In this post, I will talk about my long weekend and about a cross-over between pubnixes and makerspaces. We were finally hit by snow here on Sunday, something the kids and I have been hoping for for quite some time. Around 8 inches of snow was enough for the kids to play in and for me to make some weapons-grade snowballs (neither children nor wildlife were harmed, I promise). And school was cancelled on Monday, so the kids got an extra day to enjoy the it all. We put some mileage on the sleds. On Saturday, the kids and I went out to explore a recent discovery in the local area: a makerspace! And less than 5 miles from home! I've heard about makerspaces and hackerspaces, and I've vicariosly enjoyed them through stories from others; but this was the first time I've visited one in person. It was great: motors, wires, Arduinos, 3D printers, laser cutters, and people to talk with about building skills and building projects. The kids made a few quick bristlebots. While at the makerspace, I was reminded of some thoughts I had a while back about public access Unix systems as virtual hackerspaces -- where people have the tools, environment and collaborators to learn, build and use cool open source software. Since I've been so involved in a number of pubnixes recently, this got me thinking... Why not set up a pubnix that revolves around a local makerspace (or hackerspace)? While it wouldn't need to be strictly limited to makerspace members, it could have a physical touchpoint in the makerspace. You could provide getting-started materials on site, and let people use the system to discuss their projects or to help each other practice coding, using the command line, or tinkering with networking concepts. The asynchronous nature of a command line bbs or blogging tool (gopher...?) would lend themselves well to the interactions of people in the makerspace. One easy way to do this would be to take the same model of an existing pubnix, a VPS configured and loaded with pubnixy software, and simply advertise it at the makerspace. Another model would be to have an internal-only pubnix; a raspberry pi or other computer connected to a off-the-net wireless router. Doing it this way, you could be a little more relaxed about the security model and give users even more freedom to experiment. You would probably have to be prepared to wipe and reinstall periodically, however, as accidents do happen when people are learning. I am sure a lot of people who frequent makerspaces would also be the type that would have interest in pubnixes, so it would be interesting to see if this served as an onramp for more people into the Small Internet [1]. If you think this is an interesting concept too, keep watching because I might propose it to my newfound local makerspace. I'll report back if so. And if you have experience with makerspaces or hackerspaces, I'd love to hear your thoughts about this idea. I believe there is one example of this already in hashbang. I'll try to confirm, but I think I recall that they are associated with a fablab, although I don't know the location. [1] gopher://republic.circumlunar.space/0/~spring/phlog/2019-01-16__The_Small_Internet.txt