Interactions with other makerspaces

[Bill]

To clarify, the agenda item for The Labs is a live, public internet page, linked by @Bill in the first post on this thread because I am guessing someone brought it to his attention.

No one clued me in. I hold a “dual citizenship” and check their board minutes periodically to see what they are doing. They do not have a forum; they use Slack as their primary communication platform and I do not do Slack.

[Bill]

We could also settle it with an old-school Jamaican stick fight.

Duel by trebuchet. As we found at SlingFest, there is no real competition…

[Bill]

You can’t see the forest for the trees. If someone opened up across the street and had classes regularly where we failed to then good for them. DMS could catch up or fade into irrelevancy. Either way it would be an improvement for makerspace goers.

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Not a good analogy. They are not really failing at fielding classes.

The big bad gorilla comes in and tries to steal what teachers they have recruited. It is more like bullying.

[Holliday]

Multi-makerspace membership. Nice!

[ESmith]

Peggy had the throw weight and range advantage; precision was an issue.

[bertberaht]

You can’t see the forest for the trees.

Really?? Maybe in a commercial and for profit scenario. I think I must be in a different forest, because I don’t see a non-profit maker/hacker space in the same terms. A scarce resource is just that, a scarce resource. Makers don’t benefit by being selfish or stealing resources from each other. Sharing on the other hand seems to fit better with the elements of the DMS Mission Statement as Items 4 & 6 say:
4. Freely share its research and discoveries, using what is learned to teach others.
6. Promote scientific, cultural, and artistic advancement

(Unless item 5. “Recruit and develop talented members dedicated to these purposes.” is a coded message that actually includes taking from other makerspaces just to enhance your own.)

[Draco]

“Recruit and develop talented members dedicated to these purposes.”

That is an interesting point. It brings up another,
How are we suppose to satisfy that requirement, specifically recruit … talented members?
We seem to be “recruiting” all people willing to pay.

[lukeiamyourfather]

You’re putting words in my mouth. Competition has nothing to do with sharing. You can share everything and still be competitive. Also the scarcity of instruction isn’t an actual scarcity. It’s largely a problem we’ve created ourselves (and could also fix ourselves). We’re getting off into the weeds at this point. Maybe need to break this into another thread about whatever.

[clk75201]

Because it’s never enough to simply create drama within DMS, by all means involve the entire metroplex.

Lack of evidence. Let it go. If DMS is worried about reputation, I can think of half a dozen other things that might need attention before this benign statement on a little-read website.