[hs-equality] What do you think our goals are? More input the better!

[Mitch Altman]

Hey Rubin, It makes sense!  Good stuff.  I think what you wrote makes lots of sense.  I agree with what you said the site is about, and what it is not about. I'm feeling way to pressed for time at the moment to add anything more at this point (getting ready to go to Cairo for two weeks). Maybe it would be good to get a wiki up where we all can play with content?  What you wrote is a really good starting point. Best,Mitch.  -------------------------Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:15:18 -0700
From: rubin at starset.net
To: equality at lists.hackerspaces.org
Subject: [hs-equality] What do you think our goals are? More input the	better!

Now that I'm thinking about it more, we should really discuss what our
goals are for the site. That's really going to force us to decide where
we go with CMS, if that's what we need.
 
Here's some stuff I've been thinking about when I look over this domain
I bought spur of the moment (note as much as I'm American, my English
writing sucks and this is far from a Mission Statement)...
 
hackerequality.org eventually could...
 
* Harbor a community of people that are available to discuss equality
and acceptance issues within the hacker (spaces) community (through a
mailing list?)
* Provide a space for user (at the moment us) generated content
regarding topics...
** What does/doesn't equality mean for an individual and a space?
** Different qualities of a person or space of which inequality could
possibly happen within a space (this list is getting bigger and bigger
in my head, fucking metric versus imperial knife fight), at the moment
I'm using $ATTRIBUTE
** How to approach a individual, group, or a space, when inequality
happens (again lots of stuff here in my head)
* Provide a directory for similar content elsewhere, and related content
(such as generally coming out to your family)
* Schedule possible get-togethers, talks/panels at conferences
* Have a list of hacker spaces/groups that feel like they meet some
understanding that they provide equality towards anyone who comes into
their space (to a certain extent, this is something that'll need much
discussion), and a button they can throw on their site to link back
* Really drive home the notion that everyone has an $ATTRIBUTE and that
it's ok to be that $ATTRIBUTE
* Throw a Dance Party?
 
Very much in my own humble opinion I don't think hackerquality.org
should be...
 
* A place where people can list their name and state "I'm
gay/queer/feminist hacker/Christian/emacs user/vegan/dinosaur/$ATTRIBUTE!"
* A place where people can state "Because this website exists they say
you HAVE TO let me into your hacker space and let me very loudly partake
in being $ATTRIBUTE"
* Content that makes people feel like they must always label
themselves/come out as being $ATTRIBUTE when approaching a new
person/space/group, in order to feel accepted
* An $ATTRIBUTE only club (I'd like people to meet other people going
through some of the same issues and troubles and help through that, but
I really don't want this to turn into queerdating.com or vimdating.com
(though I would totally love to help on both of those sites separately))
 
I want the site to provide things to an individual/space/group to enable
them to feel comfortable about who they are/someone else is, and to
provide them with feedback on how to interact with person/space/group
when acceptance isn't there. Eventually I want this notion of acceptance
to be a part of most of the major hacker space howtos/manifestos on the
internet.
 
Wishing we could all get together for some drinks and just do a group
brain dump. And with all that being said (typed), maybe we need a wiki
to collaborate on a bunch of this? :P
 
Also would really like to start building this $ATTRIBUTE table because I
feel like the more and more people that get interested in on this train,
the more and more they are going to be under the notion that we are (I
am) talking exclusively about being gay/lesbian/bi/trans/queer issues,
which isn't the care. LGBTQ is a very big part of this project and will
gain (already has?) much focus, but I don't want people to be surprised
or raise an eyebrow when the subject header "I talk to God, this is how
I interact with my hacker space without offending everyone else, this is
how I can feel accepted there myself" will eventually pop up on this
mailing list.
 
Do I make sense here? Because it's 2:12AM and this Bugzilla migration
I'm doing for work that needs to be done before people come into the
office in a few hours has just shat the bed.
 
-- 
Rubin
rubin at starset.net
 

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