Different people have different understandings of Dallas Makerspace and, before I go any further, none of them are more valid than the others. Every passionate member I know has their vision about what they want Dallas Makerspace to be, so I think a fun exercise would be to pose the question to talk.
DISCLAIMER: This is not an invitation for you barbarians to turn another thread into the thunderdome. The Blood God isn’t so starved that he needs blood from every thread about DMS. I would prefer that everyone’s idea be given the respect it deserves, whether they see DMS as just a community workshop or something different.
I’ll go first:
My vision of the makerspace is a town square. If I had to pick one thing that plagues American society more than anything, it would be the lack of basic areas where most people in a given community converge with each other. The geniuses who created zoning laws that separate businesses, workplaces and housing have created a heavily atomized society full of small social bubbles.
Town squares nowadays are roads for cars and before that they were roads for walking or traveling by horse, but there was also another model where the town square was an actual social area. Town meetings, social events, projects and so forth were often held there. Socrates gave his lectures in the town square marketplace and it would be here that ideas and cultural exchange would mix together.
The ancient greek word for “marketplace” or “town square” is “agora”, so I call this model of a makerspace the agoric model. I want something like the greek town squares with both machines and occasional artisan booths.
What do yall think?
