Hive13 in Cincinnati seems to be flourishing in all regards! The core membership and leadership has always taken the organization seriously, and that attitude has helped them curate and sustain membership for over a decade now. I just checked their financials (the entire org is open), and it seems like the formula they have continues to sustain their bank account and membership numbers.
I think that in general, hackerspaces haven't really gone anywhere. Like most organizations, sometimes they fail due to no fault of their own, or leadership decides to pivot to a more sustainable model - as some have mentioned here a more "WeWork" model. The hackerspaces/makerspaces are still there. You just have to look!
Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
81–90 of 126 posts
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#82The same reason you no longer see artist spaces or other hubs of creative activity: real estate prices.
Cheap commercial real estate is really hard to find. It's no longer viable to get a little warehouse on the edge of town and turn it into something cool.
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#83It seems like most people have given up on the idea of community, sharing, and collective action, and prefer to take pills or other substances against the resulting depression/anxiety/loneliness.
Many comments here confirm this attitude, where what they see in spaces is reduced to "shared access to tools". Nobody wants to put in the effort just to have the majority be leeches.
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hackerdojo isn't a Hackerspace in the early 2010's meaning of the word anymore. They converted to a more startup incubator kind of place (and so I stopped going). From their website, looks like they're doing quite well! (for those who remember a previous incarnation of the space, with my partner and some friends we painted the 2 Dinos mural)
I’ve been there. It’s very quiet and everyone stares daggers at you if you look the type to make noise.
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Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#85They cost money.
Humans are only so charitable. At some point the cost of fixing what is broken in a hacker space is contrasted against a car repair (or something) and the hacker space looses.
This is compounded by the fact that the people who can responsibly use a hacker space usually own the tools or can get them cheap. Those who really want the hacker space have no clue that their incorrect use of the tool will destroy it.
I am amazed that any publicly available hacker spaces survived the first week.
I ran a hacker space in a school at my last employer. They never had a clue how much time and money went into the hacker space. When I left they asked if I wanted the stuff. They could not understand that two weeks after I left it was all broken, and had no value.
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#86It seems like most people have given up on the idea of community, sharing, and collective action, and prefer to take pills or other substances against the resulting depression/anxiety/loneliness. Many comments here confirm this attitude, where what they see in spaces is reduced to "shared access to tools". Nobody wants to put in the effort just to have the majority be leeches.
Speaking only for myself, it's very hard to find people who treat community, sharing, and collective action as things to engage with regularly rather than as a way to get access to tools for cheap. It can be exceptionally stressful and anxiety-inducing to manage shared resources under those conditions.
It should not be a surprise that some people prefer to not deal with the idea of hackerspace-as-community and seek their community elsewhere.
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#87What do you mean what happened? "Most are gone"? Do we live in different realities or just different places? Every major European city I visit has its own, or multiple, nice hackerspaces. Often smaller cities as well. Most/many of them are coming out of the pandemic more enthusiastically than before.
Yeah, I was very confused by this post.
Just the city I live in (Munich) has at least three community-oriented hackerspaces/makerspaces, and a bunch more 'open workshops' and commercial spots.
Here's a list of _just_ Chaos Computer Club chapters around Germany: https://www.ccc.de/de/club/erfas
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#88https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
The most sustainable models I've seen have these features:
- Access to the physical space is free for non-members only during restricted time periods
- A small monthly membership fee is required to access the space during other hours
- Mandatory training is required for any complex/expensive equipment (laser cutters, 3d printers, welding equipment)
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#89In Germany, they are alive and well with new hackerspaces being founded frequently. There was a pretty big slog due to the Corona restrictions, but it's slowly all coming back.
Re: Ask HN: What happened to hackerspaces?
#90I think the finances of hackerspaces were always very brittle and Covid killed a lot of them. https://hackerdojo.org/ https://makernexus.org/ https://sudoroom.org/ https://noisebridge.net/
Good to know that Noisebridge is still around. Hacker Dojo, as mentioned elsewhere, pivoted to something sort of like WeWork. $150/month. Mostly people slaving away at laptops, pre-COVID. Maker Nexus seems from their web site to be doing OK. Pre-COVID, they were mostly sewing and kids classes, but now they seem to have more heavy metal tools. $150/month. Humanmade, in SF, has government support, and is more oriented…
No. What killed tech shop is the owner of it took the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle, living out of hotels, causing the fees to be out of line with what was offered. It could have worked if the owner didn't want to live like a billionaire.