Hackers and Heroes: Rise of the CCC and Hackerspaces
hackaday.com
hackaday.com
> You want to know how I think the Germans would do it? An annual conference first, and then incorporate an organization to handle the coordination: you’ll be surprised how much focus and teamwork pulling off a large annual conference will build. An annual event gives groups a deadline to work toward, and I don’t need to tell you how important that is. And an annual conference gets people physically together and having fun, and that absolutely shouldn’t be underrated.
What about Maker Faire, HOPE, DEF CON, etc.? I haven't been to those (or to a CCC Congress), so I don't know if there's a difference or what that difference is. Maybe someone who has can comment?
For me, one the most striking and pleasant things of the CCC is that it's organized ENTIRELY by volunteers and financed by entrance/membership fees (as far as I know) so there is NOT ONE commercial sponsor to be found. I really really value this highly because today there are almost no places left that commerce/business hasn't invaded yet (most IT conferences feel like marketing events of FB/Google/Microsoft/...)
I haven't seen many (any?) conferences / congresses of this scale that are organized like this (the Burning man might be an example of a similar event, not sure how they finance it though).
And of course the people are amazing and very friendly, and it's a safe space to really be yourself. Also, they really try everything they can to make everyone feel at home, there's even an entire floor dedicated to children (with projects, games, workshops, theather, ...) and one day dedicated especially to young hackers. Where else can you find this kind of stuff?
Source: been twice, watched live this year, downloaded all the talks in HD a few days after it ended.
World frickin' class, indeed.
OK, as someone who's been to all of these.
The team/cooperation part I think he's referring to is that CCC will have a large area dedicated different hackerspaces/assemblies. So c-base gets a corner that they decorate, as does Metalab, while many smaller hackerspaces will have a ~12-seat table dedicated to their group, where they can put up any cool projects they want to show off.
Maker Faire has something similar, where local groups will get an area to show off. HOPE has had some more topic-based assemblies like TOOOL. DEFCON has workshop tracks and more thematic "events" that happen, like DEFCON Shoot or the bike ride, but not as much of groups of real-life co-conspirators making things happen, with the notable exception of 303.
A big hackerspace is around my corner, but I just can't be there for long.
Too much awkward males, too much chauvinism, too much image cultivation.
When I came back to the states I joined the local 100+ member space and absolutely hated it. Met some really cool people but the majority were a bunch of jerks who either couldn't give you the time of day or just wanted to do things the hard way.
Maybe the idea of a hackerspace should be like 3.2 bars were in 20th century midwest. One in every neighborhood that served the values and needs of a small core group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pn1RVZu-24
The bits that stand out for me is "If you had your own big club and I was standing outside of it you'd never fucking let me in," --- "We are all eating a giant shit sandwich out here, nobody cares, I don't care".
Good luck.
I've experienced the awkward males part, and the difficulty for newbies to feel welcome. But there's also a kind of social club factor to it with unwritten rules, for example, don't expect to turn up with your windows xp laptop to get a hacker to fix the keyboard.
That's being a bit ableist towards people with social anxiety disorder and people on the autism spectrum.
These tend to be common around hackerspaces, and are mostly a result of society rejecting them (bullying at school, being stigmatized as 'nerdy', etc). You have to accept it as being part of the technology scene in general.
It's just too much for me, when I go there with female friends and suddenly were ringed with peoples who ask them dumb questions.
Or that they "are not racist" but still have to make dumb remarks about the Turks living in their block.
Just 99% of the people in a hackerspace are males and most of them are awkward in social situations :)
they should really slow down content churning. Before i would check it twice a day and often find no new content. just closed the tab and moved on, to come back tomorrow. Now every time i load the page there is new content, but often i just find ridiculous and shallow. At the time i removed them from my reading list it was mostly kickstarter projects.
Does anybody know if there are hackerspaces that are looking for industrious people like me? As long as i can code for a few hours a day i could help cook and clean and stuff and once i get a job i could contribute back to the space with money.
I know this isn't the best place to ask but it's on topic and i don't really know where else to ask and find out.
This was a cool article, i had no idea how much history there is behind these groups and its especially encouraging knowing that with enough willpower, these groups can be self sufficient and autonomous.
That aside, you just need to check the rules of the hackerspace. Many will frown upon using the hackerspace as a co-working space.
After seeing this it is quite clear to me, that this was not so much a computer hack but more of a media hack where the CCC made use of the german media very well. Don't get me wrong I appreciate what the CCC has done the last 33 years, but hearing about this first hand from people that were there was a bit of a dent in my glorified picture of the events.