HackerspacesBook

teo:

Ich dachte mir die ersten drei Fragen mit einem möglichst locker geschriebenen Fliesstext zu beantworten, und nicht als dröges Frage-Antwort spiel.

Habe bis jetzt aber nur Satz-Brocken, die noch weitere Satz-Brocken dazwischen brauchen...

Arbeitstext

Going back in time, thinking and writing about the very beginnings of "Das Labor" somehow feels a bit strange. That is because right now, at the end of 2008, our hackerspace relocates to a new, larger place. Many people are working to make that happen, some of them already took part in Februrary 2005, when “Das Labor“ was founded, others joined more recently. So in effect, this is like talking about ancient history at a time when new things emerge...

In January 2005 there was no coherent group actively working on building a hackerspace. Multiple cliques, some of them having monthly meetings in various pubs in the area (e.g. the Linux User Group and a local offspring of the Chaos Computer Club) had very loose interaction over their various mailing lists. And there were highly motivated students from the newly founded "XXX Faculty for computer security XXX" of the University Bochum. Suddenly, there was the opportunity to rent a fraction of a building, approx. 70 sqare meters, as sublessee. Like a avalanche we tried reach as many people as possible, quickly. [Another applicant, a alternative music store, was later ruled out by coin flip by our landlord.]

One point, which could have been a major problem, in fact turned out to be a great strength: While we initially visited the potential hackespace, most of us met for the very first time. The place looked perfect for our purposes, it was an energizing meeting and we soon knew that we wanted to try it. So we had to rapidly distribute responsibility among people, who hardly knew each other. Everybody was eagerly invited to participate -- "If you make is, you're right" was the generally accepted theme, it's even preferable to do something redundantly, than to deadlock yourself in an discussion. In only 2 sessions we managed to create a legally registered association and converged to our current name and logo. Btw, the name "Raum 5" (room 5) was, for various reasons, a high ranking candidate for quite some time. For example, we distributed access rights so fast, that we totally lost track about who's a key-owner to the place and who's not.

It was a very open and energetic environment – focused on a goal which seemed hard but possible to archive. We had to rapidly setup our infrastructure: a single mailing list and a Wiki.

Currently, there is a organisational meeting once a month on Thursdays, where most strategic decisions are made, but in general most topics (organisational and technical ones) are discussed on our one and only mailinglist "discuss@das-labor.org". If you'd like to visit us, probably friday's a look at our website, with the current schedule on the first page, might be worthwhile. Open fridays....

Since the early days we're doing a lot of projects in the area of embedded systems. A CAN bus is connecting gadgets distributed all over the place; blinken-stuff is made with the help of microcontrollers or FPGAs. Other topics come to the fore from time to time: cryptography and computer security in general; operating system design; software defined radio or even lockpicking.

We also provide housing for some other groups: an Ubuntu Meeting, a generic local Linux User Group

Questions

Tell the story of the beginning of the hackerspace. How did you come up with the idea? How did you choose the name of your hackerspace? What was your original vision?

What are some obstacles that you had to overcome at the beginning of your hackerspace when you were just getting started?

Describe your hackerspace. What do visitors to the space notice that is special about the space? What kind of tools and resources do you have at the space?

How often do you meet? What happens at these meetings?

Describe a disaster that occurred in your hackerspace. (flood, lightning, accident or some such thing)

What are some things that have come out of your hackerspace that you are most proud of?

Was there anything that you did that was essential to the start of your hackerspace? Do you have any advice for people who might be thinking of starting a hackerspace?

BONUS POINTS

If you get this all done and feel like going an extra mile you could do one of the following. Don't do these if they will put you over the deadline.

1. Get members to tell a story or recount an adventure associated with the beginning of your hackerspace. 2. Draw a floor diagram. 3. Include a manifesto.