> One problem with grand pronouncements is that it requires a > often ruthless ideological leader, something most hackers and > folks in general shy away from. > > Better to treat it as a garden. You want a tomato plant, you > plant tomato seeds. You don't try and convince a cabbage it > really wants to be a tomato. No need to ideology or anything > like that. Merely plant the seeds you want. > > So what are the seeds we want to plant? That is the question. > Then ideology, coercion, etc, are not the issue. > > Also, if AaturdayHouse was supposed to be about all those > other things, then why did it seem that whenever I stopped by > before its 'slow death' at giraffe labs, it was so focused on > startups? > > Someone planted that seed, and it took over the garden for > many people.
SH always seemed like a solution in search of a problem, at least from my perspective. Since I already have a pretty well set-up collection of workspaces as well as a pretty good discipline of working on projects on my own time, that aspect of it didn't really offer me much. The community aspect was certainly valuable, although when I'm getting down to the actual work I generally work best in isolation. I was most interested in SH when it wandered from house to house on a weekly basis. It was a chance to really see how other people did things. Once it landed and became a somewhat formallized workspace, it really lost its appeal to me. It was just another place to go to work, where I would wind up getting less work done than had I stayed at home. Having to pay for parking for the priveledge didn't help, either. However, the arduino classes were excellent, and I'm glad that SH provided them. Were there more events along those lines, I would have been drawn back into the fold. Ironically, I was planning to host a similar class (regarding the use of EL wire) within the next month, but it looks like that'll be a non-starter. I definitely think there's value in the kernel of the idea of SH, but there was always too much pie-in-the-sky dreams without any realistic persepctive or an implementation plan. My suggestion for moving into the future is to come up with a few, no more than three specific, small, quantifiable goals for the organization to achieve within a very short time frame. Essentially, come up with a reason to exist. Just getting people together to explore geek topics isn't enough; there's at least a half dozen more established orgs within Seattle that already provide that and more. Select leadership, based on their ability to lead, and let them lead. Consensus leadership is doomed to fail; it always does. Like it or not, benevelont dictatorship is by far a superior method of leadership if you actually want to accomplish something of lasting value. I'd like to see the org continue, and I'd like to have a reason to participate & be involved. -mike --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Website: http://saturdayhouse.org/ Post: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
