Group moves into school district portable

Benicia Makerspace finally has space, courtesy of Benicia Unified School District.

A makerspace is a community-operated workspace where people with common interests, often in computers, technology, science, digital art or electronic art, can meet, socialize and/or collaborate.

For about a week, Benicia Makerspace has been active in a portable building on school district office property on the corner of East Third and East K streets.

Organization representatives met with BUSD Superintendent Janice Adams in August, asking whether the district had a large space in which the organization could offer classes and still have room for participants’ creative constructions.

The district didn’t have any room large enough for big projects, Adams said, but its adult transitions program was about to move from a portable building to space at Liberty High School.

Adams and the district offered the Makerspace organizers that building, and they accepted.

The simplest definition of a makerspace, sometimes called hacker space, is a community center with tools. It’s a place where mentors’ expertise and equipment are available for those who want to join in on creative projects.

President Aaron Newcomb said Benicia Makerspace is a nonprofit that encourages people to collaborate and develop new ideas, learn different technology and incubate new businesses.

“In 2007, there were only four, including one in San Francisco,” he said during a recent Community Sustainability Commission meeting. This year, there are 1,750 makerspaces in the United States alone, he said, and 17,000 worldwide.

Makerspace members have come up with ideas that have gone on to become successful products and companies, such as the Square Reader that allows credit card sales to be accepted on a smart phone; Pinterest, an Internet service that lets people collect ideas for projects, using collections called board and visual bookmarks, or pins; and Shift Labs, a medical device company that produced DripAssist, an infusion pump that tracks the delivery of intravenous drips, and has other products in its pipeline.

Smart watches, three-dimensional printing, digital recognition and other company types have emerged from makerspace projects, Newcomb said.

Benicia Makerspace is a nonprofit so new that it’s still offering founding memberships at $20 a month.

At one time, members met once a month. But Newcomb said the organization’s popularity is growing, and now they meet twice a month.

The local makerspace group began when he and Nicci Nunes, who now is the organization’s secretary, independently sought in 2012 to start makerspace activity in Benicia.

They learned about each other’s efforts and decided to become a team. Meetings began in June 2013, and by the 2013 Clean Tech Expo that October, Benicia Makerspace was far enough along to participate.

Its first public workshop was in February of this year, and in May it was part of the Bay Area Makers Faire, which had upward of 130,000 attendees at the San Mateo Expo Center.

Next year, Newcomb said, the local organization is expecting to be part of the Napa-Solano Mini Maker Fair in April, which he said will build off Benicia’s Clean Tech Expo and provide hands-on learning.

Newcomb is an employee of NetApp in Sunnyvale. Nunes is a teacher at Liberty High School; group Treasurer Chris Carvaljo is a member of the Benicia Finance Committee.

Among the board members are Doug Snyder, who owned Snyder Systems, a specialized machine design company until he sold it and started California Ebike; and Andreas Kaiser, who teaches introductory engineering and architecture, robotics and computer repair at Benicia High School.

The organization has been using the Internet site www.meetup.com to promote its classes. The next one, at 6 p.m. Oct. 1, will be about Halloween costumes, including wearable circuits, and some participants will give those attending a “show and tell” about their costumes.

The organization has its own website, www.beniciamakerspace.org, and Facebook page, where those visiting can see illustrations of custom three-dimensional printed LEGO pieces, open-sourced blueprints and notices about workshops.

The school district’s connection among Makerspace officials made it easier for the district to offer the space, Adams said, though Benicia Makerspace is charged the same way as other nonprofits would be.

How long Benicia Makerspace will use the building is up to the organization, Adams said.

“They’re looking for a larger space,” something about the size of a warehouse, she said.

But this gives the group a start, she added.

“I think it’s an exciting, dynamic group,” Adams said. Noting that Benicia Makerspace is an opportunity for people of multiple generations to collaborate on projects, she said, “It’s great for the community and children to get involved, learn and grow.”