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I 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/
Noisebridge came pretty close to going under too. At one point the landlord was asking for an increase in rent to something like 20k/mo before backing down.
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America is a third-world country in multiple ways. It's just most Americans don't have passports and don't know how bad we have it.
I believe most eligible U.S. adults have a passport. High-50s-percent.
https://www.americancommunities.org/who-owns-a-passport-in-a....
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Do you live in the wealthiest city in America? I've been to 11 libraries and absolutely none of them have anything on that list.
Not the commenter but my library is similar. I live in a suburb of Indianapolis that is quite well off for the area, though very low cost of living in comparison to many metro areas across the country. We also have a city funded makerspace more aimed at trades that offers home improvement seminars, a woodshop, etc.
That's my limited anecdotal experience, noticing there's also been libraries that might've initially offered 3d printing then stopped (possibly due to abuse, maintenance burden, staff changes, etc.)
St. Louis: https://archreactor.org/
Pittsburgh: https://hackpgh.org/
Boston (albeit bummed they left their Somverville location): https://www.artisansasylum.com/
Many undergraduate-focused higher ed institutions have copied the makerspace/hackerspace model, primarily as an amenity for students. These are, in some cases, clopen to the public (sic). Public libraries have also copied the model.
Reviewing the data, AFAICT:
1. The hackerspace-as-business model largely didn't work.
2. The community-run 501(c)3 model remains viable in mid-sized cities.
3. Organizations like hacker spaces have a really hard time of it in larger cities, mostly because of rent.
4. In places that are too rural or too expensive to support hackerspaces, other institutions often provide partial solutions which are not hackerspaces per se but offer similar amenities.
Given that the primary barrier seems to be real estate, I am honestly mildly surprised that major donor hasn't tried to seed a legacy by copying the Carnegie Library formula but for hackerspaces. Seems like a much better legacy-building project than adding an extra half bajillion to a university endowment or starting yet another charter school experiment.
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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…
Hacker Dojo recently fired its executive director and has been running mostly rudderless in terms of the management of the social space for several months. They're been looking to hire a community manager. Unfortunately Hacker Dojo daytime attendance nowadays is quite low, so they're not really attracting people as a WeWork space. I wonder how they're going to pick it back up.
Tech shop tried this coworking model on a makerspace, and we known how it turned out. While it had some internal problems (from what I’m aware), it was never going to be sustainable because, at the prices they were charging, those who could afford it could usually afford some sort of desktop version of what they used tech shop for, except for maybe the water jet and plasma cutters. It was a self service machine shop that required you to invest your time in training to be able to even utilize, and no real community experience to speak of. It became a lot of people doing professional work, a few hours of machine time each per week, and they would go home.
But all this is to say that a makerspace (nor a coworking space for that matter) is a hackerspace automatically, that titled is earned. The point at which a shared space like this becomes a hackerspace is the point where it becomes “cool”, where the community has reached critical mass, events and meetups can happen periodically, and it becomes a hub for the community.
Most hackerspaces that went under recently will have claimed it was because the pandemic and lockdowns, but those events were merely the catalyst to their demise. A lot of people in this thread posit that the community is nice or at least important, I disagree.
The hackerspace is the community.
Hackerspaces that could not keep up with rapid community attrition during the pandemic post-lockdown were left them resource-constrained, unable to keep up with financial commitments. Most in this position chose to close. The community (more specifically the community members’ network) provides the stability as nearly all opportunities, grants, donations, and other contributions originate from people who built or are active participants in the community. An actively shrinking community effectively lobotomizes the hackerspace, leaving nothing more than an empty shell.
Coworking spaces are for those who want to play office (WeWork, HackerDojo)
Makerspaces are glorified tool shares (TechShop)
A true hackerspace is a community space for those who are curious, creative, and passionate about doing things just because they think it’s interesting or cool.
Fads come and go. Too many people just wanted to create an elitism to lord over others or consume a movement than do anything productive, creative, and interesting as few did. I left for good when I discovered they promised to give to charity and gave nothing. Cheap, privileged, selfish, clueless, trash people.
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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.