bilalghalib

I love this question and probably will love you.

Since 2009 I've been helping people set up hackerspaces around the world and visited more than a hundred. I //know// what you're talking about. The hope and optimism of the transformation of capitalistic culture into one of creativity, connection and support that comes with growth of these community spaces around the world. It's interesting to see that in 2009 we saw the start of a fast paced growth of hackerspaces internationally which isn't slowing down. There's a reason it happened in the wake of the economic collapse in 2008. I myself just graduating college and not looking forward to trying to get a job, instead I started a makerspace and then a business. Then in 2011 after the arab spring I started GEMSI.org initiative to share this value system with the middle east. Fundamentally the support we can offer each other inspired me more than transformation from the top down. This rearchitecting and redirecting of our efforts away from individualistic capitalism into an off-lining of the open source sharing value system is struggling with a lot of the cultural elements that define success today. Getting series A funding or being the "first" to do something. The IOTification of much of the fun creative fun projects you might have seen for the last 5 years in hackerspaces around the world is one way you can catch the drift of the culture.

Now I have no problem with business. In fact GEMSI stands for the Global Entrepreneurship and Maker Space initiative. I recognize that there are needs and economies work. But the values I was excited to share is the vision that we together create the world around us, the responsibility and engagement of entrepreneurship. But after years of sharing "how" we do things using open source tools, sharing community spaces internationally, I recognize that there is too much tool centrism. The language and frame with which we've been attracting people, 3D printing, hackerspaces, open source tools have attracted more attention on the //things// happening. Not the philosophy of support, sharing and openness.

Initially I thought that when we bring hackerspaces to places with challenges we'd see projects coming up that address those that would return to the west and inform how people see how we use those spaces. That happened, but it wasn't the norm. Often we see spaces cloning the image of success (fire breathing dragons) in hackerspaces from the western world. Since this is a cultural issue and to not be prescriptive I've started sharing philosophies and frameworks within the global maker community world.

So basically no, I can't assure you. But I can promise to you that these questions are high on my list of priorities. One of the ways I'm attempting to change the conversation about what we do in makerspaces is starting the DIYSustainability effort. It's not mine, I've only started to propose a set of principals that can transform the workshops/actions we take in hackerspaces that will direct our efforts into connecting to issues of sustainability. http://www.diysustainability.org/principles-to-explore-for-a-global-diy-sustainability/ The workshop and the videos we produced are ways we're trying to share stories and practices other spaces can reproduce.

It's a tough and hairy question which requires people like you asking this question often. Being critical about if we're actually doing what we're setting out to do and being honest about it.

There is so much possibility. People are getting in touch with their creativity. My main perspective is that if we focus on the community aspect, learn to work across difference, build close relationships we will start to see a transformation of what happens in these spaces.

Recently I returned to Lebanon's hackerspace Lamba Labs. https://www.facebook.com/lambalabs and I was really moved to see something. The space has been closed for a year, all the tools went into storage and you might have called it a "failure". Sadly one of our most active members Raja developed cancer and died. This is his video describing the importance of care in the community space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6caqvenGUx0 I was hoping to visit him before, but I missed him. I did arrive to see the community get together, visiting his mother helping fill the house and bringing her some comfort. It made me cry. I realized that the thing these hackerspaces build that's indestructible are relationships. The hackerspace crew is now reforming in the wake of his death inspired by his life. That to me is a beautiful story worth sharing with the rest of the maker world.

I'll be giving some talks at republica about a concept I call "singing with the universe". Simply the idea to realize the beauty of our collective actions we must look within and see what we have to offer, look outside to see where we're being called - feel how we're motivated to act - and then do.

Sorry for the longwinded response. I hope I've answered some of your questions, sorry to respond with questions myself. Let me know if I missed anything.

Stay wonderful!

First of all I don't view women as conquests. I really value my relationships and find that people all over the world are creative and inspiring. Also... I can't afford beds, I sleep on couches.

Small scale home based 3D printers are often used to excite people into joining a makerspace, impress potential partners, and create plastic waste. You're absolutely right in questioning what people can do with this empowering technology. I will point to my other answer and suggest that there's a strong educational element that is needed, if people can't design they will simply scan and print or print files they found online. There are some simple and interesting things that you can print, like a lens cap for your camera https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:619943 but really things make best advantage of this machine when you're designing things that fit directly into your life. Prototyping isn't really a home activity yet like scrapbooking or making a lasagna just the way you like from scratch. But people love lasagna and will learn the tools and processes to get creative in making food. Maybe it's a bit hopeful, but perhaps we can get that way with our consumer products too - and in this vein open source hardware in general is an important aspect.

Another frame is that that question you've asked is precisely the reason why we started the DIYsustainability.org concept. We are seeing the great potential of these tools and creative capacity that people are reclaiming through the rise of makerspaces in schools. The whitehouse maker faire is just a high level (and kinda late) nod to what's already happening all across the country and the world. But the maker faire isn't a science faire. There isn't a clear guide that can help steer what we make. I believe there are so many reasons to make for fun, to learn, to connect with people, and to explore the amazing world we're in. The DIYSustainability tries to take all that and direct the creative outputs towards creating a more sustainable world for us all. Enough plastic trinkets, let's start making sense, beautiful, fun, connective sense!

Disrupting some words is a hilarious idea. Xho trammery glew mosa underlucked, yet ratun toz threeza. :D

I agree that these words can be exclusive, I sprinkle collaborative creative spaces, maker spaces, hackerspaces, community spaces around. If I keep talking and using all these words I think the drift will be caught be a wide variety of people.

The big thing I'm grappling with about is the benefit of calling it the same thing globally to help people find each other. VS the importance of having a local language like arabic to keep it real to the space it is emerging from.

Anyone?

It does! But you'll probably get more interesting answers if you ask questions that push us to think and share about the worlds we're steeped in ;D!