The future lies in hackerspaces

Not even two weeks prior to this post, the last I read of hackerspaces was one of two things. It was either the ideal description of a place that seemed to have goals too lofty to believe, or a random place where a cool, 15-minutes of internet fame project was hosted - usually a major hackerspace like NYC Resistor. For some reason I had been set in the belief that the major hackerspaces were few, rare, and far between, capable of surviving only in special circumstances and large cities. Still more I had the pessimistic belief that the lofty goals and ideals of a hackerspace - existing solely to push the education and application of technology for common people of all skillsets - to be useless. While my own interests cause me to greatly anticipate any way to further educate myself on technical matters, rarely did I see the same diligent spirit in others.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that I was completely wrong.

It began with one of my typical afternoons eaten alive by the Internet. I started by trying to find a way to make my own PCBs. This led to an article discussing 3d printers being able to draw circuit boards and add them into the objects they were printing. This led to finding a blog wherein the user just bought the uPrint, a pretty sweet looking 3d printer. This in turn led to finding out about the Makerbot Cupcake CNC. Around the same time, I had began talking to an old online contact, fynflood. Sure enough, the conversation led to that Makerbot, and finally, to his hackerspace who had, a week prior, just set up their own cupcake CNC.

He told me of Hive76, a hackerspace located in Philadelphia. After hearing about how the place essentially is the description of a realistic heaven tailored to me, I was ecstatic. I quickly discovered that all of my beliefs on hakerspaces was wrong - there were tons throughout the country, many showing an enormous success. Some even had successful business plans that provided the space to the public for a low membership free, and shared incredible resources in return.

Hackerspace.org provided information on how many hakerspaces were setting up, and how many were finding success. A list of events from all over the world at these hackerspaces showed large groups of people doing innovative things with technology.

Then I found the jewel of the page - there was a hackerspace - not even a month old - starting up not 10 minutes from my house. FUBARlabs in New Brunswick, NJ.

I immediately planned to attend their meeting and Python study group. Upon first visit I became entranced with the idea, realizing the potential of finally having a group of like minded individuals of varying skill levels. The thrill of learning, the satisfaction of teaching - each so easily attained at these events.

While just starting up, the group has amazing potential, and some, for lack of a more profound adjective, awesome people leading it. For now, you can find me at some of their events.

Why these are the future...

Our education system is a failure. We are lucky to have one, compared to most of the population of the planet, but we should not use that as our method of rating ourselves. Instead look to other world powers, and the trouble that our future generations will have become apparent. What our education system requires to become globally competitive is a discussion for another time, but it is clear that they do not inspire, many times even at the college level ( I was lucky to not suffer from that! )


Hackerspaces is the epitome of the all-too-rare celebration of ingenuity and innovation in technology at a personal, consumer level. The ability to take a technology, make it your own, and develop your own devices is an altogether invigorating process that is largely ignored, and even looked down upon by the throw away consumer culture now largely present. Hackerspaces, to me, represent the liberation of black box technological consumerism.


I do not mean to suggest a lofty, pie-in-the-sky solve-all technological commune will change the world. But it will educate those who desire, will inspire those who wish to be, and will allow collaboration of people who would otherwise never meet. And that is certainly a start.