[hackerspaces] Hacktivist?

[Yves Quemener]

On 05/26/2011 06:01 PM, Agent 5 wrote:
> If so, what do you and your Hackerspace do in your community to raise
> awareness in changes of online rights and technology and such?

We are doing public workshops of "bidouille and informatique libre"
(tinkering and open computer science) where we encourage people, especially
people with no computer skills, to bring old computers in order to learn
how to resuscitate them. Sounds purely technical ? Well, a lot of people do
not understand what an OS is. When putting another hard drive in, you have
to explain that you have to put an OS there. "It can be Windows sure, but
do you have a license that will work on this configuration ? Because we are
not a piracy ring. If you don't have one, you'll be sorry to hear that
windows do not sell old windows anymore. But there are open source
alternatives, let me guide you to the process."

I also once made a crypto workshop for beginners where we would install the
enigmail for thunderbird and explained the basics of asymmetrical crypto. I
don't think most people will continue to use it (I am still looking for a
good solution to help beginners use stong crypto in emails) but they were
very interested in the explanation of the trip an email has to do between
two mailboxes and the number of people that can read it on the way. I think
most of them understood why these technologies are essential to privacy online.

I have tried to be part of the local pirate party but backed down now. 90%
drama, 10% action.