shackspace is a

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

hackerspace 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 where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sc ...

run by shack e.V., a

non-profit association 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 ...

, established in 2009. Originally located in North Stuttgart, it moved to Stuttgart-Wangen in March 2011. It is among the largest and fastest-growing hackerspaces in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, with over 110 paying members. The mission of shackspace is to foster an environment where people can collaborate on ideas, share knowledge and talents, and explore aspects of life including science, technology, software development, arts and crafts and anything else members express an interest in. shackspace views itself as not only a physical workspace, but also a community of like-minded people.

History

The idea of a Stuttgart hackerspace was born at the BarCamp Stuttgart in September 2009. In February 2010 a shackspace association was founded, with 23 founding members, who moved to the planned location in North Stuttgart in April 2010. The hackerspace grew rapidly in its first year and moved to a larger facility, located in Stuttgart-Wangen, in March 2011. shackspace is primarily financed through membership dues but has historically accepted

public funding A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

and third party sponsorship that have allowed expansion and improvement of rooms, purchase of equipment, and realization of bigger projects.

Membership

Core members of the group pay monthly dues starting at € 9,60. Non-members are welcome to attend workshops on a variety of subjects, Thunder Talks and other public events as well as take part in different social events such as Plenum and Open House. Visiting beyond this can be arranged on a case by case basis with current members.

Activities & events

The purpose of shackspace is to increase knowledge and skills related to computer

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

, hardware and

data network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...

s. The association is engaged in numerous activities. For example, the society participated in the Hobby & Elektronik fair in 2010, 2011 and 2014 where they gave workshops, presentations and showcased projects. The shackspace society is also present at events of the

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'') in ...

, such as the

Chaos Communication Congress The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and online ...

Chaos Communication Camp The Chaos Communication Camp (also known as CCCamp) is an international meeting of hackers that takes place every four years, organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). So far all CCCamps have been held near Berlin, Germany. The camp is an ...

, Gulaschprogrammiernacht (GPN) and many others. shackspace is also used by other initiatives and groups in and around Stuttgart to host events (tech talks, workshops, project demos, and parties), such as Thunder Talks,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

workshops, public viewing of

Google I/O Google I/O (or simply I/O) is an annual developer conference held by Google in Mountain View, California. "I/O" stands for Input/Output, as well as the slogan "Innovation in the Open". The event's format is similar to Google Developer Day. His ...

and worldwide

HTML5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

Campout in collaboration with Google Developer Group Stuttgart, regular meetups of the Linux User Group Stuttgart (LUGS),

KDE KDE is an international Free software movement, free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-know ...

Code Sprint,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

International Space Apps Challenge. Any group that identifies themselves with the purpose of the shackspace are also welcome to use the location for meetups and events. Besides the main purpose of the shackspace association, the members are also engaged in many other activities, for example an

urban art Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

workshop,

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

workshop, and

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

experiments. Once a year,an open-house event gives an overview of all activities offered. There is also the regular weekly night social event, Plenum, that provides a good chance to meet people, talk about projects, and take a look around.

Physical space & facilities

shackspace is currently located at Ulmer Straße 300 in Wangen (Stuttgart). The current space has several rooms for electronics work, a classroom equipped with a

video projector A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signalling (telecommunication), signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens (optics), lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-per ...

, a lounge area with sofas for laptop work and socializing, and a kitchen. shackspace offerings include a

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 variou ...

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 m ...

s, electronic instrumentation,

electronic component An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not ...

woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, woodworking joints, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with Rock (geology), stone, clay and animal parts, ...

tools, materials for craft and art, and

office supplies Office supplies are consumables and equipment regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, by individuals engaged in written communications, recordkeeping or bookkeeping, janitorial and cleaning, and for storage of supplies o ...

. A complete list of equipment can be foun
here

Projects

shackspace is an incubator for many projects. *

Hackerspace Global Grid The Hackerspace Global Grid is aiming at building and establishing a distributed sensor and communication network. It was started in 2011 by Armin Bauer ( shackspace), Andreas Horning ( Constellation Platform), and Gregor Jehle ( shackspace) after a ...

, distributed sensor and communication network. * White Box, electronic and cryptographically sane access control to shackspace without the requirement to hand out physical keys. * Shackuino, microcontroller board based on the ATMega168. * Blue Frost,

Club-Mate Club-Mate () is a caffeinated carbonated mate-extract beverage made by the Loscher Brewery (''Brauerei Loscher'') near Münchsteinach, Germany, which originated in 1924. Club-Mate has 200 mg of caffeine per litre. Club-Mate has a relatively low ...

vending machine.
blinkennerd
blinking

LED throwies LED art is a form of light art constructed from light-emitting diodes. LEDs (light emitting diodes) are very inexpensive to purchase and have become a new way to make street art. Many artists who use LEDs are guerrilla artists, incorporating LEDs ...

. * LED Plasma, 16×16 LED plasma display made from SMD parts. * Portal, electronic, cryptographic physical access control for shackspace. * blinken35, implementation of the classic Snake game on a 7x5 pixel LED display. A complete list of current projects can be foun
here

Trivia

DeimHart
recorded an episode of their podcast at shackspace. shackspace was used as the backdrop and location for a critical interview by TV station SWR on th
ELENA system
that was going to be implemented in Germany.

Tim Pritlove Tim Pritlove (born 25 November 1967 in Gehrden, Germany) is a British/German podcaster, media artist and discordianist. He lives and works in Berlin. Pritlove studied computer science but never graduated. From 1998 to 2005 he was the main ...

hosted multiple meetings with his listeners at shackspace.
RadiotuxBinaergewitter
an
Retinacast
are recording and/or streaming their podcasts from shackspace and are using shackspace (audio-)equipment.

References

{{Hackerspace Computer clubs in Germany Hackerspaces Organisations based in Stuttgart