[hackerspaces] Largest Hackerspaces in US

[Far McKon]

Charlie,
I understand what you are getting at, and to some extent you have a
point, but I have to disagree with a lot of the particulars.
> techy people tend to be a bit more
> open as it is, at least in comparison to other groups.

I think the word you may be looking for isn't 'open' but
'Laissez-faire' .  'open to people who are already know what they are
doing'
In most cases when I hear/see the term term 'open' , I'm understanding
it to be more than just 'we don't actively turn people away' . Which
is from what I am reading, the point you are getting at.

>I tend to go for the just get on with it method. We encourage self starters and generally people
> who turn up with a 'teach me' (not to be confused with I want to be learn )
> tend not to come back.

I think that is pretty clearly 'Laissez-faire' , and not the same as
'open'.  You are basically saying 'we are accessible to people who
already know and act like we are accessible'.    But I also think that
is a far cry from being actively open, which involves doing some work
and planning to reach out and making greater accessibility.   I think
this gets into some of the distinction between 'not-racist' and
'anti-racist' , or 'agnostic' vs 'atheist' , in that it's a tri-state
view of things (pro/ ignore/ con) vs a bi-state ( pro/ con).

And I think 'Laissez-faire' is A-OK, but when I hear someone talk
about how 'open' their space is, it leads me (and I think other
people, if I can generalize) to assume active work to be more
accessible, rather than just a 'we take people who already know to
come to us' style.

I think geeks in general tend to think they are more open than they
truly are.  I hear a lot of groups (Open Source, Hackerspace,
programming groups) say 'oh, we are open to everyone'  when they
really mean 'we are open to everyone (that already knows what they
want)' or ' we are open to everyone(that we don't have to teach new
things)' or even 'we are open to everyone (that has already has a C.S.
degree, and 3 years of related experience, and knows how to find our
developers mailing list).

Which can be pretty small subsets of 'everyone'

Hack on,
- Far McKon

http://www.FarMcKon.net "Creatively Maladjusted"

P.S. Charlie X,  also sorry if this thread is a lot of replies
directed at you. I think you have some good points, and I just want to
clarify my counter viewpoint.  Hope you aren't feeling ganged up on,
I don't think that's anyone's intention.