Research Data Supporting "Through entrepreneurs’ eyes: the Fab-spaces constellation."

In the spring-summer 2013, 73 Fab-spaces were identified through a review of websites, newsletters, research papers and two websites which list the majority of the physical Fab-spaces: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/ and http://wiki.fablab.is. With “Fab-spaces” we encompass a number of organisations which provide a suite of fabrication technologies openly accessible for use by individuals and firms alike. Through Fab-spaces it is possible to access professional grade manufacturing technologies once only available to trade organisations, including additive manufacturing equipment; Laser cutting and CNC tools; wood and metal working machinery and electrical/electronic components assembling tools. Fab-spaces are growing in number in many countries, taking a variety of forms and providing a range of innovation/production environments. Many Fab-spaces are physical places, the most famous of which are known as Makerspaces, Hackerspaces, FabLabs and TechShops, however, Fab-spaces include also those which provide access to digital manufacturing technologies remotely via internet platforms such as Shapeways or i.materialise For inclusion in the database Fab-spaces needed to be more than one year old, as it was assumed that these had more mature and hence more stable characteristics. Further, the information on the website had to be in English or could be translated with tools such as “Google Translate”. Overall, a list of 65 variables, based on Osterwalder and Pigneur's Business Models Canvass (See "Characterisation template" tab) and their codification, either binary (i.e. yes-no) or categorical (e.g. Low, Medium, High) was collated and used for the charaterisation of Fab-spaces, based on of the information available on each website (see "2013 Fab-spaces" tab).