Meeting Notes 2014 11 04

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334th Meeting of Noisebridge

Moderator: User:Tdfischer

Note taker: User:Patrickod

Torrie is now a member!

Noisebridge? Wut?[edit]

Rayc - An awesome hackerspace, an infrastructure provider to do cool things. Things, cool things. Hack all the things, not just tech. 501(c)(3) with classes and events. RTF Wiki.

J - One main rule: be excellent to each other. Only other real "rule" is that we run by "do-ocracy"


Attendance[edit]

  • J - Been in the city for ~7 months, at NB for 6. Tinkerer.
  • John - Works for sunglasses company. likes crypto
  • Henner - Writes software by day.
  • Patrick -
  • Torrie - Bicyclist
  • Ron - Software, taking the webdev class. Now onto python
  • Stephanie - EE. Here to learn more!
  • Emerson - Tinkerer & hardware hacker.
  • Kenny - EE. Likes hacking hardware and sound.
  • Michael - Likes to do useful & fun things w/ science.
  • JC - I like hacking on space. Currently exploring the confines of a locker turned espresso bar.
  • Marcel - Software developer.
  • Rikke - wearables & biotech.
  • Steve - Theoretical physicist and developer.
  • Rayc - I'm eternal.

Events and announcement[edit]

  • Aaron Swartz Hackathon at Internet Archive this Sat and Sun.
  • Rayc - Informal showing of "The Internet's own Boy" this Friday. Also I have a list of things that NB needs done. Wanna help? I'll put it online. Let's get this reboot stuff done.
  • Steve - Intertsellar? Anyone wanna go to the IMAX? Let's talk after.
  • Torrie - We have working AV equipment and shit. Please to be giving Rubin monies for all of this wonderful technology. Ask around before you fuck with the shit. We'll be upset. Super upset. Instructions? pff.
  • Emerson - Rubuilding a boat with some friends. Want to take some beginner sailing lessons? Let's chat!
  • Torrie - Working on the Skylight project, putting LED strips in the skylights and networking them w/ raspberry pi base station. There's a wiki page "Skylighting". Want to find folks to collaborate. Also throw monies at the LED wall which James and Dana are doing.
  • Henner - ^ Mitch is collecting money for stuff from China.
  • Rayc - Job seeking Slack group?
  • Henner - Working on large format labeling code for labeling things in the workshop or elsewhere in the space. Check the build@ mailing list. Also the access control. It's a WIP. Downstairs works w/ RFID. Upstairs not yet. Almost
  • Steve - Lots of books. Hella books. The idea is to build shelves for these. We have measurements for what we need. Need to procure and cut the wood them put it all together. Help wanted
  • Torrie - Running a shop safety class next Thursday 7pm. Be there, keep all your fingers.
  • John - Five Minutes of Fame is on hiatus. Anyone want to take it over in the interim? All the AV stuff is here. Would be super awesome. (Discussion topic)

Membership[edit]

  • Rayc - Membership is this thing where you can become a member, which requires dues that help keep the lights on ($40, $80 depending). What you get? The ability to partake in the consensus process fully. Large items get discussed for 2 weeks in a consensus process. The final decision yes/no is for members only. It's a commitment to NB.
  • John - You don't have to be a member to {throw event, host a class, anything else}.
  • Steve - There's been a lot of discussion about Membership the last few months? What's the deal w/ applying for membership these days.
  • Torrie - Associate Membership is dead! Long live Associate Membership (don't talk about it)
  • Emerson - What's the deal w/ Associate Membership? Why'd it go?
  • Torrie - It's a consensus item to revoke it. When we have a quorum we'll get rid of it.
  • John - Folks in the binder: Torrie Fischer. Sponsors: Mitch, Monad. <- insert statement here ->. Week 4. Consensus this week!?
  • (John's the sole member here - Wait or no? Kinda weird?) Yay / Nay: want to me a member?
  • Torrie - I was born ~25 years ago in OH. I lived south of Cleveland for a time in Akron. Got kicked out of CS dept for "hacking". Started a Hackerspace after visiting NB. Moved to SF. I work on cryptocurrency "finance". I used to be a KDE contributor. I'm working on electronics at the moment.
  • John - Sounds good to me!!
  • JC - Question: Can you define the type of community standards you'd like to see NB members held to?
  • Torrie - I like people being respectful to each other. Excellence to me is respecting the space, each other, being kind and gentle towards each other. A few examples of disrespecting the space would be climbing the front gate after waiting at the door, coming in and dismantling infrastructure without reason or understanding, claiming that you have special rights to a space that is "yours", not "ours". Knowing when it's a good time to step up and step back. If you're very skilled in something and someone approaches you saying I know better how to do this step back and not be upset about it.
  • J - Having spent a lot of time in the space, knowing what NB is about. What one thing would you change about the space?
  • Torrie - I WANT THE ELECTRICIANS TO BE FUCKING DONE WITH THEIR SHIT. CAN I FIRE THEM?!!/1//! Having more excellent people here. Getting old-time members back and getting the space back to the inspirational space that made me fork NB.
  • Rayc - In the past, post BACH, if someone were to block, it'd mean someone being that passionate about a thing that they'd leave NB over it. Hypothetical: You're in a discussion and you're not a fan of the proposal. How would you engage in consensus ?
  • Torrie - A functional community shouldn't need blocks. Everyone should be in sync over things. If it came to that I'd recognize that I want to block something because something is fundamentally broken. I'd want to discuss it with the group, I'd explain the reason for my block, and that it's a problem that my blocking even exists. Then take it outside the meeting and figure out more clearly what the core issue that causes me to want to block something is.
  • Rayc - So the existence of a block by you would signal a problem? Would you try to mediate first?
  • Torrie - I'd not block without an alternative proposal. I'd take a week max to figure it out and take my block back if I couldn't find a suitable one.
      • Torrie steps out to find more beer ***
      • Cheering for Torrie ***
  • Steve - She put her all into building the space. If she leaves we're fucked
  • Rayc - I went over the steps for making a 3d printed case and I might have shorted and broken the components. Her solution: ordered new kit which is even better
  • J - A person that loves a place like NB demonstrates it by contributing to the space, by helping it grow. Torrie has left a huge infuence here.
  • John - Patrick is taking notes. He's also in the binder. <== insert patrick's statement here ==> Sponsors: Mitch, Naomi. Week 3.
  • Rayc - membership binder is over beside the door. Hang out at NB for a while, get to know the people, ethos and space. If after a while you want to apply for membership then fill out a form in the binder. After that there's a 4 week process where you need 2 members in good standing to sign off on your membership.

Consensus Items[edit]

Torrie - Consensus is the process by which NB makes decisions. A solution to a problem is discussed by all in the group, all the small details. If it's worthwhile it comes up at a Tuesday meeting as a consensus proposal. The wording is proposed for next week's meeting. After 2 weeks of discussion an item is eligible for consensus. If there are no dissenting opinions then the item is passed. A block is the last resort of members to stop consensus proposals from passing. Blocks must always be accompanied by a compromise suitable to both you and everyone else. The only exception here is approving new members. Wording changes require a week long wait.

  • Rayc - Consensus item to kill "Associate Membership". A hack to allow some people access to NB at all hours, it didn't work. We want to get rid of it and clean up the membership structure.
  • Torrie - If you ask 6 people what it is you'll get 2x answers (that's 12)
  • John - It's not controversial. I think we can call it dead.
  • Rayc - Everyone in agreement?
  • Torrie - I'd love other feedback. I think the lowercase c consensus is that associate membership is meaningless and should be let die
  • Rayc - It's the consensus of Noisebridge that we scratch Associate Membership.
  • Steve - (dumbfounded. astounded :) )

Financial report[edit]

  • Torrie - Financial Numbers: According to Mint. Net worth: $31.5k Noisetor: ??? Decidedly not broke

Discussion items[edit]

  • Marcel - 3D printing status: Everytime I come it's getting better, but the last time I got here the Arduino and computer were broken. Can we protect this stuff in any way? It'd be great to have a 3d printer that's super reliable. We need to keep the OSS structure of allowing contribution, but there should be some safeguards.

3D printing[edit]

  • Marcel - If we get a reliable 3d printer, or if we keep on w/ the OSS stuff, it'd be great to see it as a tool that we can all use. We have a slack group for keeping everyone up to date. I want to ask what we're going to do if we get professional equipment, will we keep hacking?
  • Torrie - I've ordered a RAMBO board to replace teh old stuff. I couldn't get the old stuff to work earlier in the week. Something seemed wrong w/ the RAMPS board but couldn't get it figured out. The RAMBO is coming. I also put Fedora on the computer over there to make it user friendly for everyone to come in and use it. If things aren't there then let me know and I'll fix it.
  • Steve -
  • Henner - I don't think that you can distuingish between "pro" and "hacker" 3d equipment. It requires some work but both work as well as each other. Secondly at the moment: Milo, who works in the industry doesn't want to leave stuff here for fear that it'll be broken. We should work to remove this fear and show people that it's safe. We should make this machine here work and show that we have things that are being cared for in the space, that there are folks that are protecting it from noise in the space. It's better than something complete and bought brought in.
  • Rayc - I might have broken the machine. There could have been a malfunction w/ the separate RAMPS board that might have caused issues. If I broke it I take full responsibility. The 3D table used to be one of the 1st thing you'd see entering the space and it was very popular with people coming into the space. We've moved it around the space since then. But without support from knowledgeable individuals people tinker with them and they break. I worked on the original setup w/ makerbots where we had 4 running concurrently. I'd like to see signage, guides, disclaimers asking you to contact people before you use them. Making the space more user friendly.
  • Marcel - I didn't document everything at the time, mea culpa. We installed octoprint and all the neccessary software but I was waiting for the DNS stuff to get done. If I can put more information on the wiki or Slack I will. I think it's excellent to have more equipment and other things in the space, to have more 3d printer stuff in the space, especially an OSS model. It's a tool that's important for the space to have.
  • Torrie - My approach to getting more neat stuff in the space / getting things working is usually throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. There are a number of people involved with the space that want printers working, it's a matter of getting these people involved so that it's not all on one person. We need more people involved.
  • Marcel - I think Torrie's on point. I don't feel that I own it, I just want to contribute.
  • Rayc - As the community grows so to does our tolerance and understanding of each other. By taking on 3d printing in the space people do look up to you in the space. That's a side-effect of taking on problems in the space.
  • Marcel - Want to know if we need more documentation / what other results?
  • Henner - More docs == good. I'd put a sheet beside the item {3dprinter, lasercutter} with some DOs and DONTs. If you don't want to do the documentation there are others in the community that want to help w/ documenting things in the space. It's important that while building community that we have people that care about things. That we have people that make sure that things work in the future and protect the machine from bad actors.
  • Rayc - There is a Documentation Working Group that you should ping because they're hacking docs.
  • John - The mailing list and slack are great forms of communication for something like this, especially because it's a push form for notifying people.

Something fell on the awning of the shop below[edit]

  • JC - Anyone know anything about that?

Party[edit]

John - What's the story?

Rayc - It's still alive. James hasn't cancelled.

5MoF[edit]

  • Rayc - It's on hiatus. a NB legendary event. An event where anyone can come speak for 5 minutes.
  • John - A very good way to bring new people into the space and show off great things coming out of the space. I think the social aspect is being fulfilled by the parties we've been having. If you want to take it over then I'd recommend taking it on as a group. It can be hard to get ~12 speakers each month.
  • Rayc - Curious to take over some of the responsibilities. Would love to get a group together to do this. Don't want to take anything on outside infrastructure until we're out of the woods. TED does 18 minute talks about Technology, Education and Design. I'd like to emulate their setup.

Reboot stuff[edit]

  • Rayc - Working with electricians and Naomi to get the final stuff done. 2 weeks is the ETA. I have a list of non-electrical stuff that needs to be done. It'll be online. Let's get it done.
  • Torrie - We should get Naomi involved with this as she's been the contact point w/ the electricians.
  • Rayc - Naomi is involved with it. She went over the list with them.

Opening and Closing the space[edit]

  • JC - If there's an effort to make the space clean when it's being closed then we can coordinate with folks cleaning it in the morning. Thinking of suggesting a consensus item to require 2 people to open / close the space.
  • Torrie - RE closing the space. Having 2 people to sweep the space is a great help. We close it out ~9pm, check it and then head out.
  • Henner - It's important to have 2 people to close the space to help convince potentially stubborn folks. It's important that if key people leave then that there's enough people left to close the space
  • Torrie - Back in SYNHAK we had a checklist of stuff that you should do to close the space. We should make a list to make it easy for folks. JC: Can you link to your process from the Manual page?

Bonfire[edit]

  • Torrie - Bonfire? Yes! Let's say the 15th of November. Beach fires have to be out by 9pm. It's dark out now (~9pm) which means starting at 4pm would be fine.
  • Rayc - There's wood here in the space that we can burn, a bonfire kit ready to go.
  • Torrie - Let's keep the sawdust for cleaning up spills. Bonfire details forthcoming. Anyone want to help out? Contact myself and Rayc.
  • Rayc - Now concludes the 334th Meeting.