[Noisebridge-discuss] "Hack Politics" -- still going on?

[aestetix aestetix]

Just wanted to point out a few things about that wiki page:

First, that is *not* a set of rules. That is a set of someone's personal
boundaries and their interpretation of how things ought to be. Noisebridge
has one rule: "be excellent to each other."

Second, most of those guidelines are exceedingly negative in nature. They
are worded as "don't do this" and "don't do that." I feel it's more in
Noisebridge's nature to offer guidelines which are enabling and positive.

Third, some of them seem rather fear-mongering. For example, anything which
hints at "if you do this, we could lose our nonprofit status." I don't think
someone should not do a cool project because of fear of what might happen.
The only legal action I'm aware of that has ever transpired against
Noisebridge was the Cease and Desist against 5MoF, and the EFF took care of
it for us (thanks EFF!).

Finally, that action was regarding a project at Noisebridge, not Noisebridge
itself. Noisebridge as an organization tends to take an extremely neutral
stance on things, whereas community members may be working on independent
projects within the space. If anything bad were to happen to someone working
on a cool project, in almost every case the community would come to their
aid. Please note that the guidelines saying that the organization shouldn't
do anything politically also seem to encourage the idea the organization
should do as little as possible, and have as little power as possible,
thereby empowering the individual.

On the other hand, the fact that I felt the need to explain this means
perhaps the group needs to start up again.

aestetix

On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 9:45 PM, Danny Colligan <dannycolligan at gmail.com>wrote:

> Jim,
>
> Thanks for the response.  I'm not sure I want to take the lead on
> this; I want to tread carefully in light of the Noisebridge
> guidelines:
>
> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Guidelines
>
> # Do not do anything at Noisebridge or involving Noisebridge which
> could affect a political campaign, express or implied, incumbent or
> not. While not illegal, it is grounds for the IRS to revoke our tax
> exempt status, no exceptions.
> # Noisebridge must not be involved in anything which could affect
> federal legislation, with certain limited exemptions. Talk to the
> officers of the corporation for guidance if you are unsure whether
> your proposed activities will be exempt or not.
>
> And some of what seems to be suggested on the Hack Politics page seems
> to come into conflict with these guidelines.
>
> (Plus, if someone is taking the lead on the event already, I would
> like to know.)
>
> Danny Colligan
>
> On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 9:34 PM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >    certainly seems promising. looks like somebody got
> > excited; i wonder who?
> >    try to resurrect it, blow life into it. show up and
> > keep showing up; promote it a few days before the
> > scheduled meeting time.
> >    that's (sometimes) how things are done at noisebridge.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 2011-05-15 at 21:24 -0700, Danny Colligan wrote:
> >> Hello Noisebridge mailing list,
> >>
> >> I was wondering if the "Hack Politics" meetup which is listed as a
> >> recurring event on the following two wiki pages is still going on.
> >>
> >> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Category:Events
> >> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Hack_Politics
> >>
> >> I came to the Noisebridge space today at 7pm (when the pages say it
> >> would be happening) but no one present seemed to know anything about
> >> it.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Danny Colligan
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> >> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> >> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
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> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
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