[hackerspaces] (no subject)

[matt]

A fundamental problem is that different spaces have different populations
regardless of geographic locale.

Some of the other vectors are, type of space... maker versus software.
Heavy Industrial versus light...

Size of space will impact overall population.

Culture of space will influence overall population.

Hours / location in the town of space.

Food areas in vicinity of space... sounds odd, but if people need to keep
leaving to get food...   could be mitigated with a kitchen, but that may
change the entire culture of the space.  =P

I think your best means of predicting a population is to host some
pre-space acquisition events.  Maybe some coffee shop organizational
meetups.  Get an idea of what your culture is going to be like based off of
your core team of contributors.  And then get an idea of how much interest
is guaged in a few meetups.  Who are repeats... how many new per event...
see if you can find out from how far away they are coming.

Also be aware that you can't predict which hidden little communities you
may end up tapping into later on.  But there's nothing wrong with growing
when you need to.  It's the shrinking that will kill yah.

-Matt


On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 4:05 PM, Alan Fay <emptyset at freesideatlanta.org>wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 3:54 PM, Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You would be able to do this with GIS if you had some sort of "nerds per
>> capita" data.
>> Perhaps there's some info to be found in the ESRI census data?
>>
>
> census.gov is actually a great resource for this.  Oh it's shutdown right
> now and I have a sad.  :(
>
> Of the couple of hackerspace surveys I've seen, I think I recall 40-60% of
> members identify themselves as people 25-40 years of age with high income
> (>$75K/year).  So, locating in an area with those characteristics is
> helpful - but I don't think strictly necessary to ensure good membership
> numbers.
>
> My personal experience is that the offerings of a hackerspace and its
> community are what trump price, location, and square footage.
>
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