Open Source Bridge - The Rise of Hacker Spaces

Leigh Honeywell, Co-Founder, hacklab.to

• what's a hacker space?
  • been around for thousands of years under different names
  • hacker spaces is latest incarnation of a community space
  • place to go to use the kinds of tools you might not have at your house
  • also connection with idea of "third space" (not work, not home)
  • instead of hacking alone at home, you hack with others who are either like-minded or have divergent interests
  • like a "permanent hallway"
• history
  • model railroad clubs, HAM radio clubs, toastmasters, etc.
  • major influences around north america
    • the loft in Boston
    • new hack city in san francisco
  • in europe there's a 25 year history
    • tend to be more political in nature
• international community
  • around 400
  • many in germany affiliated with the chaos computer congress
    • publish a quarterly magazine with 4000 subscribers
    • heavily involved with push against biometric ID in germany
• 2007 - hackers on a plane
  • trip from defcon in las vegas to event in dusseldorf
  • this got people very enthusiastic about hackerspaces -- build! unite! multiply!
  • hackerspaces.org founded by people from vienna's metalab
    • metalab is considered a youth center--get funding from the government
• Hacker Space Design Patterns - some highlights
  • meet every week on tuesdays
  • don't let people sleep there too often
  • don't bother with plants, they will die
  • set up a mailing list, wiki, and irc channel
  • http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Documentation
• examples
  • KC - cowtown computer congress
    • located in a mine underground
    • pioneered fundraising by raffle
  • DC - HacDC
    • located in a church
    • help improve technology for the church, do a lot with community wireless efforts
  • hacklab.to
    • founded july 2008
    • 35 members
    • about 200 people on public discussion list
    • 800 sq ft space in kensington market
• hacklab.to infrastructure
  • $50/mo for 24/7 access
  • #hacklabto on irc.freenode.net
  • http://hacklab.to for blogs
• projects
  • most of the interesting stuff going on in hackerpsaces is free software/open source
  • not all technology projects--sewing, etc.
  • lots of electronics hacking
  • roombas
  • laser cutter
  • newbie-oriented programming classes
• lots of free hardware projects coming out of hackerspaces as well
  • e.g. discussions of building an open source laser cutter
  • arduino microcontroller -- came out of art college in italy
  • 3d printer (makerbot?)
• what do hackerspaces mean for free software?
  • another backchannel
  • place for people to collaborate on free software in a place that's potentially higher bandwidth
  • more opportunity for cross-pollination
  • space where small user groups congregate or grow out of
  • can show up at hackerspace with question and even if you don't get the answer, you get a lot of ideas you wouldn't get elsewhere
• challenges
  • institutional/organizational issues similar to the ones free software projects run into
  • politics
    • bootstrapping a business out of a hackerspace can be pretty perilous
  • who's in charge
  • where does the money come from?
    • unlike free software projects, there's overhead (rent) for hackerspaces
  • scaling
    • once you get a core, how do you get new members involved?
  • how do we recruit the next generation?
    • outreach to schools -- teachers love having people come in and talk to their students about what they're doing
• "the future is already here, it's just not very evenly distributed" -- william gibson