Open Dataset of UK Makerspaces and Shared Machine Shops
* Report: Sleigh, A., Stewart, H. and Stokes, K. (2015). Open Dataset of UK Makerspaces. London, UK: Nesta.
URL = https://www.nesta.org.uk/uk-makerspaces-data
= "The open dataset of UK makerspaces, completed by Nesta in 2015, proves a useful mechanism for revealing the types of materials, tools, and users characteristic of shared machine shops across the UK". [1]
Description
by Liz Corbin & Hannah Stewart:
"The dataset was commissioned by an open tendering process in 2014 by UK think tank Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts). Researchers Andrew Sleigh and Hannah Stewart, both researchers with a personal background within the UK makerspace scene, undertook the work over a period of four months. This consisted of defining the fields or data desired into appropriate questions, aggregating known locations of spaces through desk based research and ‘snowballing’ the survey through social media and their own networks. The method for the dataset’s framing and the research approach was documented through a series of blog posts on the Nesta website (Sleigh, Stewart, and Stokes, 2015), and both the list of questions and an initial dataset were released as a public beta, evolving in response to community suggestions. The resulting dataset contains validated details of 97 spaces, with spaces primarily discursively representing themselves. The definition of makerspace established by the commissioner and researchers specifically excluded private workshops and studios, and defined it as an “open access space (free or paid), with facilities for different practices, where anyone can come and make something”."
Statistics
by Liz Corbin & Hannah Stewart:
"we share a summation of the Nesta dataset through three interrelated analytical frames: tools, materials, and users.
Tools
There are 16 unique production technology categories represented across the 97 shared machine shops surveyed in the dataset. These categories include: digital fabrication, woodwork, electronics, computing, fabrics, metalwork, plastics, printmaking, photography and film, ceramics, fine metalwork and jewelry, audio and music, science and chemistry, painting and graphic arts, sculpture, and glass. When measuring the relative prominence of each category, a significant disparity can be observed between the number of spaces that cite having the most prominent categories – digital fabrication (62 sites), woodwork (54 sites), electronics and computer (50 sites) – and the number of spaces that cite having the least prominent categories – glass (2 sites), fine metalwork and jewelry (7 sites), and ceramics (7 sites) (refer to table 1, section 1). Furthermore, an analysis of the tools found across the 97 shared machine shops surveyed reveals a total of 185 uniquely different tool types. When measuring the relative prominence of each tool, the prominence of digital fabrication technologies becomes clear as 47 sites house 3D printers, 43 sites house laser cutters, and 30 sites house CNC milling / routing machines. Whereas only 9 sites house welding equipment and only 4 sites house potters wheels (refer to table 1, section 2).
Materials
There are 16 unique material categories represented across the 97 shared machine shops surveyed within the dataset. This includes; wood and derivatives, paper and card, plastics, electronics, fabrics, yarns, paints, inks, metals, ceramics, clay, stone, chemicals, biological or organic, glass, and resins. When measuring the relative prominence of each category; the most cited material categories are wood and derivatives (58 sites), paper and card (56 sites), plastics (52 sites), and electronics (51 sites); and the least prominent are biological or organic (7 sites), glass (1 site), and resin (1 site) (refer to table 1, section 3). Again, note the significant disparity between these two poles.
Users
Out of the 97 surveyed shared machine shops in the dataset, 60 spaces contributed gender-related data. From these 60 spaces 55% registered a membership that was equal to or greater than 70% male. Only 18% of spaces that contributed data cited a membership that was equal to or greater than 50% female (refer to table 1, section 4). Furthermore, out of the 97 surveyed shared machine shops in the dataset, 49 spaces contributed data relating to the representation of ethnic groups across memberships. From these 49 spaces 96% registered a white majority, with 78% of spaces citing a membership that was equal to or greater than 80% white. For all other ethnicities – mixed or multiple ethnic groups; Asian or Asian British; and Black, African, Caribbean or Black British – all but one space cited a minority representation, with most spaces citing less than 20% representation across all groups (refer to table 1, section 5).
Out of the 97 surveyed shared machine shops in the dataset, 48 spaces contributed data on user-types. User-types include; student, hobbyist, visitor or observer, start up, sole trader or micro-business, corporate or large organisation, teacher, and SME. When measuring the relative prominence of each user-type; the most prominent user-type is hobbyist with 25 sites citing hobbyist as the majority of their membership; and the least prominent user-types include SMEs and Start ups, with 2 sites citing Start ups and zero sites citing SMEs as the majority of their membership (refer to table 1, section 6). Out of the 97 surveyed shared machine shops in the dataset, 52 spaces contributed data on activity-types. Activity-types include; to socialise, to receive training, to get an introduction to making, to make something specific, to prototype, to make one-off pieces, to network or find a maker/partner/designer, and to do small-batch production. When measuring the relative prominence of each activity-type, the most prominent activity-types are to socialise (21 sites citing this activity-type as the majority of their membership) and to receive training (18 sites citing this activity-type as the majority of their membership); and the least prominent activity-type is small-batch production, with one site citing this activity-type as the majority of their membership. (http://peerproduction.net/editsuite/issues/issue-12-makerspaces-and-institutions/peer-reviewed-papers/redistributed-manufacturing-and-makerspaces/)