This can only turn out fun! Have an opinionated wall of text. I disagree somewhat with much of this. It looks a bit like there's a conflict of ideas about what we are as a group.
I'm very set on the idea that 57North isn't just an organisation with an office on union st, but a community of people who also have a shared physical space. I've said lots that I'd rather we were a successful community than financially successful business and I absolutely stand by that. A resilient community which members are excited to be a part of will be able to afford the shared space. We've managed so far, mostly, and the graph overall shows we're pretty stable these days and long may it continue! To that end, I fully support members of the community trying to run services for us as a group. It's why I've been so keen for LDAP to be implemented, and I've repeatedly, loudly stated my vision of a range of services 'hanging off' LDAP to enhance what we as a community can offer for our members. Top marks to Shell for taking an interest and actually implementing the groundwork, and single sign on for that to be a reality. I feel that having services we can offer to people as a value-add to being part of our community, even if they're not the most reliable or guaranteed to be there. I'm really excited about git.57north.org.uk as I want to have git outwith my infrastructure for backup of dotfiles in a community I trust. I'd also like to see xmpp/jabber again - I know I've not used it in ages, but if we were to offer an OTR workshop at the uni and with it came a 57n xmpp account, it ties people to us a little, and might make them want to come join us in future. -- On Wed, 5 Oct 2016, at 11:53 AM, Shell Turner wrote: > I'd like to propose the following: > > * Separate out official space documents from the existing wiki > entirely, and place them in a "documents" section of the website, > making the wiki not part of space infrastructure. In my opinion, this is isn't needed. Many[1] hackerspaces[2] have[3] a[4] wiki[5] under[6] their[7] main[8] domain[9]. Granted, Not all do, but it's very common. It places ownership of the non-companies-house bits of the community under easy control of the members. I'd rather we had that than a document controlled us/them culture. All the stuff that the directors legally have to keep are already on github. Connecting that to the website might be useful, however. > * Provide subdomains on hackerdeen.org to any member who wants them > using an automated tool, and immediately cease providing further > subdomains on 57north.org.uk or 57north.co (SRV records might be a > different matter). I vote we continue to provide 57N domains to those who wish them and develop the automated tool accordingly. Maybe project.m.57north.* would be a concession, and things can transition once they're deemed stable enough. We've already chosen to get rid of the hackerdeen moniker once, let's not bring it back from the dead to make a different group with the same member base. Given it's been reliably up since the last time this discussion came round, I'd like to nominate irl's hackr server to be granted ssh.57north.org as our group LDAP integrated shell server... Maybe not, but you get the idea - I'd like to be able to offer users shell accounts tied to their 57N ID. For those who've never used such a thing, it'll be a cool learning experience, which the space should be encouraging. > * Get the space network off of ChaosVPN, and if there's a desire to > play with networking, someone can build up a networking lab separate > from the space network. Unconcerned, feel free to do whatever here. I like the idea and the principal of cvpn, but we're not really using it that much. I'd like to stay part of a connected network with other hackerspaces, but I don't use the services much so I'm not the one to make this argument. > * Clearly specify in a document and to new members that services > other than the physical space, member management tools, website and > mailing list are member-run projects and the space itself has nothing > to do with them. Our onboarding process is already awkward and confusing for new members and people unfamiliar with some of the tech we're using on a day-to-day basis. I don't think having a document stating that our community doesn't fully endorse the use of projects by community members will help that, but perhaps something explaining that "Some people like to put in effort and make cool stuff available for the rest of us - here's a list of stuff we've got currently" would be a nice way to thank those who do make the effort and hopefully encourage new faces to add their own stamp to the space. > * Allow exceptions where it's difficult or impossible to entirely > separate a project from space infrastructure. My feelings on what constitutes 'our' infrastructure and what constitutes 'their' infrastructure should hopefully be clear at this point. > * Potentially encourage running workshops around member-run projects, > so that people other than the person/people setting it up can actually > learn something Yes please. > Any comments? We're a community of maybe 30 people. Does it really matter what's officially provided and what the members bring to the table? I'm sure others will agree that we've managed to curate an easy going atmosphere where people are welcome to do things - I'm keen to keep that going! If we want to have great tools and services within the space people need places to experiment and try things. Unofficial tools might never become official tools, but to have them transition needs support in the space. We give members somewhere to work on ideas, somewhere they can work with other members. The tools can be used by our community as we see fit. In the end they are only supported by the people that want them and support only lasts as long as interest does. This isn't unique to services, that is the model of the entire space. -- Much Love <3 Hibby d...@vehibberd.com [1]: https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/London_Hackspace [2]: http://wiki.lvl1.org/Main_Page [3]: https://www.i3detroit.org/wiki/Main_Page [4]: https://wiki.nycresistor.com/wiki/Main_Page [5]: https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/NottingHack [6]: http://wiki.makespace.org/Makespace [7]: https://github.com/swindonmakers/snhack.github.io/wiki [8]: https://wiki.attraktor.org/Attraktor_Wiki [9]: http://wiki.hive13.org/view/Main_Page _______________________________________________ 57north-discuss mailing list 57north-discuss@lists.57north.co http://lists.57north.co/listinfo/57north-discuss
