An International Hackerspace Map

If you’re looking for a hackerspace while on your travels, there is more than one website which shows them on a map, and even tells you whether or not they are open. This last feature is powered by SpaceAPI, a standard way for hackerspaces to publish information about themselves, including whether or not they are closed.

Given such a trove of data then it’s hardly surprising that [S3lph] would use it to create a gigantic map of central Europe with lights in the appropriate places (German language, Google Translate link) to show the spaces and their status.

The lights are a set of addressable LEDs and the brain is an ESP32, making this an accessible project for most hackers with the time to assemble it. Unsurprisingly then it’s not the first such map we’ve seen, though it’s considerably more ambitious than the last one. Meanwhile if your hackerspace doesn’t have SpaceAPI yet or you’re simply curious about the whole thing, we took a look at it back in 2021.

Thanks [Dave] for the tip.

17 thoughts on “An International Hackerspace Map

    1. Poland.. That’s German (land), under Polish administration. No offense, it’s just an old gag. ;)

      Seriously, though. Many of us born in cold war times still think of Western Europe
      in a political sense when we think of countries like England, Italy, Belgium, France, Holland, Luxembourg, or Germany (W-Germany).

      That’s why “Central Europe” seems like an odd description to some of us, because we consider being part of “Western Europe” (political) rather.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_European_Union

        1. The website claims 52,000 sq ft – in Boston. The membership price is expensive, but again, so is Boston. Looking at their floorplans, they seem to have two different buildings, a “clean” building where the heaviest industry is probably in the jewelry fab, and a “dirty” building with separate machine, metal, and wood shops.

          I dare say that they probably cater more to the “take a business idea to the prototype stage” branch of makerspacing. They have lots of office spaces that are almost certainly running a waiting list. Tx/Rx Labs in Houston ended up following that path, and they’re also huge and fully kitted out (with for-profit full memberships at $250, with deep discounts for additonal persons under the same membership.) This is actually more expensive than AA upthread by $10/month for a single person.

          Incubator Spaces are pricey, but nice. (By comparison, the largest actual makerspace in the extended Houston surrounds is much cheaper at $40/month for a basic membership.)

    1. About 35 euros a month? That’s not too bad for a hackerspace, and yes, it’s about what it costs to rent and run a space with several tens of members. I consider mine worth it if I’m there at least once a week, and many weeks I’m there more than that.

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