What other data sets should be included in The Maker Map?

[bobthecow]

Possibilities:

• 3D printers (private/commercial)
• Maker events
• Hackerspaces (from the wiki, check for activity)
• Things that already live on other maps?
• ???

Discuss.

[thisandagain]

👍 on hackerspaces

One thing that I think the Maker Map does naturally which I feel we might as well embrace is that it does a poor job of promoting resources which are not local to your location. Inclusion of services like 'Metals Online', 'Spark Fun' or even 'Ponoko' (sorry @nickpinkston ) seem difficult to present right now in a meaningful way. On the one hand many of these online services (like 3D printing) are built on top of models of scarcity rather than ubiquity, but on the other, most makers that don't live in major metropolitan areas will need to rely on these resources for quite some time.

In the interest of not attempting to be "all things to all people" I feel it might be prudent for the Maker Map to really focus on the things in which the affordances of a map interface do really well: hardware stores, industrial supply shops, hackerspaces, makerspaces, events, etc.

[ScottBlew]

👍

Agreed, I think for the moment the focus should be brick and motar services,spaces and supply shops that are open and accessible to anyone. I'd love a map that connected home-based makers - for instance connecting a maker with a 3d printer to a maker with a 3d model - but I think that is a project in itself. When the maker map is at a good place I'd like to spin off a version to create a 3D printer - maker map.

[nickpinkston]

Haha - @Ponoko are good dudes and uses CloudFab's software, so I'm totally down with adding them. However, I think that the national ones aren't (as mentioned) as useful for a map interface. Maybe there should just be a general resources area?

If you want to add this map of 3D printing shops - check out this map I made from before:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=202915310548225254212.0004581e3581bc0df3044&msa=0&ll=45.213004,-48.691406&spn=71.253829,155.566406

[bobthecow]

I think there's a balance to be struck here. While there are a lot of resources out there, the ones that The Maker Map is really well suited for are actually mappable.

Would it make sense to create a wiki-like site (or link to an existing one) with non-mappable resources? While they're all valuable resources, I'm reluctant to sacrifice the focus of the site for non-map things like national resources, online services, job postings, etc.

[thisandagain]

👍 @bobthecow Focus.

[nickpinkston]

What do you think is the best way to go about this then? Make something like TheMakerBook.com (-: that handles this and just link them to one another?

[bobthecow]

@nickpinkston That seems reasonable. A constellation of single-serving sites that link to each other?

TheMakerJobs.com
TheMakerBook.com
TheMakerMap.com

:)

[nickpinkston]

I'd prefer to just make TheMakerHub.com, and then do everything else there, linking to TheMakerMap after.

Jobs, Resources, etc. - what else would go there?

[patkan]

I think including the locations of all fablabs worldwide would also be beneficial.
This data is already organised in the form of a map on fablabs.io