[Noisebridge-discuss] MonkeyBrains donates a new uplink to Noisebridge

Christie Dudley longobord at gmail.com
Thu Nov 26 02:47:46 UTC 2009


ani,

I'm not sure I understand the situation, nor am I sure you do either.  We
got the same stuff (more or less) through a third party that someone said
they were working on directly.  (And they've been saying they were working
on for months now.)  I don't really see what the big deal is here.

Since this is all about contracts, we are only liable for what we agree to,
so your loose use of the term "liability" I don't think is quite right,
unless there were some really wild terms to the agreement we have on that.
I would trust our officers would have the sense not to commit us to such
things.  Who has rights to what may be up in the air, but if the city leased
the *fiber* and not the *bandwidth* then the company who owns the fiber
really isn't an interested party.

The worst that can happen to us is that we lose our connection.  And what
you're saying about the possibility of Monkeybrains reselling the bandwidth
causing them to get cut off will probably destroy them as an organization,
since they're signing contracts to get this out.  I really hope all the cool
people over there don't put themselves in this position and I'm a little
worried about how folks are questioning their judgment.

As for working quickly and blindsiding people?  Jon Foote posted the
potential to connect up with these fine folks way back on October 19.
Although it indeed took over a month, I'm glad to see that this has come to
pass!  People should have been more engaged if they want to keep up on it.


This does, however raise a different issue that I'm seeing happen to
Noisebridge as a result of drama brought to the list like this.  One member
has been talking about doing something for a long time.  Another member up
and does it.  This is called doocracy.  We like this because it Gets Shit
Done.

If the first member or group gets upset and disparages the efforts of others
who can complete things faster ("We were blindsided!") then we are going to
totally undermine what we are all about.  This path leads to forms and
notices and public hearings and all those horrible horrible things that we
all dread when dealing with bureaucracy.

So please... if someone does something quickly... try to support them.  And
if you hear bad things, try to get both sides of the story before stirring
stuff up.  I'd love to invite Rudy and Alex in to Noisebridge sometime to
thank him for what he's donated and perhaps they can discuss their backup
plan then as well.

Christie
---
Why I take the road less traveled?  Oh, that's easy.  I'm claustrophobic.


On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Ani Niow <v at oneletterwonder.com> wrote:

> I'm sorry all, I can't really support this for some ethical and political
> reasons.
>
> I've been privy to some communication between the ops team and others that
> paint this effort into a very negative light. Not gong to name names but
> there is a whole rash of unexcellent behaviour that I simply cannot stay
> quiet about. I was asked not to distribute some information widely and
> especially not to name names and I will honour both requests.
>
> According to some people that are more in the know about the backstory
> about Monkeybrains and their fibre connection, the fact that they even
> *have* fibre from the city could very well be a breach of contract and the
> fact that they're selling it to other organisations could place them in
> serious jeopardy if a large company like Comcast or AT&T decides to sue. The
> current contract with the city states that only government organisations are
> supposed to have access to this fibre and while there are non government
> organisations that have access to this connection, only Monkeybrains is
> being highly public about it and even selling it to other organisations who
> are also not supposed to have it. There is pending legislation that will
> make fibre more accessible to all in SF however Monkeybrains has decided to
> ignore all this because they have OMGFIBRE. Monkeybrains is aware of all
> this and even have a backup plan in case their access to fibre could get
> revoked which even a member of the ops team that is helping install this
> connection admits that it is sketchy: "they have a fallback plan if the
> freebie fiber becomes unavailable (albeit their fallback sounds somewhat
> sketch, but we can burn that bridge when we get to it)"
>
> A shady contract and a fallback plan that sounds kind of sketchy? Certainly
> sounds like this contract is on solid ground to me.
>
> Some members here have been pulling strings and asking favours so that we
> can get a fibre connection of our own from the city, *legitimately*. There
> were even antennae on the roof and other high speed equipment installed for
> this very purpose. When Monkeybrains announced their connection plans, the
> pants of several other members got so wet that the only way to dry them out
> was to basically steamroll the efforts of other members that has been
> putting forth the effort to get us a legitimate link from the city itself,
> ignoring their concerns about breaches of contract, possible legal action
> and the jeopardisation of future fibre efforts. The members behind the legit
> effort were highly surprised and upset when the announcement was made that
> we *are* getting a connection from Monkeybrains even after concerns were
> noted about why this is a Bad Idea and were not communicated with *at all*.
> Not to mention that none of them were communicated that the equipment that
> was installed in order to get a legit link was going to be used in the
> Monkeybrains install.
>
> The gist of all this is, Monkeybrains is jeopardising the efforts to get
> legitimate fibre not only to us, but everyone they are selling a connection
> to that they're not actually supposed to have (or are supposed to depending
> on coming legislation), some members of the ops team have been aware of this
> and have been extremely non-communitative and dismissive of this entire
> situation in order to get OMGFAST INTERNETRIGHTNOW. The individuals behind
> getting us a legitimate link from the city have stated their concerns about
> this entire situation and have asked time and time again for patience as the
> political stuff works out so we all can take advantage of this connection.
> Impatience between other people seems to have prevailed even with those
> concerns and those people have basically negated the efforts to get us a
> legitimate link from the city anytime soon with the news that we're
> willingly participating in a program we know that may be a breach of
> governmental contract and could go away at any time.
>
> I've been watching this for a few days and I simply could not keep quiet
> about it any longer. I'm very upset with the way things have been handled
> and have lost some respect for some members that are behind this. Behaviour
> is most unexcellent. This affects all of Noisebridge as it deals with
> something that we all will deal with since the plan is to give the rest of
> Noisebridge access after the test mule works out and I am not happy with the
> lack of communication to the rest of us Noisebridgers about the concerns
> behind this effort and object to its even existence.
>
>
> Happy Thanksgiving!
>
>
> -Ani
>
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>
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