I continue to be unbelievably impressed with Etsy (which is sort of an eBay for handmade items) and how creative they are in building their community. Their latest move made me giggle hysterically because I was so happy about it:
A couple of months ago, Etsy leased its first ever commercial space in Brooklyn, NY. Being the creative folks that we are, you know we would never be satisfied with some depressing, cubicle-strewn, scheisse box of an office in Midtown. Instead, we decided to find a space that will not only serve as Etsy HQ, but that will also be a communal creative space where we could offer resources, support, and classes to our users and the DIY community at large.
It will be home to parties, trunk shows, seminars, workshops, a lending library, and all other sorts of fantastic things. It will have a silkscreen press, a letterpress, film, music, and video production facilities, jewelry making stations, sewing machines, sergers, and so, so much more. We will call it the Etsy Labs, and beginning with a small opening party on February 1st, its doors will be open to you.
That is so brilliant. O’Reilly saw how amazing it can be to bring people together at the Maker Faire — this is bringing people into the Etsy world in order to make them into makers. Awesome!
[Full disclosure: since I last raved about Etsy, some friends of mine have invested in it, but I continue to rave wildly about the site based solely on its superamazingnessity.]