![RaumZeitLabor Stairs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/RaumZeitLabor_Stairs.jpg)
A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (
501(c)(3) in the United States),
workspace
Workspace is a term used in various branches of engineering and economic development.
Business development
Workspace refers to small premises provided, often by local authorities or economic development agencies, to help new businesses to estab ...
where people with common interests, such as
computers,
machining,
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...
,
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
,
digital art
Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media.
Since the 1960s, various name ...
, or
electronic art
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media. More broadly, it refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and elec ...
, can
meet
Meet may refer to:
People with the name
* Janek Meet (born 1974), Estonian footballer
* Meet Mukhi (born 2005), Indian child actor
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Meet'' (TV series), an early Australian television series which aired on ABC du ...
,
socialize, and
collaborate
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
. Hackerspaces are comparable to other community-operated spaces with similar aims and mechanisms such as
Fab Lab
A fab lab (''fabrication laboratory'') is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication.
A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and vari ...
,
men's shed
Men's sheds or community sheds are non-profit local organisations that provide a space for craftwork and social interaction. The movement originated in Australia around the 1980s as a way to improve the health and wellbeing of older men. Howev ...
s, and commercial "for-profit" companies.
History
Hackerspaces with open membership became common throughout Germany in the 1990s in the orbit of the German
Chaos Computer Club
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an '' eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters (called ''Erfa-Kreise'') i ...
(CCC), with the
c-base
c-base e.V. is a non-profit association located in Berlin, Germany. Its purpose is to increase knowledge and skills pertaining to computer software, hardware and data networks. The association is engaged in numerous related activities. For exam ...
being probably an example. The concept, however, was limited to less than a dozen spaces within Germany, and did not spread beyond borders at first. Most likely this was because initial founding costs were prohibitive for small groups without the support of a large organization like the CCC. From 1997, Chicago's Autonomous Zone
Infoshop
Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...
hosted "Unscrew U", an early hacking and repair program that met weekly.
In 2006
Paul Böhm
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
came up with a fundraising strategy based on the
Street Performer Protocol
The threshold pledge or fund and release system is a way of making a fundraising pledge as a group of individuals, often involving charitable goals or financing the provision of a public good. An amount of money is set as the goal or ''threshold'' ...
to build
Metalab
The Metalab is a hackerspace in Vienna's central first district. in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, Austria, and became its founding director. In 2007 he and others started Hackerspaces.org, a wiki-based website that maintains a list of many hackerspaces and documents patterns on how to start and run them. the community list included 1967 hackerspaces with 1199 active sites and 354 planned sites.
The advent of
crowdfunding and
Kickstarter (founded 2009) has put the tools required to build hackerspaces within reach of an even wider audience. For example,
Bilal Ghalib __NOTOC__
Bilal may refer to:
People
* Bilal (name) (a list of people with the name)
* Bilal ibn Rabah, a companion of Muhammad
* Bilal (American singer)
* Bilal (Lebanese singer)
Places
*Bilal Colony, a neighbourhood of Korangi Town in Karachi, ...
(who had previously worked on a hackerspace documentary) and others used such tools to bring the hackerspace concept to the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
.
Worldwide, a large number of hackerspace or makerspace facilities have been founded. Nicole Lou and Katie Peek reported that from 2006 to 2016 the number of active or planned spaces increased to 1,393, fourteen times as many as in 2006.
The US federal government has started adopting the concept of fully open makerspaces within its agencies , the first of which (SpaceShop Rapid Prototyping Lab) resides at
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) labora ...
.
Activities
![Hackerspace Software and Hardware](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Hackerspace_Software_and_Hardware.jpg)
In general, hackerspaces function as centers for peer learning and
knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge (namely, information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, peers, families, communities (for example, Wikipedia), or within or between organizations. It bridges the ind ...
, in the form of workshops, presentations, and lectures. They usually also offer social activities for their members, such as game nights and parties. Hackerspaces can be viewed as
open community
Commons-based peer production (CBPP) is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler. It describes a model of socio-economic production in which large numbers of people work cooperatively; usually over the Internet. Commons-based p ...
labs incorporating elements of
machine shops,
workshop
Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the on ...
s, and/or
studios where
hacker
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
s can come together to share resources and knowledge to build and make things.
Many hackerspaces participate in the use and development of
free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
,
open hardware
Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and a ...
, and
alternative media
Alternative media are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media (such as mainstream media or mass media) in terms of their content, production, or distribution.Downing, John (2001). ''Radical Media''. Thousand Oaks, ...
. They are often physically located in
infoshop
Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...
s,
social center
Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...
s,
adult education centers, public schools, public libraries, or on
university campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...
es, but may relocate to industrial or warehouse space when they need more room.
![Maker tutorial on configuring a Raspberry Pi 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Maker_tutorial_on_configuring_a_Raspberry_Pi_2.png)
Most recent studies of hackerspace in China—where Internet access is heavily censored—suggest that new businesses and organized tech conferences there serve to intervene in the status quo "from within". The first hackerspace in China,
Xinchejian, opened in Shanghai in 2010. Thereafter a network of hackerspaces emerged, nourishing an emerging maker culture. By designing open technologies and developing new businesses, Chinese makers make use of the system, make fun of it, altering it and provoking it. DIY makers often bring and align contradictory ideas together, such as copycat and open source, manufacturing and DIY, individual empowerment and collective change. In doing so, they craft a subject position beyond the common rhetoric that Chinese citizens lack creativity. As a site of individual empowerment, hackerspace and DIY making enable people to remake the very societal norms and material infrastructures that undergird their work and livelihood.
Facilities
![XanaduArtistGivesMachineShopTour](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/XanaduArtistGivesMachineShopTour.jpg)
The specific tools and resources available at hackerspaces vary from place to place. They typically provide space for members to work on their individual projects, or to collaborate on group projects with other members. Hackerspaces may also operate computer tool lending libraries, or physical tool lending libraries, up to and including creative
sex toys
A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate human sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibratin ...
in some instances.
The building or facility the hackerspace occupies provides physical infrastructure that members need to complete their projects. In addition to, most hackerspaces provide
electrical power
Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions o ...
,
computer server
In computing, a server is a piece of computer hardware or software (computer program) that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called " clients". This architecture is called the client–server model. Servers can provide vario ...
s, and
networking with
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
connectivity. Well-equipped hackerspaces may provide
machine tool
A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All ...
s,
sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fab ...
,
crafting
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...
,
art fabrication Art fabrication describes the process or service of producing large or technically difficult artworks through entities and resources beyond an individual artist's studio.Michelle Kuo"Industrial Revolution: The History of Fabrication,"''Artforum'', A ...
, audio equipment,
video projector
A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc lamp), X ...
s,
game consoles, electronic instrumentation (such as
oscilloscopes
An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...
and
signal generators
A signal generator is one of a class of electronic devices that generates electrical signals with set properties of amplitude, frequency, and wave shape. These generated signals are used as a stimulus for electronic measurements, typically used i ...
), electronic components and raw materials for hacking, and various other tools for electronics fabrication and creating things. Specialized
large-format printers,
3D printer
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
s,
laser cutter
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The firs ...
s, industrial
sewing machines
A sewing machine is a machine used to sew fabric and materials together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies. Since the in ...
, or
water jet cutters may be available for members to use. Some hackerspaces provide food storage and
food preparation
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ing ...
equipment, and may teach courses in basic or advanced cooking.
Organization
![Hackerspace billboard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Hackerspace_billboard.jpg)
The individual character of a hackerspace is determined by its members. There is a lot of variety in how hackerspaces are organised.
* Some hackerspaces are governed by elected boards selected by active members in good standing. Elected officers may serve predetermined terms, and help direct decision-making with regards to purchasing new equipment, recruiting new members, formulating policy, conforming to safety requirements, and other administrative issues.
London Hackspace, for example, is governed by an elected board of trustees.
* Others, such a
Open Garage are led by a single
Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL). This is a common governance structure for hackerspaces which are founded by a single person on their own property.
* There are also more anarchist governance models such as a Do-ocracy, in which people receive the authority over a task by doing it. This model is often combined with other structures such as elected boards or consensus-driven meetings, as is the case in
Noisebridge
Noisebridge is an anarchistic maker and hackerspace located in San Francisco, inspired by European hackerspaces Metalab and c-base in Berlin. It describes itself as "a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentor ...
.
Membership fees are usually the main income of a hackerspace, but some also accept
external sponsors. Some hackerspaces in the US have
501(c)
A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)) and is one of over 29 types of nonprofit organizations exempt from some federal income taxes. ...
3 status (or the equivalent in their jurisdiction), while others have chosen to forgo tax exempt status. University-affiliated hackerspaces often do not charge an explicit fee, but are generally limited to students, staff, or alumni, although visiting guests from other hackerspaces are usually welcome. Some hackerspaces accept volunteer labor in lieu of membership fees, especially from financially limited participants. In addition, some hackerspaces earn income from sponsoring and staffing high-tech
flea markets, where members of the general public may buy and sell new and used equipment and supplies.
There is a loose, informal tradition at many hackerspaces of welcoming visitors from other similar organizations, whether across town or internationally. Free exchange of ideas, skills, and knowledge are encouraged, especially at periodic gatherings sometimes called "build nights" or "open house" days.
Hackerspaces and makerspaces are increasingly being included as
learning space
Learning space or learning setting refers to a physical setting for a learning environment, a place in which teaching and learning occur. The term is commonly used as a more definitive alternative to "classroom," but it may also refer to a ...
s in schools,
learning commons
Learning commons, also known as scholars' commons, information commons or digital commons, are learning spaces, similar to libraries and classrooms that share space for information technology, remote or online education, tutoring, collaboration, c ...
, and other educational facilities.
Ethic
Hackerspaces are widely defined on hackerspaces.org as “community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects”. The exact functioning of the space varies from place to place and is determined by its members and while there is no blueprint or set of guidelines to create a hackerspace, they generally follow a “hacker ethic”, which “include freedom, in the sense of autonomy as well as of free access and circulation of information; distrust of authority, that is, opposing the traditional, industrial top-down style of organization; embracing the concept of learning by doing and peer-to-peer learning processes as opposed to formal modes of learning; sharing, solidarity and cooperation”.
Hackerspaces have also been described as physical manifestations of the
peer production Peer production (also known as mass collaboration) is a way of producing goods and services that relies on self-organizing communities of individuals. In such communities, the labor of many people is coordinated towards a shared outcome.
Overview
...
principles.
Equity and justice-centered making
Large opportunity gaps in science and engineering (
STEM) persist for youth growing up in poverty, and in particular for African American and Latino youth, and have become a focus of STEM-rich Making. The evolving maker movement has generated interest for its potential role in opening up access to learning and attainment in STEM, with advocates arguing for its “democratizing effects" – with access to a makerspace, “anyone can make… anyone can change the world”. Makerspaces potentially offer opportunities for young people to engage in STEM knowledge and practices in creative and playful ways, where “learning is and for the making”.
However, an explicit equity-agenda has been fairly absent in the maker movement, especially as it relates to sustained engagement in making. The movement remains an adult, white, middle-class pursuit, led by those with the leisure time, technical knowledge, experience, and resources to make. Even with the growth of community-based makerspaces, users of these spaces tend to be white adult men. The median salary for those involved in the maker movement in the US is $103,000, with 97% of those who go to Maker Faires having college degrees (and 70% have graduate degrees). Only 11% of the contributions to ''Make Magazine'' (the periodical credited with launching the Maker Movement) are female. Thus, as the maker movement has become formalized, the powerful knowledge and practices of communities of color or of low-income communities have not yet become central to its discourse.
Emerging research has begun to address how the maker movement might address equity concerns broadly. There is recent research in this area, which is challenging the field to consider new directions in the design of maker spaces, in maker space programming and pedagogies, and in how to make sense of the outcomes of making. These include: 1) Expanding what counts as making;
2) Design of makerspaces that foster an open, flexible and welcoming atmosphere to youth;
3) Maker space programs and pedagogies that support an equitable culture of making, the incorporation of participants’ cultural knowledge and practices,
a focus on new literacies; and valuing multiple iterations and failing-forward; and 4) Expanding the outcomes of making to include agency, identity, and the after-life of maker projects.
Cutting across these areas are specific attention to gender and computer science,
indigenous epistemologies and maker activities,
and how makerspaces may ground STEM-rich making in the lived experiences and wisdom of youth of color and their families and communities.
One emerging area of studies examines the production of an equitable culture in making, including in-depth longitudinal cases of youth makers in community settings, how youth and community co-design for equitable learning opportunities and outcomes.
Difficulties and critique
Hackerspaces can run into difficulties with
building code
A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permiss ...
s or other planning regulations, which may not be designed to handle their scope of activities. For example, a new hackerspace in
Nashua, New Hampshire, was shut down by the city after an inspection in 2011. The main issues involved ventilation of heat and toxic fumes; the space was reopened after improvements were made to the building.
The difficulties with opening hackerspaces and makerspaces within
non-profit organizations
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
, such as schools and
public libraries include cost, space, liability, and availability of personnel. Many makerspaces struggle to sustain viable business models in support of their missions.
Hackerspace culture may have more demonstrable challenges than the spaces themselves. For more, see:
Maker Culture#Criticisms.
In 2009,
Johannes Grenzfurthner
Johannes Grenzfurthner (; born 1975 in Vienna) is an Austrian artist, filmmaker, writer, actor, curator, theatre director, performer and lecturer. Grenzfurthner is the founder, conceiver and artistic director of ''monochrom'', an international art ...
published the much debated pamphlet "Hacking the Spaces", that dealt with exclusionist tendencies in the hackerspaces movement. Grenzfurther extended his critique through lectures at the 2012 and 2014
Hackers on Planet Earth
The Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference series is a hacker convention sponsored by the security hacker magazine ''2600: The Hacker Quarterly'' that until 2020 was typically held at Hotel Pennsylvania, in Manhattan, New York City. Occur ...
conferences in New York City.
Notable hackerspaces
Over the years, many hackerspaces have grown significantly in membership, operational budgets, and local media attention. Many have also helped establish other hackerspaces in nearby locations.
* "The Loft" hackerspace ( 1992-2002 ) in downtown San Diego was the anarchic center of the young underground tech, music, and art communities seeking a creative outlet in this conservative military town. The space was large, well equipped, and loosely operated.
*
c-base
c-base e.V. is a non-profit association located in Berlin, Germany. Its purpose is to increase knowledge and skills pertaining to computer software, hardware and data networks. The association is engaged in numerous related activities. For exam ...
(1995) from
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
is recognized as one of the first independent, stand-alone hackerspaces in the world, not affiliated with a school, university, or company. ''
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
'' writes that "European groups, particularly in Germany, have a long tradition of this kind of activity".
Another known German hackerspace is
RaumZeitLabor, organizer of Trollcon.
*
The Geek Group, formed in 1994, was a budding nonprofit hackerspace in Grand Rapids, Michigan that had a large following and internet presence. There were various chapters around the United States. Their main focus was as an opensource hackerspace to increase STEM education accessibility and one day become an accredited institution of higher education.
*
Metalab
The Metalab is a hackerspace in Vienna's central first district. , founded in 2006, is generally considered to have pioneered the funding principles that enabled rapid spread of the concept.
*
TechShop
TechShop was a chain of membership-based, open-access, do-it-yourself (DIY) workshops and fabrication studios. they had ten locations in the United States: three in California, one in Arizona, one in Arlington, Virginia (near DC), one in Michiga ...
was the first chain of commercial hackerspaces. It was launched in October 2006. , there were six TechShop locations in the US: three in California and one each in North Carolina, Michigan, and Texas, the last a partnership with the
Lowe's home improvement chain. , the company had declared
bankruptcy, with plans for reorganization or liquidation to be announced.
* In August 2007, a group of North American hackers visited Europe "to get a sense for the potential of European 'hacker spaces'", and upon their return, the groups
NYC Resistor
NYC Resistor is a restricted membership private club hackerspace with 25 members in New York City, New York, inspired by Chaos Computer Club and other hacker organizations. ''The New York Times'' describes it as "kind of frat house for modern-d ...
and
HacDC were set up in late 2007, with
Noisebridge
Noisebridge is an anarchistic maker and hackerspace located in San Francisco, inspired by European hackerspaces Metalab and c-base in Berlin. It describes itself as "a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentor ...
following in fall 2008.
*
RevSpace is a Dutch hackerspace founded in 2009. A regular of its IRC channel perpetrated a DDoS attack on VISA and MasterCard in 2010.
Dallas Makerspace(DMS) was founded by members of the Dallas Personal Robotics Group (DPRG) in 2010.
As of summer of 2017, it has a paying membership base of 1500, "making it one of the largest, if not the largest, nonprofit, volunteer-run makerspaces in the country" according to Dallas Morning News.
* The first Chinese hackerspace
Xinchejian was established in Shanghai in the fall of 2010. Thereafter hackerspaces have grown in numerous cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Ningbo, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. Chinese makers became internationally visible when the first Maker Carnival was hosted in Beijing in 2012.
*
GET City Innovations is a Community-based maker space in Lansing Michigan, where youth work year-round to design and prototype STEM-rich making solutions to local community concerns. The program is free and open to all youth through the community center, and foregrounds youth's rich cultural knowledge and wisdom in their making efforts.
*
Columbus Idea Foundry moved into a 65,000-square-foot factory in
Columbus Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
on May 22, 2014. By one account, it is "the country's largest such space".
* The
NASA Ames SpaceShop Rapid Prototyping Lab was developed as the first open makerspace within the US Federal Government. Located at
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) labora ...
, the facility has trained thousands of Federal employees on emerging rapid-prototyping equipment.
*
Artisan's Asylum
Artisans Asylum is a non-profit community workshop in Allston, Massachusetts. Artisans Asylum was founded in 2010 by an engineer, an artist, and friends who needed an affordable place to build and make things. Artisans was the first makerspace to ...
(
Somerville, Massachusetts
Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total population of 81,045 people. With an area o ...
), was once believed to be the largest makerspace in the world.
* the ''Verstehbahnhof'' in
Fürstenberg (Havel) station is an example of a makerspace in a rural German town with a declining population.
Daniel Domscheit-Berg
Daniel Domscheit-Berg (; né Berg; born 1978), previously known under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt, is a German technology activist. He is best known as the former spokesperson for WikiLeaks and the author of ''Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Jul ...
is one of the principal contributors to this space.
Variations
A lot of places share values similar to those purported by hackspaces, whether or not they use that nomenclature. A few examples follow:
Public library hackerspaces
Public Libraries have long been a place to share resources for learning. Lately some have reconsidered their roles to include providing resources for hacking and making. Those generally call themselves
Library makerspace
A library makerspace, also named Hackerspace or Hacklab, is an area and/or service that offers library patrons an opportunity to create intellectual and physical materials using resources such as computers, 3-D printers, audio and video capture an ...
s. For example, Chattanooga's 4th floor may have been the first use of a library as laboratory and playground for its community. The User Experience (UX) is another public laboratory and educational facility. Or according to
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
, the first public library to open a MakerSpace is the Fayetteville Free Library.
Men's sheds
There are over 1,000 active
men's shed
Men's sheds or community sheds are non-profit local organisations that provide a space for craftwork and social interaction. The movement originated in Australia around the 1980s as a way to improve the health and wellbeing of older men. Howev ...
s in
Australia,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
, . Instead of seeing themselves as "hackers" they describe themselves as "shedders" and their activities as "shedding". The Men's Sheds Movement is many ways parallel hackerspaces in their aims; although open to anyone regardless of age or gender, they tend to advertise themselves as "men in sheds". In some ways they can be seen as the flip side of
working men's club
Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class ...
s, as their community is drawn from a similar age group and their original aims are similar: to provide recreation and education for
working class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...
men and their families.
Feminist hackerspaces
In response to the misogyny allegedly shown by the
brogrammer culture that sees hackerspaces as "male" spaces, Seattle Attic was founded in the summer of 2013, as the first Feminist Hackerspace in the United States. They were soon followed by
Double Union, in San Francisco. Their founding came as a result of The Ada Initiative, and their AdaCamp conferences. Which has also led to the formation of FouFem in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, the Mz Baltazar's Laboratory, a start-up organization and feminist hackspace in Vienna, the Anarchafeminist Hackerhive in San Francisco, the Hacktory in Philadelphia and the Miss Despionas in Tasmania, Australia, and myriad others.
Public school maker/hackerspaces
Some public schools in the US now also include hackerspaces. The first high school to open a true MakerSpace was in
Sebastopol, California, and middle schools followed the trend. For example, White Hill Middle school in
Fairfax, California has now opened up their own MakerSpace with a class called "Makers and Hackers". In 2018
Penketh High School
Penketh High School is a secondary school in Penketh, Warrington. It is a Mixed-sex education, co-educational, non-denominational Academy (English school), academy school for 11 to 18 year olds. It converted from Comprehensive school (England ...
became the first school to have a school makerspace in the United Kingdom. "Spark" was designed for students and the community being the first of its kind in the UK.
In Shenzhen, China
SteamHead makerspace organized a school makerspace inside Shenzhen American International School in 2014, and SZ DIY makerspace organized a school makerspace inside Harbour School.
Fab labs
Fab lab
A fab lab (''fabrication laboratory'') is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication.
A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and vari ...
s are spaces (part of a network initiated by MIT's
Center for Bits and Atoms) whose goal is to enable people to "make (almost) anything". They focus heavily on digital fabrication tools.
Community spaces
There are many community art spaces share values with hackerspaces. Some, like
AS220
As, AS, A. S., A/S or similar may refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* A. S. Byatt (born 1936), English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer
* "As" (song), by Stevie Wonder
* , a Spanish sports newspaper
* , an academic male voice ...
and
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, commonly called "Haystack," is a craft school located at 89 Haystack School Drive on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine.
History
Haystack was founded in 1950 by a group of craft artists in the Belfast, Maine area, ...
have embraced
Fab lab
A fab lab (''fabrication laboratory'') is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication.
A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and vari ...
structures to expand the range of media represented in their spaces to include digital fabrication tools. There are also community-based makerspaces focused on open-access to allow community members to address community-based problems. From a justice perspective, the open access is important because many makerspaces are pay-to-play. Examples of community-based making spaces includ
GET Cityan
Mt Elliot both in Michigan.
University maker/hackerspaces
![Library laser cutter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Library_laser_cutter.jpg)
Universities around the world have at different rates embraced educational possibilities of these spaces. Makerspaces provide colleges and universities with an inspirational environment where innovative connections between technology and curriculum can be utilized for experiential teaching and learning activities
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
has pioneered the
Fab lab
A fab lab (''fabrication laboratory'') is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication.
A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and vari ...
movement and implementation of similar spaces in universities around the world. Non-Fab-Lab-associated Maker and Hackerspaces are also common.
Wheaton College is one school pioneering new Hacker and Maker curriculums and spaces, as is
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
with spaces like its "CEID".
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Olin College of Engineering, officially Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is a private college focused on engineering and located in Needham, Massachusetts. Olin College is noted in the engineering community for its relatively recent fou ...
has also pioneered Makerist and Hacker curriculum to great success. The Bioengineering Department at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
's
School of Engineering and Applied Science combines their educational lab space with an open Bio-MakerSpace in thei
George H. Stephenson Foundation Educational Laboratory & Bio-MakerSpace(or Biomakerspace or BioMaker Space), encouraging a free flow of ideas, creativity, and entrepreneurship between Bioengineering students and students throughout the university.
William & Mary is rapidly expanding thei
makerspace resourcesto include engineering spaces for all undergraduate & graduate degrees as part of their new Coll curricula.
Tool library
Tool libraries
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
generally lack a shared space for making or hacking things, but instead serve as a repository of tools people can borrow for use in their own respective spaces.
Repair cafe / clinic
"
Repair café
Repair Café is an organisation and its venues where people gather to work on repairing objects of everyday life such as electrical and mechanical devices, computers, bicycles, clothing, and other items. Repair Cafés are typically held at communi ...
s" are semipermanent places where people can come together to teach and learn how to fix things. "Repair clinics" are
pop-up events without permanent facilities, though they are often sponsored by organizations such as public libraries, schools, or universities.
The emphasis is on basic
DIY
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
repairs rather than building new things, but there is a similar informal atmosphere of exploration and learning new skills.
Bicycle coops
Bicycle cooperative
A bicycle cooperative ("bike co-op") can take the many forms of the cooperative model. These often include co-ops composed of businesses to achieve economies of scale ( retail cooperative), co-ops managed by those who work at the business ( work ...
s are places where people can build or fix bicycles.
Cooking makerspace
A place where anyone can use different professional kitchen equipment and try culinary experiments.
See also
*
Hacker culture
The hacker culture is a subculture of individuals who enjoy—often in collective effort—the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming the limitations of software systems or electronic hardware (mostly digital electronics), to a ...
*
Hackerspace Global Grid
*
Maker culture
*
Maker Faire
*
Tinkering School
References
External links
HackerspaceWiki– Global hackerspace database and resource
*
{{Authority control
Computer clubs
DIY culture
Educational facilities
Hacker culture