Making a Makerspace Hack Chat

This week we will be discussing how to make your own makerspace from the ground up!

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Vaibhav Chhabra and Eric Michaud will be co-hosting the Hack Chat this week. This Hack Chat is at 9:30AM, Friday, February 16th. NOTE THE DIFFERENT TIME FROM USUAL

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Makerspaces are community hubs where people can come together to share resources and ideas to bring more of our creations to life. Makerspaces have been growing rapidly in number and popularity over the years, yet starting one can still seem like a daunting task. In this chat we have some weathered makerspace founders to bring you through the ropes and help you understand exactly what you need to bring your community hacking space to life.

Vaibhav Chhabra is a mechanical engineer by profession, and graduated from Boston University. They spent 2 years working at EyeNetra, building eye diagnostic devices. They are currently an instructor at the MIT REDX health care innovation lab, and founder of a collaborative maker space - Makers Asylum. They enjoy making furniture, machines and winning at ping pong full time.

Eric Michaud is a Hacker, Marathon runner, and an author. They currently do work with Rift Recon, Shellcon, and Hackerspaces.org. They have been involved with maker spaces for years, have written tutorials on Adafruit on how to make a makerspace, and have personally founded the PS:One and HacDC makerspaces.

In this chat, we'll discuss:

What does it take to open a makerspace?
How can you fund a makerspace?
Should your makerspace be a for-profit or non-profit?
What equipment is crucial for a makerspace?

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Making a Makerspace Hack Chat Transcript
Shayna • 02/16/2018 at 17:44 • 0 comments

Stephen : A big HELLO to @Vaibhav Chhabra and @Eric M!

Stephen : Could you both kick us off by telling us a bit about yourself and your makerspaces?

Eric M : Sure!

Vaibhav Chhabra :
Sure, Hey guys,

I am a mechanical engineer and photographer! I love to fly - Paragliding / diving. I studied at Boston University. Then worked at Eyenetra based out of MIT media labs. And eventually moved back to Mumbai in 2013.

Maker's Asylum our maker space here started in Nov 2013 in Mumbai pure out of an accident in the office of Eyenetra. When we called people to help repair the space with us and build some tables at the office.

The space use to be open only on sundays when eyenetra office was not in use. Eventually I met Anool and we setup a garage in a better part of the city. And now we have 2 centers. One in Mumbai and one in New Delhi:)

Vaibhav Chhabra : The space in Andheri and New Delhi were crowd funded and built by the community out here.

Vaibhav Chhabra : We run various programs, like the STEAM school and STEAM Fabrikarium that just ended last week

Stephen : Very cool! Those were such cool projects coming out of the STEAM Fabrikarium

Vaibhav Chhabra : Thank you @Stephen :)

Eric M :
Originally from New Jersey, went to school for CS but ended up with a Communications Arts degree......mainly because I never was able to stick with learning in the traditional teaching environments and just wanted to get out as fast as possible after a point.

I'm mostly self taught in any of the engineering disciplines I work in from manufacturing and programming. I've always sought out mentors wherever I’ve gone. I got my first job at Argonne National Laboratory in 2008 and was working in cyber and physical security. At that point already co-founded the lockport organization TOOOL.us in 2004. During 2008 I had begun founding HacDC with a number of other co-founders by flying to DC very regularly with friends I already had before making it to Chicago.

Daren Schwenke : that's a heck of a first job..

sfrias1 : Cool @Eric M :-)

Eric M : As HacDC started to take off I was really bummed that there wasn’t a Chicago hackerspace so I decided to put my time into getting that off the ground and finding like minded people. Fast forward today it’s now one of the biggest of the country. I haven’t been involved since 2010 after I moved out of Chicago.

Stephen : So cool, Eric!

Vaibhav Chhabra : That sounds Awesome Eric:) I relate to you in multiple points

Eric M : Thanks @Vaibhav Chhabra also I just started getting into photography. I'll have questions for you later. ;)

Stephen : So both of you have multiple physical spaces you've founded, which is awesome. That leads us to our first question:

Stephen : So you think you might want to make a hacker space... Where do you start?

Vaibhav Chhabra : @Stephen, we always started by bring people together for a project or a meet. The tools and the space follow.

Stephen : I like that idea @Vaibhav Chhabra , gathering people around a similar mission first, and letting the...
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Discussions

Jarrett wrote 02/16/2018 at 17:13

When is an employee a good idea, how what are some considerations?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jarrett wrote 02/16/2018 at 17:08

What are good ways to help keep makerspaces tidy, clean, and free of old useless junk?

Are you sure? yes | no

Linux HA wrote 02/16/2018 at 17:39

We've started with the 2 month rule (we are smaller and it don't kill us). What we do take in, if it sits for 2 months. Out it goes. If someone donates a junk pile we also ask they donate to the space (if they're not a member). We're trying not to be a recycling depot.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jarrett wrote 02/16/2018 at 17:08

Could you talk about conflict resolution techniques?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jarrett wrote 02/16/2018 at 17:10

Code of conduct?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jarrett wrote 02/16/2018 at 17:12

Warning systems / banning / some sort of disciplinary measures?

Are you sure? yes | no

Making a Makerspace Hack Chat

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