Difference between revisions of "Workshops for HacktionLab Summer 2023"

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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".
 
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==
 
==Session times==
Line 53: Line 55:
 
;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".
 
;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".
  
−
=Reflective & Philosophical=
+
=Emergent Technologies=
  
−
==Objectivism for Lefties? (wip)==
+
==Computing and Environment==
 +
;Format: talk / workshop (interactive)? / skills share / round table
 +
;Proposed by: thebrentc
 +
;Length: 45 minutes
 +
;Equipment:
 +
;Description: Environmental issues around computing and digital technologies, probably with a web technologies focus.
 +
TBC: Brief overview of work-in-progress: Background, Practice (e.g. green hosting, assessment, software and system design approaches) followed by discussion
 +
;Nerd gag: on tight/breathing room - practice might become loose but hopefully we can moderate this
  
−
;Format: talk
+
==FLOSS Alexa?==
−
;Proposed by: Mike
+
;Format: round table
−
;Length: 30-40 mins plus discussion
+
;Proposed by: Jonathan
−
;Equipment: projector, maybe speakers
+
;Length: 45 minutes
−
;Description: The Russian-American author Ayn Rand was a controversial character in her lifetime and still is today.  She’s often considered a apologist for selfishness and capitalist values by her detractors and is very much not a natural bed-fellow of the left. In this talk I will take a look at who she was, her novels and other writings, 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 them.
+
;Equipment:  
−
;Nerd gag: on tight
+
;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/
  
−
==Outside the Echo Chamber - can listening and acceptance help us understand each other better? (wip)==
+
= 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 [https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper Online Safety Bill] through parliament at the moment which we will see by June. See: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/
  
−
''"All alone, or in twos: the ones who really love you walk up-and-down outside the Wall. Some hand-in-hand, and some gathered together in bands.  The bleeding hearts and the artists make their stand.  And when they've given you their all, some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy, banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall."'' - Pink Floyd, Outside The Wall
+
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.
  
−
;Format: talk/discussion
+
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?
−
;Proposed by: Mike
 
−
;Length: 30 mins
 
−
;Equipment: projector, or maybe just some paper, like a flipchart
 
−
;Description: it seems that we have a lot of polemicised opinions these days, othering each other, defaming character rather than debating ideas (''ad hominem''), being safe and secure in our echo chambers.  I'd like to discuss how we can use techniques such as active listening, radical acceptance (aka acceptance), and non-violent communication to open up our hearts and the space for discussion, and maybe have a greater understanding of both our 'friends' and 'enemies' alike.
 
−
;Nerd gag: on tight
 
  
−
=Emergent Technologies=
+
== 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.
  
−
==Ecotech==
+
= Politics =
−
;Format: talk / workshop (interactive)? / skills share / round table
+
== Trade Unions for tech workers==
−
;Proposed by: thebrentc
+
; Format: talk
−
;Length: 45 minutes
+
; Proposed by: Cat
−
;Equipment:  
+
; Length: 1/2 hour
−
;Description: Environmental issues around computing and digital technologies, probably with a web technologies focus.
+
; Equipment: None
−
TBC: Background, Practice (e.g. green hosting, assessment, software and system design approaches), possibly a case study
+
; 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/breathing room - practice might become loose but hopefully we can moderate this
+
; Nerd gag: On tight
  
−
=Non -alternativeInternet: the Fediverse and peer-2-peer=
 
  
 +
=Alt.Internet: the Fediverse and peer-2-peer=
  
 
== 2023 - the year twitter died  (WIP) ==
 
== 2023 - the year twitter died  (WIP) ==
Line 100: Line 118:
  
 
Are Silos a good thing
 
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
 +
 +
=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"
  
 
=Programming and other nerding=
 
=Programming and other nerding=
Line 111: Line 179:
 
;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.
 
;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
 
;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: [https://xtreamlab.net 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 [https://xtreamlab.net/droid 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
  
 
=Other=
 
=Other=
−
+
 
 
== melting stuff in your microwave (wip) ==  
 
== melting stuff in your microwave (wip) ==  
  

Revision as of 11:07, 19 May 2023

Ttfsc04.JPG
CE87807E-E765-42A7-8850-FD891E443A62.jpeg
SaturdayWorkshops2022.jpg
SundayWorkshops2022.jpg
HL 2023 draft 2.3 x0.25.png

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

TBC, but here’s a guide…

Friday

  • 9.30 - 11.00 - Sessions
  • 11.00 - 11.30 - Break
  • 12.00 - 13.30 - Sessions
  • 13.30 - 14.30 - Lunch
  • 14.30 - 15.30 - Session
  • 15.30 - 16.00 - Break
  • 16.00 - 17.00 - Sessions

Saturday

  • 9.30 - 11.00 - Sessions
  • 11.00 - 11.30 - Break
  • 12.00 - 13.30 - Sessions
  • 13.30 - 14.30 - Lunch
  • 14.30 - 15.30 - Session
  • 15.30 - 16.00 - Break
  • 16.00 - 17.00 - Sessions

Sunday

  • 10.00 - 11.00 - Sessions
  • 11.00 - 12.00 - Brunch
  • 12.00 - 13.00 - Session
  • 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 (interactive)? / skills share / round table
Proposed by
thebrentc
Length
45 minutes
Equipment
Description
Environmental issues around computing and digital technologies, probably with a web technologies focus.

TBC: Brief overview of work-in-progress: Background, Practice (e.g. green hosting, assessment, software and system design approaches) followed by discussion

Nerd gag
on tight/breathing room - practice might become loose but hopefully we can moderate this

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.

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

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"

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

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%?
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