Meeting Notes 2013 01 22

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You should read the meeting instructions forthwith!

These are the notes from the The 250th Meeting of Noisebridge. Note-taker: Merlin; Moderator: Danny O'Brien.

  • One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.

Short announcements and events[edit]

  • Justin: donating a large 3d printer! Needs some plastic bits. Would like to do a class to help make these and educate the public.
  • Rayc: Someone decided to graffiti a lot on the walls. Apparently, we have a 5-gallon bucket of paint, and are considering painting the entire hallway with it.
    • There was a notice posted on our door about graffiti that we're liable for – but it's actually for the awning of Mi Ranchito.
  • Leif: Interested in building a Kickstarter-style service (SudoRoom is doing a similar thing in RoR, called Selfstarter)
    • Leif wants to do a slight variation; thinks it'd be an interesting NB project.

Other events

  • Replicator Wednesday is back! 7 or 7:30 @ NB (ELIJAH WOOD is teaching it!!!!) (ah wait, Elijah Post, who hates being called Wood)
  • Garrett wants to grow food in publicly-accessible spaces. However, the city / property will come by and dig it up and kill it. But let's make an application that allows someone to propose a growth spot & plan.
    • Object modeling / transaction / DB stuff.
    • Resources & events on a website for this
    • Needs node.js, free hosting, transactional/DB stuff.
    • Contact: leave message on talk page (user: Garrett Smith) on wiki – or dhtmlkitchen@gmail.com
  • Techno-activism Mondays: anti-censorship & anti-surveillance & open gov't & free data meetings, first Monday of each month.
  • Sam wants to do a class on Max/MSP (Thursdays? Tuesdays? Whatever doesn't conflict.)
    • Peake: there has been such a thing in the past; maybe such a person would join a new incarnation
  • MCT and Tom are taking Stanford encryption class on Coursera (All future Wednesdays; 6:30 @ Sycamore; here @ 7)
    • Prereqs: need to know probability (just start crypto class)
    • Do you have a web browser? You're set!
  • Tom: Crypto Party 2: Encycler?? Boogaloo. Moar announcements to come.
    • 23rd of March (Saturday)
    • Langton Labs, 2-6pm
  • Rayc: LED art show? Who wants to do art for it?
    • Will put a page on the wiki
    • or you can email robert.chu01@gmail.com
    • this will probably be a concert as well

Membership Binder [edit]

  • James Cooper (JC) (interested in furthering commitment in NB Community) (drives a big ambulance that says Take Stuff Apart) (for future consideration)
  • Reverend Mik (I shall continue to work on my projects and learn new things)
    • On Week 3

Up for consideration this week:

  • Justin (LinkReincarnate)
    • Sponsors: Jake, John W., Mike
  • Merlin! Yay
    • Sponsors: I believe they were Miloh and Rayc

I have a crapton of notes from the discussion, but they may not be desirable here. (This was both my first meeting and my first time as note-taker.) PM me on IRC if I should put them up (the_merlin); don't feel like putting my email out here.

Financial Report[edit]

  • For God's sake, you people have seen beers before
  • We're running out of money. We will be down on our funds (under 3-month parachute)
  • Tom: we have 14,460.02; that is not enough. We haven't paid rent (5k monthly)
  • Danny: Encourage more monthly donations. If you're here a lot, even $10-20 helps.
  • Miloh: Get your sugar daddy to write a check.
  • Rayc: Or momma.
  • Danny: The more we up monthly contributions, the better-off we are!
  • Ken: Do we have events to make things, whose proceeds go to NB? Would be a good way to learn to code.
  • Kim: Have thought about having a benefit where artists make work to sell? Would also let people know that NB is a place for art.
  • Danny: The consensus is that you can ask for money to cover costs, etc., if you're having an event or whatever.
  • Leif: But we much prefer not to.
  • Danny: People buy kits for circuit-hacking Monday.
  • Leif: though selling kits is a different kind of beast
  • What if we made the kits?
  • Rayc: I helped somebody with a tour & a project, and she gave me $75 right off. Many people don't know how to donate, though they'd be happy to.
  • Danny: How create opportunities to donate?
  • Rayc: Constant scrolling marquee?
  • Miloh: Let's have this be a regular point of discussion until we're out of the hole.
  • Ken: Who is treasurer? [crickets]
    • Ken would be interested! Previously ran the yearbook @ MIT, helped get that out of the red. Happy to learn more about NB & what solutions would/n't work with the culture. Who wants to pester me about this?
    • John is also interested in being new treasurer
  • Rayc: Thank-you cards to existing members / donors?
    • Tom: We're kinda doing that now. We don't have great letterhead; I just send people emails about hugging.
  • IDEAS GROUP AFTER MEETING

Consensus items[edit]

Proposals from last week [edit]

(Add any items which pass or are blocked to the Consensus Items History page.)

  • John Withers: DreamWorks wants to use our logo in a movie they're making about Julian Assange (Miloh: Hackers II!). There is no consensus to be had; two people said they would block. One was extremely rigid in her position and would never not block.
    • Leif: We need consensus approval on the script!
    • Snail: We should use the Nosebridge logo!
    • Danny: It stars Benedict Cumberwhatsit
    • Kim: HOLY SHIT! SAY YES! He's gonna have it all over his face!!
      • Oh wait. He's really ugly right there.
      • Danny: Yes, that's why it will suck. He's not pretty.
    • Danny: Seems like they should legally be allowed to use it (nominative fair use). Want to write them a letter telling them it's legal for them to use it without asking, but relies on them relying on principles that we stand against. ** Tell them to feel free to donate to prevent Noisebridge from suing.
    • Leif: consense on this next week
    • Danny: will work with EFF to get the wording right for a snarktastic letter to DreamWorks explaining nominative fair use
    • Snail: Let's ask for a DRM-free copy of the movie.
  • Scud and Chrissie must leave, and must not return, except to attend a meeting on this topic until they engage in mediation and resolve concerns about their behavior.
    • Miloh: Seems like some newer humans might have trouble with this; just know that this isn't absolute – they are welcome to come to meetings and engage in mediation.
    • Leif: Yeah, that's it. This is the third time we've had a consensus item to bar people from NB, with less cause and fewer attempts at mediation. Don't want us to become too comfortable with doing this. This is partly because they've been sleeping here.
    • Rayc: During their time here, numerous people asked them about sleeping here / fighting / drinking / drugs / disruption. They came back to pick up stuff, then left.
    • Danny: Then maybe we don't need to do this?
    • Rob: I told them already that they probably shouldn't be back unless they came to a meeting. (General agreement that this was the right thing to do.)
    • Miloh/Danny: Put it as a discussion item for next week.
    • Snail: Often, the mere suggestion of consensus to bar people is enough to make them leave. That seems to have happened.
    • Justin: I'd drop it – think it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of new NB'ers.
    • Danny: Okay, let's take it off.

Light banter: Miloh has Bitcoin Magazines for new members! Hooray!

Proposals for next week [edit]

(Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)

Discussion Notes[edit]

  • Ping wants to do a FOIA request about Noisebridge, to see what the FBI has on us. Would like it to come from NB, rather than simply doing it himself. We probably need consensus for this.
    • EFF does this all the time
    • Being proposed now by Leif: Noisebridge grants Ping permission to send a FOIA request for our FBI records, etc. - and others related to NB, not necessarily from the FBI (DEA, secret service, etc.) – on behalf of Noisebridge.
    • Justin: Does this include requesting FBI records on members of NB?
      • Leif: You can't do a FOIA request on someone unless they've already done it on themself.
    • Tom: Let's not get too crazy here.
  • Justin: Intro day. Invite new humans on a different day from meetings. These can get a little dramatic, and it's not necessarily putting our best face forward (not our ugly underbelly).
    • Danny: Noisebridge 101? Let's bro out about this.

Harvey and Maestro... "Gawd, it's 10:00 now, Jesus Christ."

  • Harvey
    • Mik: We've had to wake up Harvey several times a day. He gives a poor excuse and claims “he doesn't have to listen to me or anyone else in the space.”
    • Harvey is a 60sish dude, glasses; Leif: “super hacker” (more 1337 than any of us)
    • Brings in piles of garbage; leaves on floor / several tables; if we throw away rotting produce he puts on counter, he takes it back out of compost bins and “bitches”.
    • Grabbed/shook Mik's screen in upset, after being awoken, leaving, then returning and finding someone else laying down and nothing being done.
    • Things are “everybody else's fault”
    • Kim: He will ask someone else to move off a public computer and then camp (Miloh: “filibuster”) it for hours without allowing anyone else on.
    • Leif: Has anyone tried formal mediation who wasn't involved in these incidents? I would volunteer. Don't know him very well, but think that he is worth trying to reason with; grabbing computer screens, etc. is not acceptable behavior. Will invite comment from others who have had negative experiences with him.
  • Maestro
    • Tom: Yesterday evening, MCT & I asked him to leave after a disagreement. He did not; kept talking over them (“I don't want to talk to you”, over and over). Including during request for him to come to this meeting. We have established that, if someone has asked you to leave because you are being “a jerk”, you should do so and return for a meeting or mediation. However, the only way that I could communicate to him that I'd like this, was to ask Danny to relay the message.
    • Danny: It went okay. He didn't want anyone to move his table, so he told you guys to “fuck off”. (Tom: it was almost that polite.)
      • “Tom's name isn't on the lease, and therefore he doesn't get to tell me what to do”
      • "some choice things about body functions"
    • Mik: Maestro does not return emails about mediation.
    • Maestro was standing outside Turing, demanding mediation. Mik attempted to do so; Maestro got on his (switched-off) phone and pretended to be talking to Danny and requesting that Danny throw out everyone in the space who was “bugging him”.
    • Ken: Does he have any kind of mental issues?
      • Mik: It isn't relevant; if he has a mental disability, as several NB'ers do, it's his responsibility to take care of it.
    • Who can mediate? Use Jim (Stockford?) as a sounding board to find someone (Miloh will follow up with him).

Attendance[edit]

  • Danny (“splasho.com/upgoer5 is awesome”)
  • Tom (continuing widdershins) ("the web is awesome, and so can you")
  • Mike (evil VC)
  • Merlin (up for membership; in response to prompting, concedes that ponies are "okayyy")
  • Yan (likes animals too) (physics)
  • Snail! (Miloh brought in awesome chains) (president of the anarchist society)
  • Miloh (we made these 3d-printed chains; they are awesome; let's make metal)
  • Ken (first NB meeting; objective-C!) (made a gaem) (it isn't finished)
  • Mike Kan (techno-wanderer) (not a NB quartermaster)
  • John (neuro stuff; hardware; software; other crap)
  • Felix (web dev; up for membership)
  • ??? (learning Python)
  • Emmanuel (this seems like an exciting space) (*very polite*) (watch this one)
  • Josh (???)
  • Angela (electronics class is cool!)
  • Kim (artist) (dangerous)
  • Benji (dad) (first meeting! Drives Uber)
  • Tyler (artist) (dangerous)
  • Dan (art + science + computers) (counseling troubled souls – except robots)
  • Rob (Linux P2P video streaming protocol)
  • Melissa (3rd time here; builds computers; likes gaems)
  • Sam (not technically his first time here) (music + computers + bad sounds???)
  • Mulan (tinkerer) (yay animals: for eating, for playing with)
  • Rayc (laser cutting) (electronics) (fixing computers for free or cheap)
  • Alex Peake (Code Hero) (teaches game programming on mondays)
  • Justin (3d printing) (TDCS) (software progg) (general hacking)
  • Garrett (deeeeeeeep knowledge of JS and web browsers) (plays/teaches guitar/music) (parkour) (high-five with Peake over leg wounds)
  • Milo (play gaems on the internet) (gotta destroy black cubes!!!)
  • Carl (writes iOS apps) (wants to get into android)
  • Filip (research / learning!)
  • Leif (another techno-wanderer) (is this a thing?) (also not a quartermaster) (except sometimes)
  • Reverend Mik (world-builder)
  • Mischief (rewriting resume in Tron???)
  • Bilal (papaya salad) (globalize hackerspaces)