[Noisebridge-discuss] Access control and the DJ booth

Andy Isaacson adi at hexapodia.org
Wed Sep 30 17:42:01 UTC 2009


Dr J,

I think that gating off a portion of our space for the proprietary use
of a few individuals would run counter to the ethos and function of
Noisebridge.  We've had incredible success with our current model:

1. Noisebridge is not about individual control.  The entire space is
available to any member who can make productive use of it, and
members have a moral obligation to make Noisebridge better through their
actions.

2. Noisebridge does not accept "loans" of equipment.  If gear is donated
to the space it is available for the considerate use of any member.  (If
gear is being put to productive use then don't be an ass and don't fuck
it up, but if it's sitting idle and you have a project that can use it,
then you don't have to ask for anyone's permission to use it.)  This
means that

    ONCE DONATED, DONATIONS ARE NO LONGER THE PROPERTY OF THEIR DONOR

If an individual is unwilling to give materiel to Noisebridge free and
clear, then that individual should not leave the gear at Noisebridge.
Donations are No Strings Attached.

3. Noisebridge does not implement security by monitoring and
controlling.  We've created a space where all members know that there's
shit that can get fucked up if drunks go at it, and members routinely
step up to avert those kinds of failure modes.  We don't log net
traffic, we don't have cameras, we don't have individualized key-cards
with access logs.  We do have a membership of individuals who take
responsibility for their actions and help other members avoid failure
modes.  We even have anonymous members who are trusted members of our
community (and pay their membership dues) without incident.


I've personally donated several thousand dollars of fairly delicate
equipment to Noisebridge, and I would be very sad if it were broken.  I
fully expected that now, a year in, at least one of my delicate
donations would have died... but that turns out not to have happened.


I've personally re-configured our Internet routing architecture twice,
left it in a working state, and had other individuals re-architect it to
make it ten times as awesome without needing permission from me.  This
wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't left the router passwords in an
envelope labelled "Passwords" on the router.


You've been doing a bunch of incredibly good work over the last few
months, and I really appreciate both the work product and the effort it
represents.  But I'm worried at some of the ideas you've been suggesting
and some of the values you've been espousing that run counter to how I
(and, I think, the community in general) want to see Noisebridge
operate.

Please try not to treat the Noisebridge space as personal property.
Please do not try to exclude members from areas of the space.
Please label areas and objects that may benefit from special handling,
to enable members to avoid damaging them, as an alternative to excluding
members from areas of the space.
Please favor systems that do not facilitate logging and monitoring over
systems that favor logging and monitoring.
Please don't act proprietarian towards materiel donated to Noisebridge;
if there is material at Noisebridge that you're not comfortable having
donated, then please remove it.
Please be excellent to everyone, but most especially to every member.

And finally, if you observe someone being non-excellent, please call
them on it -- gently, and with the assumption that they act out of
lack of information rather than malice, but firmly.

Thanks,
-andy



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