BarnCamp 2009

HacktionLab 2009/01: A rural hack meeting in the beautiful Wye Valley

Taking place from Thursday 11th till Sunday 14th June 2009. Please sign up here to say you're coming and consider joining our mailing list to get involved in planning the event.

What is HacktionLab?

The aim of HacktionLab is to have a convergence where people interested in and/or working in the areas of alternative media, renewable energy, on-line video distribution, free software and any other form of activism that utilises technology. HacktionLab will take place at Highbury Farm in the Wye Valley.

The idea for the gathering has come from a number of years of experience gained by activists working for organisations such as Indymedia and includes specific experience from involvement in the Horizone Eco-Village in Stirling (2005), the Camps for Climate Action in Drax (2006), Heathrow (2007) and Kingsnorth (2008) as well as the No Borders camp at Gatwick (2007). We have had two successful gatherings so far, a rural hack meeting in the Wye Valley in June 2008 and an urban one in Leeds in October 2008. Our next rural meeting is scheduled for June 2009:

The last rural HacktionLab took place between 13 - 15 June 2008, click here to view a slide-show of photos from the weekend. There are more photos posted here and this exciting short video too.

Audience

The convergence is primary aimed at folk who need to learn or share info on doing mobile media access and video work in situations like G8 and climate camp convergences.

Please come if you have experience(s) to share with others in order to encourage the amount of shared knowledge in the UK-wide media, free software and alternative technology activist network. The weekend is most suitable for activists using media, geeks and hackers (as opposed to crackers) but would also be of interest to anyone else that is interested in attending is most welcome.

Organisations involved

This convergence is being proposed and attended by Bristol Wireless, Indymedia UK, Schnews and Clearer Channel, Aktivix.

[[Image:Ccfotos_-_15.jpg|200px]

Schedule

Thursday 11th

• Forward crew arrive in the morning to set up mess tent and other core infrastructure. Anyone who wishes should be encouraged to be involved in this, as the set-up forms part of the skills sharing.
• Majority arrive in afternoon, set-up camp
• Supper and fireside gathering.

Friday 12th

• Breakfast
• Open circle, introduction and planning
• Lunch
• Workshop slot #1:
• Workshop slot #2: Renewable energy
• Workshop slot #3: Developments in wireless technology, 3G and WiMax: worth a look?
• Dinner
• Entertainment

Saturday 13th

• Breakfast
• Workshop slot #4
• Workshop slot #5: Flossmanuals.net - flossmanuals is a community of people writing manuals about Free Software and things you can do with Free Software. It is also an amazing wiki to book technology that allows you to publish your content incredibly cheaply and with a minimum of work. It's a great way to document what you are doing. This workshop is an invitation to use and abuse floss manuals and to get involved in the project - http://flossmanuals.net - feel free to join the email list before the hacktionlab. http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
• Lunch
• Workshop slot #6: DIY Media in a Web 2.0 World - debates and discussion.
• Workshop slot #7: DIY Media in a Web 2.0 World.
• Workshop slot #8: This year's Climate Camp, Copenhagen and other activist gatherings: proposals for technical and independent media support.
• Dinner
• Party

Sunday 14th

• Breakfast
• Reflexions and proposals for next HacktionLab
• Lunch
• Parting of company
• Tat-down team: 1,2,3....tat-down! Anyone who wishes should be encouraged to be involved in this, as the set-up forms part of the skills sharing and tatting down is much easier with more hands.

Core crew team leave site Sunday evening or Monday morning.

Food & drink

The Highbury Farm kitchen provided excellent food in 2008 and will again be providing evening meals for Friday and Saturday night. Breakfast will be cereal and bread and lunch will be soup, salad, bread and cheese.

Please advise us via the mailing list or the sign-up page if you have a special diet that needs to be catered for.

Highbury Farm is a vegetarian farm and the owners request that meat is not brought or cooked on site. There is an excellent pub (the Boat Inn) across the valley within walking distance that serves fine ales and ciders and also serves meat dishes for those who cannot do without.

Tea, coffee and infusions will be provide within the cost of attending. We hope also to have local organic ale and cyder available at a fair price.

Costs

We are trying to keep the cost per person to no more than a recommended donation of twenty pounds per person for camping for 3 nights and food (eight meals) for the weekend. Apart from the cost of food and camping, the donation also helps to cover a few additional costs for transport of equipment (and tolls for Severn Bridge) and planning. Last year we were able to be able to make an additional donation to Highbury Farm from the donations received and we hope to do so again. Left over funds are kept in the HacktionLab pot for future events.

Highbury Farm Workshops

The workshops will be simply facilitated discussions and hands-on skills-sharing activities based around a technology or a way of doing something. The aim is to enable a free exchange of ideas based around a theme, and not too much time should be spent in their planning.

Here is a working list of topics for workshops, please feel free to add to it or propose yourself and a workshop you'd like to facilitate:

Technology

• Linux and other free software (viable alternatives for alternative media, Kino, Cinelerra, iTheora, GIMP, OpenOffice)
• renewable energy and how it works (AC and DC theory)
• using the web for collaboration - wikis, drupals, crabgrass, etc.
• L.A.S.E.R. Tag and stencils aka Project Green Lantern

Big Brother

• Is Big Brother really watching?
• Who is he/she?
• Using privacy and encryption techniques

Video-tech

• Live video broadcasting techniques for 'hostile' environments - eg. Beijing

Review of Indymedia in a Web 2.0 world

Following the recent G20 protests in London and the plethora of free media published through sites such as YouTube.com, Blip.tv, Flickr, Picassa, as well as the usual DIY news sites such as Indymedia, should we be evaluating what Indymedia means ten years after it started in the new Web 2.0 world?

• What is Indymedia becoming?
• How can Indymedia embrace new tools on the net and use Web 2.0 concepts to its advantage.
• Is the monolithic portal site approach as the public face of Indymedia really the best approach in the days of Facebook and MySpace?
• Are we all being the media already?
• What are the new activists doing with DIY media activism?
• Do we need to review our relationship with the mainstream media?

Video Websites

• IfiWatch update
• VisionOn.tv update

Friendly Tech Environments

What makes a friendly tech enviroment?

Sometimes geek environments can be really cold and alienating to non-geeks. Sometimes they can be terrifically welcoming. What are some of the things we can do as enthusiasts to communicate our enthusiasm and share our skills in a friendly way?

Have a look at this blog post about the recent Transmission gathering in Asia http://burningbulan.multiply.com/photos/album/17/TX-AP

i'm taking a small group of first year undergrads to auschwitz via paris and berlin mainly by train in april, and between us we plan to create a 'virtual field trip' through a multimedia wiki mainly for use in the uni. none of us are techs. would be happy to talk and show the experience if you're interested. and your advice and comments in the planning and doing stage would of course be more than welcome. let me know what you think.

Kids

Kids are most welcome, however we will not be arranging any crêche facilities.

Entertainment

Evening events could include a couple of bands, some open mic, some poetry, and some decent organic cyder around a fire of course ;)

Logistics & Planning

We have a separate page for planning HacktionLab and organising what needs to be done and who is doing what. If you're interested, get on over to the HacktionLab 2009/01 logistics page.