Spring 2010 HackLab

0x0n HackLab

Oxford, 10-11 April 2010
Taking place at the OARC on the 10th and 11th April, this is a working hacklab for a book sprint on the Hacktivista book and also for planning for the summer Tech Tools for Activists Camp. If you're interested in coming please add your name here and for questions, get in touch via our mailing list.

Spring 2010 HackLab Agenda

Saturday

• 09.00 - 10.00: Breakfast
• 10.00 - 10.30: Welcome, planning
• 10.30 - 13.00: Tech tools for Activists book sprint.
• 13.00 - 14.00: Lunch
• 14.00 - 18.00: Book sprint continued.

Sunday

• 10.00 - 11.00: Brunch
• 11.00 - 13.00: Planning for Summer HackCamp.
• 13.00 - 14.30: Other stuff....

Agenda points and proposals

Book sprint

Perhaps two parallel workstreams on the day?

• Content finishing group
• Design, format & publishing group

Back cover - advert for summer HL

We ought to discuss financing of the book, how to do it, whether to charge for it, how much and sources of funding (e.g. APE) to pay for it.

Camp planning

• Finalise date (https://labs.riseup.net/decider/issue/view/eeshaephiemekahwoogo)
• Define target audience / attendees
• No kids?
• Maximum numbers?
• How will people register to attend? Deadline so we can get right amounts of food?
• Make a list of electronic & in-person ways to reach these people, including where to distribute the book
• Finances

1. What is the overall cost estimate?
2. How much will it cost per person, how can we pay for it up front?
3. Do we want to raise money for the project? For example: to pay for the booklet?

• Make lists of what content we think should be delivered at the event and by whom

1. Overview of different communication channels
2. Communicating securely
3. Producing & disseminating information
4. The politics of information - free software, creative commons, DIY ethic etc.
5. How to get involved in tech projects

• Any parallel sessions?
• Have one or two spare sessions planned in case of non-attendance / critical tech failures
• Crew roles & volunteer coordinators - including sharing of these skills:

1. "Marketing"
2. Meeter / greeter
3. Bar coordinator
4. Signwriter
5. Toilet / handwash / waste-dipsosal / hygiene enabler
6. Meals coordinator
7. Pyro's & campfire wizard
8. Advanced coffee technician
9. Overall curator / facilitator / timekeeper / banger of gong in the camping field?
10. Entertainment coordinator
11. Artist-in-residence to make video/photos/audio report of what goes on
12. Data network coordinator
13. Power engineer (12v & 240v - remember last time we kept losing our supply & having to reboot stuff?)
14. Feedback gatherer & analyst
15. People to gather up minutes and training materials to put on the wiki afterwards
16. Set-up and tat-down volunteer coordinator
17. Bat-phone rota

Minutes

Planning for BARNCAMP 2010/02

Objectives

We brainstormed this and picked out some highlights:

• Happy Gathering
• Shared work & shared knowledge
• Raising awareness of free network services
• Barndance
• Sunny
• Openness
  • nonjudgemental to different ways of working
  • creating an inclusive and outwards-facing gathering, publicity & attendance
• Movement building - bring together, socialise, network, strengthen & reinforce
• Empowerment - putting the tools in peoples' hands
• Knowledge sharing - peer-learning
• Pipes of Peace
• Paradigm adjustment facilitation - with respect to knowledge of free software, DIY ethos, community orientation
• Socialising - nice carrots
• Healthy tech - rocket stove, nature walk, foraging
• (Self)-discipline - being up on time, keeping the show on the road

Geek segregation Vs integration

There has been much talk of the possibilities of either having 2 parallel stream of activities (for geeks and 'learners'), versus integrating everyone. We did a SWOT analysis of these possibilities:

Single-stream event (could still have multiple sessions at any time)

STRENGHTHS: public centred, accessible, probably better gender diversity	WEAKNESSES: could alienate some hacktionlabbers, could be simplistic
OPPORTUNITIES: more people, new people, get rid of nerd gag, fresh ideas generated, broader exchange of knowledge	THREATS: disgruntled nerds, people might not do workshops

Dual-stream event (nerds emerge from behind a curtain)

STRENGTHS: segregation, choice, more inclusive	WEAKNESSES: segregation, facilitation harder
OPPORTUNITIES: diversify workshops	THREATS: spread ourselves to thin, tech overtake, divisive nerdery, could be seen

After discussion we agreed that we will have a single-stream event, i.e. no segregation of nerds. We hope to have two spaces running workshops in parallel, which people will book.

Target Groups

• People & Planet
• Schnews
• hacktionlab (part of)
• seeds for change
• climate action groups
• people that attend barcamps
• people that attend social media cafes
• student activist groups
• no borders
• indymedias
• visionon.tv video activist groups
• NUJ new media members
• radical social centres
• permaculture groups
• radical roots
• travellers
• campaigners (NGO)
• Oxfam fundraisers

Wording of call-out

To be decided

Children

Nobody wants to exclude young people or their parents, but if kids are disrupting the workshop, their parents need to take them out of the space. If several parents are present, one of them could volunteer to facilitate a kids' space. Nobody present at the meeting was planning on bringing kids, so nobody was allocated to this role.

Date & location

• Highbury farm 11-13 June 2010
• any alternatives? discussed and discounted 2

Cost

• £31 per person, including food and camping
• Deposit must be paid in advance to book a place

Maximum participants: 60

Roles

We agreed that everyone who comes to the event should expect to contribute work during the event, but we need some coordinators to make sure that delegation happens when spontaneity falls short.

Job	Volunteer
Production manager/s (preferably one per day?)	Mike H (+?)
Spaces coordinator	Ben G
Facilities	Andy Acesabe?
Promotion, meeter & greeter	volunteer needed
Finance & Bookings	Mike H
Kitchen	Becky and John
Entertainments/Bar	?John
Workshop coordinator	Mick Fuzz
Site management	Woodsy
Childcare coordinator	volunteer needed

Spaces

• The Barn - one workshop space
• John's Marquee - 20'x30' - second workshop space - 4-6 to erect
• Bristol Wireless tent - 6mx4m - Kitchen - 4-6 to erect

Types of workshop

People suggested these types of workshop:

• Show & Tell
• Discussion-based
• Blatant self-promotion
• Lecture Task-based (we are going to set up a crab-face group)
• Practical (this is how you use a piece of software)
• BarCamp (including show & tell)

We then talked about it and reached a decision: We will have 6h barcamp & 8h practical

Titles of Workshops

These were the first things we thought of. The list needs more work & allocating people to topics.

• 12v theory & practice
• overview of communication techniques
• synfig
• liberating your laptop - dual boot
• food forage
• social media strategy for activists inc. aggregation
• OSS DTP - Gimp & Scribus
• rocket stove
• permaculture ICT
• collaborative authoring
• the leaflet

Timings

Thurs

Probably infrastrucure starts to appear on site

Fri

Evening: campfire, bar open, etc.

Sat

• 10-11 plenary
• 11-13 workshops
• 13-15 lunch
• 15-18 workshops

Sun

• 12-14 workshops
• 14-15 plenary

Total=7h x 2 spaces = 14h workshops