A talk given in Seattle at InfoCamp 2012.

1. Creating a Digital
Maker Space in Seattle
Hi, welcome to my InfoCamp 2012
presentation, I’ll put my speaker notes
into these boxes.
@ario Jafarzadeh
10/13/12

2. Overview
Here’s an overview of what I’ll cover.
1. Importance of communal spaces
2. What’s unique about Seattle
3. What’s already out there
4. How to get it going

3. Importance of
communal spaces

4. Even though we’re more digitally
connected than ever, we need spaces
where we can be near each other.
Bowling Alone talks about the trend in
the U.S. since the 1950s towards less
civic engagement.

5. Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules, talks about how
teens’ brains need social interaction to fully develop. Our
current school systems tell them to sit down and be quiet.
Not good.

6. What are the best predictors
for a successful team?
This MIT study found
C-FATOR these 3 factors lead to
successful teams. Theory
of mind is the ability for
one person to understand
1. high theory of mind skills and adapt to the minds of
others. Women are
2. acceptance of failure particularly skilled at this,
3. presence of a woman but the tech community
isn’t particularly women
friendly.
http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/26/mit-unravels-the-secrets-behind-collective-intelligence-hint-iq-not-so-important/

7. This article makes a
good point... diverse
teams make more
breakthroughs. Getting
people from a wide
range of backgrounds
collaborating leads to
better results.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_accept_defeat/

8. Brian Eno coined the
term “scenius” in
GENIUS juxtaposition to the
concept of a solitary
genius. A scenius is
vs composed of many
SCENIUS individuals who are
influenced & inspired by
one another.
A scenius
God
The Genius

9. 1. An orchestra Examples from 1. Silicon valley in 90s
GENIUS
2. The Church
both categories
2. Punk rock movement
3. Governments
vs in early 80s
4. Big companies 3. Women’s rights
SCENIUS
5. Military movement in the 60s
A digital maker space would exist for the
purpose of fostering and growing the digital
scenius that currently exists in Seattle.

10. In summary...
1. Being proximate feels good
2. In person is high bandwidth (more knowledge can be
transferred)
3. Unexpectedly great things happen when you
diverse + motivated groups of people together

11. The Digital Sceniei of
Seattle
Lets look at what makes
Seattle unique...

12. All of these various
digital fields take place
here.

13. Software Gaming Mobile
apps
Audio Devices
Graphic Digital
design arts

14. The thing they all share
in common is that they
take place in front of a
computer screen.

15. But what’s on those
screens is very different
by discipline. These
differences create
opportunities for
knowledge transfer and
cross-pollination of
ideas and processes.

16. Here’s what I envision...
Bringing all of us together
in a digital maker space
A place where anyone can come
to learn how to create digital
experiences & collaborate with
others. We provide:
• Classes
• Workspace
• Performance space

17. This could encompass...
• UX
• Mobile apps
• Websites
• Digital Audio
• Video
• Game
• Art projects

18. Academic
Spaces

19. This movie talks about a school where students can take whatever classes they
want, regardless of age. The mixing of age ranges and expertise levels benefits
both the young and older students. This would be a key element of the space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgpuSo-GSfw

20. This is me helping a
student with their
wireframe diagram during
a class I co-taught at
University of Washington
this year.
Students came into the
class with a mix of skill
sets and worked on
creating a project of their
choosing, taking it from
concept to high-fidelity
prototype.
HCDE 598 - http://sg.sg/hcde598

21. We brought in guest
speakers to keep the class
fresh each session and to
take advantage of experts
who specialized in various
parts of the UX lifecycle.

22. Many of the students
landed internships or
reported that they were
able to use their new skills
in their existing jobs.

23. During a recent visit to
NYC, I met Katie Koch, a
UX educator who started a
project teaching
essentially the same class
I was teaching to inner city
high school students.

24. These were students who
struggled in normal STEM
classes, but really took to
multidisciplinary /
collaborative UX work. The
teachers had trouble
supporting the demand for
this kind of education.
Project Interaction

25. It’s clear the time has
come for UX education to
step outside the world of
university-level academia.

26. Networking
Spaces

27. Events like these promote
business networking and
give an opportunity for
new graduates to meet
professionals.
UX Happy Hour - @uxhappyhour

28. Creative Mornings
provides another channel
for networking with the
added benefit of
informative talks.

29. The HUB franchise provides space for
those who want to co-work, but there
isn’t much done to get people to
collaborate or to bring in people from
the community.

30. Digital
Spaces

31. RML was a space in SF that provided
top-notch 360 video and audio for the
purpose of small digital artist
performances. This is what it looked
like with the lights on.
RML - Recombinant Media Labs (RIP)

32. With the lights off, the space comes
alive, providing an unparalleled
immersive experience.

33. For the artists who performed at RML,
the space provided a unique and
intimate experience to showcase their
work at the highest fidelity.

35. In addition to performance, artists
could give talks and engage with the
audience in a way that wouldn’t be
possible in any other kind of venue.

36. Another space like this is GAFFTA in
SF which provides classes and
performance space for digital artists.
The classes are geared more towards
artists than for the corporate
environment.
GAFFTA - Gray Area Foundation For the Arts

37. 911 in Seattle
provides classes
primarily around video
editing, but also for
web design.
911 Media Arts Center (Seattle)

38. Hacker / Maker
Spaces

39. The TechShop franchise is perhaps
the well known of the maker
spaces.
http://techshop.ws

40. Paid members can come and use
very powerful equipment for their
personal projects.

41. A space like TechShop is coming
to Seattle next month...

42. Makerhaus will have many different
kinds of spaces for working and
collaboration.

43. On the more scrappy side are
hacker spaces like Noisebridge in
SF.

44. and Metrix Create:Space in
Seattle.

45. Performance
Spaces

46. Cafe Oto in London is a coffee
shop by day, but hosts intimate
music performances by night for
highly respected artists from
around the world.
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/

47. The Vera Project in Seattle puts on all-
ages concerts and also provides
classes on audio engineering and
silkscreening.

48. Consolidated Works was an art
gallery in Seattle that hosted
shows from many digital artists.

49. How to make it happen

50. Finding the space seems to be
the biggest hurdle.

51. Once the space is secured, my
hypothesis is that the other
pieces will fall into place.
The space may need to start off
somewhere temporarily and
then move to a more permanent
home later.
“if we build it, they will come.”

52. Working with UW is one option...
students could use the space,
but I’m not sure if the school
would be open to letting non-
students use it too.

53. UW has something similar to
MIT’s Media Lab, so they may
be worth talking to.
HITLab

54. The Henry Art Gallery may
be interested in partnering
with a space like this for
hosting special interactive/
audio/visual events.
Henry Art Gallery

55. Corporate sponsorship is
another route, but will come
with many strings attached.

56. Smaller companies in town
may be interested in
investing in the space and
could be viewed as partners.

57. Crowdfunding it is another possibility, but
tough from a long-term investment strategy.

58. Funding Avenues
1. Via UW Another idea: students
2. Corp sponsor coming out of the space
with their newfound
1.Recruiting angle? marketable skills would be
hot commodities. The
3. Community Funded space could be funded by
4. Angel investment companies who want first
dibs at top students.
5. ???

59. “Users” of the space
Because of the multi-purpose
1. Students nature of the space, there would
be different kinds of people using
2. Teachers it. Students would take classes
there and work on their projects
3. Creatives using the facility.
4. Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs and creatives could
5. Artists use the space to get their project
off the ground.
6. Art patrons
Artists use the space to showcase
their new work to the public for
special one-off events (which
provides another source of
revenue).

60. Youngstown in Seattle
is a residential space
for artists (converted
from an old elementary
school.
Artists apply to live and
work there.
A digital maker space
could have a similar
application process to
maintain curatorial
control over how the
space gets used.

61. Reach out if you’re interested
in exploring this idea further.
Twitter: @ario
ariomail@gmail.com