[hackerspaces] Radio Shack Hackerspace Challenge: $1000 Prize!

[Philip Poten]

The thing is, there are people travelling through the world and
actively trying to spread the hackerspace idea across borders,
religions and cultures. Not too long ago, a group of hackers went to
Baghdad to make a hackerspace happen there. (Bre? Wasn't that you?)

This is spreading the movement, and can be sold as such.

If you now arrive with your gimmicky 1000USD and a fig-leaf legal
issue, it's a bit ... weird. I do understand, as does everyone else
here that *your* target audience of course does not extend beyond the
USA. *Ours* however, does. And our efforts are communicated by
volunteers locally and globally all the time - which incidentally is
why hackerspaces are becoming interesting commercially.

So talking about how a border-limited corporate-sponsored cash-contest
is creating "good PR for hackerspaces" is kinda ... well, it irks me.

I'm not trying to piss on your contest per se, but these
border-limited PR projects are becoming more common due to the media
presence hackerspaces are gaining (on their own, mind you) and are
troubling to some of us, and I'm having the urge to articulate why.
They are taking a sizeable (read: global) component of our culture
away from us.

Anyhow, good luck to your efforts nevertheless, and maybe next time
you can make sure that this aspect receives more attention.

Philip

2013/5/24 Ken Murphy <kenmrph at gmail.com>:
> HI all-
>
> My role in this Hackerspace Challenge is limited to the recruitment and
> day-to-day logistics, so I'm not fully qualified to speak to the legal
> issues. However I do understand that there are legal complications in
> running a contest with a cash prize that make it difficult to include other
> countries. This is not particular to the US, and you'll see the same thing
> with contests run by organizations based in other countries.
>
> Ken
>
>
> On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 6:28 AM, Chris Weiss <cweiss at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'm pretty sure I've seen threads that only apply to EU spaces and I
>> didn't see any crying from US spaces about it.  now if you want to
>> complain about a company (ab)using the list for self-promotion, that's
>> a whole different angle.
>>
>> My take:  this puts "hackerspace" as a "thing" in a more public view
>> and helps a little to take back the "hacker" moniker that mass media
>> has stolen.  it's a good thing even if it is region limited.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 7:57 AM, Felicitus <felicitus at felicitus.org>
>> wrote:
>> >> Unfortunately, we need to limit it to the US. Sorry!
>> >
>> > As some others have replied before: Yes, this sucks. I especially agree
>> > with Philip Poten. If you're looking for cheap advertisement, don't use
>> > the general list, where there are probably more non-US readers than the
>> > other way around.
>> >
>> > Felicitus
>> > _______________________________________________
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