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Me-to-We Design: How Can a Makerspace Nurture the Building of a Collaborative Community?

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Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021 (INTERACT 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12932))

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Abstract

Makerspaces provide communal access to resources such as 3D printers, laser cutters, electronics equipment, and sewing machines. This way, makerspaces aspire to facilitate their users – the so-called makers – in acquiring craft skills, creating products, learning about technology, and meeting other makers. The collaborative qualities of the makerspace community are key to this aspiration. Yet, just like many non-makerspace initiatives, makerspaces often struggle to foster and sustain a collaborative community. In this study, we use the model of me-to-we design to analyze a makerspace that has succeeded in nurturing a collaborative community. We disentangle the makerspace activities into the five stages of the model and, on that basis, arrive at six principles for nurturing collaborative makerspace communities: (1) accept diverse entry and end points, (2) plan for transitions, (3) help makers devise meaningful projects, (4) encourage sharing and lightweight documentation, (5) collaborate toward communal goals, and (6) attend to the social.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads 8, 2300, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Árni Már Einarsson & Morten Hertzum

Authors
  1. Árni Már Einarsson
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  2. Morten Hertzum
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Árni Már Einarsson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo Ardito

  2. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Rosa Lanzilotti

  3. Computer Science Department, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alessio Malizia

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, UK

    Helen Petrie

  5. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Antonio Piccinno

  6. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Giuseppe Desolda

  7. Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA

    Kori Inkpen

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Einarsson, Á.M., Hertzum, M. (2021). Me-to-We Design: How Can a Makerspace Nurture the Building of a Collaborative Community?. In: Ardito, C., et al. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021. INTERACT 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12932. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85623-6_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85623-6_39

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-85622-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-85623-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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