[DIYbio] Re: Advice on biohacker space growth/sustainability please!

Working alot with and at Biocurious there are a few main things Biohackerspaces can do to become sustainable.

1) Have ongoing projects. Most members initially will have little skills in the biosciences. You need to provide a reason to keep them coming back and learning more. At Biocurious we have a group of people that meet every Tues. night and have on going projects and mentors who teach people new skills and techniques. There are also nights for specific projects.

2) Run classes. Classes are not only a source of income but they inspire people to become members. People at Biocurious also reach out to corporations and businesses which you can charge alot more for the experience(corporate events bring in alot of money at Biocurious). Class ideas can be as simple as Testing plants for antibiotic activity(http://www.the-odin.com/the-iliad-project-kit-find-new-antibiotics-at-home/) or more molecular biology based like genotyping yourself(http://www.the-odin.com/human-dna-cheek-swab-and-genotyping-primers-basic-kit/)

3) Events. A Monthly Beer and Science chat where you charge people $10 or finding speakers on interesting topics and charging is a great way to get people to your space and raise money. These often require very little work and are alot of fun.

4) Have people there(volunteers, you, discount memberships). When I am not teaching or cleaning at Biocurious I usually stop by to hangout because there are some interesting folks I know who are going to be there. If I know no one is going to be there my chance of being there are small. Biohackerspaces tend to be 80% hangout 20% work in my experience.

5) Crowdfunding. Alot of spaces have raised initial support through crowdfunding though I wouldn't expect to raise as much money as the Bay Area hackerspaces($30k) you still might be able to raise $10k-$15k to provide an initial cushion. *Bay Area hackerspaces seem to have the most support and attendance out of any I know of. This doesn't mean it's not possible just less likely. I would set the goal low on kickstarter and attempt to overshoot it to make sure you receive your money.


Josiah

On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 5:12:51 PM UTC-7, Michael Strack wrote:

Thanks so much Scott. I knew I couldn't be the only one thinking about this.

I feel like the DIYbio movement desperately needs to focus on this right now. The projects are wicked cool but without a large, diverse, engaged and sustainable community we're not going to achieve our multifaceted goals. We have the technology, the web platforms, the cultural ecosystem, but fundamentally we don't have the business model.

Some kind of shared knowledge-base is probably a good start. I have a vision about how this might work but I just arrived on the scene so I'm a little hesitant to begin shouting "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" just yet.

Anyway I'm meeting and talking with people in Sydney over the next month or so and will try to get this a little more hammered out before sharing. I have a thesis to finish at some point, too =p