In principal, this is a fantastic idea. In practice, sharing a lab is an uphill struggle when the people you share it with are your coworkers/fellow students.

In principal, this is a fantastic idea. In practice, sharing a lab is an uphill struggle when the people you share it with are your coworkers/fellow students. When they're just people that wandered in off the street, I could imagine that without very careful control of the situation the place will end up with piles of crap and absolutely no tools. I suppose it completely depends what type of lab they've built. I hope this idea spreads (because I would like to have access to this kind of resource), and I hope it works!