[Noisebridge-discuss] Piece on Hacker Spaces (with mention of NoiseBridge) in Irish Times

[Michael Shiloh]

Oh, and congrats on the great article!

Michael

Danny O'Brien wrote:
> Hey folks,
> 
> So I have a regular column in the Irish Times, and I wrote a little
> about NoiseBridge in it. I mentioned the piece to Jake, and he
> suggested I post it here.
> 
> I've already had one query about setting up a Dublin hackerspace (one
> of the intentions of the article), so if any of you hear of people
> interested in this (or London, where I also know a few people mulling
> the idea), let me know, and I'll put them in touch with each other.
> 
> d.
> 
> http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/1024/1224715113204.html
> 
> THE FIRST hacker space I can recall was the L0ft: a Boston loft shared
> by a hat-making company and a group of grungy security experts and
> computer underground figures with names like "Mudge" and "Kingpin".
> 
> The L0ft lasted from 1992 to 2000: a group of smart minds working on
> slightly edgy tech plans together in a shared environment: wiring
> together wireless networks long before anyone was thinking of WiFi,
> sketching out potential attacks on the internet that got the US
> Congress worried.
> 
> When the L0ft started, it was hard to get hold of the technology you
> needed to hatch such plans, unless you had the right job. And in 1992,
> it wasn't easy to get a job unless you were the right sort of person.
> The L0ft people weren't right in that sense - although their work
> predicted a great deal of what was to happen in the dotcom boom.
> 
> In 2008, you see tattoos and piercings on chief executives and company
> presidents in Silicon Valley, but the jobs are beginning to edge away
> again. Just the right time for the return of the idea of a "hacker
> space", a co-operatively run tech workspace that isn't for business,
> and not quite for pure fun. That's what's happening at Noisebridge in
> San Francisco's Mission district.
> 
> A rented apartment, the space has been commandeered by a group of
> hardware and software enthusiasts who are paying $80 a month each to
> pool their resources, and kit it out with high-speed internet, strange
> hardware and stranger friends.
> 
> The truth is that hacker spaces have never quite gone away. In Europe,
> where the movement has closer ties to the squatting collectives of
> Germany and the Netherlands, hacker spaces have existed for many
> years.
> 
> C-Base in Berlin and ASCII in Amsterdam were founded in the mid-1990s
> and survived for over a decade; long enough to pass the knowledge back
> to the US. Inspired by visits to European hacker spaces, New York
> technologist Bre Pettis founded NYC Resistor in Brooklyn in 2007. A
> similar crossover contact between European and west coast coders
> spawned Noisebridge last month.
> 
> What do you do in a hacker space? Gossip, compare notes, learn and
> teach seem to be the key activities: coders sit around and help each
> other, or wave their hands explaining their latest idea.
> 
> In any other field, most projects being conducted in these places
> would be an art, a craft or a hobby. But hacker space projects tend to
> float between all of those labels. One person works on wiring San
> Francisco's public transport notification system into Noisebridge's
> audio, so late-night hackers can hear when the next train is due. In
> New York, coders have worked with knitting and textile enthusiasts to
> see if there's a potential crossover in their two worlds. Tutorials at
> Noisebridge include lessons in "processing", the computer language
> used by modern artists to built interactive works, and hacking the
> Arduino - a hardware platform used by artists and roboticists alike.
> 
> None of these ideas are intended to make money. Indeed, hacker spaces
> are supposed to take some of the pressure away from the money-grabbing
> pursuits of the wider Silicon Valley world. There's a cheap "starving
> hacker" rate at Noisebridge for those who don't have much cash; the
> hardware is mostly donated.
> 
> The return of the hacker spaces may be a sign that the brightest minds
> in America's tech community are preparing for their cyclical
> hibernation - in a week where Yahoo has shed 10 per cent of its
> employees, and there are more shutdowns than start-ups, places like
> Noisebridge and NYC Resistor look like refuges.
> 
> Not that anyone here views them in such a negative light. Dozens have
> signed up to be members of Noisebridge, and the community has enough
> regular dues to pay its high San Francisco rental costs. Despite being
> the initiator of so many tech innovations, the city has never had an
> open hacker space, and the excitement around the arrival of
> Noisebridge is high.
> 
> The European hacker space movement is also experiencing a revival.
> After losing one of its key Dutch collectives, ASCII, in 2006, dozens
> are now springing up across the continent.
> 
> Which leaves the obvious gap in this transatlantic movement: is there
> room for an Irish hacker space? With Dublin real estate prices, unless
> someone fancies an old-fashioned squat, perhaps not. But European
> hacker spaces haven't turned away indirect government funding in the
> form of arts grants and a space doesn't have to sit in the most
> expensive urban environment. Anywhere with a fast internet pipe will
> do.
> 
> If the Government wants to inspire some forward-thinking development
> work by the next generation of Irish students, it might do well to
> seed a couple of grungy looking spaces with a sound system and a few
> LCD screens donated from a Department of Enterprise, Trade and
> Employment spring clean.
> 
> It might be the cheapest way to come out of this downturn with a few
> bright ideas.
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>