Hackerspace Intro: STGO Makerspace In Santiago, Chile

[Roy MacDonald] sent in a few links to all the cool stuff his home base – the StgoMakerSpace (Google translation) in Santiago, Chile – is putting together. They’re a new hackerspace that’s only been open for two months or so, but already they’re put together a great assemblage of tools, hosted a few awesome workshops, and even gotten a good bit of local media exposure.

The StgoMakerSpace found its first bit of fame with a very in-depth article in Qué Pasa, a Chilean magazine (Google Translate). There’s a lot of very, very talented people at StgoMakerSpace that includes [macapola], an industrial designer who spent a year in China learning all about modern, global  manufacturing processes.

StgoMakerSpace has a few workshops coming up, including a Kinect hacking workshop, and Arduino workshop, and a welding workshop. If you’re around Santiago, it’s worth checking out. In addition to very, very smart people and a whole bunch of tools, StgoMakerSpace also has a retro video game museum and FREE BEER brewed in-house.

As a small aside, [Roy] tells us the word ‘hacker’ has a negative connotation in Spanish, and it immediately associated with cybercrime; that’s the reason it’s the Santiago Makerspace. In our experience, the same connotation sometimes applies in English, something that hasn’t stopped all the Hackerspaces around the US.

13 thoughts on “Hackerspace Intro: STGO Makerspace In Santiago, Chile

  1. I lived in Chile for a few years. They totally have the hacker/maker spirit there. Glad to see them getting some publicity. I remember when PT said that we should all learn Chinese. I humbly submit that Spanish could also be useful. I’ve seen tons of hacks on this site that were translated from Spanish. With roughly 400 million speakers (native) speakers. That’s huge amount of people.

  2. Such an awesome space in just a couple of months? That’s quite an impressive feat. Even with the steep monthly fee (it seems that awesomeness has a price — you can do a lot of stuff without money but certain things require it).

    Just to nitpick, however: unlike what the article says, there are hackerspaces in South America — there are at least three in Brazil (I’m a cofounder of one of those hackerspaces, BTW).

    Eventually a panamerican hackerspace event will have to happen. Just saying.

  3. Hey! thanks for posting.
    If you are in santiago you can visit the place. Just drop by.
    There a no intentions of making money out of the place, the fee that’s payed is just to be able to pay all the bills and stuff because this place doesn’t receive funding from any one. It’s completely independent. 100 bucks per month is really not that much, at least in chile you can rent a small place to work with nothing included for the same price so, believe me, it’s a pretty good deal. The 24bucks fee is if you are not a member of the makerspace and you need to work there and make use of any of the tools, it’s not for just visiting the place.
    There are lot’s of [pretty] girls indeed, some are hosting the place and others are just regular members. None of them are kept against their will ;P
    MOST IMPORTANTLY: the stgoMakerSpace is open to anyone with good ideas and willing to work in his projects.
    IF ANY ONE GETS TO VISIT THE STGOMAKERSPACE AND READ ABOUT IT HERE JUST ASK FOR ME.
    Cheers!
    [RoyMacdonald]

  4. @Roy:
    The 24bucks fee is if you are not a member of the makerspace and you need to work there and make use of any of the tools, it’s not for just visiting the place.

    In the page it says the fee is “for visit the space for one day”, and it includes only coffe and internet access. I think Starbucks is way better :) for that.

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