[Noisebridge-discuss] personal computers at Noisebridge (was Re: Missing Green Bike /w Red Grips.)

A. B. properfalse at gmail.com
Fri Feb 4 08:18:01 UTC 2011


In the months that I've been coming to Noisebridge, I've seen Isky:

Work with others on their projects, bring food and drink to share, wash
dishes, sweep the floors, do Tastebridge things, bring others to the space
for the first time and make sure they enjoyed themselves, greet everyone
walking through the door, give tours to people who hadn't been to
Noisebridge before, work on homework, share whatever book he was reading,
have exciting creative conversations with people, take care of people, and
share any resource he had at his disposal.

I've also seen him play video games or log into Facebook, just like I've
seen pretty much everyone with a computer at Noisebridge do these things
occasionally.

I'm honestly uncomfortable with the equation of "is visibly doing very
obviously Hacking Related Projects = is welcome in the space," because of
the obvious corrolary that if you aren't visibly, obviously doing those
things, you aren't welcome. Is cooking visibly project-related? Is homework?
Origami?

Isky was one of the first people I met when Veronica brought me to the
space, and one of the reasons I kept returning to Noisebridge and have since
brought other friends back to the space with me. I have never seen Isky be
anything but welcoming and generous, and I think that he peforms a vital
service for many of us Noisebridge introverts: making introductions,
facilitating social interaction, and stepping in to provide a dozen other
white-hat social hacking tweaks to make sure that those of us who thrive and
get inspiration from other creative, geeky people actually get introduced
and talk to each other.

My experience of Isky in the space will obviously not be anyone else's, in
the same way that any one particular person's experience of me in the space
will not be anyone else's. When behavior doesn't fall under Shit Everyone
Universally Agrees is Objectionable (which is slim and muddied list at
best), interpretations start getting increasingly subjective, in this case
and any other.

Let's try to remember that we're all sentient, generally rational creatures,
and that barring evidence to the contrary few of us are actually out to harm
anyone else. Discussions like this can be helpful in sketching out
agreements on social norms, but I think sometimes they end up becoming
personally hurtful without any real productive agreement coming out of it.
(Aside from the fact that we all seem to agree that hiding things under
piles of fabric is uncool.)

I like Liz's idea about a class for testing out in-person ways to
assertively and politely ask others in the space for help/to clear
space/etc, and would happy to throw in my hand to help teach or role-play
out scenarios. (Good strategy: Asking! Bad strategy: Setting the other
person on fire.)

-Alison


On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 11:33 PM, Albert Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com>wrote:

> That was also back when Isky was only playing video games on it, which is
> also a source of social friction at Noisebridge.
>
> -Al
> On Feb 3, 2011 11:29 PM, "lilia" <liliakai at gmail.com> wrote:
> > FWIW, Isky's machine used to be located at the reverse engineering
> > bar, where it eventually became the source of social friction similar
> > to that which we are seeing now, and which may have contributed to its
> > relocation to the classroom in the first place.
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 11:13 PM, Danny O'Brien <danny at spesh.com> wrote:
> >> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 9:33 PM, Albert Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Rather than try to change everyone else, it would be easier if Isky
> >>> moved his computer out of the classroom, or just moved it home instead
> >>> of using Noisebridge as his personal long-term storage for his
> >>> larger-than-a-member-shelf things.
> >>>
> >>> Isky was asked by multiple people to move his computer somewhere else,
> >>> and he just blows them off. Isky gets asked by multiple people to
> >>> actually work on projects instead of just using the space as his
> >>> living room, and he just blows them off. I don't think the problem is
> >>> people not being assertive enough with him.
> >>>
> >>
> >> I imagine Isky is getting heavily conflicting suggestions from all of
> >> Noisebridge on this. Some people seem to assertively want him to move
> the
> >> desktop or take it home, others probably tell him it's nice to have the
> >> desktop there, and that he's not in the way, and it's great that it's
> >> available for use. I don't think it's unusual in that situation to
> prefer
> >> the advice of the people who you already agree with.
> >>
> >>> Isky is going to continue to do whatever he wants. Sometimes that fits
> >>> well with others, sometimes it doesn't. But that doesn't influence
> >>> Isky's behavior.
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>> -Al
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 6:55 PM, Liz Henry <liz at bookmaniac.org> wrote:
> >>> > On 2/3/11 5:44 PM, Shannon Lee wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> >>> The trouble is, Turing is currently
> >>> >>> *always* in use, because someone's always camped on that PC."
> >>> >
> >>> > I don't think that's a trouble! It means the room is in use and
> >>> > someone's around keeping an eye on things. That's good!  I like the
> >>> > people camped on desktops in various rooms. I like it that there are
> >>> > people who spend all day at Noisebridge. They end up being awesome
> >>> > custodians of the space and should get respect for that.
> >>> >
> >>> > People who have trouble asking other people to move out of the room
> >>> > because a group wants to use it for a class, could ask other
> >>> > Noisebridgers to give them an extra class for role-playing out
> assertive
> >>> > and polite ways to ask, as practice.
> >>> >
> >>> > I'd happily teach that class (once I am over this month-long
> bronchitis)
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > - Liz
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > --
> >>> > Liz Henry
> >>> > lizhenry at gmail.com
> >>> > http://bookmaniac.org
> >>> > http://badgermama.com
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > _______________________________________________
> >>> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> >>> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> >>> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >>> >
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> >>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> >>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >>>
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
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-- 
-
*Alison B. **(May Subd Geog)*

UF   Short-Haired Girl
       You're the Librarian Right
BT   Library Science Majors--California
RT   Social Hackers


**-- properfalse

USE   Alison B.
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