Hello mates! I am trying to beat my record for the furthest makerspace visit - previous was Anchorage I think? But this week I got to visit the Brisbane makerspace in Queensland, Australia
there are other makerspaces/hacker spaces in brisbane, the largest has about 100 members, this one is relatively new but the relationships are similar to Wichita even in a bigger city. Lots of member overlap and they all know how the others work so I was fine to visit one. Brisbane makerspace is working on a move to have woodshop space, but for now they have basic fablab tools, sewing, electronics, crafts. Their member database is home grown and open source so I told their head maker we might hit him up for more info… I was really curious about the member database especially since he’s got everyone using one login for admin and discourse, easy checks for what equipment folks are certified on, etc.
Thank you Jaimyn for showing me around and thank you to my coworkers for going along with me on this urge to visit more makerspaces - I was on a work trip but we had time to kill on the way to the airport, so I had this great idea and it was a blast!
It was lovely to meet folks from another Makerspace! I run Brisbane Makerspace as our cities “alternative makerspace” to the volunteer run one. I used to be a part of that one, but started this one as I wanted a space that was more welcoming and inclusive. We’ve been open for 10 months and already have around 35 members and are expanding into a bigger space soon!
While I was part of the other hackerspace I developed a membership portal to solve the problem of “we can’t find cheap/free software that manages our billing and access in a way suitable for makerspaces”. We use it at Brisbane Makerspace and there’s also a handful of other makerspaces using it now too!
Hi Jaimyn
Thanks for welcoming our member, Kim to your space. I think this is a really cool connection to make across the world!
Also, Kim, what a lucky thing for you to be able to do!
Jesse
but seriously - everybody if you’re on a trip, visit a makerspace! usually good to research a little more in advance of your last day like I did, but I’ve always been able to make some kind of contact and get a tour.
When I visited Dallas Makerspace, they not only gave me a tour, but their president (at the time) and half of their board insisted on taking me out to dinner and filling me full of awesome burgers. All in all, they probably spent about 4 hours with me. And they do have an awesome space.
I toured the ceramics studio at Brek Create a couple years ago. It is totally awesome to visit other Makespaces whenever you get the chance. Take pictures to share and inspire the rest of us!
