Davis Community Workshop/Goals and Projects

Share your ideas for what this hackerspace should be!

The final, chosen name is: The Davis Makerspace.

Results of the first round of voting were:

• Collabolab
• Davis Makerspace
• Fab Farm
• Spark Gap
• Strange Attractor

First round of voting is now in progress using the names submitted by June 18; if you're on the mailing list, you should have received a notification. Votes are due on or before June 25.

Name Suggestions

• Attractor (or even Strange Attractor) — as in for dynamic systems
• Bits and Bots
• Bootstrap
• Break to Make
• Build Guild
• Chaos Lab
• Collabitorium
• Collabolab — It's fun to say, anyway.
• Creative Corner
• Creative Lab
• Davis Area Maker Network
• Davis Community Workshop — add the working title for completeness' sake
• D3 (Davis Doer/DIY Depot) — or whatever D-words you like
• Davis DIY
• Davis Doozers — doozers are the little creatures from fraggle rock that are always building stuff
• Davis Hackerspace — some feel the negative connotation behind 'hacker' might turn some off
• Davis Maker Collective — emphasizes the people, rather than the space
• Davis Makerspace — Maybe not terribly creative, but gets the point across
• Davis Makers United
• Design-build Studio
• Drill/Bits
• Dweeb Den — oh wait, that's taken
• Electron Factory
• Fab Farm
• Fab Lab
• Flying Car, Flying Bike, or SkyBike — in honor in of one of our local mad scientists
• Geek Garage
• Hack Farm
• Hack in the Back
• Hack-it Shop
• Hack Out (or Make Out)
• The Hackery — plays off The Artery
• The Hacktory
• Hacky Shack — where ideas are kicked around and come to life
• Ignitor
• Inductor
• Layer Zero
• Make & Break
• Maker-breaker
• Make Valley/Maker Valley
• Maketeria
• Makeville/Makerville — Plays off the original name for Davis - Davisville
• The Makery — plays off The Artery
• Nutz and Boltz
• Ode to Diode
• Omega Zone
• Omnishop
• Polyshop
• Project Genesis
• The Resistor
• Robot Birthplace
• Space Dock
• Spark Gap
• Strange Attractor —see 'Attractor'
• Superconductor
• The Synapse
• Thoughthouse
• Transformer
• Whimsical (or some variant) — in honor of the other local mad scientist
• X Space
• YoLab/Yololab
• YoloFab
• Yolo Yokels — just to throw some new names up here

Goals and Visions for the Davis Community Workshop

...or hackerspace, or whatever it's called. This section probably ought to be organized differently, but I'm not sure how, so I'll leave it at bullet points.

• I'd like to see a good mix of electronics space (especially a repository of components reclaimed from old gadgets), fabrication space (machine tools, welders, woodworking, etc.), and general workspace (for designing and coding and such). —DarinWick
• I'd be curious to see a place for textiles as well, e.g. to be able to support wearable electronics. —BradenPellett
• This. A sewing machine or two would be very useful.
• While I have nothing against the hackerspace being open to businesses, I'm more excited about community projects, collaborative hacking, and education. —DarinWick
• I'm very interested in a balance between "personal" and "community" projects, i.e. between projects that are for members of the space and those that are for the community as a whole. Community projects would also be very good for outreach. —BradenPellett
• I've always thought a shared space would be cool and would be interested in participating. I would be particularly interested in a shared 3D printer. —jefftolentino
• I'm very interested in the incidental collaborations between people of different skills and backgrounds that could occur in such a space, especially between the "low"- and "high"-tech worlds. —BradenPellett
• I wonder if the space could have modular areas, so that interesting but less used tools could be rolled out when needed, yet out of the way when not. —BradenPellett
• Since, as it's been said, the space is likely to move a few times at the very least, making as much as possible modular/mobile is probably A Good Thing. Plus it makes the space reconfigurable for classes, special builds, parties, etc —sedberg
• I would be most interested in metal fabrication studio (with some kind of mill and lathe accessibility), followed by an electronics lab. I think it should also have a free form area where anything could be done similar to what Braden is saying with a modular space. A small computer cluster would also be nice (or an office space of some kind) with access to maker aiding software. I envision each studio or space would also have studio appropriate storage plan maybe varying size lockers or cubbies of some sort. — RobertMcMurry
• Field Trips - eg, to the SF Bay Model, Joshua Hendy Iron Works (also), ... —sedberg
• Joint memberships with other local organizations - eg, Explorit, Davis Astronomy Club, Craft Center, ... —sedberg
• Some sort of electronics/mechanical drop off point. This might not be logistically feasible, but if we could partner with a recycling organization, this might provide a ready source of old printers, CRTs, sewing machines, computers, what-have-you that could be repaired for projects or scavenged for parts (servos, power capacitors, gears) —sedberg
• I agree. —SteveDavison
• My vision is a shop with modern (CNC) tools for fabricating in metal, wood, plastic, and electronics. I need access to such tools in order to build my project ideas. It would have a CNC vertical mill (gantry router) for wood, a CNC vertical bed mill for metal machining, a brake (sheet metal bender), a sheer (sheet metal), a 3-d plastic printer, etc. Ideally such a space would have welding equipment, wood table saw, soldering, test equipment, etc. It would also have a stockroom for materials (wood, metal, electronics, etc). Knowledge and skills are not my shortcoming -I can solder, TIG weld, gas weld, blow glass, program assembly, G-code, whatever, and can teach any of these skills. —SteveDavison

Maker space census

Does Davis have the population to support a maker space? Here are some major metropolitan areas and their populations:

What can you contribute?

Note that it's probably best not to list expensive tools here, since it's a public page. Give your row a color to make the table more readable.

What projects would you like to work on?

Classes, workshops, software, hardware, low-tech, high-tech... anything!

Footnotes

1. It's an old G5 iMac & HP Photosmart Multifunction device, but it'll run OSX 10.5 or Linux
2. a mobile station with computer, electronic whiteboard, dorm fridge?, projector, camera, ... that could be used for design sessions, classes, whatever