Although I don’t have much opportunity to get involved with hackerspaces these days, I am glad to see the establishment of places such as the Hacktory in Philadelphia and HacDC. In some ways, they also parallel the MAKErs movement, another great development to encourage hacking/tinkering.

I agree about the importance of the casual attendees and visitors being important. Besides their direct contributions to the hackerspace, they also serve as ambassadors of the hackserspace concept. Getting the hackspaces somewhat visible to the general public helps to dispel the weird associations people have with the term “hacker”.

This ambassador triat points to one of the responsibilities for people associated with hackserspaces: educate others about what hacking is and what it isn’t. Sometimes, this may mean dealing with a newcomer who see hacking as the means of ripping off freebies or harassing others. (I am thinking of the occasional newbies whose questions centre on how do I break in… motifs and hardly on how do things work and how can do some really cool stuff with them. Hacking as merely a tool, not as an approach to tech, systmes, and such.)

That may bring an obligation to try encourage such probelmatic newbies to see other aspects of hacking, to mentor where possible. In some cases, it may mean distancing from somebody really going on a disastrous course.

(I am thinking of how some of the sports lockspicking club in the Netherlands and Germany handle those people who want to breaking into places rather than learning how locks work. Those clubs face liabilities with their countries’ criminal laws. One of the good things I’ve seen is how to the clubs managed to prevent overt criminal use of their resources and, at the same time, not lose the hacker spirit.)

NHC was truly an epic space, I wish there was more documentation available about it. I was sad to see it fail, to be there helping members move the last of their equipment out of it. In the end, it closed because it failed to bring in new members and excite the community in the way that Noisebridge does. There are other structural issues that might be worth getting into, were it not for the spirit of pluralism and democracy that informs our current spaces.

It would be a tragedy to see this next wave of hackerspaces see the same fate, to close because of a lack of interest or enthusiasm. This wave of spaces must focus on sustainability, and we must examine the ongoing theory to ensure that these spaces continue to exist. So much effort goes into building these spaces and so much good comes out of them that I believe we must focus on ways of keeping them alive and vital. Being aware of this responsibility to the community outside the membership is, I believe, the biggest contributing factor to ensuring their continued success.

That said, thanks for speaking so kindly about Noisebridge ;>