[hackerspaces] always on video streaming? (was What's your streaming setup?)

Adina Bogert-O'Brien adina at thinkhaus.org
Wed Feb 16 00:34:52 CET 2011


>
> There's a simple solution: Make them voluntary. Put another switch right
> next to the light switch, so when people come in, they can choose to
> enable the cameras or not.
>

This is the idea I feel most comfortable with. We've been having vague
discussions about cameras at our space. I like the idea of being able to
check in and see whether anyone's about. On the other hand, I've had friends
deal with being stalked. That experience makes me uncomfortable with
automatic public streaming - it's too easily abused in a situation like
that. It's something I wouldn't have thought of before, but I also suspect
that it's a fairly common situation. It just doesn't often get talked about.

Putting public cameras on a switch also doesn't give the wider internet
knowledge of when the space is empty, which I can also see as an advantage.

I'm not sure where I stand on constant streaming to members only. In a close
community it seems like creepy stalkers could get kicked out before a
situation becomes a problem. On the other hand, I think there tends to be a
fair amount of denial in any community that this sort of thing occurs -
maybe especially in a hackerspace where many spaces inherently make a trust
decision before letting someone join.

Clearly we need a system where every member has a whitelist of people
allowed to see them on screen, and only allow those on the whitelist of
every present member to see the stream. That's ridiculously overcomplicated
though, and also vulnerable to the fact that we're, well, hackerspaces...
Probably switches are the way to go.

-Adina
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