Why a Makerspace? Why Now?

Makerspaces are beautiful things, but there just aren't enough of them! Where do makerspaces fit in the future society? How do we make more of them?

The problem

As work continues to transition to an information economy we see the rise of entrepreneurship as a career path. Why? Because the search space of the information economy is much larger than that of the physical world. There are countless new ways to provide value to the world we can’t find them all. The internet has fundamentally changed commerce and with it, careers.

So how come you can’t get a degree in entrepreneurship? Because it is something that can’t be taught like a traditional skill. You can’t sit in a classroom for 7 hours a day and become a great entrepreneur. You need to be actively trying to solve a problem, either for yourself or someone else. You need to be trying new things and always be running experiments. Which new things and what experiments? No one knows but the person working on it. That is the dilemma of the information economy. You need the information to act, and that information is unique to the situation. That is the only way to provide new value. If someone could tell you what experiments to try, they must already know the answer. If they know the answer, it has been done before. If it was valuable, then there is already a business providing that value to the economy. The design space for an information product is seemingly infinite. Whereas, you can only arrange the physical world in a finite number of ways. If you are solving a new information problem with a physical component, chances are you also found a new configuration of the physical world that hasn’t existed before.

So why a makerspace?

Makerspaces are a fascinating arrangement of atoms. At the highest potential, they can be a full stack factory for creating ANY new configuration of both information and physical components. They can have equipment for manufacturing, inventory of components, high-end software, area to work, and most importantly, a network of people to connect with.

Makerspaces are the environment entrepreneurs are born in. Even if you are not yet an entrepreneur, this is still a great place to learn about things that exist in the world (machines, processes, technologies, skills, etc.).

Makerspaces are hard

A shared space with tools galore is ideal for individuals. But for anyone who has run a business, it probably sounds like an absolute nightmare to manage. We are combining manufacturing (capital intensive, small margin), with retail (component inventory, a decent margin for convenience), with renting space (the building isn’t going to pay itself). You now have several different types of inventory to track (and stock). Equipment has hours that need to be utilized; the material has sizes and types to organize, components have to be labeled and organized. All of these things need to be tracked, updated, and restocked. Unlike a specific business, you provide the most value when you have the most amount (types) of inventory on hand. Since a makerspace doesn’t make a single product it cannot be efficient. If it were efficient in a traditional sense, it would be a terrible makerspace.

Making things easy(er)

Sometimes you can’t solve hard problems, but you can make them fit into a system that makes them much simpler to handle. Breaking a large problem down into its smallest pieces is always the best way to problem solve. In the end, you still do the hard thing, but in bite-sized chunks.

Since a makerspace can be so many things, the organizational costs are so high it limits their potential. As any system gets larger, the true costs start to emerge. When things are small, getting a couple of volunteer helpers fixes almost all the problems. The trick is doing that when you go 10x. Find 20 free helpers? No way. How about one full time paid position? Still too broad of a range for one person to easily manage ('jack of all trades' are always in high demand).

If many hands make light work, then we only need to find a way to lower the organizational costs of having to orchestrate that. We envision a tasking system to help define and accomplish goals. It would be like an advanced To-Do list, but have much more depth. You could use the system to not only run the space but create many other great things. You could link tasks in a hierarchy to create a project, projects to create products, and products to create a business. For a member looking to help out, they can search by skills required and pick a task that fits into a project or product they believe in. Context can help give design hints without needing to be as explicit and thus improve the quality of the finished product with less input effort.

By opening up the task system to all members, it is much easier for someone to ask for help. It may require more initial effort to build out your idea in a series of tasks, but the payback for reducing the friction of collaboration can quickly outweigh the starting costs. Add a little reward to the completion of tasks (or series of tasks), and you have built a marketplace of ideas and a way to create something while paying others for their effort.

The key is having access to all the tools to accomplish any task that might be posted. A task requiring a machine that the makerspace does not posses will never be done. Your system becomes an equilibrium between the capital available to build out the makerspace (tools, inventory) and the amount of commerce that will take place in the system. Trade grows when more individuals are involved, and so community involvement is the primary driver of the size of this sort of makerspace.

Having a significant amount of problems needing to be solved is ideal for a freelancer. It gives them so much insight to what the market demands. On the flip side, if you are still learning (a high schooler, or just new to the maker movement) these tasks help you see what skills are in demand in your area and can help narrow focus on what to learn. It can also give you a framework on what is involved in building a product. It might give some real signal to all the noise.

How to start a makerspace?

Like running a makerspace, starting one can also be difficult. We feel a special funding site can aid in making the creation process easier.

How this would differ from something like Kickstarter, is that we would require more than just money to be donated. Local manufacturers would donate equipment and tools. Another form of “funding” would be donating so many hours to the space (i.e., volunteer help). Local experts or teachers could donate a chance to teach a hands-on class for so many hours a month. There would also be a section for funding the building. The funding goal for the physical location would most likely be where a local government or economic development fund could find a building or individually sponsor so much of the lease.

Because you need some of all of these (and all of some) the requirements would be set before the campaign started. By fundraising by kind of funds, you ensure you wouldn’t end up with all volunteer help and no money or vice versa (or neither if the community isn't all that interested in a makerspace). Because of the local nature of this, it should be easy to setup a meeting for the community to discuss what the requirements everyone would need for the space to be valued (used). Due to the grassroots style, this avoids waste and promotes a much higher long-term success rate.

Conclusion

By lowering the friction (and cost) to both starting and operating a makerspace, we hope to one day be able to sustain a makerspace in even small rural towns with a limited population. We feel that as time goes on, makerspaces can eventually replace hardware stores and small manufacturing shops in an area. They will be a new breed of ‘stores.' You can buy raw materials, build your products, purchase a completed product made by someone else in your area, or commission someone to build whatever it is you may need. Instead of a local farmer market, you would have a local maker market.