Norwich Hackspace - what's it all about?
There is a group of people who wanted to see a non-profit community-led hackspace established in Norwich run along the lines of successful hackspaces in London, Nottingham, Bristol - that is following these general principles:
Aims
- To be a community of like-minded people interested in making things
- To have a self-funded, community-run, not-for-profit shared physical workspace.
- To have shared equipment, tools, materials, skills, experience and support.
- To run activities and sessions where people can learn new things
- To do things and projects that cannot be done as an individual
- To have fun
Curious?
Some people love working out how things work, how to fix (and break) things and making things rather than just buying them of the shelf. These curious people normally have multiple projects they work on in their own time. A hackspace provides a physical workshop space where this can happen, a community of like-minded people who are willing to help others work on their projects and specialist equipment that individuals generally can’t afford on their own.
Where are we now?
Currently we have a regular member meeting at the Lion House, Muspole Street, Norwich. There is a variable group of members that meet regularly and several more who come when they can. Monday 7-9pm is our main session and members bring projects that they are interested in working on.
We have an Ultimaker 2 3D printer, a Wanhao D7 resin printer, a small home-built CNC router, a vinyl cutter and a Just Add Sharks Greyfin A2 laser-cutter. We are building up other kinds of equipment such as a lathe, bandsaw and other vital tools. We have an additional Metalspace which includes a forge and welding equipment.
We occasionally run learner sessions such as an Introduction to Arduino workshop which are popular, and an animation session. We welcome members who are willing to run learner sessions for others.
What are we doing next?
We have been in our premises for just over three years and we welcome new members to make best use of the space. A good number of members not only to enables us to pay the rent and collect vital funds for equipment and costs but helps us to build the community as a whole. We need people’s opinions on what they want and how they would like it to be run. The more members we have, the more member sessions we can resource and the more equipment we can buy. Sharing of resources, knowledge and skills is the basis of Norwich Hackspace.
How will we do this?
We are building a community of like-minded people through face-to-face meetups, project shares and workshops, and via an online Slack group which can communicate and discuss ideas and projects.
We invite people to become members by contributing to the group financially. Technically we are a ‘club’ which is the lightest form of governance. This may change in the future - decisions which we will discuss with the group as we go along. We have a group of members who make decisions and develop the group - anyone who is interested enough can get involved in these decisions.
We now have a good base of solid and committed group of members. We will get ourselves settled in to our new premises and then will be looking to expand our membership as we will have more space and more access as well as more costs. We will adapt our practices as we grow.
There are already many hack/makerspaces around the country who are willing to help and advise and we can learn from their experiences.
Management of a hackspace
To make a hackspace work well so that it is safe and pleasant to use as well as being able to accommodate a wide range of interests, it needs some management. From the experience of other hackspaces, it works best if the responsibility for management and maintenance is spread over its members and people take responsibility for their own safety and the space in general.
We have created a community where individuals take responsibility for the hackspace as a whole and everyone is involved in improving the space. To make decision-making viable, we have a small team of core members who are entrusted to listen to the members and makes decisions accordingly.
There are house rules which you agree to when you become a member. We aim to keep them to a minimum to ensure the safe running of the hackspace whilst allowing maximum freedom.
How the money works
A hackspace has costs - rent, bills, insurance, purchasing equipment etc. Some organisations have gone down the road of getting grants and other cultural funding to pay these costs. The downside to this method is that the people supplying the money normally want some say in how that money is spent, and they will usually only fund short-term. This means lots of applications and reporting and is not very unsustainable long term.
Instead, we have membership fees so that the members support the costs of the building and running costs for the Hackspace generally.
The building we are in is awaiting development in the next three years and we have a rolling lease. We want to use the time we have at Lion House to enable us to afford a new space when we have to move.
Very minimal costs to rent and run a cheap venue is around £10k a year. This could be covered by roughly 30 members paying £30 a month, or 60 members at £15. This monthly subscription model allows the space to grow with the strength of its members. Ultimately, if we can fund our own rented space, we will have a more sustainable hackspace with less worry. This is what we are working towards. Meanwhile, we are very grateful to have a brilliant home at Lion House thanks to our landlords Our Place/St George's Works who have been very generous to us to date.
Buying equipment through pledges
Pledges are similar to the way a kickstarter works. The monthly subs pay for the regular running costs of the hackspace but pledges pay for one-off equipment purchases. A member would create a pledge for a new bit of kit, say 3d printer costing £500 and once that target is reached (say 10 members might pledge £50) the printer would be bought and become owned by the hackspace for use by all members.
About hackspaces in general
In recent years, there has been a significant growth in community-run workspaces in the UK. They have various descriptions and names but all spring from the idea that people can do more if they share skills, equipment, knowledge and experience.
More and more people live in small or high-rise homes where they do not have access to a space to store equipment or ‘tinker’ with projects involving mess or space.
The development of tools such as 3D printers, CNC machines, routers and laser cutters has excited people’s curiosity about what they can make for themselves. Developments in programming, electronics and coding combined has offered new ways of making interesting things. And arguably, an increasing online and screen-based work life has given people the impetus to ‘get real’ in their out-of-work time, reflected in a rise of interest in baking, knitting, gardening, rearing livestock and getting back to some of the basic human instincts of making things for themselves.
Norwich Hackspace has joined a community of hackspaces across the country. They are called hackspaces because a ‘hack’ is the re-use or re-purposing of something to enable it to be used again. For example, making a go-cart out of a pram is a classic hack. It is about mending, fixing, reusing, creating and not just buying (though we do purchase a bit from China :-().
Hackspaces and Makerspaces are very similar. You could say a makerspace is somewhere that you make something from scratch from new or recycled materials. Often the terms are used interchangeably but we decided to plump for Hackspace.
To keep in touch with Norwich Hackspace events, activities and developments, please join the MeetUp group Norwich Hackspace/Makerspace http://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Hack-Makerspace-Meetup/events/199787122/. There are over 550 members already and it is free to join.
Full membership details are here
There is a group of people who wanted to see a non-profit community-led hackspace established in Norwich run along the lines of successful hackspaces in London, Nottingham, Bristol - that is following these general principles:
Aims
- To be a community of like-minded people interested in making things
- To have a self-funded, community-run, not-for-profit shared physical workspace.
- To have shared equipment, tools, materials, skills, experience and support.
- To run activities and sessions where people can learn new things
- To do things and projects that cannot be done as an individual
- To have fun
Curious?
Some people love working out how things work, how to fix (and break) things and making things rather than just buying them of the shelf. These curious people normally have multiple projects they work on in their own time. A hackspace provides a physical workshop space where this can happen, a community of like-minded people who are willing to help others work on their projects and specialist equipment that individuals generally can’t afford on their own.
Where are we now?
Currently we have a regular member meeting at the Lion House, Muspole Street, Norwich. There is a variable group of members that meet regularly and several more who come when they can. Monday 7-9pm is our main session and members bring projects that they are interested in working on.
We have an Ultimaker 2 3D printer, a Wanhao D7 resin printer, a small home-built CNC router, a vinyl cutter and a Just Add Sharks Greyfin A2 laser-cutter. We are building up other kinds of equipment such as a lathe, bandsaw and other vital tools. We have an additional Metalspace which includes a forge and welding equipment.
We occasionally run learner sessions such as an Introduction to Arduino workshop which are popular, and an animation session. We welcome members who are willing to run learner sessions for others.
What are we doing next?
We have been in our premises for just over three years and we welcome new members to make best use of the space. A good number of members not only to enables us to pay the rent and collect vital funds for equipment and costs but helps us to build the community as a whole. We need people’s opinions on what they want and how they would like it to be run. The more members we have, the more member sessions we can resource and the more equipment we can buy. Sharing of resources, knowledge and skills is the basis of Norwich Hackspace.
How will we do this?
We are building a community of like-minded people through face-to-face meetups, project shares and workshops, and via an online Slack group which can communicate and discuss ideas and projects.
We invite people to become members by contributing to the group financially. Technically we are a ‘club’ which is the lightest form of governance. This may change in the future - decisions which we will discuss with the group as we go along. We have a group of members who make decisions and develop the group - anyone who is interested enough can get involved in these decisions.
We now have a good base of solid and committed group of members. We will get ourselves settled in to our new premises and then will be looking to expand our membership as we will have more space and more access as well as more costs. We will adapt our practices as we grow.
There are already many hack/makerspaces around the country who are willing to help and advise and we can learn from their experiences.
Management of a hackspace
To make a hackspace work well so that it is safe and pleasant to use as well as being able to accommodate a wide range of interests, it needs some management. From the experience of other hackspaces, it works best if the responsibility for management and maintenance is spread over its members and people take responsibility for their own safety and the space in general.
We have created a community where individuals take responsibility for the hackspace as a whole and everyone is involved in improving the space. To make decision-making viable, we have a small team of core members who are entrusted to listen to the members and makes decisions accordingly.
There are house rules which you agree to when you become a member. We aim to keep them to a minimum to ensure the safe running of the hackspace whilst allowing maximum freedom.
How the money works
A hackspace has costs - rent, bills, insurance, purchasing equipment etc. Some organisations have gone down the road of getting grants and other cultural funding to pay these costs. The downside to this method is that the people supplying the money normally want some say in how that money is spent, and they will usually only fund short-term. This means lots of applications and reporting and is not very unsustainable long term.
Instead, we have membership fees so that the members support the costs of the building and running costs for the Hackspace generally.
The building we are in is awaiting development in the next three years and we have a rolling lease. We want to use the time we have at Lion House to enable us to afford a new space when we have to move.
Very minimal costs to rent and run a cheap venue is around £10k a year. This could be covered by roughly 30 members paying £30 a month, or 60 members at £15. This monthly subscription model allows the space to grow with the strength of its members. Ultimately, if we can fund our own rented space, we will have a more sustainable hackspace with less worry. This is what we are working towards. Meanwhile, we are very grateful to have a brilliant home at Lion House thanks to our landlords Our Place/St George's Works who have been very generous to us to date.
Buying equipment through pledges
Pledges are similar to the way a kickstarter works. The monthly subs pay for the regular running costs of the hackspace but pledges pay for one-off equipment purchases. A member would create a pledge for a new bit of kit, say 3d printer costing £500 and once that target is reached (say 10 members might pledge £50) the printer would be bought and become owned by the hackspace for use by all members.
About hackspaces in general
In recent years, there has been a significant growth in community-run workspaces in the UK. They have various descriptions and names but all spring from the idea that people can do more if they share skills, equipment, knowledge and experience.
More and more people live in small or high-rise homes where they do not have access to a space to store equipment or ‘tinker’ with projects involving mess or space.
The development of tools such as 3D printers, CNC machines, routers and laser cutters has excited people’s curiosity about what they can make for themselves. Developments in programming, electronics and coding combined has offered new ways of making interesting things. And arguably, an increasing online and screen-based work life has given people the impetus to ‘get real’ in their out-of-work time, reflected in a rise of interest in baking, knitting, gardening, rearing livestock and getting back to some of the basic human instincts of making things for themselves.
Norwich Hackspace has joined a community of hackspaces across the country. They are called hackspaces because a ‘hack’ is the re-use or re-purposing of something to enable it to be used again. For example, making a go-cart out of a pram is a classic hack. It is about mending, fixing, reusing, creating and not just buying (though we do purchase a bit from China :-().
Hackspaces and Makerspaces are very similar. You could say a makerspace is somewhere that you make something from scratch from new or recycled materials. Often the terms are used interchangeably but we decided to plump for Hackspace.
To keep in touch with Norwich Hackspace events, activities and developments, please join the MeetUp group Norwich Hackspace/Makerspace http://www.meetup.com/Norwich-Hack-Makerspace-Meetup/events/199787122/. There are over 550 members already and it is free to join.
Full membership details are here