[Noisebridge-discuss] draft of Signal to Noise, a NB newsletter
jim
jim at systemateka.com
Wed Jan 5 15:34:19 UTC 2011
What I am thinking now is an editorial alias -- say
noiserat at noisebridge.net, which goes to YET ANOTHER MAILING LIST. I'll
mail rack at noisebridge.net about setting this up. That means I'm not the
only one seeing stuff go by, and we can swap people in and out, as long
as somebody knows who is in charge.
>
sounds reasonable to me. i wouldn't worry about
overall format, what you sent was fine in that
respect. more frequent, not a lot in any one issue
seems a good policy. try over a period of time, say
three months, to capture a little bit about every
project and event.
best to be cautious about setting expectations,
and frequency is probably the most important
parameter. maybe prominently advertise irregularity
of issue and really strain to get at least one
issue out every month. have a way to store a queue
of mini- or nano-articles so's you can draw from
it at issue time as well as let some articles
develop.
probably helpful immediately to accept current
offers to help and get a set of pals on board in
anticipation of burnout and slacking off periods.
On Wed, 2011-01-05 at 01:12 -0800, Danny O'Brien wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 8:22 PM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
>
> are you the editor? i.e. do stringers send you
> their drafts?
>
>
>
>
> I think so. I am trying to work out how to share the workload a bit,
> because while obviously I have a bit of a crush on noisebridge right
> now, I want this to be sustainable and I don't want to burn out (also
> I have both a daughter and a job that are sometimes intense and take
> me away -- I am in NY next week for example, and may be in Bangkok for
> a bunch of February). I am often prone to slacking off.
>
>
> What I am thinking now is an editorial alias -- say
> noiserat at noisebridge.net, which goes to YET ANOTHER MAILING LIST. I'll
> mail rack at noisebridge.net about setting this up. That means I'm not
> the only one seeing stuff go by, and we can swap people in and out, as
> long as somebody knows who is in charge.
>
>
> I do not know what the right frequency for this is. I have some time
> on the flight tomorrow and so can swap in some of the stuff in the
> current draft issues and put new stuff in. We should probably do one
> next week to plug the elections/membership meeting.
>
>
> I can take the bulk of the editing/writing for now, until the format
> stabilises. I am shitty at sub-editing (proofing) though, and it's
> always good to have people submit ideas and people who they think
> should be interviewed or such!
>
>
> d.
>
>
> On Tue, 2011-01-04 at 17:06 -0800, Danny O'Brien wrote:
> > Briefly, my sense talking and polling people right now is
> that there's
> > a huge amount of activity going on in and around Noisebridge
> that
> > people (and the public) don't know about and is not easily
> > discoverable. (Also that the NB community is now far larger
> and more
> > diverse than it used to be, which means the time and
> resources need to
> > maintain one-to-one conversations with everyone to maintain
> social
> > coherence and spread news and mutually groom one another's
> silverback
> > pelts and prevent [or at least adequately publicise] HUGE
> FIST FIGHTS
> > is growing steadily greater. If this was a TED talk I'd
> start
> > bullshitting about Dunbar numbers, but this is nb-discuss so
> you would
> > start throwing PBR cans at my head, so I won't.)
> >
> > Anyway, at last week's meeting I mused that one way to help
> fix this
> > would be to have a regular Noisebridge newsletter, which
> would pull in
> > some of the threads of this larger social group, and have a
> simple way
> > for everyone to keep in touch with what's going on, and feel
> a warm
> > glow of self-regard at being in with all the in shit, and
> thing.
> >
> > Below is my first stab at this. I went around the mailing
> lists,
> > talked to people, interviewed one Noisebridger at length,
> and then
> > through it all into an old ASCII email newslettter format I
> happen to
> > have around (some of you may know I co-wrote
> http://www.ntk.net/ a
> > decade ago. Yeah, I dusted that off. Kill me)
> >
> > The content is pretty much what I could imagine writing
> every
> > fortnight with some help. It certainly wasn't hard to find
> cool stuff
> > that noisebridgers do; it was harder to decide what not to
> put in. I
> > didn't spend much time on formatting nor tone or voice (ie
> this is the
> > special No Actual Jokes edition), because that takes a while
> to get
> > right and for this first go I wanted to concentrate on
> purest content.
> > It's very rough though.
> >
> > I'm sending this one out only to noisebridge-discuss for
> your comments
> > and criticisms. In the real world, it would go out to
> nb-announce. I
> > want whatever finally goes out there to that to be
> sustainable long
> > term however. Realise that if you're a regular nb-discuss
> reader you
> > probably know much of this, but there are plenty of people
> who do not
> > (most NBers I've spoken to don't know that the financial
> mess is not
> > so dreadful these days, for instance.)
> >
> > My acute self-criticism is at the bottom of it, under the
> ASCII <HR>
> > tag. I welcome comments, yeah even from you.
> >
> >
> > ============
> >
> >
> > .-'`-. Signal
> > z !/| To Noise
> > z !\| V11.010000000(Beta)-rc7
> > `-'`- 2011-01-04
> >
> > In this issue:
> > > NOISEBRIDGE SAVED FROM REPO BOTS
> > > THEY CAME FOR OUR TEA ROOM
> > > HEART SPARKS AND TRON GUYS
> > > DISTILLING NEURAL NETWORKS INTO BRAIN BROTH
> > > HUMAN OF NOISEBRIDGE OF THE MONTH:
> > > Meredith Scheff-King is ALL SCARF, ALL THE TIME
> >
> > >>> NEWS: NB NO LONGER DIVIDING BY ZERO
> >
> > This February, Noisebridge will not disappear in a white
> hole of
> > debt, anguish and sheet rock dust. You all stepped up, and
> in a few
> > weeks we went from having little cartoon flies buzzing out
> of the
> > cartoon wallet, to touching the rim of our canonical
> hackerspace
> > float of three months costs in advance ($15K).
> >
> > Noisebridge has historically paid its bills with about
> 2/3rds from
> > membership dues, and the rest from casual donations. We're
> mostly
> > fixed the overdue dues problem thanks to Kelly's excellent
> financial
> > forensics, but Noisebridge is still prone to economic
> boom-bust on
> > the rand()*(donations) front.
> >
> > A lot of you drop a few bucks in the box when you come by,
> and thank
> > you, you're awesome. But just as you don't have to a member
> of
> > Noisebridge to use the space for whatever, you don't have to
> be a
> > full member to make a pre-programme regular donation. Turn
> those few
> > bucks into a monthly electronci payment of just $10 or $20,
> and
> > you'll always have a Gentlemen And Ladies Space Within Which
> To Hack.
> > Plus less of this irregular NPR-style pledge-drive spazzing.
> Go on!
> > Do it! IT'S JUST MONEY. YOU'D ONLY WASTE IT ON OIL.
> >
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Donate_or_Pay_Dues
> > - We'll give you Ira Glass's perineum in a totebag if you
> give us a fifty
> > http://cha-ching.noisebridge.net/
> > - mfb broke into our PayPal account and wrote a
> script at it
> > http://j.mp/tenbridge
> > - $10 dude! You pay more than that in dropbox or Ritual or
> watercress
> > or something!
> >
> > >>> STUFF THAT GOT DONE
> >
> > ULTRASTRUCTURE
> >
> > Noisebridge's Scanning Electron Microscope is
> getting better
> > every day: Mike and Andy got it working up to
> 20,000x.
> > Schematics and pics uploaded to:
> > http://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/SEM
> >
> > THE TEA ROOM is no more! Zed and Shannon went on a
> > stairs-constructing rampage and constructed a space
> you can
> > walk up to, on your legs. It still works for tea
> drinking.
> >
> > That BUILD-OUT MESS by the touch-panel was magicked
> away
> > into the Even Darker Room (aka the Scott Memorial
> Storage
> > Room). The ADA BATHROOM got grab-bars c/o Miloh!
> >
> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/File:Noisebridge_map.png
> >
> > ELLIPTICALLY ORBITING PROJECTS
> >
> > Eric and Chung-Hay of Sensebridge launched their
> HEART SPARK
> > heatbeat-sensitive necklace to universal Internets
> acclaim!
> > Eric's in Toronto now, hanging out with our
> hacklab.to
> > sisters, but C-H is still about, and working on new
> > projects, including a heartbeat scarf. Scarfs are
> cool.
> > http://sensebridge.net/projects/heart-spark/
> > http://bunnymeetsbean.blogspot.com/
> >
> > MC Hawking, the wheelchair robot, now has an
> embedded PC for
> > a brain, and is possibly conspiring with our IRC
> noisebot.
> > He is actually deadly.
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noise-Bot
> >
> > Sean made a Tron suit out of 190 proper LEDs and
> not boring
> > EL wire like you thought. He's like Tron Guy :
> Legacy!
> >
> http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-lit-Tron-v20-suit/
> > (From the Cyborg list:
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/cyborg )
> >
> > >>> INCOMING
> >
> > All the usual events at
> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Category:Events plus:
> >
> > > Sean's Distillation Class
> > Wednesday, January 5th @ 7PM
> >
> > "I'll teach you how a still works, go over some options for
> 'rolling
> > your own', and the best part of the whole thing? We'll
> actually
> > distill something, and try the results! Plan on the class
> lasting
> > about 2 hours."
> >
> > > Neural Net Workshop!
> > Wednesday, January 26, 2011
> >
> > Mike Schachter says: the Machine Learning group at
> Noisebridge wants
> > to teach you! We're holding a workshop on constructing and
> using
> > neural networks, to raise Neural Network Awareness (NNA) and
> money
> > for Noisebridge. Bring laptops!
> > https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Neural_Network_Workshop
> >
> > > Noisebridge Book Club!
> >
> > Miah implies without explicitly stating: "I'm starting a NB
> book club
> > on Goodreads. We can be virtual or have actual meetings":
> >
> http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/41745.Noisebridge_Book_Club
> >
> > >>> HUMAN OF NOISEBRIDGE OF THE FORTNIGHT
> >
> > MEREDITH SCHEFF-KING won the Awesome Foundation's monthly
> $1000 award
> > for her proposal to make 30 scarves in January. Signal to
> Noise
> > caught her attacking her third scarf in the space, and
> plagued her
> > with dumb questions:
> >
> > > So is this three scarfs of the day or one you're making
> right now?
> >
> > It's one; the scarf of today is reconfigurable with one or
> two or three
> > free-floating sections.
> >
> >
> > > Are you planning out the whole month beforehand, or are
> you taking
> > it one scarf at a time?
> >
> > Well, I went into it with more than thirty scarf ideas, but
> > ultimately I'm making them one at a time. I don't want to
> plan too
> > far ahead. I work better spontaneously.
> >
> > > How much your time are you setting aside for this?
> >
> > All of it. I'm not doing much else but making scarves this
> month. At some
> > point I'm going to have to get groceries, I guess.
> >
> > > Okay, I have to ask. Why scarves?
> >
> > I love warm, fuzzy things. I'm sort of a chilly person. I
> grew up in
> > the Central Valley, where it's over 100 degrees a lot of the
> time, so
> > it's always cold by comparison. And I like making art that I
> wear.
> > With a lot of my work, like the cartooning or the
> construction you
> > don't know if anyone sees the end result. It might be that
> noone sees
> > it.
> >
> > > But if you're wearing, you get to see the reaction?
> >
> > Yes! Also, people know what they're seeing. It's not like an
> artwork
> > where you have to explain to the audience what they're
> seeing first.
> > They already know it's a scarf. They know what it's supposed
> to do.
> >
> > > I saw that you were agonising on your Twitter stream about
> keeping two craft
> > centers, one at your home and one at Noisebridge. Where do
> you think you're
> > going to spend most of your time this month?
> >
> > Well, this is scarf three, and the first one I'm making at
> NB. It
> > gets lonely making stuff at home. I'm very distractable, but
> it's
> > easier to avoid that here, strangely. Like, I can choose not
> to bring
> > my computer here, but I can't *not* have it at my apartment.
> >
> > > Does it help you finish a project when you have a clear
> goal like this?
> >
> > A bit. Mainly, though, it's the publicity that encourages
> you to keep
> > going. When the Awesome Foundation mailed me I'd won the
> award for
> > January, I'd actually almost forgotten I'd applied. And
> then they
> > told me all the blogs and people that they'd already told. I
> was like
> > "uh-oh, I guess I'd better actually do this". Then of
> course, the
> > economics of taking a month off for $1K doesn't work out, so
> I
> > started a Kickstarter project to get the rest of the money,
> and I
> > thought "Whoa, now I really *really* have to do this."
> >
> > I guess it sounds kind of bad, but I do like it when my
> projects do
> > the rounds on the Internet. Like the Northskirt -- that was
> such a
> > lot of work, and so is this. It makes me happy to know
> people see it.
> >
> > > Do you know where you're going to show all the scarves
> yet?
> >
> > Actually, no -- I haven't had a moment of time away from
> scarves to
> > call around galleries.
> >
> > (Miloh shouts from the kitchen that Meredith's rice is
> boiling.
> > Finally distracted, she runs off to grab five precious
> minutes of
> > non-scarf scarfing.)
> >
> > Meredith's Kickstarter project is here:
> >
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/668017121/scarf-a-day-a-scarf-everyday-in-january/
> >
> >
> > ============
> >
> > Okay, that's that. My self-criticisms/thinking aloud:
> >
> > I finished this last night, and when I read the nb-discuss
> this
> > morning, there were already a bunch of worthy new stories
> (vending
> > machine! tardis!) that I hadn't included. The newsletter is
> already
> > slightly too long, I fear that once I actually get stuff
> sent in, it's
> > just going to grow even more. I don't think I could stand to
> write
> > this weekly or even a shorter time-period though.
> >
> > Would a what you young people call a "weeb-log" or "b'log"
> work
> > better? Maybe: certainly if we ramped up the NB weblog, I
> bet we'd get
> > a lot of coverage and relinking from Maker blog, etc. What
> isn't so
> > great is ownership and ritual with blogs. The advantage of a
> regular
> > periodic mailout is that people look forward to it, and if
> you write
> > it well (this draft isn't written well) people will sit
> through and
> > take it all in, and feel like they're an exclusive
> subscriber. Also we
> > can print it out and put it in the space somewhere. Blogs
> are less
> > easy to attach ritual to, and the level of control that you
> can exact
> > on a broadcast-only news format often feels inappropriate
> for blog --
> > ie saying "We" all the time, not having comments, etc. It
> might just
> > be a style thing. I will talk to people about this.
> >
> > My actual sese right now is that what we have here is a
> bunch of nice
> > potentially aggregatable mini-features: Noisebridge Human of
> The Time
> > Period, Project Updates, Infrastructure Diffs, General News,
> that need
> > to be in one place, and quickly digestible, rather than
> scattered over
> > dozens of mailing lists, inside people's heads, and as
> wikisplatter. I
> > think one output of all of those mini-features is
> potentially a blog,
> > one is an email newsletter to nb-announce, and one is a
> printed
> > pamphlet that can be on the wall entering Noisebridge. But
> just
> > writing and collating this text is hard work -- piping it
> into
> > different media needs either an automatic process, or a
> bunch of
> > people working together consistently. Wait, would people be
> interested
> > in a Noisebridge press club?
> >
> > I WUV YOU
> >
> > d.
>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>
> >
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >
>
>
>
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