[hackerspaces] Dear hackerspaces, bad news (Mihai)

Mihai Dinulescu mihaidinulescu at post.harvard.edu
Mon Mar 17 02:19:35 CET 2014 

This is utterly unsustainable. The staff are by definition those that
believe in the space most. Whilr guidance might be a better word than
management at times, every maker space needs to have a group of folks
accountable at the end of the day.

The fact that they are bringing in "big brands" is a further slap in the
face. It is the exact opposite of anything "maker style" which is about
sharing and growing as a community, but also as individuals within said
group.

How is this space owned/operated legally? It sounds to me like a big cult
of personality by someone who just wanted to capitalize on a trendy
business model du jour and never gave a damn about the actual outcomes.
Just because something doesn't make press doesn't mean it ain't cool. If
toilets need fixing, doing so is pretty cool to anyone using them,
regardless of what WSJ or MakerZine think.

-M

On Mar 16, 2014 1:35 PM, <discuss-request at lists.hackerspaces.org> wrote:
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>    1. Dear hackerspaces, bad news (Florencia Edwards)
>    2. Re: Dear hackerspaces, bad news (matt)
>    3. Re: Dear hackerspaces, bad news (Florencia Edwards)
>    4. Re: Dear hackerspaces, bad news
>       (j. grenzfurthner/monochrom (das ende der nahrungskette))
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 13:22:53 -0400
> From: Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com>
> To: Hackerspaces General Discussion List
>         <discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
> Subject: [hackerspaces] Dear hackerspaces, bad news
> Message-ID:
>         <CAJ4z+F+qpTYS-B99LE9YB8=
8xTKgdOAzSQyxP_pjSBX_a9Gd+A at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hello everybody, this week without being expected, they told us that are
> going to fire half of our team. Our makerspace unfortunately, is a
company.
> We were all working paid with a symbolic wage, so we were sort of
> volunteers also, but the space is really huge, an ex factory in a really
> expensive neighborhood so we weren't making enough from memberships to
> afford rent, less wages.  . The owner , who has been absent the last 7
> months or so, wants to make an inversion in the space, machines, materials
> for artists to make decorations. He prefers to invert in the space than in
> the people who've been working because they love the community, who've
been
> underpaid working extra hours because they just love being there, which
> makes me really sad, but I understand the circumstances are hard.
>
> Now it's going to be sort of self administrated by the members, they are
> going to have keys like in other spaces. Here where we live people don't
> have the culture of doing stuff by themselves and respecting someone
else's
> space. They need someone watching them, telling them what to do... Maybe
> this will be a good change, so members can lear how to take care of the
> space.
>
> Also they want to administrate projects,  in the makerspace for big
> companies and brands that want to have new ways of communication and are
> willing to pay big. And they will hire in this case experts to make the
> projects in the makerspace. Like a sort of incubator.
>
> We also use to have scholarships for people who were ex staff, who do
stuff
> like taking care of the space, or workshops, but he said that if people
are
> not working in a cool project "maker style", they won't be able to keep
> coming to the space. This means they haven't offered the staff that was
> fired memberships to work on their stuff or to keep being part of the
> community.
>
> This is our new reality, we don't know what to make of it, we are in
shock,
> and I would love to hear your opinions.
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 13:30:01 -0400
> From: matt <matt at nycresistor.com>
> To: Hackerspaces General Discussion List
>         <discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] Dear hackerspaces, bad news
> Message-ID:
>         <CAP_sDUE=
wQznbQDBdzduhE_VojSy9DbeatGcsb+rNxwrS1774A at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> IMHO Your space sounds like a clusterfuck.
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com
>wrote:
>
> > Hello everybody, this week without being expected, they told us that are
> > going to fire half of our team. Our makerspace unfortunately, is a
company.
> > We were all working paid with a symbolic wage, so we were sort of
> > volunteers also, but the space is really huge, an ex factory in a really
> > expensive neighborhood so we weren't making enough from memberships to
> > afford rent, less wages.  . The owner , who has been absent the last 7
> > months or so, wants to make an inversion in the space, machines,
materials
> > for artists to make decorations. He prefers to invert in the space than
in
> > the people who've been working because they love the community, who've
been
> > underpaid working extra hours because they just love being there, which
> > makes me really sad, but I understand the circumstances are hard.
> >
> > Now it's going to be sort of self administrated by the members, they are
> > going to have keys like in other spaces. Here where we live people don't
> > have the culture of doing stuff by themselves and respecting someone
else's
> > space. They need someone watching them, telling them what to do... Maybe
> > this will be a good change, so members can lear how to take care of the
> > space.
> >
> > Also they want to administrate projects,  in the makerspace for big
> > companies and brands that want to have new ways of communication and are
> > willing to pay big. And they will hire in this case experts to make the
> > projects in the makerspace. Like a sort of incubator.
> >
> > We also use to have scholarships for people who were ex staff, who do
> > stuff like taking care of the space, or workshops, but he said that if
> > people are not working in a cool project "maker style", they won't be
able
> > to keep coming to the space. This means they haven't offered the staff
that
> > was fired memberships to work on their stuff or to keep being part of
the
> > community.
> >
> > This is our new reality, we don't know what to make of it, we are in
> > shock, and I would love to hear your opinions.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> >
> -------------- next part --------------
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 13:32:32 -0400
> From: Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com>
> To: Hackerspaces General Discussion List
>         <discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] Dear hackerspaces, bad news
> Message-ID:
>         <CAJ4z+F+0RwKqfjbUt_f=
R4QK+9nAH1AbeyYjdomQZZaX7CvxBg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> hahaha what's a clusterfuck?
>
>
> 2014-03-16 13:30 GMT-04:00 matt <matt at nycresistor.com>:
>
> > IMHO Your space sounds like a clusterfuck.
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com
>wrote:
> >
> >> Hello everybody, this week without being expected, they told us that
are
> >> going to fire half of our team. Our makerspace unfortunately, is a
company.
> >> We were all working paid with a symbolic wage, so we were sort of
> >> volunteers also, but the space is really huge, an ex factory in a
really
> >> expensive neighborhood so we weren't making enough from memberships to
> >> afford rent, less wages.  . The owner , who has been absent the last 7
> >> months or so, wants to make an inversion in the space, machines,
materials
> >> for artists to make decorations. He prefers to invert in the space
than in
> >> the people who've been working because they love the community, who've
been
> >> underpaid working extra hours because they just love being there, which
> >> makes me really sad, but I understand the circumstances are hard.
> >>
> >> Now it's going to be sort of self administrated by the members, they
are
> >> going to have keys like in other spaces. Here where we live people
don't
> >> have the culture of doing stuff by themselves and respecting someone
else's
> >> space. They need someone watching them, telling them what to do...
Maybe
> >> this will be a good change, so members can lear how to take care of the
> >> space.
> >>
> >> Also they want to administrate projects,  in the makerspace for big
> >> companies and brands that want to have new ways of communication and
are
> >> willing to pay big. And they will hire in this case experts to make the
> >> projects in the makerspace. Like a sort of incubator.
> >>
> >> We also use to have scholarships for people who were ex staff, who do
> >> stuff like taking care of the space, or workshops, but he said that if
> >> people are not working in a cool project "maker style", they won't be
able
> >> to keep coming to the space. This means they haven't offered the staff
that
> >> was fired memberships to work on their stuff or to keep being part of
the
> >> community.
> >>
> >> This is our new reality, we don't know what to make of it, we are in
> >> shock, and I would love to hear your opinions.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Discuss mailing list
> >> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >>
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> >
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 18:34:41 +0100
> From: "j. grenzfurthner/monochrom (das ende der nahrungskette)"
>         <jg at monochrom.at>
> To: Hackerspaces General Discussion List
>         <discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org>
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] Dear hackerspaces, bad news
> Message-ID: <23AF1F8F-179A-4E17-83CB-0787E2D3E9F3 at monochrom.at>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hackerspace design patterns. Always useful to evaluate FAIL.
>
> http://hackerspaces.org/images/8/8e/Hacker-Space-Design-Patterns.pdf
>
>
> On 16.03.2014, at 18:30, matt <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:
>
> > IMHO Your space sounds like a clusterfuck.
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> >> Hello everybody, this week without being expected, they told us that
are going to fire half of our team. Our makerspace unfortunately, is a
company. We were all working paid with a symbolic wage, so we were sort of
volunteers also, but the space is really huge, an ex factory in a really
expensive neighborhood so we weren't making enough from memberships to
afford rent, less wages.  . The owner , who has been absent the last 7
months or so, wants to make an inversion in the space, machines, materials
for artists to make decorations. He prefers to invert in the space than in
the people who've been working because they love the community, who've been
underpaid working extra hours because they just love being there, which
makes me really sad, but I understand the circumstances are hard.
> >>
> >> Now it's going to be sort of self administrated by the members, they
are going to have keys like in other spaces. Here where we live people
don't have the culture of doing stuff by themselves and respecting someone
else's space. They need someone watching them, telling them what to do...
Maybe this will be a good change, so members can lear how to take care of
the space.
> >>
> >> Also they want to administrate projects,  in the makerspace for big
companies and brands that want to have new ways of communication and are
willing to pay big. And they will hire in this case experts to make the
projects in the makerspace. Like a sort of incubator.
> >>
> >> We also use to have scholarships for people who were ex staff, who do
stuff like taking care of the space, or workshops, but he said that if
people are not working in a cool project "maker style", they won't be able
to keep coming to the space. This means they haven't offered the staff that
was fired memberships to work on their stuff or to keep being part of the
community.
> >>
> >> This is our new reality, we don't know what to make of it, we are in
shock, and I would love to hear your opinions.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Discuss mailing list
> >> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
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