All of this bureaucracy and parliamentary procedure is seriously against
the principles that The Hive was founded on.
If there is a largess of funds, why aren't we talking about lowering
membership dues? Why aren't we using those funds to incentivize big
projects?
I realize that on one asked me, but I am going to say this anyway: our
focus should be on making things, not buying them. Our squabbles should be
about engineering solutions, not budgets. If two groups can't agree on what
to do, they should fork() and follow their own paths
I understand that there are some tools that you have to buy in order to
bootstrap a shop. Are we arguing about bootstrapping tools?
Fancy tools are neat and all, but making things is more important than
buying them. Hacking tools from trash is important for 3 reasons:
1. People learn and grow by building. No one learns from buying. If
something's already built, build another one, or a better one, or a
smaller/larger one.
2. People work together by building. Buying creates factions, like this
oscilloscope vs. vacuum former drama that we are currently experiencing. If
you want something, advocate for it. Build a team and go after it. Convince
someone to teach you about it. Raise funds to build it.
3. If you can build it once, you can build it again. Wrecking an expensive
laser cutter is a tragedy, wrecking a piece of trash creates an opportunity
for more hacking. The first thing you print on a 3d printer should be parts
for another 3d printer. The first thing you cut on a laser cutter should be
parts for another laser cutter. I'd rather the space have 3 shitty printers
or cutters that work, rather than one fancy tool that's always broken no
one knows how to fix it, or the one person that can is on vacation.
If you want to pay a high monthly fee for access to fancy tools, that's
what for-profit shops like TechShop and The Manufactory are for.
If you want to use your skills to help others, and have the skills of
others help you, that is what Hive13 is for. Lowering the monthly
membership dues would attract more members and add more skills to our
community.
Hive13 isn't a job that you can get fired from. IT isn't a school that you
can flunk out of. It isn't your home, where you can tell other people what
to do or go sulk in your room when others don't play nice. It isn't a
church where you become indoctrinated. It's a space where we judge and
value hackers based on their hacks, not on fake criteria like titles, age,
race or gender.
Hacking is a gift economy. You get status by contributing: code, docs,
time, teaching, art, etc. I think many of our members have either lost
sight of that, or were maybe never acquainted with the hacker ethic in the
first place.