of
> > trolling
> > > experience so I can just sit around laughing in everyones faces
> > too. Either
> > > way.
> > >
> > > -s
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
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> > > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> > >
> >
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> >
> >
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