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".
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
Ecotech
- 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: Background, Practice (e.g. green hosting, assessment, software and system design approaches), possibly a case study
- 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.
AlternativeInternet: 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
- Equiment
- 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
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 does alternative hosting for artists, coops, activists, and small businesses. It's been running nearly 12 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.
- 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, but I intend to share something thank I think is interesting, to have a grown-up discussion, and to perhaps 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%?