[hackerspaces] Next steps -

Yves Quemener quemener.yves at free.fr
Mon Apr 15 02:28:57 CEST 2013


Do you have any partnerships in the Old World?

I think that there are many differences between US and European spaces and
that would make it sensible to use a slightly different approach. Here in
France for instance there is not much bureaucracy involved in running a non
profit, but the hunt for public funds can potentially lead to much greater
rewards if done in pack.

There had been talks about a loose federation of sorts a few months
(years?) ago but it didn't reach any conclusion as I can tell.


On 15/04/13 02:00, James Carlson wrote:
> 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
> <mailto: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>
>     > <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>
>     > <mailto: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>
>     >     <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>
>     >     <mailto: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>
>     >         <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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