The Next Hackerspace 001: Why Baltimore Node?
For whatever reason, I’ve recently become renewed in my excitement for Baltimore Node. Maybe it’s the new year. A new sense of purpose?
Maybe it’s a push from other folks who are getting down and dirty with the hackerspace movement. The hackerspaces.org mailing list and baltimore-node-discussion are both seeing increased activity.
Maybe it’s a sense that Baltimore Node is getting stale. We’ve been going for six months, but relatively little has changed in that time. We haven’t lost many members, we haven’t gained many members, churn is low. From an institutional perspective that might be something to celebrate. For the organization’s whole existence, we’ve been essentially profitable in strict financial terms.
The institutional perspective is boring. Finances aren’t the only measure of value.
Whatever the cause of my current mood, I’m ready to start questioning (again) what it is that’s happening in, with, and around the Node.
[some of] The Questions
What elements of the current hackerspace movement are baggage, and which are lasting?
How are hackerspaces & coworking tied together and why are the things they have in common important?
I see a strong call to move past a space focus and back (forward?) to a people focus. We don’t share a workshop because the tools are better, but because there are people around.
What is it I’m trying to do?
Why non-profit? Why not? Why am I not excited to chase after non-profit status? Is something like Fusion Partnership applicable or relevant to our mission?
What is next?
How does Baltimore Node grow? Should it be grown or should it be split? Should we be spending our energy as members or administrators growing this thing, or should we be seeking to plant more hackerspaces (or hackerspace-like things) in Baltimore?
This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s a starting point. I’d love to hear from other people here, on the mailing list, or on your own sites. This isn’t the start of the discussion, we’ve been going at it on the list and in person for most of a year now. It’ll keep going when we’ve all moved on because it’s really not a hackerspace discussion, it’s an enabling people conversation, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
“What are you trying to do? Why Node?”
This is bigger than tools and more important than work and workspaces, although those ideas are very tightly connected to the Node. This is, at its core, about people. This is about providing a focus for the latent creative energies of as many people as we can reach.
“Latent,” you say, “but Node is made up of creative people. There’s nothing latent there.”
Well sure the folks who are part of the Node are creative, but I’d attribute that to the fact that we’re all creative people. I’d argue that they weren’t all using it when they showed up. I am a believer in a natural range of talents—some may never be as good at ping pong as others—but I am also a believer in the capacity for interesting work present in every living human.
When I say, “not about tools,” I am calling up this capacity, this propensity towards great works; the desire to be part of and responsible for interesting work. I seek to encourage this in myself and others because I think our society largely seeks to take it away from us. In this way I am doing my part to form an anti-corporation. Don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not hoping for collective identity. Something along the lines of the communists, or Anonymous, for example. I want to see more individuality and independent identity, not less.
One funny thing is that it doesn’t take a hackerspace to do that. The hackerspace is a means to an end, but not the end in itself. It is extremely valuable as a central point of contact for a large group of people (I’m calling 17 members, 20+ including affiliates “large”) who are seeking similar ends, directly or obliquely. The hackerspace is not the only tool that can serve that purpose, though.
As a comprehensive or complete workshop, Node is relatively unremarkable. There is very little any member can do in the space that they could not do before in their basement, bedroom, or office. Maybe there would be a longer wait for parts or a harder time with fewer specialized tools, but the point stands. The Node, by existing, the fact of its existence alone, did more to nudge people into action that the tools inside it. The physical reality of the space, its existence as a meeting place and a working place is worth more than the tools, chairs, and tables inside it. Those things are fungible. More or less of them can be acquired as needed. People, on the other hand, are not fungible.
Those people are why I’m doing it. Because they burn like I do for an outlet. They have been bottled up in schools and jobs, and they’re willing to step away from it. I want to invite them along for the ride.
Why do I want to support Baltimore Node?
- To create new things.
- Encourage self-reliance.
- Encourage inter-dependence at a local scale. Grow connections, relationships, and information flows between humans instead of between companies and humans or companies and companies.
- Gather and grow a community of doers excited and equipped to solve the immense present difficulties.
- Help people prepare themselves to solve problems that we are not yet facing.
- To reduce the unintentional isolation of the technical community within the framework of society. i.e., diminish the role and influence of the techno-priesthood by throwing open the doors and inviting others in.
- To explore systems that are too big for me to manipulate on my own.
- To find out if I can build something people will love. It is a testing place for me, in that way. It has something of a, “because it’s there” aura. (not claiming that’s a noble reason, just that it’s on the list)
- To redirect the free energy of as many people as I can away from waste and into productive, creative pursuits. It is waste when someone spends their day grinding themselves down at a job they hate simply because it provides money. No person should hate their work. Node is not a career path or an employment agency, but it can be a starting place in a personal search for meaningful work. Because it is so open ended, because it is so ripe with potential, I believe it may be the best starting place possible. If it’s not already then I want to continue urging its growth in that direction.
- I am looking for something. I can’t say what it is, but I can say when and where I have seen it. I know when it strikes me that we’re on to something.
