Meeting Notes 2011 08 02

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HOWTO run a meeting.[edit]

Pick a moderator, and a note-taker. The note-taker should:

  • write notes in this page, put them back up online when they're done, CHECK
  • edit the frontpage so that it points to this weeks and next week's meeting notes in the meeting bit, CHECK
  • edit the Current Consensus Items if anything is decided to be up for consensus next week (stuff raised for consensus this week should be publicised for a final decision next week)
  • edit the Consensus Items History if anything was consensed or failed to consense this week.
  • tell treasurer@noisebridge.net and secretary@noisebridge.net if there are new members.

Moderator should:

  • make sure everyone gets a chance to speak
  • speak minimally themselves
  • keep the meeting moving! you're in charge of summarising the consensus, and/or suggesting things that need to be done!
  • get the membership binders and ensure they are returned to the black desk

Agenda[edit]

The 172nd Meeting of Noisebridge

Note-taker: mrdomino

Moderator: WHO IS IT I DON'T KNOW

OH WAIT IT'S KELLY

who is getting water

after which

WE WILL MEET

Introduction and Names[edit]

  • What Noisebridge is about: "Noisebridge is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides a space for creation, collaboration, and learning about technology and creative projects. Noisebridge provides space, power tools, and infrastructure to help the public learn new skills and create cool things. Noisebridge continues to exist through and depends entirely on membership fees and donations. Our code of conduct is 'Be excellent to each other'."
  • Round of introductions: What's your name, what do you do, and if you are new, how did you hear about Noisebridge? Start with the moderator and go left.
    • Kelly
    • Michael
    • Crutcher
    • John, multilpe personalities but still john
    • Rob
    • Duncan
    • Maddie?
    • Bill (give him bow)
    • dara drawing 8======================D
    • mrdomino
    • jason
    • mike (tech wanderer)
    • chris he who is
    • Leif
  • A brief primer on consensus process: We agree and so should you! Only paid-up members can block consensus.

OK WELCOME TO THE MEETING

Short Announcements[edit]

Cool new projects? Something you'd like people to know? Say now, but keep it short!

  • crutcher wants to give a donation for his dues but there's no way to pay his dues without it being a donation if he's late
  • rayc cleaned up a like FUCKTON of stuff
  • crutcher something something budget
  • lief: steganography project (talk to him afterwards)


New or Stale Events[edit]

Is there anything new happening at the space? Is there anything that has stopped happening at the space?

Here are the current events (you don't need to read all of these out):


events are haphazardly cross-posted on Meetup, the Discord, and Google Calender here

Some noisebridger's have also started hosting Events from a calendar at https://noisebridge.today/, and new (additional) associated gCal.


Key: W: Weekly | 1st 2nd 3rd 4th: Certain weeks | -2nd: Except certain weeks | S: Streaming | event: caution maybe dead | event: management of space


Upcoming Events[edit]

Five Minutes of Fame: 10 5 minute talks every third Thursday! Spread this poster around.
Introduce yourself and meet the community at meetings

Mondays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 7:00pm Meetups/Infra Self-hosting, rough consensus, & running code. Find upcoming sessions on Meetup or in #meetup-infra on Discord.
W 7:00pm PyClass A complete introductory Python course. Classes are held regularly. Find upcoming sessions on Meetup or in #python on Discord. (Returned! Mar '24)
W you-o-clock TRASH NIGHT Please take out all three large trash bins!! They are on the patio.
W 7:00pm Circuit Hacking Monday Learn electronics, Arduino, and/or how to solder! We have kits and Arduinos for donations, or bring your own project. Most Mondays at 7PM. More details on Meetup
W 7:00pm 3d Simulation Hack Night Come work on your Unreal engine, 3d Unity projects, Houdini projects, 3d character design projects, or architecture projects! General meetup for working in simulation and 3d. Hosted by delta_ark

Tuesdays![edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W S 7:00pm Noisebridge Weekly Meeting (In person & online via Jitsi) - Introduce new people and events, joining, announcements, discussions, and consensus. Come express what you think about what's going on with your space!
W 7:00pm San Francisco Writers Workshop Free drop-in writers workshop, get feedback and critique! Located on the first floor hackitorium.
W 7:00pm Neurotech Tuesdays Do neuro. Do tech. sfg. Check #🧠│neurotech on discord
2nd 4nd 6:00pm Numerati SF Hacking the Stock Market with AI/ML. Every other Tuesday. Please RSVP on Meetup.

Wednesdays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
3rd 3:30pm - 5:30pm Zinemakers meetup Monthly gathering of zine and book and comic creators, to share ideas and work on projects. Newbies welcome! Confirm with Meetup
1st 7:00pm - 8:30pm Conflict Resolution We do our best to address pressing issues, mitigate conflicts, be excellent to each other.
2nd 4nd 6:00pm - 7:00pm Bike Psych! Time and space to talk about transit related projects Confirm with Meetup
W S 7:00pm - 9:00pm Machine Learning AI and RL Meetup Weekly gathering of AI enthusiasts discussing cool things happening in the field and ongoing projects / learning tracks
1st 8:00pm Woodhacking Wednesday "Have a woodworking project in mind but you don't know where to get started? This is a good time to come ask questions, get some help, and ideas from other woodworkers. Everyone is welcome..." Confirm dates with Meetup


Thursdays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W S 6:00pm - 8:00pm Gamebridge game development mentoring & coworking meetup for gamedev beginners and indies alike.
W S 6:00pm NeurotechX SF hacknights for mind-machine interfacing with EEGs.
2nd 4th 6:00pm - 8:00pm Advanced Geometry SF An event for people who would like to study/teach advanced topics in geometry.
3rd S 8:00pm - 9:00pm Five Minutes of Fame a.k.a. 5MoF Ten 5min talks in an hour, on any topic
4th S 8:00pm - 10:30pm Resident Electronic Music An electronic music open mic! (note: Nov/Dec pushed to Dec 10th, 6pm setup)
4th 9:00pm Queer Game Developers Meetup! "Here you will find other queer game devs, game-making enthusiasts, and be a part of a community that welcomes everyone who is interested in creating games." Please register on Eventbrite. See Meetup for more info.
W you-o-clock TRASH NIGHT Please take out all three large trash bins!! They are on the patio.

Fridays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 2:00pm - 5:00pm Hack on Noisebridge! a good open time for cleaning 'n re-organizing the physical space. See #totally-secret-cabal-of-space-organizers on the Discord
Brewery meetup - brewing & tasting days Come learn to brew mead with Eliot and Andy! Check the Meetup for dates or check in #brewing on Discord.

Saturdays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 9:30am - 1:00am Hack on Noisebridge! cleaning, physical organizing and re-organizing, donuts. See #totally-secret-cabal-of-space-organizers! on discord
W 2:00pm - 6:00pm Free Code Camp with Paul Farley Brandon as host
3rd 2:00pm - 6:00pm Godot Meetup Gamedev workshop & networking for users of the Godot game engine. We have two meetups this March around GDC: March 16th and March 23rd!
4th 1:00pm - 3:00pm Building Guitar Pedals Workshop Come build guitar pedals or other electronic music equipment! Look for the #pedal-building channel under #events in the discord. Check the Meetup for more info and confirmed dates.

Sundays[edit]

Tags Time Title Description
W 2:00pm - 4:00pm Laser Cutter training Get certified to use the laser cutter
2nd 2:00pm - 3:00pm Fabrication 101 2nd Shop Sundays class on safety and basic techniques
W 6:00pm - 7:15pm Noisebridge 15th Anniversary Planning Meeting planning for Noisebridge 15, any/everyone is welcome to come and help with planning.. etc.
W 7:30pm - 10:00pm Self-Driving Flying Car Meetup training class, discussion, and meetup on flying cars
2nd S 2:00pm - 4:00pm BAHA: Bay Area Hackers' Association Security Hacking Meeting 2nd Sundays at 272 and via Jitsi

Other Bay Area Consortium of Hackerspaces Events[edit]



HACK POLITICS: STILL HAPPENING? we must know.

Financial Report[edit]

Funds in bank: 16,931.18. Dropping some figures in here in advance. We may not actually discuss these at the meeting if there are more pressing issues, but here's some info in case you're interested. --Hurtstotouchfire 09:50, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

  • 27: Number of members in confirmed good standing
  • 37: Number of members including those probably in good standing but they pay in large chunks or pay in cash to a board member or I forgot to deposit their checks (sorry Will)
  • 47: Number of members including those mentioned above as well as members who are past due beyond our bookkeeping lag
  • 57: Number of members on "hiatus" (exclusive of active members and former members who have officially abdicated)

ARE WE OKAY WITH PEOPLE REMAINING ON HIATUS INDEFINITELY?

Jan - May 2011 (June & July still have outstanding items to reconcile)

By Number of Members:

  • Starving Dues: 25%
  • Regular Dues: 73%
  • Doing Well Dues: 2%

By Portion of Dues Income:

  • Starving Dues: 16%
  • Regular Dues: 80%
  • Doing Well Dues: 4%

Profit & Loss Jan-May 2011 - Google doc showing a whole bunch of different income items and expenditures, over the last few months.

Membership Binder[edit]

  • Read off any names from the binder for the past month. Write a check on every open application.
  • Anyone up for joining this week (ie have four checks by their name + have two sponsors) should introduce themselves then leave the area in search of gifts (traditionally beer and a lime) for the rest of the group. The rest of the meeting should consense on whether they may join.
  • Jonah: PRINCIPLES OF DOOCRACY AND EXCELLENCE. INSTEAD OF A PERPETUAL GUEST HE WOULD LIKE to be a responsible accountable dicks in ass contributing member
    • VERY INVOLVED WITH THE FREE MARKET
    • part of our doocracy is part of the shelf which this dude slept on for a couple days
    • he's the guy with that musical instrument
    • crutcher will block the fuck out of that
  • Taylor: learn and create something new
  • Kyle: no last name.
  • catherine: hardware hacking and fun and stuff
  • Oliver wants to build a slurpee machine. Hurf durf
  • George: fifth noun? Learn and make new friends.

Consensus items[edit]

(Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)

Up for consensus this week:

"For a trial period of six months, Noisebridge should sponsor an official project to provide Tor nodes, and accept donations earmarked for that purpose. "

  • Crutcher: I BLOCK
  • Kelly: You're not in good standing.
  • Crutcher: I asked if I was in good standing at the start of this meeting and you told me to wait.
  • Kelly: oh I told you to wait.
  • Crutcher: see previous re donations and paypal etc
  • Leif: What are your concerns with this proposal?
  • Crutcher: I do not think that we have sufficient legal coverage to be involved in providing official tor nodes.
  • Kelly: we have the EFF.
  • Crutcher: are the EFF our lawyers of record?
  • Kelly: They are our pretty close buddies.
  • Leif: To clarify what our legal situation with the EFF is --
  • Crutcher: Why is it necessary for us to have this as a consensus item?
  • Leif: I'll assume you've just heard about this. The reason why we're doing this as a Noisebridge official project is because members already run their own, but there is a perceived legal risk that the EFF has been trying to defuse for some time. What they've found is that a lot of people would support Tor nodes being run but don't want to run them themselves. There is no organization (certainly not a 501c3) in the US that provides this service. The EFF has not become our official legal counsel. They have said that in the unlikely event that there are any problems they will help us find counsel. They might be our counsel, but the EFF does not agree to take on cases before the case exists as a matter of policy.
  • Crutcher: Why not do it as a separate 501c3?
  • MCT: They're giving money to an organization that has some standing in the community.
  • Crutcher: Why not separate 501c3?
  • MCT: Starting up a 501c3 is a lot of work and people have already done that to make Noisebridge happen. This is all within Noisebridge's charter of hacking the planet.
  • Crutcher: The reason it was such a hard time for us was that we wanted one that worked with our governance structure
  • All: No, that wasn't the problem.
  • Chris: Not that hard. I personally think this is bringing a tremendous amount of risk on us. I'd like a separate group so that if this gets attacked Noisebridge has some measure of protection.
  • Kelly: Initially wanted that, but as she looked into it, it needs to be in our accounts to be under our 501c3.
  • Chris: Why does it have to be under our 501c3?
  • Kelly: Sure, if we wanted a totally separate organization then we could do that, but there's no "create a 501c3" under the Noisebridge umbrella.
  • Leif: This project would pay Noisebridge, not the other way around. 5% of income to defray administrative overhead.
  • Shelf guy: Policies for this? Huge amount of risk might not want to take.
  • Leif: Point of this project is to persuade ... there have never been any ramifications for any Tor nodes in the United States. The US government funds the Tor project, is the largest funder and always has been. There are lots of private individuals and businesses who run Tor nodes. We're basically trying to do that but in a more public way.
  • Shelf guy: Why is the government so interested in creating Tor ndoes?
  • Leif: Started out as a naval project. If you have an anonymous network for law enforcement to use then everybody using it is law enforcement. Likewise dissidents. The Tor project has a very diverse user base that benefits all of its users.
  • Kelly: The EFF is endorsing the project.
  • Chris: define what we're providing?
  • Kelly: We have a document on the wiki: Tor that describes this.
  • Leif: What we're doing in a nutshell is accepting earmarked donations and using these donations to rent storage in a datacenter to operate Tor nodes and a group of people for responding to any abuse complaints that come to it. I've been involved in running this with a group of friends and most of the complaints are abuse of copyright complaints. We have a number of different letters for people running Tor nodes. We will send them.
  • Kelly: We're accepting donations in order to provide it.
  • Leif: One of the worst case legal scenarios is that police that don't understand that there are no logs seize the server.
  • Chris: To understand: We as an organization want to provide an anonymizing service for internet traffic. As long as we're not storing anything whatsoever --
  • Jason: Can you explain why $worst_case_scenario is bad?
  • Leif: Worst and best case is that that happens. If that were to happen, the EFF would almost certainly defend us or find someone who would. We would be a test case and establish precedent.
  • Crutcher: I am not convinced --
  • Jason: I support this because Noisebridge is about global terrorism. Let's get on with the terrorism!
  • Kelly:
  • Shelf guy: $questions_about_drugs_and_cp and how would this affect our 501c3 status?
  • Aestetix: rambling about 501c3 and politics and EFF and legal threats
  • Shelf guy: To simplify it we're providing an anonymous onramp to the internet.
  • Kelly: To clarify, the Tor project provides an anonymizing service for the internet. We will be providing nodes in the Tor project. If we do not provide these nodes, the anonymizing service still exists; we are just helping it. Established service, due diligence, not like we'd be designing this
  • Leif: The organization that sponsors the software being written are themselves a 501c3 that is funded by a variety of sources including the US government.
  • Shelf guy: Ten or 15 years ago there was an anonymizing thing in the Netherlands somewhere that got raided by the police. Is this replacing that technology?
  • MCT: clarification
  • John: Things on record about what tor actually does. It's multistep. Onion routing. More yada yada about random pedantic details of implementation
  • Crutcher: The more --
  • Kelly: Pause. Crutcher, d'you want to get [unintelligible]
  • John: More rambling about nodes and databases and law enforcement
  • Kelly: Ok so. What'd you want to talk about Crutcher?
  • Crutcher: What he's saying is that if we get involved in any kind of exit or routing policy restrictions, the more involved we get, the greater liability attaches to us --
  • John: Incorrect. If we discriminate on the basis of what kind of traffic --
  • Kelly: Ok. So hang on, I feel like we have two tangents here.
  • Shelf guy: Have they presented us with a written document?
  • Kelly: They approached us and have our back. There is enormous community support for this software. This will probably be the single greatest income source Noisebridge has ever experienced.
  • Shelf guy: Is it just us behind it?
  • Kelly: There are thousands of people. People accept money in Europe. EFF wants an American 501c3 because their [unintelligible]
  • Shelf guy: Can we get an American hacker group to go in on this with us?
  • Kelly: No this is fine don't worry about it
  • Shelf guy: Given OCD I'm comfortable. Concern would be cp etc
  • Kelly: Deal with CP: CPers use Tor. FBI chasing CPers also use Tor.
  • Crutcher: Are you willing to cripple the internet to stop CP?
  • All: STFU crutcher
  • Kelly: Focus discussion on addressing whatever are the blockable issues Crutcher is concerned about.
  • Crutcher: I do not believe that Noisebridge with the way we make decisions is in a position to be the active policy provider for a service like this that is likely to see some legal action.
  • Kelly: Have you read the document about this?
  • Crutcher: No I haven't. Does the document say that it will bypass the consensus process and give some smaller group the ability to make decisions about this?
  • Kelly: No, this is all of us.
  • Crutcher: If we are in a situation where we are getting sued, we will not be in a position where we will be able to defend ourselves.
  • Kelly: unintelligible
  • Crutcher: I do not like that these core things that allow the organization to continue to exist will stop being the case if this something something
  • Shelf guy: See where you're coming from. Mexican curse, very true: may you be involved in a lawsuit in which you know you are right. It would be a very, very bad thing for Noisebridge, it would take tremendous focus awawy from the rest of Noisebridge, and your proposition of limiting the ... to a more comfortable level would be more appropriate. Doing it with a clause that would not take a full consensus but a three-quarters majority --
  • Kelly: we don't do that.
  • Shelf guy: We may have to evolve.
  • Chris: Quick thing. Looking at the wiki page we are acting merely as a financial funnel to these people. People who are not on our list who are administrating it --
  • Kelly: People adminning are sitting here. They are members of the actual Noisebridge community --
  • Crutcher: It depends on who we tell other people to give the money to.
  • Kelly: Crutcher.
  • Crutcher: I Would like either a private individual or a separate 501c3 that is not Noisebridge to be the organization that is renting the --
  • Leif: Crutcher, are you saying that you are all right with Noisebridge being the umbrella if Noisebridge were to contract with some separate entity to do the thing? That's what we're doing. We're paying someon else.
  • Crutcher: No one sues the datacenter provider. They go after the people who have that service.
  • Leif: Are you suggesting a scenario that would be acceptable to you where Noisebridge would accept the donations and contract with someone else?
  • Crutcher: I don't want Noisebridge to contract. I want Noisebridge to donate to a separate organization that is making the decision to run the node.
  • Kelly: I want to put that on hold for a second and resolve the question.
  • Chris: That clarified my question
  • Jason: I have to say what is wrong with you people? Why do you think we have this 501c3? It is not to sit on our ass in this messy place and not do anything -- and I haven't been drinking -- it's to accomplish some things. And here we have an opportunity to accomplish some things. and we're choosing not to. And that is lame.
  • Kelly: Crutcher is choosing not to.
  • Jason: It means we all are. It means we suck.
  • Kelly: I object to the idea that Crutcher can make me suck.
  • Jason: We all suck. We are failing. I could go on and on about this --
  • Kelly: This is glorious, but I wanna ask something something etc
  • Crutcher: I don't understand why there's this feeling that establishing a new 501c3 is such a difficult thing. They can accept donations and spend money during their setup.
  • John: 501c3 stuff
  • Leif: We're specifically looking for a 501c3.
  • Kelly: EFF feels an American 501c3 is the ideal situation for this.
  • Crutcher: I'm not concerned about it doing us harm. If we get sued it'll be annoying. I don't think the way that we govern this community is the structure that I want behind that suit. I care about that suit, and we're a bunch of fucking clowns. If there's a lawsuit about this, I don't want us to be doing that.
  • Kelly: What the EFF says is what we're going to do
  • Crutcher: ...
  • Jason: I have come here 3 weeks to see this passed. There's always a different person. You know what? You're gonna die some day, Crutcher. And all the shit you didn't do? You're gonna remember that shit.
  • Kelly: [reading from Tor]
  • Kelly: I felt very strongly that if this were sued, it would interfere with other Noisebridge functions. So if this project threatens Noisebridge or isn't doing what it's supposed to do or anything like this, management will be within this small group of individuals; consensus will not be required to terminate it. Consensus sufficient but not necessary. The understanding that we have is that the members of the project can suspend or terminate at any time and if the EFF told them, they would. Should this become an actually risky project, this needs to not be handled by the consensus process.
  • Crutcher: Does the board of directors also have the power to shut this down?
  • Leif: Legally yes. We have not said that.
  • Crutcher: Can we put it in the writing?
  • Kelly: De facto the project requires actually a subset of the board members in order to function. So effectively, yeah. What do you think about the idea of outside of the project intervention?
  • Leif: I think that under California law, it's clear that the board could do that, but if we want to explicitly state that, do you have a...?
  • Crutcher: There's a difference between what's law and what's policy.
  • Leif: Yes. Having it stated would make it much more --
  • Crutcher: How many board members do you think --
  • Kelly: This is actually maybe slightly picky of me, but: do you want it to be a decision of the board, or should it be a Noisebridge officer?
  • Crutcher: I would like it to be the board. A Noisebridge officer too, as a hair trigger, but also the board.
  • Shelf guy: We should make this work. Why should we be like Rosa Parks and get up and move to the back of the bus?
  • Kelly: I think that you could say that the de facto management of suspension and termination of this project is expected to be the Noisebridge project members, however under California law the board of directors etc etc. I would personally hope that the Noisebridge project people would do whatever's reasonable, and that they manage the day-to-day operations of anything going down, but should they fail, a decision of the board could -- [mct typing, i'm sure it'll show up somewhere]
  • Kelly: Crutcher, what do you think?
  • Aestetix: If you're bored, feel free to wander. We're in the deep legal crap, so
  • Chris: I like the concept of the dead man's switch
  • Crutcher: This says nothing about --
  • Rabble: rabble rabble rabble
  • Kelly: [reading from mct's laptop]
  • Shelf guy: Can I ask a stupid question? We're not gonna do anything dumb like post on board saying "HEY CPers"
  • Kelly: No we're not gonna do that
  • Shelf guy: Okay, good.
  • Some: This is an important project.
  • Leif: We're concerned by legal threats by email. There have been totally baseless legal threats served by email.
  • Kelly: Something something define litigation. Do you feel that that language is necessary or are there other ways to --
  • Crutcher: On further consideration, I am comfortable with there being no statements on litigation in this consensus item. I don't want to force them into making certain legal decisions that they otherwise wouldn't have to.
  • Kelly: Does the fact that the BoD has this power comfort you?
  • Crutcher: Yes. Sure. I will consent to this. I really would like us to develop an organizational facility to spin off 501c3s as needed in the future.
  • Kelly: As moderator, I'm going to say that I think it is the consensus of Noisebridge that: For a trial period of six months, Noisebridge should sponsor an official project to provide Tor nodes and accept donations earmarked for that purpose. I will also add that there should continue to be details added to the document on the wiki, that the current version will be marked, but if you are super-concerned, details will be added.
  • Crutcher: And if it makes you feel better, I am a member in good standing now.

DONE BITCHES. MEETING OVER

Discussion Items[edit]

  • Crutcher: after 6 months on hiatus, you're fucked.
    • Kelly: how was hiatus defined? How should it be?
    • Chris: This may change the character of the space permanently
    • Crutcher: people shouldn't be able to show up and block at random
    • Kelly: People should expire solely due to lack of contact. If they disappear then they're fucked.
    • Crutcher: we don't have to make them a non-member. We can just call them "inactive".
    • TABLED
  • NEXT WEEK: revising our accounting system. those who don't know: our accounting system "unpredictably" drops line items from paypal. it's a known problem that they're not planning to fix. WE SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER ONE
    • Zero. Current system. Pretty poorly made. Takes forever to reconcile. Migrate to a system that doesn't require five to ten hours of work every single week (which is what we're at about now (I've spent fifteen hours reconciling or so over the past three days to catch us up)) so next week we should talk about a replacement. NEW ACCOUNTING SYSTEM
    • REALISTICALLY, kelly is probably the more diligent option as far as treasurer goes. we should maybe make the position a little more reasonable to do in general for less-OCD people.
  • FUTURE TREASURER FLAMEBAIT: paypal are fuckers. we should not use them anymore. whoever really loves paypal tell her about it.
    • JASON: nobody really loves paypal. they stopped those wikileaks bastards.
    • Kelly: grand loyalty of hacker community as embodied by resistance to not using paypal
    • Jason: leveraged options on gold


End of Meeting[edit]

  • PGP Key Signing could happen now, check the list to see who wants in on the action.
  • Put back the membership binder in the black desk.
  • Save the meeting notes to the wiki.
  • Send a copy of the meeting notes to the discussion list.
  • Copy the Meeting Notes Template for next week's agenda and update the main wiki page's link to it.
  • Enjoy a cocktail with your fellow hacker or robot.