I'm trying out a new concept: collaborative ownership of shared workspaces. For example, sharing a laser cutter among ten people who live close enough together.
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www.7commons.org]
The basic idea is to facilitate collective ownership and cooperative use of production workspaces that are
- too expensive to afford on your own
- too difficult to maintain
- too infrequently used to justify
- too rapidly depreciating given an individual level of use
I've spec'd out some workspaces that folks here may be interested in, or may already own, such as
- laser cutters
- woodshops
- letterpress
- pottery studios
- recording studios
- apparel production facilities
I'd be interested to hear from the community what you think the plusses and minuses of collaborative ownership and cooperative use of these resources might be. Some of the issues I've encountered in focus groups are the problems that a service would attempt to solve, such as:
- insurance
- scheduling
- maintenance
- security and access
- shared space
- training and know-how
- safety
- legal structure
Please let me know if you have ideas about how this could work!
Dave Hunkins
7commons.org