Maker spaces are invisible because maps go stale. We're fixing that.
Fifteen directories list makerspaces, fablabs, hackerspaces, and maker labs across Europe and globally.
And yet — when someone in a 200+ member network needs to know if the Venice fab lab is still open, they post in the group chat. Because they know maps are stale.
Here's why:
- Spaces register once to claim presence, then never update. The reward for signing up is being on the map. There's no incentive to maintain.
- So you update one directory, realize you need to update thirteen others, and… you stop.
- Meanwhile, every group chat keeps asking the same questions: "Anyone know a space near Barcelona? Is this place still open? Who hosts residencies?"
The real problem: you're pushing data to fifteen platforms. Nothing incentivizes keeping it fresh.
What if it worked backwards?
You publish one file — a small, structured file about your space (name, address, status, specialties) — at any public URL you control. Your website, GitHub, Nextcloud, a simple server. Anywhere.
We read from you. Continuously. When you update that file, the map updates everywhere instantly. No forms, no logins, no middleman.
{
"name": "FabLab of Ooo",
"address": "12 Sugar Plum Street, Land of Ooo",
"website": "https://fablab-of-ooo.example",
"status": "open",
"opening_hours": "Mon–Fri 14:00–20:00",
"specialties": ["woodworking", "electronics", "candy engineering"],
"networks": ["VULCA", "Adventure Makers Network"]
}This is the logic behind SpaceAPI — thousands of hackerspaces have used it for years. We're bringing that spirit to the broader maker ecosystem.
Day 1: From that file alone, the map answers real questions:
- "Show me all open spaces within 100km of Bath"
- "Which spaces in Germany have woodworking?"
- "Who's part of the VOW network?"
Layer 2: Once networks agree on shared vocabulary — that "woodworking" and "wood shop" are the same thing — we unlock cross-network queries. A simple ontology that lets your data talk to other people's data.
Layer 3: A bot in a Mattermost channel reads: "Cherche espace ouvert à accueil en Allemagne" — and instead of the group chat guessing, it queries all French and German networks' endpoints, finds matches, returns them as a map with train times. All from structured, live, open data.
- SpaceAPI — proven endpoint pattern, already used by hackerspaces globally
- W3C Linked Data — structured data that means the same thing everywhere
- Solid — your data, your file, your URL
- SPARQL & Oxigraph — federated queries across all space endpoints
This isn't proprietary. It's infrastructure you can understand, audit, and fork.
Pilot networks: RFF (Réseau des Fablabs Français) and VOW (Verbund Offener Werkstätten) are the first to participate.
Live stack: The lod-prototype branch runs the full federation: Oxigraph ingesting endpoints, SPARQL queries over the aggregated data, an interactive map powered by fresh, decentralized data.
Next: Workshops with pilot networks to walk spaces through setup (no solo effort required). Then scaling to more regions.
Early pilot networks (RFF, VOW) are rolling out workshops now. If you're outside those networks and want to join, reach out.
The setup is simple:
- Publish a structured file at a URL you control
- Tell us the URL
- Your space appears on the map — and stays fresh when you update the file
/web— React frontend, live map powered by SPARQL queries/infra— Docker Compose stack: Oxigraph, Nginx, the full federation layer/ontology— Shared vocabulary (RDF schema) that spaces and networks define together/harness— Integration test suite for the federation protocol
The architecture is designed for sovereignty: networks can run local Oxigraph replicas, communities own their vocabularies, spaces control their data.
Space history is preserved, not deleted. Time-based queries are part of the design — "Which spaces closed in 2024? What patterns exist?" Research on makerspace ecosystems doesn't require scraping; it comes from shared, structured data.
Apache 2.0 — enables community remixing, derivative funding, and institutional partnerships without gatekeeping.
All code and schemas are open source. We're building commons infrastructure, not extracting data.
Maps of Making: Federated Makerspace Data Commons.
Built on SpaceAPI, W3C Linked Data, and open standards.
https://github.com/maps-of-making
Apache 2.0 License, 2025
One file per space. Fresh data everywhere. A map the ecosystem maintains because it owns it.