[HH] TechShop

[Tom Metro]

Federico Lucifredi wrote:
> I doubt the Asylum and Techshop can make do with the local audience.
> Happy to be proved wrong, however :)

I posted the same news blurb to the AA Discuss list, where it spurred a
fair bit of discussion. A few interesting things mentioned:

-TechShop is for-profit, AA is not;
-TechShop is mostly tools; AA has rental space and more emphasis on
community;
-AA has a waiting list for rental spaces, so the demand exceeds what AA
can supply right now; Not sure if that only applies to rental space;
-Several people expressed an interest in a hackerspace on the South side
of Boston;
-AA management seemed to welcome some friendly competition and an
expansion of the makerspace community.


> The most obvious way for them now would be to purchase/partner with
> the Asylum, rather than compete.

I think independent, friendly competition is the better way to go. They
can collaborate on events, like fairs.

If I was them, I'd locate in one of the depressed mill towns between the
128 and 495 belt. There are probably some that still have cheap mill
buildings available (although many have been converted to modern office
space). Pick a town with an existing artisan community.

 -Tom