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Establishing a Dallas Maker Space

January 2010, by Ed Paradis and Steve Rainwater

Sponsors and donations

Hackerspace startup goal: $6,000

DPRG contribution towards startup cost: $1000
Donations received to offset startup costs: $1835

$25 - 2 Feb 2010
$50 - 3 Feb 2010
$50 - 4 Feb 2010
$100 - 14 Feb 2010
$100 - 19 Feb 2010
$100 - 19 Feb 2010
$100 - 19 Feb 2010
$100 - 21 Feb 2010
$10 - 21 Feb 2010
$1000 - 24 Feb 2010
$100 - 12 Mar 2010
$100 - 16 Mar 2010

We're asking for a one-time $100 donation from anyone who plans to become a member. This will help us meet startup costs as well as better gauge who's really serious.

And, of course, we need all the donations we can get from anyone willing to help out. Every little bit helps, even a $5 or $10 donation. So if you think this is a good idea, please help us achieve it by making a donation!

Introduction

The DPRG had access to a warehouse in Garland for seven years, from 2002 through 2009 thanks to Mike Dodson, who allowed us to use one of his warehouse buildings and patiently put up with all our geeky shenanigans for almost a decade. In 2009, Mike retired and the building we were in changed hands, so we lost our long time home. After looking at several option for finding a new and permanent space for robot building, we settled on the idea of creating a hackerspace (aka makerspace, a shared, community workshop). This idea has been used by groups in the US and other parts of the world with great success so it seemed likely we should be able to do it too.

The theory is that you get a number of people together who are willing to pay a monthly membership fee in order to obtain 24/7 access to a shared workshop. The members also share in maintenance and renovation work. The membership fees are used to cover the costs of the space and to buy new tools and equipment. If you ever visited our old workspace in Garland, you have an idea already of what we're talking about. You can see some photos of our old space in the DPRG Warehouse photo gallery.

We created this page to serve as a record of our progress on "project maker space" and we'll update the page as there are new developments. If you're interested in joining us in the planning or just want to read more, we'll provide some links at the end of this page.

Most important of all, please take a look at "how you can help" section at the bottom of the page. For this idea to succeed and grow, we need everyone's help.

Getting Started

Ed started by looking at existing hackerspaces. Many have extensive documentation on their structure and funding schemes. He also contacted several of the hackerspaces, sending a list of questions concerning their membership structure, their business models, the problems they ran into and the solutions they found. So far, he has corresponded with these groups:

Other hackerspace groups were studied in less detail. Many of those can be found on the hackerspaces.org Hackerspace List

Steve began by collecting ideas for a list of desired qualities the new space should have. In part these were based on the DPRG's experience with the previous location and in part on suggestions provided by members and other hackerspaces. Like the classic "good - fast - cheap" triangle, it's unlikely any space could meet all these specifications, so we'll have to trade off for the best combination we can find. Some of the ideal qualities for a Dallas Hackerspace are:

In Dallas County
Area that's reasonable safe after dark
Near major North-South and East-West highways
Within walking distance of a DART rail station
Area where Verizon FIOS or other highspeed internet is available
Area zoned for use of noisy tools such as welding equipment and saws
Rooms suitable for meetings, lectures, and classes
Warehouse-like work area for larger power tools
Garage doors and area suitable for working on vehicle inside
Smaller, private meeting rooms
Two restrooms (men, women)
Kitchen and social areas
Heating and cooling
Sufficient parking
220V and/or 480V power for large tools and welders

Resources We'd Like to Offer

The next step was thinking about what sort of things we'd like to have available in the ideal hackerspace. Like our list of ideal qualities, the list at this point is just a wish list of everything we think local hackers might possibly enjoy playing with. Ideas suggested so far include:

CNC Plasma cutter
CNC Laser cutter
CNC milling machine
CNC wood routing system
Drill press
Sheet metal brake
Metal lathe
Electronic test station (e.g., scopes, meters)
gas welding equipment
arc welding equipment
MIG welding equipment
TIG welding equipment
Highspeed Internet with dedicated hosting rack
Film processing/darkroom
Photography studio area
Hot air SMT rework station
Radio tower for Ham, repeater gear
Injection molding station
Vacuforming station
Audio/Video recording area
Kiln, ceramic working tools
Automotive bay with tools
Hydroponics experimentation room
Painting room, painting or powder coating hardware

Note: we're intentionally leaving out hardware related to crafts and fashion (e.g. industrial sewing equipment, fabric silkscreening equipment) since those are already covered by our friends at the Dallas Make Shop in the Bishop Arts District. We hope to work together with the Dallas Make Shop and other local community workshops to avoid unnecessary overlap and cooperate when possible on larger scale projects.

Funding Model

In general terms, the funding of hackerspaces is fairly well understood. The space itself has associated monthly expenses (e.g. rent, insurance, net access, expendables, utilities, etc.) and there are expenses associated with the acquisition of new tools and equipment. Income is generated from membership fees, grants, and donations. The size of the income determines the size and growth rate of the hackerspace. Within that general framework are lots of minor variations and an exact model hasn't been determined for the DPRG hackerspace yet.

The Search for Space

One of the first steps in our process is searching for space. See the section below, "How You Can Help" to find out how to help us find our space. So far, we are talking to everyone we know about the idea and asking them to talk to everyone they know. In additional general networking, we are also contacting local real estate professionals and representatives of the local Dallas non-profit community. Some of us are also engaging in manual search-by-looking-around activities in our spare time, driving through random parts of town, looking for likely clusters of unoccupied buildings and contacting building owners. We've also tried posting ads to local community forums.

We're also looking into the possibility of space offerings in parts of town that have revitalization initiatives with heavily discounted lease rates, tax abatements, or other incentives. If you know of any areas like this, please let us know.

Progress Updates

2 Feb 2010 - We're beginning to get some coverage of our plans in the news and blogosphere. Make gave us a mention in their blog and our project info is circulating on twitter and FB as well. The DPRG received the first donation (of hopefully many more) towards the hackerspace startup costs. We'll post a running tally of our total at the top of this page.

We've talked to a group who is interested in starting a hackerspace in Denton, TX, so if you're too far north for the DPRG hackerspace, you might get in touch with c0re1ndustries. Also, we heard from a group who would like to create a for-profit Techshop franchise in Dallas, calling themselves Neighborhood Workshop.

3 Feb 2010 - Suggestions for names are beginning to roll in. Variants of the word Reactor seem to be favored so far with DFW Reactor getting the most positive comments.. Several people pointed out that other groups have taken there names from the location selected. Names mentioned (in alphabetical order) include:

DFW Hackerspace
DFW Reactor
DPRG Hackerspace
Elexas (Electric + Texas)
Fort Reactor
Galoot Reactor
Metroplex Manifold
Metroplex Reactor
North Texas Toolspace
Nortex Reactor
Operation Lonestar
Slaunchways Reactor
Texas Reactor

4 Feb 2010 - To get a better idea of how many members we'll have to work with initially and how soon we can start, we'd like to get everyone who is willing to commit to a paying hackerspace membership now (now being Feb 2010) to take this survey about how much you'd be willing to pay per month, and how far you're willing to drive. Please do not take this survey unless you're actually read to become a paying member of the hackerspace. Props to Scott Sumner for cranking out the php on short notice.

Hackerspace membership survey

9 Feb 2010 - The first official meatspace gathering of potential Dallas hackerspace members was held at the DPRG's Tuesday night RBNO. A surprising number of people were there. We went around the room letting each person introduce themselves. Each person explained their interests and talked about what sort of resources a hackerspace could offer them.

We learned there are a lot of people in Dallas intrested in hydroponics, so we've added this to our hackerspace description. Another photographer turned up interested in a darkroom for film processing. We already have almost enough equipment to fully equip a darkroom.

There was a lot of talk about how the hackerspace would work, how it would interface with the DPRG, what sort of building we needed, and a lot of other topics. Many pizzas were consumed.

10 Feb 2010 - Several DPRG members attended a DC214 meeting in Deep Ellum. DC214 is a local computer security group. We gave a short presentation and found 4 or 5 more potential hackerspace members including yet another photographer looking for a darkroom.

18 Feb 2010 - Second meeting of potential members took place at XMAX Games in Lakewood. More details were worked out to move us toward a March startup. The plan is to ask every potential member for a $100 one-time donation to get enough cash to cover the start up costs. This will be added to the donations already received and a contribution from the DPRG's general fund. It was also decided to use the name makerspace in place of hackerspace to avoid the miconceptions the public often has about the word hacker.

19 Feb 2010 - Received the first membership donations today! Things are looking good.

23 Feb 2010 - Changed project title from hackerspace to makerspace to reflect the decision made at the last meeting to favor that term because of the general public's confusion of hacker (creative person) with hacker (evil computer criminal).

Mar 1 2010 - The Maker Space now has it's own websites and news feeds so, from this point on, you can get updates from one of these sources:

How You Can Help

There are several things you can help us with if you want to see this happen. Here are a few:

We need 1-time donations to give us working capital for the initial setup, which will cost several thousand dollars. It's easy to make a donation through Paypal. Any amount will help: $1, $10, $100, or whatever you're willing to contribute. All donations are 100% tax deductible
We need people who will commit to being full-time members. This will help us determine our budget and calculate what kind of space we can start with. Join our Dallas Hackerspace Interest Group and let us know that you're willing to become a monthly member.
Help us find space. Mention our plans to your friends. Ask if they or anyone they know would be willing to donate a building outright, or offer a free or low-cost lease to a non-profit. Dallas is a big place and we know there are opportunities out there if we can network with enough people fast enough to find them!

Make a One-Time Donation to Help the DPRG start a Dallas Makerspace!

Remember, the DPRG is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organziation and all donation are tax deductible. You can donate any amount, large or small, that you wish. 100% of donations will go towards the creation of the DPRG's Dallas Hackerspace.

We're asking potential members to consider making a one-time donation of $100 or more to help us offset the startup costs, but a donation of any amount is fine, every little bit helps!.

Start Your Monthly Membership with DPRG's Dallas Makerspace

We're asking for all our potential members to start paying their monthly dues by the beginning of April. We hope to have enough startup funds to get some space by then but, if not, we'll add the April dues to the startup fund too so we can make this happen ASAP.

Each of the buttons below will set up a recurring monthly billing through PayPal. The minimum we can manage and still cover our costs looks like $30 per member per month. But we're asking that you select the highest level of monthly membership contribution that you're willing/able to.

Note: monthly membership dues, even when paid to a 501(c)(3) are not tax deductible. So if you need a deduction, we'd recommend selecting the $30 monthly membership fee and then make a voluntary donation of any additional (and tax-deductible) amount you like using the one-time donation button in the above section.

Dallas Makerspace Membership: $30/Month

Select this option for recurring $30 per month membership dues.

Dallas Makerspace Membership: $40/Month

Select this option for recurring $40 per month membership dues.

Dallas Makerspace Membership: $50/Month

Select this option for recurring $50 per month membership dues.