Noisebridge Vision
Noise Bridge is a hacker space in the same spirit as the European clubs like Metalab of Vienna, CBase of Berlin, MAMA of Zagreb, ASCII of Amsterdam. Many other clubs of a similar stripe can be found on Hacklabs. It would not be out of the question to consider Noise Bridge to be a possible San Francisco Chaostreff. Noise Bridge is a hacker space that shares a Dorkbot-like ethic and indeed many of the members of Noise Bridge are long time Dorkbotters.
Noise Bridge is a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring and of course learning.
The group as whole has an interest in programming, hardware hacking, chemistry, mathematics, photography, security, robotics, all kinds of art and of course technology.
It is a place for mentoring and asking questions.
From my perspective, NoiseBridge is a continuation of the hacker space I had in mind when I started the SFhackspace google group a few days ago. So, I'll quote from some relevant parts of what I wrote there:
I was totally inspired by Chaos Camp in Berlin this summer (2007). There were so many incredibly beautiful projects that people showed at the Camp, and many of them came out of hacker spaces that exist all over Germany and Austria (in big cities, but also in lots of small towns). Since I've been back from Berlin, I've been talking to lots of people about starting a hacker space here.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a space that is open to members 24/7, a place to work on projects both solo and collaborative, a place to support and be supported in your projects, easily accessible to mass transit, safe to get to night or day, a place with a kitchen and a shower, a place to hang out with other geeks? Excitement has been building to create such a space! It turns out that there are several other people who have been independently thinking about starting a hacker space here. There are probably lots of people that none of us know that are also thinking about this as well. This all tells me that it is really is time for a hacker space here!
I uploaded a document that is from some Chaos folks. It gives ideas about what has worked (and not) for them. It is a good place to look to get some ideas, and is a good starting point for discussion.
Last night (18-Nov-07), as I type, a group of us discussed some ideas that we were all jazzed about (as I remember it -- others please feel free to edit this): a space where members pay between $50 and $100 per month (depending on the rent and any common fund we'd like to build up); exploring the intersection of art and technology; diverse membership is cool! (both in types of people and in the types of geekiness members are into); no tolerance of intolerance, including no homophobia, racism, sexism; agreement that people will work interpersonal things out with each other (including not talking behind others' backs); respect for others' well being; there will be space for members to work on projects, and a common space for events, classes, art; members can store their projects in storage drawers/lockers/bins; the focus of the space is non-commercial.
Mitch.
Noisebridge is a space for artistic collaboration and experimentation. We are open to all types of art with special emphasis on the crossover of art and technology. There are plans to build a darkroom in the space, equipped with black and white and color enlargers.
We intend to have many interesting things happening at all times. Sharing is essential to making this work. A logical followup to this is to have space to display our creative projects.