[hackerspaces] ~ post HSF waves ~

[jaromil]

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re all,

just  writing while  routed to  .it  by a  train, right  after the  #2
hackerspace festival in Paris, still  feeling its marks on my body and
soul :) and i  really believe it will stay as a  legendary HSF for the
future generations to come :)

i've written up a small summary of those presentations i could attend,
all  very interesting  and  incredibly professional,  held  in a  very
unconventional  space and  way,  something quite  mind-blowing :)  the
account  will   be  published  in  the  research   journal  kept  here
http://jaromil.dyne.org/journal

now some more  things i'll write down here... but  not for the general
public: just between us, reflections  i hope can help our community to
grow better :)

the tmp/lab  hackers are real  visionaries: they actually  placed this
HSF on an extreme border, a zone that is uncommon to all participants,
really  getting out  of them  what  can be  the meaning  of a  "hacker
spirit".

among  the things  that  really worked  well  in HSF  was the  overall
self-organising  attitude, which  really helps  to do  things together
rather than asking someone to organize, empowering all of us, since we
do have power :) i see this attitude as some kind of no-nonsense for a
place  hosting an  HSF, a  novel attitude  (we're just  used to  it in
hackmeeting.org events) that can turn useful even a non-place like the
one of  tmp/lab in the  Banlieues of Paris.   So I personally  wish we
continue on this  track rather than expecting someone  gets engaged to
do  things for  us,  it is  so much  fun  and so  much different  from
anything else around.

however i kind of sense that to survive in hostile situations we still
have  to  put more  collective  focus  on  logistical and  strategical
solutions if we want to repeat  something like that, for instance in a
place like Instanbul. but definitely we  are on a good track. an HOWTO
would be real  good, maybe we have already  enough experience to start
writing it...

i guess HSF  will not be repeated in the same placeq, at least that's
what  some of  "us organizers"  feel, mostly  because we  are  used to
progress always on new exciting projects :) while Meinhard's launch of
doing a THK in Instanbul next year is quite inspiring...  ;)

i personally think that the place given to the tmp/lab in Paris is one
of the worst one could ever  imagine, so i guess we should really move
on  and  choose  a  direction  that is  outreaching  new  grounds  and
experiences.



something   thing  that  REALLY   worked  WELL   is  *food*.   it  was
DELICIOUS. kudos  to JNM (craslab.org)  and ALL those who  helped. big
kudos to the farmers who brought  us a 400EUR worth of biological food
that fueled  the whole  festival.  Look up  the french  AMAP networks,
they are awesome. there are times when even a 5 star catering can make
you hug a toilet after two  days of eating in a conference; considered
the conditions and the tools,  this was some magic "heros feast" spell
casted  twice per  day,  with vegetarian  dishes  for everyone,  still
filling up the diet very well.

after 3 days of vegetarian food  some people decided to make a BBQ (in
fact much  needed for those who are  doomed by meat in  their diet) my
only praise  in doing that  would be that  the meat BBQ  also includes
some research on the provenience of  the food, on its quality, doing a
direct deal  with some local  producers. if we  are hackers we  can do
that to (information retrieval anyone?) , and it would probably mean a
lot more to ourselves, the spirit we are defining and our own stomach.

another remarkable  achievement is that  nothing was stolen:  at least
that's  what i  could collect  as information,  assuming  that someone
mentioned a missing wallet, but it  could have been a snowball by word
of mouth? since  i've knew from the  guy who did lost it  just about a
moleskin was lost and then found  the day after.  however, even with a
single wallet, this is really  incredible, considering we left all our
stuff always hanging around scattered and not really caring much.



let me also spend a few  words on the parody celebration of the church
of security,  which might  have disgusted someone  for its use  of the
cross/key symbol.

the church of  security is a fine art-piece, making  use of the parody
form to  raise certain questions on  the validity of  security, on the
use  of  concepts of  security  in  our society  and  at  last on  the
perception of it by those who don't know what is security. as such, it
has to  be seen  as a humoristic  joke and  i encourage those  who are
taking it  too seriously  to consider the  importance of irony  in our
society, especially this  very hacker society: irony it  is actually a
manifestation    of    intelligence,    something    most    religious
fundamentalists are  totally lacking,  something that can  make people
closer by taking themselves a bit less seriously.

to deny  representing anything in  a frivolous way is  an obscurantist
attitude that doesn't belong  anymore to our hyper-connected societies
in the 3rd millennium  - and when it still does, it  ruins us in anger
and war.

OTOH   if  something   is   really  disturbing   and  interpreted   as
disrespectful by some  of our sisters and brothers,  we should reflect
on it and reconsider it for the sake of unity in diversity.  *respect*
is indeed  very important, esp.  when sharing  together some un/common
ground.

i admit  there are things that,  even if clearly set  as parody, would
actually make  me upset,  if not  worst, i would  even shout  at them.
noone is perfect on this and to provoke on purpose among us would just
be mean and disgregate all the potential gathered by our diversities.

so i propose we take the COS  as a joke, which is also said in italian
to "be entertaining only when lasting short".  however, if the artists
and  popes of  the COS  decide to  go on,  i would  strongly recommend
including ALL symbols of every existing religion, for par condicio :)

specifically talking of Christian  religion, it is remarkable how some
of  its most  recent  positions  (and in  its  various instances)  are
advocating in  favour of migrant rights, against  societies founded on
paranoia and  war and against the individualist  mis-trust often found
in western civilisatons.

far  from not  acknowledging  this position,  the  church of  security
acquires a clear (and well  refined i'd say) parodistic picture of how
absurd  a Church  would become  in advocating  its contrary  and, more
theoretically, the existence of a "Real Security" in this world.

so let's  be friends and  lets try to  make more jokes,  that actually
helps to not get bored eh ;)

here some LOLZ

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIiFGMYpLUc

 http://www.badkarmaproductions.com/jc/

hope ppl don't get hangry for it like for Mohammed...


 "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
  - Voltaire



ciao!

- -- 

jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org

GPG: 779F E8B5 47C7 3A89 4112  64D0 7B64 3184 B534 0B5E

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