Hi Lisi, On Sun, Sep 09, 2012 at 04:03:54PM +0100, hants...@googlemail.com wrote: > I protested because Benjie seemed to me to be aiming at poaching > members from another fledgeling group.
I don't find the time to attend hacker spaces very often¹, mostly
because I'm not really into making physical things and I'm an
inconvenient distance from all of them. I do find them very
interesting projects though so I do follow the fortunes of many of
them, including the established London and Reading ones, and the
Surrey/Hampshire effort.
Something I have noticed is the recurrent theme of new groups and
projects starting up near to more established ones and this causing
some people to be concerned about draining of interest from "their"
project to the newer one. I have seen this happen at all of the
hacker space projects I follow, sometimes more than once.
<opinion>
I don't think it is anything to be concerned about in practice.
Here's why.
Hacker/maker spaces are still a pretty fringe interest. The number
of people interested in such things is very small in any given
geographical region. I suggest this means that all persons
interested in such projects will find out about all local examples
and attend all of them that they reasonably can. They then stick
with whichever project best fits their needs.
There is very little risk of people becoming aware of Project A and
then somehow remaining unaware of similar local Project B.
Hackspaces are quite social and people talk about things that are
going on. In actual fact I suggest it *helps* to raise awareness for
both projects and "poaching" of members is impossible.
I do agree that it is probably inadvisable for two fledgling hacker
spaces to try to start up close to each other, because the chances
are that neither of them will get enough income to actually get a
permanent space. The answer there is for them to merge into one
project.
This is obvious though, and I've not seen it happen in practice that
two startup groups persist in being geographically close to the
detriment of each other. It's so hard to afford a permanent space
that people give up and join the larger effort if it's at all
feasible for them.It works itself out to the goal of having a hacker
space in the vicinity, it's just that it might not end up being
"your" hacker space.
In the specific case of Southampton and the proposed SHH locations,
they're actually really quite far apart anyway. If you look at
Dominic's analysis of the mid-point of existing SHH members:
http://is.gd/pPBXw2 (the green 'M')
you can see it's really a fair distance from Southampton. There's
only two or three persons near Southampton. Without them, the
mid-point would be even further away. It wouldn't be sensible to
merge those projects. You would have to agree that existence of both
is justified in terms of geography.
So in summary:
IF the locations are close enough together that hackers and
makers in Hampshire could attend both, then very quickly they
will all find out about both and one project will become the
clear success, leaving the other to join it or founder. If the
area was ever going to end up with a hacker space, it does end
up with a hacker space.
IF the locations are far enough apart that their independent
existences are justified, this is a non-issue. If either place
was ever going to get a hack space, it ends up getting a hacker
space.
Either way it is a non-issue for the projects concerned, in my
opinion.
Now, on an *individual* basis, it's going to be unfortunate if your
local and personally convenient hacker space project fails to gain
traction because some other project started up and people liked that
one more. This is an individual concern though. To satisfy such an
individual need, it's asking that the other people who prefer the
other project have their individual needs sacrificed in favour of
yours.
It is an understandable thing to feel personally aggrieved over
something like that, but there is no justification for bringing "the
project" into it. Ultimately it would be better if the energy were
spent in trying to make your own local effort better so that it
attracts more people, as opposed to spending it trying to tell other
people that their desires are wrong. Chances are that since human
interaction is exponential, the buzz generated from the other
project will actually help raise awareness also in people who are
better placed for your own project.
</opinion>
As regards the individual projects of Southampton and SHH, I
personally am too far from either of them, living on the
Surrey/Middlesex border as I do, so have no personal stake in
either.
Cheers,
Andy
¹ I'm a paid up member of London Hackspace but have been to it twice
in 2012 so far, for example.
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