Noisebridge Vision

Noise Bridge is a hacker space in the same spirit as the European clubs like Metalab of Vienna, CBase of Berlin, MAMA of Zagreb, ASCII of Amsterdam. Many other clubs of a similar stripe can be found on Hacklabs. It would not be out of the question to consider Noise Bridge to be a possible San Francisco Chaostreff. Noise Bridge is a hacker space that shares a Dorkbot-like ethic and indeed many of the members of Noise Bridge are long time Dorkbotters.

Noise Bridge is a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring and of course learning.

The group as whole has an interest in programming, hardware hacking, chemistry, mathematics, photography, security, robotics, all kinds of art and of course technology.

It is a place for mentoring and asking questions.

Noisebridge is a space for artistic collaboration and experimentation. We are open to all types of art with special emphasis on the crossover of art and technology. There are plans to build a darkroom in the space, equipped with black and white and color enlargers.

We intend to have many interesting things happening at all times. Sharing is essential to making this work. A logical followup to this is to have space to display our creative projects.

• Noisebridge is governed by its members and its mission is to support members' activities.
• We are an all inclusive group.
• Decisions are made at membership meetings.
• Responsibilities can be delegated.
• Membership meetings have the final say.
• Consensus is preferred over majority decisions. Every one needs to be heard before a decision can be taken.
• Our actions in the space and with members are Civic, Courteous and Lawful.
• This is not a space for commercial ventures, there are many good alternatives for that (add links).
• Noisebridge is not allied with any sect, denomination, political entity, organisation or institution.

Membership expectations

• members should contribute not only monetarily but 'in-kind'
• we will be flexible in monetary contributions for members with different levels of income and/or expenses
• there is no Management responsible for (things such as) taking out the trash and buying juice and resistors and pens; each member is expected to do things that they see need doing
• 'sudo leadership': there are no General leaders, only temporary ones in case of projects that really need one
• members are expected to be trustworthy
• members never represent The Community; they only speak for themselves (e.g. to the media)
• any member can bring guests any time
• new members must be sponsored by two current members
• nobody will live in the space (although occasional overnights are OK in case of missed BART and such)

Decision process

• as noted elsewhere, consensus is the goal. In case this fails we will have to fall back on majority voting. We will know that consensus has failed when ... ?
• individuals are always responsible for their own decisions
• if you think it needs doing and it won't cause problems for anyone, then do it. use your judgment on whether it requires a consensus process (a possible guideline is that things you or you and one other person can do probably don't require general discussion; things that require, say, 5 or more people or expenditures of over, say, $100, probably do)