interesting stuff – didn’t realise NL had been doing it for so long (and was equally surprised to learn that DE have only just started officially recognising it) – there’s a bit more on NL Wikipedia about the science shops which I will try and read more about over the next few days; I’ve skimmed a few of the articles out of curiosity.
there is however a far stronger culture in NL and DE (and TBH anywhere else that isn’t England!) of having hobbies related to science and technology; people outside unis often club together to fund a larger project (especially things like amateur radio and pirate broadcasting; and the co-operative restoration and preservation of old computer systems) and this was also part of 1960s/70s alternative culture where universities were taken over for stuff like “teach ins”.
its not a bad idea although I fear we in England will try and use it as a way of reducing public funding for science and education whereas in NL it was the other way round; a small amount of extra public money was spent to educate a wider group of people which often reaped further benefits in the long term including in some cases business sucessses.
