My Dad Asks HN: Should I Build A Hackerspace?

We just went through a lot of these questions ourself while founding Baltimore Node (<a href="http://www.baltimorenode.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.baltimorenode.org</a>) which is now a small hackerspace in Baltimore.<p>From what I am hearing from you I think what you want to do is three fold: (1) have a workshop for people to work in, (2) have a coworking facility (office space) and (3) to have a hackerspace.<p>The first one requires space and expensive tools.<p>The second requires a comfortable office space to work in.<p>The third requires a solid community that perceives the value of sharing ideas and having a place exclusively for workshops.<p>I'm not going to say that serving all three goals is not possible but as we explored them we found that without a donation of space and/or serious capital investment the first two would be somewhat difficult.<p>We opted to go with the third option and stick to it (some tools in the space though) and we are now profitable with 19 members at a $50 a month membership fee. I think the real benefit to a hackerspace is being part of a community that is about encouragment, sharing and doing.<p>It's been a blast so far and I am really glad to be part of this crew, I strongly recommend if anything that you try to establish a simple non-profit hackerspace to encourage general hackery.<p>Also, not sure why this hasn't come up yet, <a href="http://hackerspaces.org" rel="nofollow">http://hackerspaces.org</a>

&#62; The idea would be that the tenants of the building would be hardware startups who would use the space during the day, and it would be open for hacking and workshops by night.<p>So you're going to look for startups where all the employees leave by 5pm?<p>...and you're further going to tell them that their space is not secure, and anything that they leave out on a desk will be seen by hundreds of strangers?<p>That sounds really...suboptimal.

VHS has been around for a year, and bootstrapped ourselves into our 45W space. Our goal is to get into a bigger space in 6-12 months, as resources allow.<p>We've talked a lot over the past year about our future, our relation to other similar ventures like Hacker Dojo, Workspace, ..., and where our values lie. We're always looking for more people passionate about hacker spaces and growing our community.<p>We really agree that top notch tutorials and courses are key, and we've just started scheduling regular kit nights, featuring projects like a laser spirograph, tv-b-gone and minty boosts. We also try to do hardware hacking every tuesday night, and software nights every thursday. I also use VHS's facilities to organize a Super Happy Hacker House every ~6 weeks.<p>If you haven't already, you should check out the hacker spaces design patters PDF, it has lots of tips for building a great hackerspace.<p>VHS has a public night tonight - feel free to drop by and check out what we offer. Tonight is a triage/cleanup night where we're going to go through our vast donations and tidy the place up.<p><a href="http://hackspace.ca" rel="nofollow">http://hackspace.ca</a>

I am not sure will this be useful. But if you are interested in making a hardware hacker space, The FabLab is a good reference point. They have listing of the basic equipments. You probably can find the community of the FabLab(<a href="http://fab.cba.mit.edu/" rel="nofollow">http://fab.cba.mit.edu/</a>).<p>How to make the community self sustaining is a big question. My opinion is in the long run the hackerspace has to be profitable for its operation. At the other hand, everyone likes to take advantage of low cost/free resources without accountability. So how to design a system to encourage those startups to grow and be profitable, taking accountability and give it back to others, in order to create a positive feedback loop is really important.<p>I think the system can't not be centrally planning ahead, so you'd better to be keen on community in the long run.

I think you should probably contact #VHS to see if they are interested, what they have learned (they are currently running and in the black), and to gauge interest.<p><a href="http://vancouver.hackspace.ca/doku.php" rel="nofollow">http://vancouver.hackspace.ca/doku.php</a><p>In short, there seems to be plenty of interest, but other projects like Workspace have failed by over-reaching their targets.

I would say it's not a good business decision, even though it sounds cool. Just like internet cafes, I just can't see there being enough paying customers to make it worth it.

It's a great idea in theory, but I don't think that the execution would go too well. IMHO, startup founders and hackerspace users have much different requirements for the space. If I'm working on a startup, I'd be coming to the space when I need to <i>get work done</i>, first and foremost.<p>That's very different from the hackerspace environment, which is largely a <i>project space</i>. You don't know what will be worked on there or when; it might just be guys hacking code, maybe a little soldering, but maybe not. Someone might start up a robotics project; now you'll have welding / metalwork noise going on. To get an idea of how widely hackerspace projects can range, check out our project list: <a href="http://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/project-list" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/project-list</a>.<p>The only way I could see this working is if you <i>severely</i> limit the type of activities that can be done in the hackerspace. But if you do this, I'm not sure you'd get enough support for it to be sustainable.<p>EDIT: missed the fact that this is for <i>hardware</i> startups. In that case, I could see this working if the startups / hackers have separate workspaces as well. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about separate hours.

Sounds impractical from the standpoint of making your money back. Also the idea of having an equipment free-for-all is terrible. Equipment can only be used by one person/team/company at a time, so you need to make sure there's a reasonable economy to allocate the resources fairly according to supply/demand. You could maybe set it up so that the equipment is rented at some rates, but all tenants get a certain amount of free equipment rental per month.

There aren't a lot of hardware startups in Vancouver. I would argue that there are many less hardware startups in general.<p>TechShop has actually come up to Vancouver and given a presentation to the VanTec angels. Working on expanding an existing business might be a lot easier.<p>The Bootup Entrepreneurial Society (<a href="http://bootup.ca" rel="nofollow">http://bootup.ca</a>) of which I am on the board, would likely be interested in supporting this. If your dad wants to buy us a building, we'll run it :P

Its def an idea I have been playing with as well, but have no financial backing yet.<p>Expenses could be paid in a variety of ways. 1. Membership dues. 2. Promissory notes. That if you did make it big or make a profit a percent or cut of that would go back to the hackerspace. 3. Adverts on the equipment used.<p>I think the biggest thing was the notes to pay back a certain percentage... So you would def need some capital to make some profit on this one tho.

Here's an article from Entrepreneur magazine this month that talks about people who are successfully doing it. <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/october/203414.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2009/octob...</a><p>It would be hard to imagine being profitable (or sustainable) just focusing on hardware. It can sustain itself if you broaden your audience.

Sounds like <a href="http://techshop.ws/" rel="nofollow">http://techshop.ws/</a> or <a href="http://portlandtechshop.com/" rel="nofollow">http://portlandtechshop.com/</a><p>Both sites have a breakdown of what they have on site, and you could get an idea of the pricing. It may also be a good idea to get in touch with the people who own/run it to get their take on the business side.

Assuming that some hackers were using "Workspace" in Vancouver, you should know that it closed in August for lack of business. "The Network Hub", however, seems to be alive and well. I think it's an interesting idea, but I also think lots of research needs to be done - especially finding out how hardware startups like to work. How do we contact you?

If I was still in Vancouver, I know I’d be there for sure!<p>While you’re researching, check out Montreal’s Foulab: <a href="http://www.foulab.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.foulab.org/</a> <a href="http://makekw.org/montreals-foulab-featured-documentary-short" rel="nofollow">http://makekw.org/montreals-foulab-featured-documentary-shor...</a>

In adding to contacting VHS (dedicated Vancouver hackspace), as suggested by Rantenki, I've heard that Bootup Labs (Boris Mann and co.) are looking for funding for a startup/coworking space (to substitute for the now defunct Workspace). Maybe you can join forces.

Since hardware hacking is in some ways similar to making (and practicing) music, perhaps the shared band spaces where many bands group together to share practice space, equipment and recording studios would be a good model to start from.

I'd look to see where built in audiences exist. Are their any congruent groups in the area that you could associate with? Then you have speakers, experts possibly built in.<p>Anything to get you starting higher than the ground floor would be ideal