[sudoroom] separation of politics and hackerspace?

[Jacob Shiach]

I just want to say that SudoRoom was started specifically to be more than just a space. If a space and equipment is all that someone wants, there's Techshop. Tinkering is fun and a good way to learn, but for me at least that's not enough. Why should we limit ourselves to making blinky things when the world is full of challenging problems? Seems a lot more interesting to me. Plus the small side effect of making people's lives better.

Ps social justice, digital citizenship and citizen science aren't political, they're just good ideas.

-
Jacob Shiach


On May 9, 2012, at 10:58 PM, "Patrik D'haeseleer" <patrikd at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think the impression that SudoRoom is more about social justice than
> about "hacking" is simply due to the fact that we don't have a
> permanent space yet, and that we've been doing a lot of planning
> instead of working on projects. I'm sure we'll start seeing less talk
> and more hacking as soon as we actually get some space to spread out
> and tools to work with.
> 
> Personally, I do not think that hackerspaces necessarily need to have
> a social mission. Sometimes it's fun just to get together with friends
> to tinker with stuff, or hold a LAN party. Some hackerspaces focus
> more on social justice and alternative communities. Some focus more on
> incubating ideas to commercialize them. Some focus on art and
> technology. And some just want to play with Legos. It's all good!
> 
> That said - yes, some of the people involved in SudoRoom are very
> passionate about social justice issues, and I would expect we'll see
> some projects along those lines - whether it's designing web spaces
> for Occupy, or hacking cell phones for the homeless. But I wouldn't
> necessarily want that to *define* the space. If someone wants to work
> on some hacks for a better world - great! If someone wants to do some
> synthetic biology and create an E. coli that blinks, I think that
> should be OK too.
> 
> Patrik
> 
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 6:21 PM, Phil <dude8604 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I decided last week to advertise the fundraiser on Reddit, in some of the
>> local subreddits.  There was one response I got that I think is something we
>> should discuss.
>> 
>> 
>> ----------------------
>> 
>> Also, when I think Hacker Space, I think of a big (or small) space where
>> people can come and work on projects, either by themselves but in the
>> presence of others, or with a group. There may be some tools and stuff. You
>> pay money per month for use of the space.
>> 
>> But on Sudo Room, there is a lot about social justice and etc etc etc. This
>> is great! But not what I guess I think about when I think about "hacker
>> space", and if I were to be honest not really what I'd be interested in
>> going to a "hacker space" for.
>> 
>> So... what is Sudo Room really?
>> 
>> --------------------
>> 
>> The rest of the thread is
>> here: http://www.reddit.com/r/oakland/comments/t4lex/sudo_room_a_newlyforming_east_bay_hackerspace/
>> 
>> 
>> So it seems like most of us have political interests, which I think Sudo
>> Room should definitely have room for, however I think to be inclusive
>> of everyone it should be separate from the hackerspace as an organization.
>> Or somehow balance the two so that people like this are interested in
>> joining us.  What do you all think?
>> 
>> 
>> - Phil
>> 
>> 
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>> 
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