[Noisebridge-discuss] [drama] My Hair Is On Fire - Current events that are shaping your rights as we speak

[Rachel Hospodar]

> the effect of this miss appropriation of the word hacker, is to >minimize
the importance of the skills that we sacrificed our time >and sanity for.

What I hear you saying, through a different lens, is that code monkeys used
to not be a part of the maker community, and now that people recognize
writing code as making and are interested in including code monkeys in their
communities, you want to maintain a separate software-and-circuitry identity
within that community (as an homage to the suffering and alienation that
came before?).

Am I excluded from this definition because my arduino code was easy and
short? And I excluded because my circuitboard is made of fabric? Am I only a
hacker when I am working on certain projects?  Computers are embedded in
more and more things. Adding a chip to a pair of pants is easy. Does that
make them a computer? Does conductive thread change the person who was a
stitcher to an engineer? Don't try to keep computers so separate. They are
becoming part of everything.  Metal struts that the robot is made out of are
a highly refined technology. If I charge them & use them as capacitive
sensors, and then need to alter them, am I hacking now?

Language drifts, man. Thanks for hunkering in the dark and learning code
back in the iron ages when code wasn't respectable. Welcome to the new
millenium. Come into the light.

R.

On Mar 16, 2011 1:54 AM, "Evan Bangham" <ebangham at gmail.com> wrote:
>
<snip>

> Lets define hacking using these words using some of the verbiage we've
previously laid out in the thread.
>
> Hacking:
> "To attempt to solve a problem by artfully applying skills and tools in or
closely related to the areas of computer programing or circuit design
without reference to a plan or instructions." I don't think many would argue
that it was people in software that started using the word in relation to
writing software before it started to linguistically crawl its way into
other circles.
>
> Maker:
>  If you use this same definition as hacker and remove the reference to
computer programming and circuits you have the word 'maker'. Makers a la
Make magazine, make stuff using tools in a skillful manor without reference
to instructions much as hackers do. The only difference is that making is
not using code or circuits and is thus not considered hacking. Making can
involve anything from sewing and crafts to designing and building bicycles.
>
> By my definition of the words hacking and making, the building of robots
for instance, is not hacking, but is in fact, a combination of making and
hacking. Those that build robots could be either makers or hackers, or both.
Building various components of a robot could, if involving software and
electronics be considered hacking. For example, if I'm writing a quick and
dirty piece of software to enable the robot to track some object using a
camera, I'm hacking. If I'm building a robot arm using a metal shop, I'm no
longer hacking, I'm making.
>
> In consideration of our robot example, one could come to the conclusion
that it's natural for the definition of hacking to be intertwined with
things that have historically, not been considered hacking. Clearly this
fact does not suddenly make the words synonymous just because the skills are
used in concert with each other. Any broadening of the definition of hacking
to suddenly include all forms of making are simply an appeal to some sort of
linguistic relativism.
>
> My motives for starting this discussion is that we hackers have spent time
and sacrifice learning our craft. All those nights in front of the keyboard,
staring at the glowing screen or heads buried in books, learning gate logic
and object oriented design patterns take their toll on the body and spirit.
>From society at large we are in some cases scorned and alienated.  Given
these sacrifices, we wear the our badge of hacker with pride, that is pride
in our ability to make (or break) cool shit with electronics and software as
our reward.>

<snip>

that a line has been crossed. Its at this point that the word has been
misappropriated and the effect of this miss appropriation of the word
hacker, is to minimize the importance of the skills that we sacrificed our
time and sanity for.
>
> This swindling of our brand disempowers us and our community. In my
conversation with various hackers in noisebridge (Cobalt being one of them)
I've been told that noisebridge's failure to dedicate itself to hackers and
that its all inclusiveness, is limiting their involvement at noisebridge.
I'm not in complete agreement with that view, but when I'm hearing hackers
aren't willing to come to noisebridge to start cool projects because people
with the necessary skills to help them do so aren't available at
noisebridge, partially due to non hackers and non makers infringing upon the
space, making hackers feel unwelcome. This disappoints me greatly.
>
> Noisebridge is a community of makers and hackers, but they are not one and
the same. Noisebridge embraces makers and hackers equally and rightfully so
because both are a means to making cool shit that requires a wide range of
skills to produce. Makers can directly help hackers and vice versa. Hackers
need food to survive just like anyone else, lets have some cooking classes,
both hackers and makers benefit, great! Hackers like beer, let's make some
beer, awesome! Makers like making stuff out of wood and metal, hackers like
coding and circuits, lets make some robots.
>
> Its when we have a breakdown of the partnership between makers and hackers
that there is friction. Let's say some makers start hosting classes like
"hacking yoga". Oh wait, that's already happening isn't it? It would be all
good if there were coders or electrical engineering types in the class, but
if I had to bet, it would be that they are very much in the minority in that
class. Now that we've got makers, non makers and non hackers using the label
of hacking for a yoga class that hackers do not benefit from, naturally this
makes the hackers pissed off.
>
> This is why people who do code and circuits get pissed off when the see
the word hacker used so loosely. I hope this lets people better understand
the situation at a kind of sociological level at least. This is not just
some pet peeve, it is very real and its effects can't be positive for the
community at noisebridge.
>
>
> Fuck I should start a new project "Hacking Noisebridge"
>
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