As I stated in my prior post, I obviously agreed there were political / social / what have you implications that were very relevant to hackerspaces. Citing the availability of chemical supplies was meant as an object lesson in that so to speak. And that being said I do agree that the hackerspaces organization should become a method by which all our diasporadic (not really a word, but it should be) groups can unite under causes that are central to the needs of our spaces and our global community.<br>
<br>On the hackerspaces organizational level it is even more important than it is on the per space level to be more mindful of the diversity in each space (and their members) culturally, politically and otherwise. Already as seen with the problems of being linked up with some of the more notable spanish speaking labs we've begun to see just how difficult it can be to present a united front. If you thought language was a difficult barrier to breach... politics is the nuclear weapon to linguistics proverbial powder keg.<br>
<br>It is with that sentiment in mind that I made the post that I did. <br><br>I do hope that the hackerspaces organization can grow to become a means by which we can all aid in the establishment of better legislature and better resources for our efforts. But in saying that I hope that we can keep those pushes confined to the specific needs of the spaces as infrastructure. We will face situations in which we skirt dangerously along the lines of becoming a conduit for non relevant political dogma. And bad precedence will easily erode the wall between the two. <br>
<br>While premature, it stands to reason that at some point if it comes to a real political establishment of a unified organization representing the interests of all hackerspaces a constitution will need to be written that guaruntees the rights of spaces, and members of spaces to live by their own mission statements. That means being accepting of all ways of being a hacker space. Ultimately it would be my hope that such an accepting design would in no way gentrify the uniqueness and consequent originality of the spaces and their contributions to our sum total. <br>
<br>For each space and hacker the choice of how they choose to exsist is theirs alone. But for better or for worse, the actions of any of us publicly will end up reflecting upon all of us. If the hackerspaces organization can serve as the external face of our united efforts than it should be representative of all of us. That means being exclusive to all of our ideals with exception to the core ideals of what it is to be a communal technology hub (or hackerspace). <br>
<br>What will be very difficult... is defining that a hackerspace's bill of rights ( yeah i am american but it's transferable ) are within that framework. And defining what a hackerspace is... to the public at large. That is where care and caution should converge and hopefully with luck and skill be successful.<br>
<br>Anyways these are a lot of very heady ideas and certainly something that requires a great deal more thought by all of us before we make an issue of it. But, with hundreds of spaces and hundreds more sprouting up every day it is a concern we will need to address soon. <br>
<br>As <a href="http://hackerspaces.org">hackerspaces.org</a> infrastructure projects begin to emerge that bind us closer together and bring our individual resources into a shared pool, we will need to have an operating framework that will help guide their development and prevent harm to the movement or the hackerspaces organization.<br>
<br>These are my thoughts. Take them as you will. I am certainly in very deep waters at this point and am not comfortable with what I am typing. Though some of that may be from the beer fumes ( we are brewing currently at resistor ). <br>
<br>-Matt Joyce<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 8:52 PM, Jens Ohlig <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jens@ccc.de">jens@ccc.de</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
Am 11.05.2009 um 00:59 schrieb Paul Böhm:<div class="im"><br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hey Jens,<br>
<br>
Not every organization can take care of everything. It's so cheap to<br>
create organizations these days, that i believe it to make much more<br>
sense to have focused organizations with whose goals the members<br>
really identify, rather than big catch-all organizations.<br>
<br>
I don't see why being a part of a hackerspace should give anyone the<br>
right to guilt me into supporting political causes or proposed<br>
solutions that i might not believe in.<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
Sure, it's probably better to have a separate organization for questions like agricultural subsidy politics or car pooling or which party or candidate you should vote for in the next general election of your country. I couldn't care less about all this questions. However, for the politics of hackerspaces and the very political act of running an open space there is probably currently no better organization than this mailinglist. Also, the discussion on how the politics of hackerspaces should work should take place in the spaces, not elsewhere. Just claiming that it's apolitical what we do is not an option for me.<br>
<br>
Please look beyond the tone the monochrom piece is written in -- sure, it sounds a lot like leftist academia theory speak. I admit that this language, like Club-Mate, is an acquired taste: One gets used to it (or doesn't). Parts of the essay could be rewritten with less inside jokes mentioning Marx and Adorno and more Lolcats and Matrix quotes. But this is not really the point. The point is that we are doing something highly political here and I'd like us to think about the direction we are taking this before we wake up and realize that yet again things didn't work out like in the utopias that came before us.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br><font color="#888888">
Jens</font><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br>