Community Shop Space

From Fozzee.net

Since I've started talking about a shared workshop space, I've gotten a variety of responses. Some people just don't get it. They can't understand why you'd want to pay (either directly, in membership fees, or in fuel, "contribution", etc) to share a workshop with a bunch of random people. Some people have said "I'd be interested, maybe", etc.

The bottom line is this, whether you call it a hackerspace, a makespace, a commune or just a shop, it's basically a place where like-minded people get together, work on their stuff and have other people around to bounce ideas off of. The fancier places like TechShop have advanced tools and equipment that people probably don't have at home (and wish they did), and even offer classes.

The bottom line is this, to make a community shop go, you need a certain level of membership to split the costs to a reasonable point. More members leads to either lower costs or more/better facilities. There's definitely economies of scale, as not everyone is at the shop at the same time, and you need to cool a given space roughly the same, no matter how many people come and go. Until you need a slightly bigger space, etc.

Initially, spaces like this were a big deal on the coasts, but now with CCC in Kansas City and Arch Reactor starting up in St. Louis, it's obviously catching on. It might even be time for Omaha.

My initial thoughts on such a space are thus:

• It's like a country club with tools and computers instead of golf.
• There are a variety of ways to implement something like this...
  • For-profit business, providing lots of gear etc
  • Non-Profit org, sort of like a credit union, still centrally managed, and equipped, though maybe to a lesser degree.
  • Just a bunch of guys who get some space, bring their stuff and come and go as they please.

Of the people I've talked to, lots of them like the idea of "buying" the facilities ala-cart, whenever they have a project. These people, based on my experience, are least likely to bring much in the way of their own tools and whatnot, because they don't have them (thus the draw of a community shop). The problem with this is for this to work, you need either a core of dedicated members, who'll be willing to pay some sort of dues and not jump ship right away, as finding new members in a smaller market, like Omaha, could be potentially difficult.

If you chose to build in the "organic" way, (the only way I see that wouldnt require raising $250,000 in venture capital) where core people get a space and bring their existing gear to share, those "core members" who own most of the gear are very important, literally the lifeblood of the shop. This is the model I'm in favor of, as I have more gear and whatnot than I do space. I also currently lack air conditioned and heated space, and am already in the habit of loaning most tools to friends, if they ask. The current issue is finding more people (I'd think 10-15, based on the cost of the space) as well as finding an appropriately situated and priced space.

Any interested parties should Contact Me, as I'm actually relatively serious about doing this, if I can find people. I'll start a list, (which is presently at two or 3, at various levels of commitment) and maybe we'll all get together and discuss it.

Happy Making!

Update: As of August 2010, these get-togethers have sort-of started! Email me for more info; An "official" site is forthcoming, as soon as we can decide on a name...