[Noisebridge-discuss] Advisory about recent thefts at Noisebridge.

[Jonathan Lassoff]

On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Casey Callendrello <c1 at caseyc.net> wrote:
> As word of Noisebridge spreads ever-wider, it becomes more difficult to
> balance the ideal of radical inclusion with the fact that not everyone
> understands and respects our community.
>
> To bring this to real-life, the collective action has equated "radical
> inclusion" with "we open the gate for everyone who buzzes in."
>
> Noisebridge, which has lots of desirable targets for theft, relies on a
> security system consisting almost solely of human scrutiny of everyone
> who uses the gate buzzer. This is a security system that does not scale.
> I've been in the place on a Wednesday evening, and it seemed that the
> buzzer rang 20 times an hour. Compounding the problem:
>     * many welcomed and accepted people rely on the buzzer as their
> only means of access
>     * Therefore, 99% of buzzer ringers are "false positives" - people
> who require absolutely no scrutiny
>     * Not everyone is comfortable with confronting possible Bad People
>
> What if buzzing-in is strongly discouraged or even disallowed?  We'd
> need a way for welcomed people to demonstrate that they are a part of
> the Noisebridge Community. There are some technical solutions to this
> problem (more suggestions welcome!):
>
> * Disable or delay buzzer from 10p - 10a
>     * Make buzzer sound 1-5 min after button is pressed.
> * Weekly rotating access code; install number pad on the gate
>     ** code can be distributed widely; email bot sends to mailing list,
> visitors may subscribe at will
> * VOIP dial-in number, maybe require the same code to be entered
> * must buzz correct morse code sequence
> * gate has SMS shortcode, text to open using Twilio
>
> In short, if we make it trivially easy to participate in the community
> and disable the buzzer, that may take much of the load off of the human
> scaling system.

I really love the idea that if you're technically skilled and want to
sort of "hack your way" in, by all means you should find a way in.

I'm guessing most of the people that have come in and caused a
nuisance have no idea what SSH or scripts are. I feel like by making
documented, but technical, instructions on how to get in -- we could
make a fun puzzle to welcome visiting (computer-inclined) hackers. It
could also act as a bit of an initial filter to select for the "hacker
mentality".

</two cents>

--j