[hackerspaces] Order vs anarchy - how do you deal with that

Sun Nov 11 05:32:14 CET 2018

There is no problem that cannot be solved by the liberal application of
nuclear weapons.  At least that's what I have learned from starship
troopers.

On Sat, Nov 10, 2018, 8:30 PM Edward L Platt <ed at elplatt.com wrote:

> Sounds like the space might be growing faster than it can support. It
> really helps to have a common vision between members. Several of the design
> patterns I wrote about here (
> https://elplatt.com/new-hackerspace-design-patterns ) are relevant, in
> particular: principles, signage, and physics.
>
> Happy hacking,
> Ed
>
> On Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 11:23 PM Christopher Agocs <chris at agocs.org>
> wrote:
>
>> At the South Side Hackerspace in Chicago, we started off with a set of
>> bylaws that defined how the space was going to be run. The bylaws defined a
>> board of directors, who could appoint members to be responsible for various
>> spaces within our hackerspace (woodshop, electronics bench, 3D printer
>> zone, etc.). These "area captains" take ownership in making sure tools are
>> maintained and things are put away. We believe very strongly in actocracy,
>> but we also believe that there needs to be some structure to keep
>> things moving.
>>
>> The bylaws allow for members to be banned (this has only come up once).
>> They also allow members to propose rules by which the space must be run.
>> One of the rules defines a means storing half-finished projects in the
>> space, so long as there is the owner's name and date they'll finish the
>> project. If a lot of clutter is building up in the space, a board member
>> can put tags on abandoned projects, take pictures of them, email the
>> membership, and give people a week to respond before projects are thrown
>> out. There's very little email drama around it because people understand
>> the rules.
>>
>> We believe that most people are generally doing good, and so any
>> leadership from the board is a light touch.
>>
>> The bylaws are available here: https://wiki.sshchicago.org/wiki/Bylaws
>>
>> To answer your questions directly:
>>
>> > How do you organize your hackerspace?
>> We have a group of 5-7 members who serve on the board of directors. The
>> positions are elected every year, and any member in good standing may run.
>> The board selects members to act as area captains; they're responsible for
>> making sure tools are maintained, the areas are cleaned, and supplies are
>> bought. They spend some of their time at the space taking care of the space.
>>
>> > Does really anarchy/actocracy work for you or do you have some set of
>> more specific rules?
>> More specific. Actocracy works well in early stages when a small core of
>> people are building the space, but it doesn't scale well I've found.
>>
>> > How do you deal with mis-behaving members ?
>> The board has the power to ban a member, but it's only happened once and
>> after a lengthy series of warnings and uncomfortable conversations. If a
>> member messes up, we talk to them, explain what they did wrong, and help
>> them improve. If they don't want to do better, well, that's a problem.
>>
>> > How do you deal with equipment having damaged/stolen?
>> Equipment breaks. We set aside some money to fix it. If we find a member
>> is intentionally damaging equipment, that's a problem that we deal with.
>>
>> > Do you reward members having put some efforts in hackerpace running or
>> just all members are equal?
>> We have two tiers of members with keys to the space: Full members donate
>> more money every month; they can vote and get a storage locker. Partial
>> members get keys to the space and access to the tools, but they can't vote
>> or get a locker. The board can, and does, give people membership upgrades
>> to taking on additional responsibilities around the space.
>>
>> > How do you deal with general mess made by people?
>> We grumble and clean it up. Area captains spend a couple hours a month
>> making sure their areas are usable. Personally, if I've noticed a lot of
>> tools left out, I'll spend some time working on tool storage rather than my
>> own projects.
>>
>> > How do you deal with abandoned dust-covered projects whose owner
>> doesn't care about these anymore?
>> Create a rule that the membership finds reasonable that lets you give a
>> lot of warning that something will be thrown out if the owner doesn't
>> remove it or petition for it to be saved in an entirely reasonable amount
>> of time. Give plenty of warning, and err on the side of leniency, but you
>> can't let your hackerspace become an unusable pile of electronics waste.
>>
>> Good luck!
>> -Chris
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 10, 2018 at 5:47 PM Robert Holub <mrholub at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>> I'm a member of one of hackerpace that is having interpersonal issues
>>> now
>>> that could be described like this:
>>>
>>> Although it has about 50 of paying members, only few of these are
>>> actually
>>> active ( i.e at least showing up sometimes in  place).
>>> It is practically impossible to ban somebody for anything (stealing
>>> etc.)
>>> as there is no any rule for this and as you can imagine single
>>> mis-behaving person can be a pain and there is no official way how to
>>> deal
>>> with it.
>>>
>>> Hackerspace has moved to the new place and it was a lot of work to
>>> rebuild
>>> it, some of members has put great effort in that while majority didn't
>>> care.
>>> There was a great mess in all of stuff after moving in, some of members
>>> has categorized stuff like parts, tools, wires etc.
>>> There were many dust-covered non-working projects project abandoned
>>> years
>>> ago so it was decided put these on the table and put it on mailing list
>>> in
>>> order to let owners know and let decide what to do with these.
>>> There was a huge flame war around this despite the fact that NO
>>> creations
>>> were intended to be thrown away just sort these out somehow (only junk
>>> like old PC power supplies having wires cut off were thrown out).
>>> Most of people didn't care about these old projects so these were put
>>> in
>>> the box and again NOTHING was thrown away.
>>> Now the place is more or less built up but there is no much of activity
>>> there as there are 2 movements in the hackerspace:
>>>
>>> First movement insists on actocracy but the problem is that leads in
>>> long-term to damaged projects/equipment of other people etc.
>>>
>>> Other movement would like to set more specific rules, for example:
>>> - option to ban persons acting against interest of hackerpsace
>>> (stealing
>>> etc.)
>>> - reward members putting efforts in making hackerspace running etc.
>>> - avoiding damaging of equipment so members wouldn't need worry about
>>> having some more sophisticated (and expensive) equipment there.
>>>
>>> It was told that actocracy / anarchy works in other hackerspace but no
>>> examples were given.
>>> This has got me an idea to simply ask how this is actually done in
>>> other
>>> hackerspaces.
>>>
>>> As you can probably feel, I'm in movement of setting up some rules in
>>> order to be able to keep some more sophisticated equipment in
>>> hackerspace
>>> without having it ruined etc.
>>>
>>> My question is:
>>>
>>> How do you organize your hackerspace?
>>> Does really anarchy/actocracy work for you or do you have some set of
>>> more
>>> specific rules?
>>> How do you deal with mis-behaving members ?
>>> How do you deal with equipment having damaged/stolen?
>>> Do you reward members having put some efforts in hackerpace running or
>>> just all members are equal?
>>> How do you deal with general mess made by people?
>>> How do you deal with abandoned dust-covered projects whose owner
>>> doesn't
>>> care about these anymore?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for your answers and putting some light in this.
>>>
>>> With respect,
>>>
>>> Mr.Holub
>>>
>>> ---
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>>>
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>>>
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>
>
> --
> Edward L. Platt
> PhD Candidate, University of Michigan School of Information
> he/him | https://elplatt.com | @elplatt | @elplatt at social.coop
>
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