Workshops for HacktionLab Summer 2023

The following is a list of ideas for workshops, talks or other activities for the forthcoming HacktionLab Summer 2023 taking place in June in Sheffield, UK. The *Nerd gag* measures how technical and jargony the session might be, from "on tight" being accessible to all, to "ungagged" being no-holes-barred tech talk. In the middle there's "breathing room" and "rather loose".

We hope to stream and record some of the talks and discussions in one of the two rooms at Abbeyfield House. See here for more details of our HacktionLab Sheffield 2023 Streaming Set-up

Session times

Always TBC, but here’s a guide…

Friday

• 11.00 - 14.00 - Setting up the space
• 14.00 - 16.30 - Meet and greet and presenting sessions etc
• 16.30 - 17.00 - Mental Health and Tech

Saturday

• 10.30 - 11.30 - Karrot
• 11.30 - 12.30 - Category Theory
• 12.30 - 13.00 - Plenary
• 13.00 - 14.00 - Lunch
• 14.00 - 15.00 - Session
• 15.00 - 15.30 - Break
• 15.30 - 16.00 - Session
• 16.00 - 16.30 - Break
• 17.00 - 18.00 - Session
• 18.00 - 19.00 - Extras?

Sunday

• 10.30 - ? - Brunch
• 11.00 - 12.00 - Session?
• 12.00 - 13.00 - MUTU Local Autonomous Media Network
• 13.00 - 13.30 - Break
• 13.30 - 14.30 - Sessions
• ...

Types of Sessions

• Talk: 30-60 mins - please say if you need a projector / screen etc
• Workshops: typically 60 mins - let us know your requirements
• Skill Share Sessions: typically 60 mins - hands on in collaboration with others around a theme
• Round Table Discussions: typically 60 mins - around a theme
• Lightning Talks: typically 5-10 mins - these may be themed together or at random

Example

Title of workshop?

Format

talk / workshop (interactive) / skills share / round table / lighting talk

Proposed by

Your name

Length

30-60 minutes, 5-15 for a lighting talk

Equipment

projector, speakers, paper, pens, posits, chairs, etc

Description

a description of the workshop

Nerd gag

How much technical background will people need to be able to follow the session? Nerd gag measures how technical and jargony the session might be, from "on tight" being accessible to all, to "ungagged" being no-holes-barred tech talk. In the middle there's "breathing room" and "rather loose".

Emergent Technologies

Computing and Environment

Format

talk / workshop

Proposed by

thebrentc

Length

1 hour

Equipment

Description

Environmental issues around computing and digital technologies. The tentative plan is to briefly start with my amateur take on this (https://network23.org/theb/computing-and-environment/), then debate scenarios broadly around computer hardware, hosting and software (or emerging concerns), and finish with a game.

Nerd gag

on tight/breathing room - can moderate any loosening

FLOSS Alexa?

Format

round table

Proposed by

Jonathan

Length

45 minutes

Equipment

Description

What Free/Libre software/hardware are you still waiting for? A tech/non-tech discussion. Example: I'm still waiting for a desktop Operating System that I can interact with by talking, keyboard-free, like Alexa ... open source AI... Fully automated luxury communism ...

Nerd gag

breathing room - a discussion for all(/time)

Crypto

Format

Discussion

Proposed by

Micah

Description

The rise and fall (and subsequent bigger rise and bigger fall) of cryptocurrencies and is Proof of Work worth saving and harnessing for an overlooked aspect of internet privacy for all, with NYMTech. https://nymtech.net/

Privacy

Online Safety Bill

Proposed by

Micah

Format

Discussion

Description

A discussion on the ensuring both privacy and child protection prompted by the passage of the Online Safety Bill through parliament at the moment which we will see by June. See: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/

I myself wish to strengthen privacy and protections for children empowering parents with useable tools to help them protect their children online. Much of justification given for problematic powers in the Online Safety Bill misses where issues are really and will be counter productive to actually solving problems they purport to solve.

Also worth discussion is how the network effect of domination tech corporate tech lock-in is strong with families, including mine, and plenty to debate there. How to wean ourselves away from corporate lockin while engaging with those around us?

Cloudflare

Proposed by

Micah

Format

Discussion

Description

Also of practical use for both privacy & filtering is the offering from Cloudflare https://one.one.one.one/family/. But I would be interested to hear others views on Cloudflare and similar in their role protecting websites but then positive development of them under successful pressure withdrawing protection from 8Chan as facilitator of far right terrorism, which is ongoing saga I had lost track of and only just looking up where this has gone on writing this.

Secure data removal and parrots

Format

workshop/demo

Proposed by

fred and assistant

Length

45 mins

Equipment

provided; may use a large screen if available, with VGA-to-HDMI probably

Description

To try demo wiping a hard drive using Linux boot media, alongside activities that may involve unharmed parrots

Nerd gag

Mostly on tight

Politics

Trade Unions for tech workers

Format

talk

Proposed by

Cat

Length

1/2 hour

Equipment

None

Description

How joining a union can help you as a worker in the field of tech. By Cat and possibly also a union rep

Nerd gag

On tight

Alt.Internet: the Fediverse and peer-2-peer

2023 - the year twitter died (WIP)

Is there a reason for twitter to exist anymore ?

Will a federated social media protocol finally displace the normies

does anyone actually use an ActivityPub network?

does anyone actually use twitter ?

Are Silos a good thing

The Tech Is Ours!

Android without Google: Life with a degoogled smartphone

Format

talk

Proposed by

Cat

Length

1/2 to 1 hour

Equipment

Projector

Description

Introduction to LineageOS as as way of using Android without needing a google account or using any google services

Nerd gag

Ungagged!

Event calendar: radar.squat.net

Format

skillshare/workshop

Requested by

locally

Proposed by

ekes & clara

Length

½ -1 hour or as needed

Equipment

own laptops, projector if there are more folk interested

Description

intro to https://radar.squat.net/ Get your group registered, update broken stuff. Talk about plans and ideas for the shiny new version.

Nerd gag

on tight

Adapting the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model for software? 👉 Community-Supported Software

Format

talk (20 mins?), then workshop (interactive)

Proposed by

Nick and Vasilis

Length

50-60 minutes including discussion

Equipment

projector

Description

CSA has been established quite successfully for some time in the context of food and farming. Food sovereignity, food literacy, democracy and environmental justice are some of the values CSA projects strive for. In CSA means of production (i.e. land, equipment, machinery) are cooperatively owned and governed.

In a different context, that of community-oriented software similar values are core. Given the fragility of community-oriented open source ecosystems, perhaps it is time to look to other models for inspiration.

There is some existing work which expands the CSA model into a Community-Supported Economy (https://gemeinschaftsgetragen.de/en/) where consumers become prosumers who share responsiblity with the producers.

We are at an early stage in exploring these models for use within the Karrot ecosystem (https://karrot.world), and would love to share our early findings and get feedback and input from you lovely people to inform our ongoing journey. Perhaps we can explore a Community-Supported Software definition and model...

Nerd gag

on tight

Digital Fabrication Co-operatives and how they can be used to create resilience for local communities

Format

Talk & discussion

Proposed by

Billy

Length

60 minutes

Equipment

Remote systems

Description

As with every other computer technology, the price-point of digital fabrication systems has continued to fall. In combination with the creation of Open-Source HardWare designs, this means that the most effective form of organisation to run a digital fabrication facility is a co-operative.

This talk will cover the basics of the range of equipment out there, and how those tools can be used to create the necessary tools to help communities set up infrastructure co-operatives. These co-operatives can be run in a surplus-generating manner, which will mean that more people will have the spare energy to work on longer-term problems.

Nerd gag

Mostly On, though it may slip loose at times.

Alt.Media

We Can Finally Build Our Own Media!

Format

talk

Proposed by

Jay Baker

Length

30 minutes

Equipment

Live stream, to be announced

Description

We Can Finally Build Our Own Media. When activists call for an anti-capitalist, anti-establishment media, what does this mean? What should such media look like? Local Autonomous Media (or LoAM) groups currently being formulated in the UK are inspired by, and modeled on, the successes of the Mutu Network over in France - where activists developed, from the ground up, a horizontal media collective interconnected across different cities. What makes this model different to anything else before it? And how can we replicate something like this with LoAM in the UK? More context from Jay at this on-line article https://organisemagazine.org.uk/loam-local-autonomous-media-theory-and-analysis/

Nerd gag

"breathing room"

Video of talk https://kolektiva.media/w/au2oZeh3gnQsEzJ5Lzo4bz

Programming and other nerding

The maths behind Mandelbrot and Julia

Format

talk

Proposed by

Mike

Length

45 mins

Equipment

projector

Description

A revamp of a talk on the Mandelbrot and Julia sets that I first gave at BarnCamp in 2011 and updated for the Wizard Amigos Code Camp at the Astral Ship in Autumn 2022. In the talk I take a look at the maths behind the beautiful Mandelbrot and Julia set images that appeared in the late 1980s and have continued in every increasing sophistication and resolution since. I’ll attempt to explain imaginary and complex numbers, iterative algorithms, pixel plotting strategies, with a live demo you can run in your own web browser, and code you can fork and develop yourself. Bring your laptop and explore with us.

Nerd gag

ungagged

Basic category theory [Work in progress]

Format

talk

Proposed by

Charlie

Length

45 mins?

Equipment

projector, flipchart

Description

Category theory is an abstract way of looking at the relationships between mathematical structures. It has ended up becoming a sort of lingua franca in maths and has been used in some areas of computer science (especially in functional programming). This would be a basic overview of some of the fundamental components: categories, functors, duality, products and co-products maybe. I'll come up with some code examples, but you wouldn't need to be either a programmer or a mathematician to follow the talk. It'll mostly be dots and arrows.

Nerd gag

I think it'd be possible without.

Alternative hosting and services for activists and others

XtreamLab: a "free" hosting company that charges its activists

Format

talk

Proposed by

MikeHarris

Length

30 mins

Equipment

projector

Description

XtreamLab provides alternative hosting for artists, coops, activists, political groups, and small businesses. It's been running since 2011 years as a for-profit company. This talk covers what it does, the journey, and how charging people for services can lead to a healthy and affordable relationship. In the past XtreamLab also did streaming projects, for evening's entertainment, we may well stream a recording of DJ Luke Vibert playing in Bristol and Second Life at D.R.O.I.D. back in 2008.

Nerd gag

on tight

Reflective & Philosophical

Creating tech projects driven by communities

Format

discussion

Proposed by

Mick

Length

30 or 60 mins

Equipment

projector

Description

How did you get started coding useful projects? How much of the process was purely tech, and how much was driven by being part of a community? For example, if you got started by coding a game, were you thinking of the audience? If you started by making websites, were they needed by a real community?

This talk proposes that it is hard to learn the skills needed to create useful tech projects in a vacuum. It invites a discussion to find out what were the community processes and needs that help motivate and support new coders and designers to overcome challenges. Also, if you wanted to replicate that to teach the next generation how could that happen.

Let's share examples and experiences. Also, let's try to quickly map what is already out there and how well it approaches learning in this way.

Nerd gag

on, so should accessible to all

Objectivism for Lefties: the philosophy of Ayn Rand

Format

talk

Proposed by

MikeHarris

Length

30-40 mins plus discussion

Equipment

projector, maybe speakers

Description

The Russian-American author Ayn Rand was a controversial character in her lifetime and still is today. She’s often considered an apologist for selfishness and capitalist values by her detractors and is very much not a natural bed-fellow of the left. But many conservatives dislike her and consider her a liberal who deplores the concept of statism and champions individual freedom and consent; values familiar to many on the left. In this talk I will take a look at who she was, her novels and other writings, her influence upon the Silicon Valley entrepreneur, then attempt to take a nuanced look at her World-view, and open the discussion as to whether there's something useful that can be learned from it, or not. Disclaimer: This is not intended as a promotion of Rand's views, but neither is it intended as a hand-wringing session about how terrible she was. I intend to share something that I think is interesting, and hope to have a grown-up discussion, and perhaps all learn something.

Nerd gag

on tight

Replacing Compound Interest

Format

talk

Proposed by

Craig of the dump

Length

30-40 mins plus discussion

Equipment

projector, to show https://aim196884.noblogs.org/anarchic-information-manifesto/replacing-compound-interest/

Description

Brief history of money. The capitalist faith derives many sentiments from Christianity. Among which is the penal substitution for sin and infinite debt; Christ/God himself self-sacrificing for mankind’s sin and ultimately being a Creator-God for all creation – which the guilty debtor cannot repay. This morphed into capitalist relations, whereby the concept of infinite growth came into being to pay the infinite debt. Capitalists expected a return on their capital – interest – to live off and expected the labour component to work and extend the capital. This expected return, capital plus interest, follows an exponential function. The radius of convergence for the exponential function is infinite. Hence the infinite growth paradigm of capitalism will always lead to resource obliteration on a sphere of finite materials.I assert that the desire for a passive income from interest on capital can be rooted in the need for comfort in a chaotic universe that the humans cannot fathom and make sense of. A way to remedy this would be to set up a system whereby for any income from a product sold on a market place could be dissected into another infinite, yet limited series. By taking on such a limiting procedural payment system, it gives a limiting factor on how much the parasitical elements of humanity can derive from productive forces.

Nerd gag

breathing room

Other

melting stuff in your microwave (wip)

using your microwave to make rubies and other jewellery

Sovereign commemorations

It is a king's birthday (Saturday 17th June) so feels like we could do something

'Alternative' events and groups networking

Format

talk

Proposed by

Jonathan

Length

45 mins

Equipment

projector

Description

Radar - radar.squat.net/en/why-radar - Activist-led technology for international listing of events and groups, which campaigns, pressure groups and "social movements" at local level can join in with, to share and syndicate their events/groups info across the world

Nerd gag

~50%?