Cairo Membership Model (CMM)
Cairo Membership Model (CMM) The Cairo Hackerspace’s open-source model for sustaining a community The Cairo Hackerspace Membership Model (herein CMM) has been in development since the launch of the space in 2009. After seven years, we decided to consolidate the model and document it in a brief yet descriptive manner. Our goal is to share its benefits with other hackerspaces and especially help guide new hackerspaces in developing in a sustainable and practical way. The model was developed with “Hackerspace design patterns 1.0 and 2.0” in mind. We believe our model is a successful attempt to combine what we have learned from our experiences with the application of these design patterns. In the last seven years, the Cairo Hackerspace has undergone different types of crises - corrosive outside political environment, sudden shutdowns, a total of SIX location moves, and others - and has continued to survive without money other than member contributions. Thus, the model has served us to remain flexible as a space and a community. It is in continuous development and it is open source.