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The main downside of the Hackerspace is the tragedy-of-the-commons aspect. Lots of tools and toys just asking to be lost or broken. Tends to create lots of rule

by jpm_sd 8y ago

The main downside of the Hackerspace is the tragedy-of-the-commons aspect. Lots of tools and toys just asking to be lost or broken. Tends to create lots of rules and dampen the social atmosphere a bit.

contingencies 8y ago
Maybe buy-your-own-tools hackerspaces are the way forward. This would also generate revenue and presumably facilitate the mushrooming of new hackerspaces.
arcticbull 8y ago
Noisebridge seems to do a decent job of keeping tools available and impressing on people that it's not their stuff. I'm constantly surprised by the quality and functionality of what they have.
- deepnet 8y ago
  Keeping tools highly available and having 'elders' ensuring they are used well and respected was my observation. Noisebridge are true believers in the democratisation of tools - they have workshops and collaborations have at every level of expertise - it is an awesome social good. Guests were thankful for the knowledge gained and things mostly worked out.
  - arcticbull 8y ago
    Yeah, we’ll said. I’ve been thinking of teaching some beginner electronics classes there.
krageon 8y ago
This heavily depends on your audience and where you are located. In my experience it has always been mostly to get people to be present consistently: Without constant effort a lot of the regulars can occasionally just drop away for a few weeks and if you don't have a huge amount of people that will dampen the social aspect a lot.
- neilv 8y ago
  I was looking into local hackerspaces the other day, and was surprised to see that one of the best-looking ones communicates this concern about "Presence": https://wiki.artisansasylum.com/index.php/Membership_Agreement https://wiki.artisansasylum.com/index.php/Membership_Agreeme...
  - krageon 8y ago
    Sadly this sort of thing wouldn't work where I am, it's almost entirely a list of veiled threats and those are not generally abided culturally. The hacker community is if anything even worse at it. If it does work I imagine this is one way to solve the problem.

by jpm_sd 8y ago

contingencies 8y ago

Maybe buy-your-own-tools hackerspaces are the way forward. This would also generate revenue and presumably facilitate the mushrooming of new hackerspaces.

arcticbull 8y ago

Noisebridge seems to do a decent job of keeping tools available and impressing on people that it's not their stuff. I'm constantly surprised by the quality and functionality of what they have.

deepnet 8y ago
Keeping tools highly available and having 'elders' ensuring they are used well and respected was my observation. Noisebridge are true believers in the democratisation of tools - they have workshops and collaborations have at every level of expertise - it is an awesome social good. Guests were thankful for the knowledge gained and things mostly worked out.
- arcticbull 8y ago
  Yeah, we’ll said. I’ve been thinking of teaching some beginner electronics classes there.

krageon 8y ago

This heavily depends on your audience and where you are located. In my experience it has always been mostly to get people to be present consistently: Without constant effort a lot of the regulars can occasionally just drop away for a few weeks and if you don't have a huge amount of people that will dampen the social aspect a lot.

neilv 8y ago
I was looking into local hackerspaces the other day, and was surprised to see that one of the best-looking ones communicates this concern about "Presence": https://wiki.artisansasylum.com/index.php/Membership_Agreement https://wiki.artisansasylum.com/index.php/Membership_Agreeme...
- krageon 8y ago
  Sadly this sort of thing wouldn't work where I am, it's almost entirely a list of veiled threats and those are not generally abided culturally. The hacker community is if anything even worse at it. If it does work I imagine this is one way to solve the problem.