[Swansea Hackspace] possible assistance

[Edwin Beggs]

Hi folks, apologies for being late. :)

There may be assistance in setting hackspace up, with costs and  
benefits. I am talking the Universitiy (s?), local industry, other  
clubs, and maybe the council. The University has a third mission  
responsibility, which means local society and economy. As I refer to  
below, I have not got the time to get very involved with the project.  
What I set out below are no more than possibilities to be considered.  
As I have not had time to read the lists, I may repeat what others  
have said - apologies.

1) Local industry - we all want Swansea to have a better employment  
record, including high tech. Allowing local industry to become  
involved on a problem solving basis, and under ground rules set down  
by the hackspace, would be of benefit to both. I am NOT talking about  
managerial involvement - that has no place in the hackspace, there are  
enough other places for that already. If industry technical staff want  
to contribute, or look for expertise or protoyping etc that might be a  
different matter. Besides, industry has money to give for assistance  
if any arrangements were to be formalised.

2) The University can supply various resources, including 3D printing  
on good machines, at more or less cost price. This would help the  
hackspace get set up. It can possibly provide meeting rooms for talks  
etc, but permanent storage is much less likely. But someone else in  
the city might be able to provide subsidised accommodation. This is  
NOT any form of takeover - the hackspace needs its own structure for  
legal reasons - it would be free to walk away from any help, and  
besides nobody in the University has enough time to take anything  
over. :)

3) There are other clubs and societies (student and town) that might  
be affiliated to the hackspace, giving manpower or trading resources.

4) To get the message over to the public, you might have public  
meetings. Rooms for these are likely to be quite cheap. You can have  
people who come to the talks, listen and drink coffee. Some may go on  
to be more involved, some may just come to the talks. You get lots of  
publicity, and a continuing public face for contact purposes. You  
could charge a small fee to come to the talks, after the first couple.  
You may find people with ideas, but who never had the contacts with  
technical expertise to make them happen. Coffee, tea and biscuits are  
what make the world go round. Outside organisations might fund some  
speakers to kick things off.

           Edwin