Makespace

From Makespace
Revision as of 13:31, 3 November 2010 by Laura (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search
Makespace Logo

What is Makespace?

Makespace is a community workshop in Cambridge, UK, for people to come and meet, learn and building (almost) anything.

It is currently being bootstrapped by its founders, and will be an industrial/warehouse building in the city, containing:

  • A FabLab including a 2D laser cutter, 3D printer, CNC Router, Soldering stations, etc
  • A meeting and training area including a projector, chairs, etc
  • Flexible access control and facilities
  • The surroundings to meet, work, build, socialise and do amazing things

And as a community resource, it'll bring together a network of enthusiasts and innovators, the prototyping industry, consultants, businesses and educational communities in a mutually beneficial way. It is aiming to reach people from all across the East of England, using Cambridge as the initial hub.

If this sounds interesting, you should join:

Current Status

Funding has been secured to help bootstrap Makespace, and a summary of the progress was presented at our Make-a-makespace event:

This means it is all going ahead, so get involved now to help create this thing!

At that event, a pledge form for potential founding members to commit £250 for 6 months membership was circulated. This was to help find a core group of people willing to commit to work on setting up makespace, and we had a great response. If after reading what we are up to, you think you'd be willing to get involved in setting this up at this early stage, you can still make your pledge online at:

Note: Not pledging will obviously not exclude you from Makespace once it is setup, but we think this is a good way to find people willing to commit now to help guide makespace as it is set up.

The current focus of the group is:

  • Finding and securing a space
  • Specifying and creating the legal structure
  • Specifying the principles and structure of the "society" that will run it
  • Looking for further sponsorship opportunities

Who should be involved?

The space will be great for individuals wanting to experiment, startups or companies wanting access to prototyping equipment, companies in the business who can come and do training and provide services beyond Makespace, and groups that want space to meet. Anyone who could benefit from a shared space focused on making things.

At its core will be a membership-based structure, and we'll include a few distinctions such as:

  • Individuals who want to support and make use the space, a bit like a gym (approximately £50/month)
  • Potential "residents" who could make use the space in a relatively full-time way (e.g a startup, consultant, ...)

Help make sure everyone who should know about Makespace knows about Makespace!

Any individual or company interested in Makespace should join our "Meetup" group, where we can organise meetings and share progress:

Please pass it on, and encourage people to sign up!

And it doesn't just have to be electronic; here are some extra resources to help you spread the word in the real world:

Please post them in offices, clubs, related shops, and anywhere you think will catch the eye of an interested person!

Mailing List

For any "maker" chat, and for discussions related to setting this up, there is a mailing list you can subscribe to:

For IRC you can use #makespace on Freenode

Founder Member Meetings

Sponsorship and Donations

If you're feeling generous, head over to DonationsWelcome, where we're tracking the things we need and the things people have that we might need.

Retrieved from "http://wiki.makespace.org/index.php?title=Makespace&oldid=34"