Goals, structure and operation of the Hackspace Foundation
The Hackspace Foundation exists to support and further the goals of hackspaces that meet the requirements for membership, mainly within the United Kingdom, Ireland and Crown Dependencies. We are a not-for-profit cooperative organisation that links the Hackspaces together, intending to allow geographically distributed Hackspace groups to share knowledge, resources, and collectively plan for the future.
The Hackspace Foundation presents a unified front that enables us to communicate and negotiate with organisations for the benefit of our member Hackspaces, while also ensuring that approaches from external organisations are directed to the most appropriate Hackspace. We aim to present a single point of contact for Hackspaces, and perform outreach on behalf of the entire movement, in an attempt to raise the public's awareness and interest in their local Hackspaces.
We aim to make setting up Hackspaces simpler, less daunting, and actively work to foster their development in locations we know are underserved. Member Hackspaces can have representatives whom may privately seek advice from other Hackspaces via the Hackspace Foundation, and we can introduce these representatives to friendly specialist contacts, such as lawyers and accountants where necessary. The Hackspace Foundation carries out research across the UK Hackspaces (and beyond) in order to spot patterns and to provide advice based on the collective experience of the member Hackspaces and culture in general.
While the Hackspace Foundation exists primarily for the benefit of Hackspaces meeting the requirements for membership, we will gladly and actively maintain links with other groups, communities, and companies. We believe that Hackspaces are part of a larger movement that encompasses many types of organisations, and that all are equally important to our growing culture.