engage making
DESCRIPTION
Engage MakingTRANSCRIPT
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211 South Broad Street, 5th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102
Copyright © 2012
Wan-Ting Chang
Engage Making
Copyright © 2012 by Wan-Ting ChangIllustrations copyright © 2012 by Wan-Ting Chang
Photography credits:Pages 1-?? © 2012 Wan-Ting Chang
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced–mechanically, elec-tronically, or by any other means, including photocopying–without written permis-sion of the publisher.
Cover design by Wan-Ting ChangBook design by Wan-Ting Chang
Masters of Industrial Design at The University of the Arts212 South Broad Street, 5th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102
First printing June 2012
03 Chapter 1 Introduction07 Chapter 2 Research33 Chapter 3 Synthesis 61 Chapter 4 Portotype86 Chapter 5 Looking Forward
Table of Contents
4
5
Introduction
4
As a designer and a staff in a makerspace, I have been hearing
the craving for making stuff of their own from not only my friends
but also my family and co-workers for a long time. My assumption
was that everyone must have their own idea for making or designing
a physical object of their own. Therefore, I would like to make the
information among these makerspaces more transparent, more
available to people whom are interested in making stuff of their
own. The goal of this project is to bring more people on board and
to allow them to do their own projects.
“I have a lot of ideas, but I don’t know where to go and what should I do.”
Introduction
5
6
7
ResearchUnderstand the Space
Interview the Stakeholder
8
Research
To start the research I first looked at the hacker and maker
spaces in Philadelphia. Then I approached to the stakeholders
of the space and interviewed them. This research section will be
separated into two focuses, the first one is looking at the space,
finding out what strength they have; what speciality they have to
differ from each other and the history of these spaces. The second
one is the interview. Through contextual interviews, I can get to
know more hidden opportunities behind the scene.
9
10
The Hacktory NextFab Studio
Hive 76 Philadelhia Sculpture Gym
These are my four focus spaces: The Hacktory, Hive 67, Next-Fab Studio and Philadelphia Sculpture Gym. They are the most ac-tive hacker or maker spaces in Philadelphia. I also looked at Indy-Hall but they are more of a co-working environment for people to come. It is not like a hackerspace or makerspace.
Understand the Space
11
The Hacktory NextFab Studio
Hive 76 Philadelhia Sculpture Gym
12
•Founded in 2007 •Seperated from Nonprofit Technology
Resources (NTR)•Non-Profit•Volunteer-based•5-10 Volunteers•Class-oriented•Focus on Technology
The Hacktory was formed in November 2007 by a group of art and technology enthusiasts who frequented monthly MakePhilly meetings. The Hacktory wanted to provide formal instruction in technical topics and a central meeting place with accessible, sophisticated tools.
Understand the Space
13
Pictures of their space
14
NTR and the Hacktory both provide classes for people to learn
more about the technology but NTR’s mission is slightly different.
NTR’s mission is to promote information like awareness and give
technology to low-income people. NTR’s audiences are different
than the Hacktory. The Hacktory’s audience could be anyone,
a wider range of people. People at the Hacktory try to do more
creative things. It’s not just about education. The Hacktory does
arts and some education. They are trying to get people to be more
creative.
V.S.
Understand the Space
15
A comparison diagram of NTR and the Hacktory
16
•Founded in 2009•Non-Profit•Membership-based•18 Members•Project-oriented•Open to core members and basic members 24/7•Focus on Technology
Understand the Space
Hive76 is a community of makers and crafters organized around a shared workspace. They enable their members to invent, build, collaborate, and share skills. Hive76 promotes science education and the do-it-yourself spirit in their greater community to enable people to make things awesome and make awesome things.
17
Pictures of Hive76’s space
18
•Open since 2010•For-profit•Membership-based•100+ Members•18 Staff•Personal interest-oriented•Focus on fabrication making
Understand the Space
NextFab Studio is a membership-based, high-tech workshop and prototyping center- it’s Philadelphia’s “gym for innovators”. They provide hand tools, 3D printers, computer controlled machine tools, software, and electronics workbenches.
19
Pictures of the old and new space of NextFab Studio
20
•Open in May 2012 •For-Profit•Membership-based•2 Staff•Personal Interest-oriented•More artistic based
Understand the Space
A community based sculpture workshop that would operate similar to a gym membership. Sculptors and craftspeople would pay for a membership and get access to the tools.
21
Pictures of their space on 3/31/2012
22
The Hacktory
Hive 76
NextFab Studio
NextFab Studio II
Sculpture Gym
November 2007 Summer 2009 January 2010 2012 May 2012 Summer
The Hacktory was the earliest organization founded among these spaces but it still has not grown as prosperous as other spaces like NextFab Studio or Hive 76. This led me to the question: Why can’t they?
Understand the Space
23
The Hacktory
Hive 76
NextFab Studio
NextFab Studio II
Sculpture Gym
November 2007 Summer 2009 January 2010 2012 May 2012 Summer
The map of the history and the location of each space
24
Hive 76
NextFab Studio&
Sculpture Gym
Provide Classes+
Hands-on Projects
The Hacktory
Non-profitHackerspace
Membership Based
VolunteerStaff
Member
Understand the Space
25
After looking at all the spaces, I started to layout a diagram
of their features that overlap with others. Then I found out the two
most common things they all have are first, providing classes;
second, doing hands-on projects.
26
Interview
To start the interview, I need to define the stakeholders in
this project. I mapped out this mind map and tried to find them
for interviews.
Stakeholder Mind Map
27
Before executing the interview, I generated the interview
questions. Here are the questions that I tackled:
• How did you find out/know about this place?• Have you heard about any other places?• What do you do here? What is your interest/focus area? • If you want to make this place better, what would you do/
recommend?• Would you like to collaborate with others? If not, why? If so, how?
What’s the biggest obstacle while you were in the space or doing the projects?
• What’s the greatest part of being here and doing these things?• Would you like to grow the membership here?• What do you think what’s the difference between Fab Lab and
Hackerspace?• How do you imagine the future of this movement?
The question may be changed based on the flow of the interview.
28
Interview
To initiate an interview, I tried to get in touch with the
members from these hacker and maker spaces. The first
thing I did is that I went to NextFab’s social event. NextFab
has one social event every month. Because I did not have
much chance to talk with members while I was working
there, I think this social event is a great opportunity to
have more understanding of what our members are
doing. Secondly, I went to the Hacktory and Hive76’s open
house. Every time I talked to different people, I felt
more confident and the process became more fluent for
me. I think I did learned a great amount of new experience
from interviewing people from the beginning of initiating
an interview with a stranger to becoming a friend with
them. As the process went, I also used e-mail to contact
people I heard or mentioned from the previous interviews.
The next spread will show the overall interviewees
that I have interviewed.
29
30
{ {
Darla JacksonOwner of Philadel-phia Sculpture Gym
Georgia Guthrie Director of the Hacktory
Berney Volunteer at the Hacktory
Tim BieniosekVolunteer at the Hacktory
Interview
31
{ { {Brad LitwinKinetic Sculptor
Sean McBethCore member of Hive 76
PJ SantoroCore member of Hive 76
BrendanCore member of Hive 76
David Beard and Dan (left)Member of NextFab Studio
Scott (lower left)Interested in becoming a member
32
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SynthesisSynthesize Interview Data
Synthesize SurveyFinal Synthesis Result
34
Synthesis I synthesized and then combined two
data I gathered from the research. The first
one is the interview data. The second one is
the survey I got from Georgia that they did in
2009 and some of the questions are related
to this project.
35
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Synthesize Interview Data
I first transcribed the audio
I recorded from the interview
into text transcripts.
Then I pulled out the similar
subjects under these 7 focus
areas using different color of
post-it notes:
• Obstacle
• Positive Part
• Unmet Needs
• Future
• Collaboration
• Things They Do/ Interests
• How Did They Know Here
37
38
Synthesize Interview Data
Here are the results of the synthesis of the interviews.
How Did They Know Here
39
Things They Do / Interests
40
Synthesize Interview Data
Collaboration
41
Future
42
Synthesize Interview Data
Unmet Needs
43
44
Synthesize Interview Data
Positive Part
45
46
Synthesize Interview Data
Obstacle
47
48
Synthesize Survey
49
Where do you go for information or events similar to what The Hacktory provides?
•Other similar organizations: 29• Internet: 26•Magazine: 13 •Nowhere: 8•Friends: 4•Media: 3•Event: 1
Total: 84
50
Synthesize Survey
51
What interests you most about The Hacktory?
•People: 24•Class/learning opportunity: 23•Fame: 14•Other: 10•Tech + Art: 8•Resource: 6
Total: 85
52
Final Synthesis Result
I tried to cluster them and
this led to these 7 catagories:
1. Learning Opportunity
2. Collaboration
3. Public Awareness
4. Internal Issue
5. Value of the Space
6. Open-mindedness
7. Fear to come
53
Learning Opportunity
54
Final Synthesis Result
Collaboration
55
Public Awareness
56
Final Synthesis Result
Internal Issue
57
Value of the Space
58
Final Synthesis Result
Open-mindedness
59
Fear to Come
60
61
v
PrototypeDevelopment
Current PrototypeUser Scenario
Implementation and Test Result
62
Prototype
After I went through these interviews and events
and also the experience I had when I was working at
Nextfab Studio, I found out the easiest way to start a
conversation is by asking “What are you working on?“
By asking questions like this you can learn from others.
It will give you the idea or interests for doing projects or
making things.
63
What Are You
Working On?
64
DevelopmentCover
First page
65
Cover
I also found out that taking notes is essential during this
kind of conversation becasue if you did not take notes you will
forget what the details of the conversation were. Therefore, I
started to brainstorm a “conversation card”.Basically, there
will be tips for having a conversation in the social settings, a
note section and a place to show more events for people to go
and explore more.
This prototype will fit the needs of generating ideas for
coming up a project, bringing public awareness by handing
the booklet to others, getting more people to join and the
most important thing, learning something new.
66
Development
Here are some iterations I generated:
67
68
Current Prototype
I have thought about a lot of phrases to describe the feeling of being intimidated by the environment or the experienced makers/hackers. Because we do not want people to be informed that they might be intimidated or be social-awkward. I tried to make the booklet to be a step-by-step board game that it would involve play in the activity. Also, exploring new things is like playing with scratchy cards
My final prototype is like the images from the right. I designed it to be a vague sense at first for the cover and used the style of conversation blub through out the whole booklet, trying to provide the feeling of having a conversation to the user.
I also developed the 5-whats question. I think maybe because English is not my first language, sometimes I did not know the terms in English so I would ask “what is that?” I believe this gave me more chances to learn more.
69
Step 2. Take down notes for your discovery
29 30 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28
SU M T W TH F SA
Every Tuesday: The Hacktory’s open houseEvery Wednesday: Hive 76’s open house
5/5: Intro to Arduino @The Hacktory5/12: Soft Circuit Saturday @The Hacktory5/14: Microcontroller @Hive 76 5/17: Philadelphia Robotics Group Meetup @Hive 765/17: NextFab Social @Barcade5/23: Android Alliance Meeting @Comcast Center, Floor 45
Keep the wheels turning.
Step 3. Go to other events
May’s Event Calendar
What Are You
Working On?
To continue the conversation, follow with 5-what-questions. For example, what does that project do; what inspired you; what is the material you were using?
Step1. Start a conversationto find out what interests you by asking...
Because maker people love to share!
29 30 31
Start Here
Exploring the Magic of Making
NextFab Studio Membership-based, high-tech workshop and prototyping center - it’s Philadelphia’s “gym for innovators.”
nextfabstudio.com
Philadelphia Woodworks Membership-based professional woodshop.
philadelphiawoodworks.com m
The Hacktory
A group of hackers, artists
and technology enthusiasts
working together on
interesting projects.
thehacktory.org
Hive 76 Non-profit, membership-based hackerspace. Collection of hackers, inventors, artists and volunteers.
hive76.org
Philadelphia Sculpture Gym Membership-based sculpture workshop.
philadelphiasculpturegym.com/
Add more...
Glossary of the Month
Hackerspace: is a community-operated physical place, where people can meet and work on their projects. The projects usually related to computers, technology, science, digital or electronic art .
Open Source: is a philosophy that promotes free redistribution and access to an end product's design and implementation details in production and development.
Arduino: is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible.
CNC: stands for "Computer Numeric Control." Instead of you turning the handwheels, a computer determines the speed and distance and drives DC motors called "stepper motors" or "servos" to move the lathe for you.
Kinetic sculpture: Examples of kinetic art in the form of sculpture or three dimensions. In common with other types of kinetic art, kinetic sculptures have parts that move or that are in motion.
It’s all about learning.
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When a person enters a new environment he/she might feel anxious due to the unfamiliar people or environment he/she will be facing.
User Scenario
71
Here!
If this time, there is a member or staff who can greet him/her and hand him/her this conversation pamphlet, the person who is new here will feel more comfortable because he/she has something to read and has a guideline to follow instead of being overwhelmed by the environment.
72
When a conversation happens between people, the person who is new here can follow 5-whats like the 5-whys we learned before by asking “what is that you are talking about” to keep the conversation going and perhaps dig deeper to gain information or knowledge from others. The person can also take down notes on the prototype while he/she hears something that is new to him/her.
User Scenario
73
After the event is over, the person will leave with a fulfilling smile and a pocket of new information or knowledge.
74
Hey, I have this useful and interesting information Let me see!
User Scenario
75
The next time the person talks about these kinds of hackerspaces with a friend, he/she can have a physical reference to show his/her friend. Hopefully this action will spread the information to the rest of the world.
76
Implementation and Test Result
I brought approximately 16 pieces of the booklet to the NextFab Preview Party. I handed out some also put about 5 on the register table. Unfortunately, the environment was very distractive and I was busy taking care of my project at the booth
77
that I was not able to shadow any of the participants. Otherwise, I think this is a good opportunity for testing my prototype. Because a lot of public came and they are
the targets that I was looking for, people who are interested in making stuff but have not started yet. At the end, I did not get any feedback back to me, which was kind of frustrated. I decided to test it again at Andrew’s HACK event. Although the environment might be the same but this time I would be able to shadow people.
78
Implementation and Test Result
“No one came to me because of the sticker.”
“It’s not my way to start a conversation.”
79
At “HACK” I was able to hand the prototype and the “What
are you working on?“ sticker to someone and get a real test out.
I met Tim when I came into the space, so I asked him if he would
be interested to particapate the activity and he agreed. He also
let me shadow him. From my observation by shadowing Tim,
he did start a lot of conversation with different people. When I
ask him did anyone come to him and ask what was he working
on because of the sticker. Regrettably, no one did. I believe it
was because of the environment that was too dark even I use
the brightest color for the sticker. I put on both stickers on my
chest, too. No one came to me either.
I asked how he feels about it in the middle of shadowing,
he said it’s not his way to start a conversation.
I asked him to fill out the feedback form before he left. It
was quite a bit of surprise that he wrote he felt more confident.
The comments were all very positive. The result of the feedback
form can seen at next page.
80
Implementation and Test Result
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“You need a website so people can see more events.”
“The content is too much for people to read under certain circumstances.”
“You could put a simple tutorial like how to solder iron”
“Put more information about what equipments each space has.”
“You can pair up the novice and experienced makers before they start the conversation.”
Implementation and Test Result
I also presented to some of the stakeholders and here are some of the feedback I got from them.
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“You could build an app or just use a text system as a reminder for people who register to the system and are interested to go to these events.”
“Put the original Adobe Illustrator file on the website so that people from different hackerspaces can also download it and modify it together, just like the open-source spirit.”
Here is one of my ideas:
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Looking Forward
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Looking Forward While I was presenting my prtootype at the Hacktory, I met 3
people from other cities in the country. They are Daniel, Christalee
and Rubin. Daniel and Christalee just moved to Philadelphia from
Boston and were looking for a hackerspace to join. I asked them
about the situation of the hackerspace in Boston. They said they do
not have outreach problem there. Rubin was visiting New York and
Philadelphia. He is one of the voluteer’s friends from the Hacktory.
Talking to them, I felt mind-blown. Apparently, the problem for
getting more people seems to be a Philadelphia specific problem.
It gave me another scope to view this project.
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Daniel Christalee
“We don’t have outreach problems.”
“The problem is you have to know enough to know well. Like when you face a problem, you know whom to go to for answers.”
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Rubin Starset from Noisebridge in San Francisco
“We have like 150 - 200 active members right now.”
“We give out the key of the space to anyone that is interested. It’s very risky but fortunately nothing bad had happened yet.”
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I started to think why they have gotten so much people but we
never did? I looked at the population and the density of population
of these three cities. I discovered an interesting fact. Although
Philadelphia is the sixth biggest city in the U.S. and it is also bigger
than Boston and San Francisco. However, the density of population
is lower than these two cities. A comparing chart is provided at
the next spread. The population density might be one reason. For
further development, I think I need to consider a lot of different
aspect such as geography and the structure of the resident. Then
hopefully a different direction can lead to a solution that is specific
addressing problems here in Philadelphia.
90
Land Area: 48.43 sq mi Population: 617,594 Population Density: 12.7 k /sq mi
Boston
Land Area: 46.87 sq miPopulation: 7,563,460Population Density: 17 k /sq mi
San Francisco
91
Land Area: 48.43 sq mi Population: 617,594 Population Density: 12.7 k /sq mi
Boston
Land Area: 135.1 sq miPopulation: 1,526,006 Population Density: 11.4 k/sq mi
Philadelphia