Access Space

Access Space is the UK’s first free media lab: an open-access learning community where participants learn, create and communicate online. Participation empowers individuals and develops skills, community, creativity and resourcefulness. Access Space focusses on creative engagement, encouraging participants to move from being e-consumers to becoming digital producers. Access Space hosts more than 200 web domains (17000+ online documents) for its participants.

Access Space is open for walk-in participation 5 days per week, and also runs programmes of workshops, skill-sharing activities and inspirational exhibitions and digital arts events.

Being in continuous operation since 2000 makes it the longest running open access internet participation project in the UK. Access Space’s longevity and effectiveness are due to its innovative, sustainable model, which combines Free, Open Source Software and locally recycled computers with the collective intelligence of a skill-sharing community.

As a result, the capital cost of the lab is next to nothing, future upgrades are free, and the capacity of the lab to deliver skills increases with usage.

The Access Space model challenges the conventional focus on capital spend on ICT hardware & software, and suggests that participants can be mobilised to create a learning resource more effective than a support technician or tutor.