[hackerspaces] DARPA Selects Hackerspace Space Program for contract negotiation

[Matt Joyce]

Hell anything of sufficient mass put in orbit can be used as a pretty
nasty weapon.

Start there.  See how far you get before the military is involved.

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Tim Miller <timmillertech at gmail.com> wrote:
> Those of us that are not strongly against military or those who remember
> that the space shuttle was funded largely by the military to carry weapons
> and spy satellites. Maybe we fully support getting support from DARPA and
> all you that curse the name of anything military are passing judgement that
> maybe you are not warranted to give. The formation and success of NASA was
> largely because of military money.  It seems people forget where that money
> really comes from, it comes from our paychecks and if it has to get funneled
> through hell and passed out by the devil to get to where we want to go,
> maybe that is our choice as hackers.  Defense doesn't always mean bigger
> badder space lasers. Defense can also be making sure that the skills needed
> to maintain a country's infrastructure are intact and keep and expand the
> country's manufacturing and continue to grow the skills methods
> and facilities. We have already seen what happens when you put all of a type
> of manufacturing ability in an one region.  The new grand experiment is if
> we can do better in our distributed community shops and if you have a
> problem with working with people with the same goal as yours so be it, go
> join that group and sit back while the rest of us succeed in an awesome
> manner or fail miserably knowing we tried something. And the next time your
> city is decimated by a natural disaster go up to the National Guard member
> doing everything they can to help and tell them go away you don't want
> anything to do with the military.
>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 4:43 PM, Marc Juul <juul at labitat.dk> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 4:31 PM, Jerry Isdale <isdale at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > My Fellow Hackers...
>> >
>> > Today I got an email from DARPA stating that they have selected our
>> > "Hackerspace Space Program" for contract negotiation.
>>
>> Interesting / Congratulations? What does that mean exactly? How
>> certain is it that you will get funding?
>>
>> > Those who want to flame about taking government money can do so.. We
>> > just
>> > wont pass any $ your way.
>>
>> While I am very happy to see more interest / funding for space-related
>> hacker activities I think there are some important issues here that
>> you may be ignoring. One is that by calling yourselves the
>> "hackerspace space program" you are associating hackers, the
>> hackerspace movement and specifically everyone working on
>> space-related projects in hackerspaces with DARPA and the military.
>> Knowing that there are many who are strongly anti-military, it would
>> make sense to call name this project something else, perhaps something
>> less general?
>>
>> This is not just government, this is military funding. That is an
>> important distinction for many.
>>
>> If is of course your decision who you fund, but starting out by
>> calling any criticism of your decision to apply for military funding
>> using the hackerspace name "flaming" seems itself fairly inflammatory.
>> The term hacker is for many associated with a strong sense of ethics,
>> and it is always a good idea to be mindful of the people who disagree
>> with your actions on ethical grounds, even if you end up not acting on
>> their criticism.
>>
>> As you are obviously aware there are people who will be unwilling to
>> work with you on this project once you accept this funding. I wonder
>> if you have done any research to estimate the loss in expertise,
>> manpower and ideas, or how much of a rift this will cause in the
>> hacker/maker community?
>>
>> This news comes close to the news that the Maker Faire has accepted
>> DARPA funding, so when I mention a rift in the community it may be
>> bigger than just this one project.
>>
>> For those who are suspicious of military involvement but not outright
>> unwilling to work with a DARPA funded project, it would be really
>> useful to have a summary of the extent and terms of this project and
>> funding: What are the strings attached from DARPA? Are there any
>> countries you will not be allowed to work with and do any of them have
>> DIY space groups or hackerspaces that will be excluded? Will you own
>> the copyright to anything copyright'able you produce and will you
>> control licensing / patenting? Where is the project description (can
>> we read the proposal you sent to DARPA)? Who will control the funding
>> and how will it be divided between project participants?  How much
>> funding did you apply for and how certain are you that you will get
>> it? Who are involved with this project already?
>>
>> --
>> Marc Juul
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>