[Noisebridge-discuss] door "security": culture, not policy.

Thu Mar 21 18:33:49 UTC 2013

I like this thought. Ironically, the buzzer, being a loud and
easily-noticed sound, has motivated me to let people in *without*
doing much to take on responsibility for their presence, literally to
make the buzzing stop.

Solution: audible yet pleasant doorbell sound?

Ari

On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Rachel McConnell <rachel at xtreme.com> wrote:
> Is the upstairs door from the elevator room extant these days? I remember taking off a gate there a long time ago in order to move some large object through. We'd need a lock there too, but making that happen as well as for the main door probably isn't too hard.
>
> -Rachel
>
> On Mar 21, 2013, at 10:45, Snail <snailtsunami at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I will give you a virtual {{hugcoin}} because this is exactly what we should do.
>>
>> And yet, so many people have tried to get others to do these exact
>> same simple steps in the space to no avail. Maybe we can figure out
>> why.
>>
>>
>> Challenge: Part I
>> Lessons in social interactions for people who don't know how to do the
>> social stuff.
>>
>> A few times, I tried to greet people I didn't recognize and introduce
>> myself and ask for their names. People would act really weird and
>> sometimes annoyed because they were regular visitors, not strangers,
>> and I just had no idea who they were. They were not bad people, and
>> honestly I would be annoyed if someone tried to introduce me to the
>> space every time I walked upstairs or asked me why I was there.
>>
>> The WORST thing you can say is stuff like, "Who are you? Why are you here?"
>>
>> The best way to phrase this is not an inquisition, but to just say,
>> "Hi, I'm _____, are you new?", and then it's easy for people to say
>> "No" or "yes, but I'm meeting someone here" and the ACTUALLY new
>> people are really happy to be greeted and will usually ask you
>> questions, instead of the other way around, which is how it should be.
>>
>> Just practice that sentence and everything will be O.K.
>>
>>
>>
>> Challenge: Part II
>> How do you re-train an existing culture that was introduced to the
>> space just by being buzzed in with no greeting.
>>
>> One case: the other night, one guy [who I don't know his name or
>> really recognize him] growled at a bunch of us angrily because we were
>> standing in sight of the door buzzer and weren't walking over to let
>> in immediately whoever was downstairs. He hit the button and walked
>> away, shouting at us, "You heard the buzzer!!", or somesuch statement.
>>
>> Maybe I should have talked him and explained that not everyone lets
>> people in without greeting them, and that we're not obligated to do
>> this every 5 minutes for every person, that maybe he should do this,
>> too, instead of just yelling and hitting the button and stomping
>> around.
>>
>> Maybe if I did these things I would know people's actual names instead
>> of having to refer to them as "grumpy yelling dude #1", "grumpy
>> yelling dude #2", etc. etc.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 9:51 PM, Naomi Most <pnaomi at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Due to recent thefts and other unexcellent (and frankly disturbing)
>>> issues, apparently the idea is circulating that "we" "shouldn't"
>>> "just" "open the door".
>>>
>>> I just had a sort of aggro conversation with some people sitting
>>> around talking about this here at NB.  There seems to be a disconnect
>>> for some people who are not used to acting perceptively versus
>>> judgementally (I'm using the Myers-Briggs qualifications here).
>>>
>>> If NB starts consensing on things that have to do with setting
>>> Policies of any kind, heuristics that tell us how to surveil and
>>> police ourselves, then NB is becoming a very different place, and I'm
>>> not really interested in that.
>>>
>>> If on the other hand we will keep on with not setting explicit
>>> Policies (as I would expect and hope), but we still do want to start
>>> initiating some measures of change that will create a more secure
>>> environment, then I would suggest that Culture evolve towards the
>>> following General Template of Door-Answering:
>>>
>>> 0. Doorbell rings.  Like a well-trained dog, you think about opening the door.
>>>
>>> 1. Ask yourself:  Do I know this person?  If not, do I feel like
>>> *greeting* the person in some way?  If you don't feel you have the
>>> social or emotional health at the moment to greet a person (and that's
>>> totally okay), then maybe you shouldn't answer the doorbell.  You
>>> could suggest that someone else open the door instead.
>>>
>>> 2. If you do want to answer the doorbell, you are now "on the hook"
>>> for greeting that person.  You are agreeing, in a way, to be that
>>> person's Sponsor.
>>>
>>> 3. The person comes up.  You greet them.  Ask their name, whether
>>> they've been to NB before, if they're looking for a class, etc.
>>> Hacker small talk.  No required information -- you are simply
>>> humanizing Noisebridge and initiating empathy in the new person.
>>>
>>> 4. ...Profit.  By which I mean experience a lot less crappy shit happening.
>>>
>>>
>>> Notice that at no point do I talk about checking the person out to see
>>> if you "like" them, or if they look shady or whatever.  That doesn't
>>> matter.  Perfectly decent-looking human beings have been known to do
>>> really shitty things.  And come on, how many of us *don't* look shady
>>> at least 50% of the time.
>>>
>>> What matters is that you make the effort to build a bridge of empathy
>>> (however small and superficial), because studies show time and again
>>> that this simple act of humanization reduces crimes of opportunity
>>> (e.g. petty theft) by huge margins.
>>>
>>> I hope it makes sense why I talk about this being Culture Not Policy.
>>> And fortunately, the above heuristics completely obviate the need to
>>> make snap judgement calls about anybody.
>>>
>>> I'm not talking about laying down any laws, or designating anybody
>>> with special privileges, or setting Policies that every individual
>>> must follow.  Rather we are talking about the Noisebridge organization
>>> agreeing to form new cultural Habits.
>>>
>>> I can talk more about the behavioral psychology behind the above, but
>>> at the moment I have a lot of ice cream to eat, so I'mma go do that.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Naomi
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Naomi Theora Most
>>> naomi at nthmost.com
>>> +1-415-728-7490
>>>
>>> skype: nthmost
>>>
>>> http://twitter.com/nthmost
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> -Snailssnailssnailssnailssnailssnailssnails
>> ............. _ at y
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