[hackerspaces] will the fruits of our labors be used for good or for evil?

[dosman]

Our space was informally approached to do defensive and offensive projects for a branch of the US armed forces (completely independent of the DARPA grants). There are two things which became immediately obvious about the proposition. First, while interesting, the project would have consumed all the time several of us had for "fun hacking". We already have decent jobs and having a 2nd job doing defense work is not what our space is about. Second, we had multiple members who would have instantly left the group if we had accepted the proposal. It wasn't worth loosing any members over, we chose not to participate. There are other issues to be weighed in there too.

Beyond the DARPA grants, there are also a myriad of security and defense companies running around looking to acquire talent from the hacker community. Be aware that when you get a security clearance you sign away various amounts of your rights. It's up to each person to decide if it's worth the price, for some it's probably ok. I once signed away my rights to everything I created on my own free time to a former employer. One of the coolest security related projects I did on my own time during that period (which I specifically asked for permission to publish) is now buried by NDA. It was a good job but I'd only ever sign such an NDA again if I was joining the Star Gate program ;-).

That's my 2 cents.

-dosman

On Dec 4, 2011, at 3:23 PM, Willow Brugh wrote:

> I set up the Town Hall in Seattle because I believe in mudge and I believe this is an incredibly nuanced area. I wanted to offer people one more option, and trust them to act in ways which align with their values and concerns. Nothing like getting into the complicated world of humanitarian and disaster response to teach you about multipurpose and nuance in these sorts of things.
> 
> Any tool is a weapon if you hold it right.
> 
> I can go into more detail upon request when I have someone to transcribe for me. I suck at these one-handed keboards still.
> 
> please excuse typos and delays. i seem to have broken my arm.
> Willow Brugh // willowbl00
> 
> School Factory : GWOB ; Space Federation
> Schedule a meeting with me
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 22:16, Jacob Rosenthal <jjrosent at heatsynclabs.org> wrote:
> Willow (and separately Space Fed?) seem to be pimping it as well
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 11:14 PM, Al Jigen Billings <albill at openbuddha.com> wrote:
> On 11/29/11 10:10 PM, Justis Peters wrote:
> On 11/30/2011 12:44 AM, Al Jigen Billings wrote:
> I'm also on the e-mail lists for a number of other hackerspaces and this is a debate, on small scale, that many of them are having on their own. The DoD money is being discussed quite a bit. So far, I think everyone has made pretty much the same observations that I've made here and decided it was money best left on the table. Maybe you and your space feel different but I know of no one who has actually applied for the DoD money.
> This finally makes more sense. Prior to this comment, I did not understand where you got the idea that any hackerspace was considering taking money from the DoD. Nobody on this list had suggested it.
> 
> Our space has not been approached by the DoD or DARPA and I doubt that we would take money from them. All our funding thus far has been from individuals donations and membership dues. We enjoy the autonomy that is afforded to us by that model.
> 
>  As far as I know, no one has been approached personally. That said, the DoD has put it out there. It has been blogged and tweeted about (I recall something in one of the Wired blogs, something on Adafruit's blog, and similar) so people are aware of it and discussing it.
> 
> Al
> 
> 
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> 
> -- 
> Jacob Rosenthal
> Champion | HeatSync Labs
> 480.389.4743 | jacob at heatsynclabs.org 
> Twitter: @heatsynclabs @jacobrosenthal
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