[Noisebridge-discuss] A test of Excellence

Wed Jan 16 19:28:37 UTC 2013

God, I love data. Crunchy, real, depressing, data.

I just did a run of the new Status spreadsheet to get the current "state of
the space" and encourage anyone else to do it too. It's really quick.
http://nburl.net/

I've been a bit distracted these past few days, but I think this info
points to a new experiment in cultural initiation (which we've been talking
about for ages but not doing anything), and identifying bad actors and
ejecting them (which we're getting better at, but we need to be more
consistent about).

We have strong cultural values against CCTVs but that doesn't mean that we
can't work out creative solutions. My feeling is that we want to protect
pseudonymity (so that we don't necessarily need to know someone's name for
them to have a reputation good or bad in the space) and logged identifying
surveillance (so that one of us could come to Noisebridge do something, and
then that fact would not be obtained and used against them by an external
force). So for instance, we do have cameras, but they are analog only and
require manual oversight.

If we did come up with a creative solution, it'd also need to be clear to
everyone. People at this point react strongly to cameras and photography
because they expect them to be uncontrolled privacy invasions. It means
that people are uncomfortable if there's a camera, even if it isn't
recording anything. People will take down cameras, if they don't know how
they are controlled.

Also, can I just say that while I find it kind of painful, I personally do
read all of the people who criticise noisebridge elsewhere, and try to
think about their criticisms. I was going to list a bunch of people here,
but that sounds like I'm calling them out; I just wanted to say that I
figure that if someone is interested enough to still comment about
Noisebridge, they're still a part of the community, and what they say
counts for me at least. I sort of wish they would occasionally say positive
things sometimes, but it's not as if saying positive things is something
that even people who love Noisebridge find easy to do, and I understand if
they don't have any right now.

Martin's pretty much the idealised involved critic of Noisebridge. He pays
his membership dues, he comes to meetings when he can, and he conducts
science. I picked holes in the methodology when this started, but the data
seems pretty firm nonetheless.

d.

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Martin Bogomolni <martinbogo at gmail.com>wrote:

> The Excellence Study is now over.  Here are the results:
>
> >From October to January, five items were left in three spaces (
> Noisebridge, Dallas Makerspace, UCSC ).  The items were:
>
> *) A Casascius BitCoin, seal intact, in a small transparent envelope
> labeled with a name, contact info, Do Not Hack
> *) A 9.6V power screwdriver, with philips and slot-head bits, in a
> case clearly labeled with a name and contact #
> *) A box of assorted IC chips and parts from Make: "Electronics
> Components Pack #2", in a case, clearly labeled with a name and
> contact #
> *) An Android phone, Samsung Galaxy S, loaded with CyanogenMod, with a
> laser-etched name and contact on the back
> *) A "DefCon 19" jacket, with a contact name inside the jacket in sharpie
>
> Dallas Makerspace)
>
> *) BitCoin - contact # notified, returned 11/1
> *) Screwdriver was boxed, placed on "lost and found" area 10/20,
> contact # called 10/24, returned 11/1
> *) Make Components pack was placed on "lost and found" area 10/20,
> contact # called 10/24, returned 11/1
> *) Android phone was stolen 10/28, recovered after contact on 11/5 by
> Dallas area pawn shop.
> *) DefCon Jacket was placed in "lost and found" 11/15, contact  email
> used 11/22, returned 12/21
>
> UC Santa Cruz)
>
> *) BitCoin went missing 11/9, re-appeared 12/8, placed in lost and found
> box
> *) Screwdriver, Make Component Pack, were placed in a box labeled with
> the name on the case, and retrieved 1/14/2013
> *) Android Phone, Jacket were placed in a box labeled with the name in
> the jacket, and retrieved 1/14/2013
>
> NoiseBridge )
>
> *) BitCoin was stolen on 10/14, BTC transferred on 10/15
> *) Screwdriver and case was stolen on 10/18
> *) Make Component Pack was opened on 10/24, some components scattered
> into the electronics area and moved to member shelf area, mostly empty
> case went missing from member shelf area 11/3
> *) Android phone was stolen 10/15, pre-paid SIM was used all over the
> bay area (mostly Berkeley) until 11/9, phone recovered from BART
> police on 1/8 smashed/damaged
> *) DefCon Jacket was stolen 10/18
>
> Draw your own conclusions.  The experiment was interesting, but it
> definitely points to some culture issues.
>
> -M
>
> On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Martin Bogomolni <martinbogo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Any good experiment needs a hypothesis, and a way of testing that
> > hypothesis with an experiment and a control.
> >
> > My hypothesis is that the operating principles of Noisebridge are not
> > serving to increase, but rather to decrease, the average level of
> > honesty and 'Excellence' in the space.   Specifically the current way
> > things are set up socially inside of Noisebridge, with insufficient
> > negative feedback/pressure on people to reinforce the social values
> > that promote that kind of honest behavior.
> >
> > I have had two people leave five valuable things in Noisebridge.
> > These things are useful to different people for different reasons.
> >
> > Five identical items have been left at the Dallas Makerspace, as a
> > second social group with different rules.   Also at UC Santa Cruz'
> > workshop as a control, as they have a strongly reinforced discipline
> > of object ownership and storage.
> >
> > All are items a Hacker/Maker would have.
> >
> > One of them contains something intrinsically valuable if disassembled.
> >   It will cease to work if that happens.
> >
> > All are clearly labeled as 'do not hack', with a name and identifying
> > label for which member shelf they should be on.
> >
> > All have been placed in logical places, but not on a material or
> > 'hack' shelf.   None are in their 'correct' location.
> >
> > None are worth less than $50.
> >
> > None of those labels has my name on it.
> >
> > The location of the items will be checked after a day, a week, two
> > weeks, a month, and two months.
> >
> > I will publish the results after three months.
> >
> > -M
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>
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