I was referring to the name.
It is rumored that they hired a Madison Ave firm for the research & development of the concept.
BTW, it also rumored that the Santa Fe Makerspace was in some way birthed from the MeoWolf
Ummm … Ginger and Jennifer are on the record on that. It’s not exactly a rumor.
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Yup—same firm that all the automotive corporations engage…
Admittedly I like the hackerspace name but I do realize and witnessed 1st hand that it does scare people away. Here is a huge list of hacker/makerspace names for getting the ideas flowing.
I agree the name needs to be rebranded. I understand and like the term hacker in its original intent, but the general public does not. I get a strange look every time I tell someone about hacker space.
I agree some places are kind of nailed the names. Examples I like In general (not necessarily maker spaces) our:
The Thinkery
Woodcraft
Imaginarium
Fab lab
TechShop
I think there should be a positive connotation with the words that make up the name. They also should convey what we do. I think the concepts of thinking, creating, making, inventing, fabricating, collaborating, brain power should be woven into the name.
Some ideas I had were:
Mindspace, Braincraft, Creator lab or Creatorspace, Thinkerspace, Makercraft, Inventery, Craft lab, Mindstorm and multiple variations of the names above. We are currently geared more towards woodworking then we are towards computers. I would like to see us expand our horizons as well.
I agree it could be a DBA instead of a formal name change legally. Our current name filters out a lot of potential members. True hackers don’t care what their name is, they are in it for the challenge.
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Maybe I’ve floated off the corporate deep end, but the more I think about it the more I think an organizational rebrand shouldn’t be only about the physical space. The building on Dessau would be the “Brand X Makerspace” (or fab lab / shop / whatever), Our open source repository would be the Brand X repo. Discourse is the Brand X forum. Our swap meet would be the Brand X swap meet. Maybe we’ll do outside classes in partnership with another org. you get the idea.
I don’t have any immediate aspirations to be bigger than our shop, but I don’t think we should rule it out.
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Could potentially go at the cooperative nature of the space too – ATX Co-op Shop or something like that?
I’ll admit when I first heard of the space I was a freshman or sophomore at UT and although I was interested, I felt maybe a bit intimidated? I don’t think it was fully the name, but partially at least, like “well that place is for hackers, and I’m not a hacker at all” Just didn’t identify with it. Now I don’t mind the name much but when I tell people where I’m going I usually say “to the shop” or “to the makerspace” and almost never do I say “to the hackerspace” which may detract from the brand identity but its just what comes naturally.
“ATX Co-op Shop” There is a difficulty that “co-op” is, legally, a different class of business formation. We wouldn’t be a co-op and it’s potentially problematic to imply we are. Wheatsville Food Co-op is actually legally formed as a co-op.
It’s a community shop, I believe “community” is legally a trouble-free term and represents our identity, but it’s still a generic term rather than a brand.
Does “ATX Community Shop” deliver the best message and establish a brand, something unique in the name to identify us? We wouldn’t own the name “ATX” of course, lots of other businesses use “ATX” in their name. We’re a shop, we’re a community, but that’s not a brand. e.g. “Houston Texas Grocery Store” wouldn’t be a unique branding name.
That’s true, I didn’t know Co-op was a legal classification but that makes sense as the members of a coop are partial owners. I agree there isn’t much brand identification in the name - probably not the best idea but just thought of it and thought I’d throw it out there
Yep there’s a lot of history there. I’ve been with ATXHS since in the start in 2010. We had wanted to use the term “co-op” for its aesthetic feel, but it was legally troublesome to put in the name. We did float the idea of actually legally reforming AS a co-op, but functionally a co-op was not consistent with what we were, or trying to be.
Austin Makerspace? Simple and to the point IMO.
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And, in my opinion, probably one of the only real alternatives. Also, in my opinion, not a great option.
If I’m looking for an organization like this, the Google search is likely to be “Austin hackerspace” or “Austin makerspace”. And, oddly, the fact that we are “hackerspace” probably makes us easier to find.
“Austin makerspace” returns a lot of different places in Austin. We could probably be fairly easily bumped off the top spot in Google by someone motivated in SEO and then we would just be one of many.
Whereas, “Austin hackerspace” returns nothing but us for pages and pages. Don’t give that up easily.
A long time ago, we believed “makerspace” was trademarked, or in a trademark dispute. I’m not sure that’s correct. But even if it’s a generic name, that could be a bit confusing in that it could seem we’re a local branch of a larger “Makerspace” company that owns Dallas Makerspace, etc etc. Accidentally implying that doesn’t seem to be what we want.
Also, if it IS a generic public-domain existing term, the org doesn’t clearly own its brand. If another entity seems to be causing harm via confusion with a very similar name, it is problematic to defend a generic name. That’s kind of the situation we may already be in, we did not invent the word “hackerspace”, but it’s not untenable or even any issue to this date, but moving forward I think we’d do well to have a novel name owned by the org.
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So much has been done in the past year to help us grow as an organization, it certainly feels like a potentially good time for a rebranding. I wouldn’t go as far as saying this is a vital thing that needs to happen, but definitely gets my general support.
Also, I spent a little while going down a synonym rabbit hole, and wanted to share some of what I found.
First, started looking for different ways to say coop. One of my favorite words that came up there was collaboration, maybe something like collab space or collab something else might work?
I also thought a bit about one of our core sayings used all over, “be excellent”, and wondered if that could be incorporated, excel or XL somewhere in the name potentially.
I was looking for some synonyms for workshop and didn’t find anything, but then realized something as simple as ATX workshop might just work.
Lastly, I looked for some synonyms for community, and collective was a word that felt good, maybe collab collective?
Anyways, I don’t know that I would propose any of the above for a final name, but I hope that the rambling thought process might have sparked some interesting thoughts in someone else!
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@dannym raises a good point. If we’re going to rebrand then we should choose something that’s actually identifiable and defendable as a brand. Picking another generic/descriptive name seems like a poor ROI on the effort to rebrand.
my 2c, when i was moving to Austin last summer and looking for a makerspace or something like it, “hackerspace” was not in my vocabulary of search terms, and when I saw “hackerspace” in the google results list I distinctly remember thinking “that sounds too techy, I’m just looking for woodshop space, not robotics.”
Then again, maybe someone looking for a robotics lab or CNC would have been quick to dismiss “Artisan’s Asylum,” so I’m not sure I’m being helpful.
There can be a distinction between a brand and a tagline / slogan.
Brand: 10bitworks
Tagline: San Antonio Hackerspace
Like my time at the san antonio makerspace, our brand was just “10bitworks” it just needs a name that identifies the entity. If you asked “what’s the name of the makerspace?” The answer was “10bitworks”.
It doesn’t need to be “san Antonio Texas collab woodshop of excellence in stem for the betterment of the world and research development”
When you go to shop at the gap. And somebody asks what’s the store your going to, response you give is “I’m going to the Gap” not “I’m going to the gap clothing distribution company and manufacturer of higher end fashion in garments.”
Target, staples. Walmart, HEB. Michaels, Firestone, applebees, Coca-cola inc, pepsi-co
Brands dont need 1001 keywords attached to them for them to be a good name that people can recognize.
And SEO looks at alot more than just the name of a buisness. For SEO the focus would be to create webpage content with tag words people are likely to search for. We can spam keywords on the website all we like it doesn’t have to be part of our name.
A lot of effort is going on about the name, but that misses the point. The perfect name does nothing in a vacuum. What changes things is getting the word out. Communication is more important than the actual name. The philosophical discussions around the name are okay, with the exception of the name actually bringing people in. The name can be more or less clear on what the space is, but until people see the name, it doesn’t mean much.
So how do we communicate the name? Get it known?
We have a FB page, and already post on it. There is an Instagram account, but no activity.
My thoughts on execution:
Start with a boilerplate statement. A sentence, or short paragraph, that describes the space, and what it offers. This statement should go at the end of every FB post, every Instagram. If we get into the press, a version should go there. A link to the website should also be included.
Example (edited from website):
" ATX Hackerspace is a volunteer-run creative space, comprised of 8000 feet of airconditioned workspace filled with professional-grade equipment, and offers a diversity of classes and a friendly community. We’re a community of makers and tinkerers, amateurs and professionals, engineers, artists, and so much more. We hope you’ll join us! " - Link
Postings should show the diversity of possibilities at the space. Laser cutting, wood working, automotive, metal, electronics, CNC, etc…
Targeted outreach: We could target a few groups to advertise to or engage with. Texas Burners comes to mind for me. I believe that a couple Burners (besides me) are already part of the space, but I’m not sure how many of the others know about ATXHS. There are thousands in the Austin area. Burners have multiple festivals a year, and building art and structures is part of each festival. Art is a huge emphasis of Burner culture.
What about working with CRAFT? I’m sure that some crafters and artists would appreciate access to a more technical workshop. This wouldn’t be about membership agreements, but it would be about getting word out to a target audience.
There are many possibilities, but the point is that we need a communication strategy. And the communications need a call to action for the readers. i.e. a weblink, “join us”, etc…
You’re not wrong, but I’d consider marketing and branding to be separate (and generally independent) problems to solve.
There’s been some discussion on the marketing front, but it’s being slow-walked a little bit as we work to reduce the amount of volunteer effort to fully onboard a new member and improve administrative overhead in general.
If we reach some consensus on the branding question, the next step would be to polish up and execute a marketing plan as you describe. There’s no reason we couldn’t “go to market” as ATX Hackerspace, but any effort we invest in that name will make it harder to change in the future.
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