In Praise of Hackerspaces

snydeq writes "Open centers of grassroots innovation, hackerspaces offer opportunities to source talent, create goodwill, and push technology forward, writes Open Software Integrators' Phil Rhodes. 'I had the good fortune to be able to attend Maker Faire North Carolina this weekend in Raleigh, N.C. ... At this local Maker Faire, I was struck by the number of hackerspaces represented. The energy, buzz, and activity around their booths was captivating,' Rhodes writes. 'Amid all this buzz, it dawned on me that everyone should be excited about hackerspaces and what they represent, both for their local communities and the world. Although the hackerspace movement is growing rapidly, many people are still not familiar with them, where they are located, or what they do. So let's examine the hackerspace world and explore why you should give a crap about it.'"

Comments

Aren't these just workshops?

[TWX]

Both grandfathers had workshops, as does my dad, most of my uncles, many of my aunts, my father-in-law, and I have one as well. There were shops in junior high and high school to do woodworking, welding, automotive, jewelry, and even stained glass. The tools in our shops are certainly tailored to what we work on or what we think will be useful, but most shops have been very general-purpose; we could work on just about anything.

Can someone please explain to me this new fascination? I find it kind of insulting, this "discovery" of tinkering is like a shadow of Europe "discovering" the already-populated Americas. People have been building things for thousands of years in their workshops without this need to call them "makerspaces"... We don't do it because we expect it to be cool to others, we do it because we like it for ourselves.

This "maker" emphasis seems like a bunch of damn posers trying to establish and subsequently ruin a "scene"...

Re:Aren't these just workshops?

[Anonymous Coward]

These are workshops but with a twist:

(1) Everything (or nearly) has some tie-in to technology, be it a 3D printer, a CNC mill, or what have you. It's not limited to woodworking or one type of material like a lot of shops are.
(2) This is a self-run community, not just a workshop

Re:Aren't these just workshops?

[TWX]

It is for that reason that I have a warehouse full of parachute pants and mood-rings.

Parachute Pants, for when you absolutely, positively need to shop lift that car battery...

Re:Aren't these just workshops?

[i kan reed]

It's different from a workshop in that it's also a community. People teach to make, people loan tools to each other, people show off creations. I spent about a year as a member of a hackerspace, then I moved somewhere that became less feasible. In that time, I saw some really cool technologies people had made, helped teach people a bit about writing processing code for graphics cards without using CUDA, and made use of their tech-book library.

Re:Aren't these just workshops?

[TWX]

Do these laser cutters and 3d printers result in a finished product that's any better than I can make with a crappy drill press?

To my view, it's bunch of amateurs that think they're pros. In reality, that smelly guy with the portable welder and a hatchback full of scraps of metal stock who field-repairs trash compactors produces better results...

Douglas Adams really was right about human nature in his concept of the B-Ark...

Re:Aren't these just workshops?

[Hartree]

And regular vertical mills or such 40 years ago somehow weren't technology? And green sand casting wasn't either?

And the amateur radio clubs were somehow not self run communities?

And the plans published in Radio Electronics, Home Shop Machinist and other such magazines weren't "open source" enough somehow?

It's interesting, it's great that it's getting the fix it or modify it yourself idea out to some people who might not otherwise have it, but it's not new.

I grew up in a neighborhood with multiple "makerspaces". They were Bill's amateur radio workbench where he built his own gear. Freddie's workshop where he built his own grinder and other power tools. Donald Vern's shop where he built midget cars to race. And Danner's auto upholstery shop where he did the interiors for his show cars.

And that was just within half a block of my house.

As I said, wonderful to be teaching people this, but it's not new or revolutionary.

Re:Aren't these just workshops?

[Anonymous Coward]

...at your local hackerspace!

Re: Aren't these just workshops?

[bWareiWare.co.uk]

So because you can afford a well equipped shop and already know how to use the tools other people shouldn't try and find ways to share the costs and help each other lean the skills?

Re:Aren't these just workshops?

[HeckRuler]

Ok, I'll bite back, it's the first sentence. See above:

These are workshops but with a twist:

They ARE workshops. They don't have to be new and revolutionary to be worthy of praise. Indeed, Bill and Freddie and Donald and Danner sound like awesome guys. And even though their daddies didn't have power tools, radio, or autos to put upholstery in, it doesn't make them any less awesome.

And workshop collaborative have been around since before Bill and Freddie. The new batch simply has a twist that they're often have more programmers. Much like the last generations of geeks had radios. The whole "community run" thing adds a dash of free and open culture to the mix.

Oh, and those radios DID change the world. Call up Bill and tell him "thank you".

It's a community workshop

[oneiros27]

I have my workshop ... but if I need to deal with large sheet goods, I have to move things to the driveway.

As I understand it, these are basically like the wood working / metal working / automotive / electronics shops from high school, but either as a cooperative or a commercial enterprise renting access.

There have been artist co-ops for years -- pottery's a big one as it's difficult for someone to do as a hobby individually with the need for a kiln, etc. For soft goods, there are quilting bees and knitting circles ... some held within fabric stores.

So you're right ... the basic idea isn't new. Even the business model isn't new -- military bases have had places to work on your car or do arts projects for decades. I'm guessing other groups have been doing it as well, it just wasn't publicized like it is now.

I suspect there are a few things driving this new push:

1. the trend towards higher density housing means people don't have space for setting up their own workshops
2. we've moved away from our parents and grandparents and can't go borrow their space for a weekend.
3. most people don't have the discressionary income to set up a well-equiped shop on their own.
4. because so many people haven't been taught proper woodworking and machining, they don't know how to make things without CNC or 3d printers.
5. people assume that things they haven't heard about before are new

All that being said, I'm okay with it -- I'd happily give my tools for membership in a co-op, so that when I want to make something, I can drive there and get it done without having to wait for a dry day, move the stuff out of my garage, etc. I've even thought about taking classes at the local community college if it meant I could use their equipment.

Re:Hackerspace hype

[expatriot]

Remember all the fuss about whether you could change the batteries in phones? The direction of modern manufacturing is towards things that you cannot practically build or repair yourself.

Some of the things done in hacker spaces (or described in Make magazine) do seem very kitsch (as in the finished result is not worth the material and time put into it) but that is not the point.

People are making and repairing things.

What is the point of Raspberry Pi? Not a very good computer. What is the point of writing your own code for a personal project? Probably not going to make much money off it. Why paint a picture? Not going to be in a museum

People learn something and they have satisfaction in what they produced.

Not Just a Workshop

[Narmacil]

The difference between a hackerspace and a workshop is huge. The key difference is the community, it doesn't belong to anybody so anything goes, it's like hippie commune meets workshop meets research lab minus the proposals and endless journal paper spewing. It's not so much about making the tools available (like techshop does), but more about building a group of engineers, tinkerers, and technodweebs to hang out with after work is over.

  Yeah there's a weird maker movement thing that people are pushing along side it, but hackerspaces are a place to hack, a place to figure out why you keep getting that "the printer is on fire" message. A place to admonish the newbs who tell repost jokes from reddit. You can get a project done alot faster when the guy next to you working on the ARM based LED vest can email you instructions on how that quadrature encoder you found in the drawer in the back outputs grey code in 5 minutes instead of spending half a day online looking for just the right answer.

I'm super glad I found Crashspace in LA, it's like my in person version of slashdot, and I'm living the technodream :D