A tale of 2 Hackerspaces

In February I moved from Nottingham to Bristol. Though I will miss Nottingham Hackspace very much I am delighted that there is a Hackspace in Bristol. I visited them on Thursday 23rd February. They are located in Bedminster just close to the Asda and unwittingly I'd walked past their door about a year earlier without knowing it. It's just 15 minutes walk from my work and new home down by the harbour.

You can become a member from as little as £10 a month, though they say it's 24hr access you can not get keys without having to be approved by a particular member who *might* give you the keys *if* they feel it's right!?

The Hackspace itself is not large, but is well appointed and well equipped with an emphasis on electronics and test. There are a number of scopes, bench power supplies and the like. Additionally there is a band saw and a bench pillar drill. They have *A LOT* of junk taking up the shelving. Additionally they have a good amount of bench space and some table top space to work at a laptop or on a project.

The space is in a room shared with an artist and some architects who work there in the daytime. It has access to a kitchenette and a very remote toilet. There is WiFi for all (not just members) and they occasionally run workshops.

The natives seem friendly but isolated from the rest of the UK movement I think perhaps because they feel a closer kinship to the Dorkbot movement. They have recently re-elected their directors and this could be a time of great change and growth for Bristol Hackspace as myself and Barney (a director from Build Brighton) join the membership with perhaps a greater Hackerspace world view? Bristol is a vibrant city and I am looking forward to running some

workshops there.

On Wednesday 29th February I visited FizzPop for their show-and-tell which they have on the last Wednesday at the end of each month. I did a

talk on Nottingham Hackspace and how we got started and the Hackerspace movement in general. This started a debate about how to increase the membership of FizzPop which is the Birmingham Hackspace as well as how to go forward and get a space for themselves available 24 hours a day like that of Nottingham, London, Bristol and others.

In the last few weeks I've spoken to folk all over the country about Hackspaces and size. It's interesting to hear why some larger cities think they have smaller Hackspaces than other smaller cities. I've been amazed for instance by the amount of traffic and interest in the Reading Hackspace mailing list which has well over a 1000 posts and the list itself has more than 100 subscribers. It offers an interesting model in Hackerspace building and I will be watching them with interest!