[Noisebridge-discuss] Who won, DARPA V Hackerspaces?

Corey McGuire coreyfro at coreyfro.com
Wed May 23 17:30:15 UTC 2012


You'll also notice that I mentioned "Noisebridge" only once and
"Hackerspaces" repeatedly. My issue isn't with NoiseBridge, it is with
Hackerspace pioneers.

I spoke with someone from Texas and he told me how much more awesome and
large the San Mateo Maker Faire is than the other like named events, and it
is right in our back yard.  This is the most important maker event of the
year. It's bigger than burning man by three fold.

So, in essence, a year of visibility and opportunity for hackerspaces was
neglected by the powers that be, the paragons and luminaries of
hackerspaces from around the world, simply because DARPA had some skin in
the game.

Mean while, these people who can pack a room sad nothing to further the
Hackerspace cause.

On the other hand, Jake put his mouth  where the money was and protested at
maker faire.  He had a conversation with one if the key people behind
oriley.

In other words, Jake did what everyone else should have.

Politically, when a person becomes larger than themselves, they need to put
aside the self righteous idealism to do what is right or they actually help
the other side.  That is what happened here.  So many progressive
conversations were not had.  Because of this, darpa had a bigger voice and
Hackerspaces lost theirs.
On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 11:50 AM, rachel lyra hospodar
<rachelyra at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi corey,
>
> I notice you didn't list noisebridge in your projects. We all do a lot so
> it's cool if you decided to focus your energy elsewhere for the faire but I
> am hoping this was just an oversight in typing your email?
>
> Because, dude. I love you. But this email sort of reads like an
> obnoxiously prescriptive and paternalistic opinion piece on how other
> people should 'best' spend their free time.  If you don't think that
> noisebridge has a high enough profile, then the doocratically correct
> approach is NOT this, to continue working on your other projects while
> telling other people they should have volunteered more time.
>
> And if it it was a typo, and you were a noisebridge booth monkey? You can
> still eat it. A more appropriate way to talk about this would be to say
> what *you* feel (not what others should have done or should do), and what
> *you* are worried about, and to *suggest some future solutions*.  Jake did
> a super brave thing with his sign, I bet he had fun too. Me? I am just
> really choosy about what I volunteer for, and have a lot of demands on my
> time.
>
> Also, if 'hacker spaces as a movement' can only succeed dependent on a
> single for-profit event series then we are all fucked anyway.
>
> R.
> On May 21, 2012 1:41 AM, "Corey McGuire" <coreyfro at coreyfro.com> wrote:
>
>> During my exhausting involvement at Maker Faire this year. I realized two
>> things:
>>
>>    1. I didn't hear anything about DARPA.
>>    2. Unless I brought it up, I didn't hear anything about hacker spaces.
>>
>> What does this tell me?  This tells me the attempt to spite Maker Faire
>> because of DARPA sponsorship was an utter failure, and not only that, as I
>> predicted, because so many Hacker Space Luminaries were not promoting the
>> movement, the movement was less visible.
>>
>> How involved in the event was I?
>>
>> I represented the following Maker projects:
>>
>>    1. TE+ND Rover
>>    2. Weeviles
>>    3. Tweethaus
>>
>> Other projects I have contributed to which were present:
>>
>>    1. Tympani Lambada
>>    2. Brolli Flock
>>    3. Dragon Wagon
>>    4. TechShop
>>    5. Nimby
>>    6. The Made
>>    7. Others I am probably forgetting or didn't see
>>
>> Again, unless I brought up Noisebridge or Hackerspaces, I heard nothing,
>> even with the groups that utilized Noisebridge.  This, of course, doesn't
>> include "non-hacker spaces" Nimby, Techshop, boxshop, american steel,
>> shipyard, etc, etc.
>>
>> This lack of visibility is counter productive and leaves Maker Faire with
>> the clear option, seek further sponsorship from DARPA.  Seek less reliance
>> on hacker spaces.
>>
>>
>> Yes, it's your prerogative to protest DARPA's sponsorship of Maker
>> Faire.  It doesn't mean it is smart to do so and it doesn't mean that your
>> efforts aren't better spent representing Hacker Spaces at Maker Faire.
>>
>>
>> This protest is a failure.  It is failing hacker spaces as a movement.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>


-- 
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Einstein <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein>
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo Da
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Perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there
is nothing left to take away - Antoine de Saint
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