<div>Excellent point though I think the argument shift a bit from integration with the local community to "what is a Hackerspace?".<br></div><div><br></div><div>I think hackerspaces have hacker activism inherent to it's purpose, without needing to declare it as such. Education, copyrights, patents, hoarding of knowledge, etc are all challenged at a hackerspace daily.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Which makes integration to the community all the more important. By becoming part of society, society itself is challenging these barriers.</div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 4:06 PM, Mel <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mel@hackersouverts.fr">mel@hackersouverts.fr</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">There are some really good points going on on both sides of the debate in here :D<div><br></div><div>I come from a very different background from what seems to constitute the base of hackers in my country and like Ross, haven't had as much exposure to it as I wish - in part because spaces are still somewhat few and far between (takes a while to actually get to the physical spaces) and because they are sometimes not as welcoming as one might hope.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I do agree with you Far, on the account that ideally hackerspaces should advocate for a more open culture and teach the people the system is failing (even moreso on this one : I work as a librarian in a middle school, and witness the drama firsthand). It doesn't necessarily mean, however, that being part of the local economical fabric is necessarily a thing to avoid - as long as it can be an advantage to the missions the spaces state for themselves. A bit like this passage in the book "Makers" where characters argue about creating a company to help represent a distributed network or rides despite the wishes of their "leader" : it's just a convenient way to create large structures, and it has the side-effect of generating some sort of wealth - but in the end it's but a tool to an end, not the end in itself.<br>
<br></div><div>Your point about avoidance and distrust of authorities is interesting too - in that said authorities are sometimes partly responsible for the situation in which certain areas find themselves. However, in a context where authorities are welcoming bottom-top innovation instead of squashing or drawing (political and/or economical) profit from what hackerspaces can offer to the community, couldn't that work ?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Brilliant debate overall though - keep the great ideas coming !</div><div><br></div><div>T.<br clear="all"><font color="#888888"><br>-- <br></font><div class="im">Hackers Ouverts - Hackerspace nomade en Īle de France<br>
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