Hackenings: Burbank and Cairo

Hi all, and welcome to the first installment of Hackenings, our review/preview of the week in global hackerspaces. If you’d like to get the news out about upcoming events at your space, get us an e-mail before Thursday to get it published on Saturday. If you’d just like to brag, any time is fine. Drop us a line at tips@hackaday.com and put [Hackenings] in the subject to make sure that we see it.

This week we’ve got two stories of hackerspaces on the move, but they couldn’t be more different. The Burbank Makerspace has upgraded to fancier new digs, while Cairo Makerspace‘s building collapsed, and now they’re taking their show on the road with a hackerspace-in-a-van.

Burbank Makerspace

[Original story by Chris Lopez]

Good news for you Los Angeles area hackers, our friends at Burbank Makerspace have an exciting announcement, they’ve recently upgraded their location. The new address is 2216 West Magnolia Blvd Suite B Burbank, CA 91506 in the swanky Magnolia Park area, a short walk from the Burbank Metrolink station. While they started moving in last week, the 3D printers are already up and running, printing parts to customize Ikea furniture for the space.

Their new digs boast 1,000 square feet of space for classes, coworking space, workshops, and more. A glance at their calendar shows activities nearly every day: Arduino classes, cosplay help, Blender lessons, and mold making are just a few of the shared talents housed within Burbank Makerspace. With tons of hands-on expertise in 3D printing, electronics, and Computer-Aided Design, the level of experience these hackers share is high-class. [Metalnat], one of their core members, brings with him invaluable experience from SpaceX as well as Deezmaker, a local builder of 3D printers.

Cairo Makerspace

We’ve covered the problems that the folks in Cairo were having with their space previously. The short version of the story is that their space was being demolished, on short notice. Public protest stopped the imminent demolition of the historic building that was shared with other art groups and clubs. However, the writing was on the wall, and they had started working on a plan B (or should we say “van B”?) — a mobile hackerspace.

Now that the worst has actually come to pass, and their former space is rubble, they’re going to go on a tour of over twenty cities in Egypt with the goal of inspiring folks to start a makerspace of their own, or strengthen and link up existing ones. They’ll be driving around with 3D printers, laser cutters, and small robots. But more than that they’ll be bringing their skills, teaching ability, and experiences running a hackerspace under less than easy conditions.

We’ve been following their story from afar, and it’s incredibly inspirational. If you’re in one of those spaces where people sometimes fight about who did or didn’t clean out the espresso machine, count your blessings. And when there are thirty thriving hackerspaces in Egypt, it’ll be in part thanks to these Johnny Hackerseeds. Respect!

Shameless Plug Again

Whatever you’ve got going on in your space, whether good news or an upcoming event, let us know, ok? Write to tips@hackaday.com with [Hackenings] in the subject line, and awesome images or graphics if you’ve got ’em. And tune in again next Saturday to see what’s going on in (y)our world.

Filed under: Hackaday Columns, Hackerspaces

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