[hackerspaces] Hackerspaces Manual

[Koen Martens]

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Hi,

On Mon, Apr 04, 2011 at 11:14:38AM -0400, Greg McGuire wrote:
> Now the two of us have slowed down and have covered everything we put in the outline on day one.  We've talked about the outline of this manual on IRC a few times and I know that one or two other people other than us have looked at it and modified it, but we're looking for more input and to get the ball rolling on taking it from the outline stages and making it into an actual manual.  With that said, the outline can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X3dhkW4VXzs56QsfMd9iUj8k0Tv8gl1Pnqu4-aq17ug/edit?hl=en and we encourage everyone to read it over, add comments, and make changes. Furthermore, if you want to create anything referenced in the outline that would be awesome as well.  While 2 of us originally made this document, it's something that, in my opinion, all of us should be a part of.

While I applaud the effort, parts of it scare me.

It looks like someone is trying to set up a normative document defining
what a hackerspace is. And the council, what's that supposed to be?? An
enforcing agency, stripping away the label 'hackerspace' when someone's
definition of a hackerspace does not match with that of the council?

Also, the standardization paragraph scares me. What's that, a list of
software one should use to be a hackerspace? Mediawiki?? Google apps??
What if I want to use other software?? Why should we even try to 
standardize this?? Doesn't that stifle innovation?

I mean, there's a lot of useful stuff in the document, don't get me 
wrong. But hey, if we're gonna spell out in detail how to start a 
hackerspace, how is that a hackerspace? Where's the creativity?? Where's
the hack??

Anyway, I'm not dismissing the project here. And realize that if I have
complaints I should fix it myself. I applaud the effort, but I wouldn't
want a global organisation to guard the hackerspaces 'brand'. For me, 
it's about creativity and freedom!

Gr,

Koen (gmc)

> I've also taking the liberty of creating a shared DropBox folder so that if people already have files created that they want to share than we can just throw them into that and everyone will have them.  If anyone is interested in joining this DropBox let me know and I will add you.
> 
> That's all I got.
> 
> --Greg from NESIT--
> 
> Links:
> 
> Hackerspace Manual Outline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X3dhkW4VXzs56QsfMd9iUj8k0Tv8gl1Pnqu4-aq17ug/edit?hl=en
> Hackerspace Manual WikiProject: http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/HackerspaceWiki:Hackerspaces_Manual

> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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