Pathfinder for Hackerspaces, Makerspaces, Techshops, and Fab Labs

First off, some words I've lived by for the past 14+ years, which I first read here. In So Many Words: How Technology Reshapes the Reading Habit" by Rebecca Piirto Heath, American Demographics, March 1997.

And, as far as I'm concerned, it's instructive to substitute "library/libraries" for "reading" in the AD article and Saffo quote.


As for my interest in the series of topics found in the title of this post, it all, very recently, started here: "The Public Library, Completely Reimagined", Mind/Shift, 11/9/2011)

Sidebar:  You'll want to take the phrase, "completely reimagined", with a grain of salt.  Browsing the library's website, you'll find Fayetteville offers....

• Print materials
• Online databases
• Downloadable books and music
• Local history materials
• Wi-fi
• Computer classes
• One-on-one technology instruction
• Book discussion groups
• Teen homework help
• Year-round programs for all ages
• Summer reading programs for all ages
• Storytimes for infants to children age 5
• Early literacy kits

What follows are links, screenshots and videos to help me understand the new vocabulary I encountered last week.

• Hackerspaces
• Makerspaces
• Techshops
• Fab Lab

For whatever they're worth, I'm  happy to share them with you.

Hackerspaces (Links to more information)

As defined below:  Community-operated physical places where people can meet and work on their projects.  Though not yet "in the dictionary".

Makerspaces (Examples)

As (slightly re)defined below:  Social clubs for people who like [to] build, invent, tinker, and/or collect  learn new skills.  [M-W]

LINK

What question are you asking yourself less than 2 minutes into this video?

LINK

Techshops (A highly selective reading list)

As defined using a specific example to describe a generic operation. Membership-based workshops that provide members with access to tools and equipment, instruction, and a community of creative and supportive people.  [As before, no "official" definition.]

The starting point for a most thorough overview.  The suggestion that it's not likely you'd read his article in a library strikes me as a dubious claim.)   Is It Time to Rebuild & Retool Public Libraries and Make “TechShops”?, by Phillip Torrone, 3/10/2011.  And by no means does Torrone answer his own question with a, 'Yes, all libraries must do this RIGHT NOW or die.")

Techshop:  Geek Heaven.  (How to Change the World, 9/10/2007.  In the beginning.....)
Library as Techshop. (Library Bazaar, 3/15/2011.  Dip your toe into the water.  Provides 2 excerpts from Torrone's essay.)
Inventors Wanted. Cool Tools Provided. (The New York Times, 4/10/2010.  "Wealthy, love-handled Americans..."?)
Techshop:  Stairway to Inventor Heaven.  (CAD Insider, 5/14/2011)

Fab Labs (Mix of sources)

As defined by Wikipedia.  Small-scale workshop with an array of flexible computer controlled tools that cover several different length scales and various materials, with the aim to make "almost anything.  [Eventually.]

LINK

Fabrication labs let student and adult inventors create products, solve problems. (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/18/2009).

Excerpt: You won't find these budding Northeast Ohio inventors toiling in their basements with secondhand tools. They're all at work in a personal fabrication laboratory, or fab lab, the greatest boost to individual ingenuity since the neighborhood hardware store.

Fab labs are stocked with computers running easy-to-use design software, and linked to cutting-edge production machinery - laser-powered cutters and etchers, table-top milling equipment, devices that slice copper sheets into circuitry, high-precision robotic routers, and even a sort of super-printer that spits out three-dimensional plastic parts. The labs are meant to stimulate creativity and spark innovation.

Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab website.

Hardesty Center for Fab Lab Tulsa.