Here are my thoughts,
TIL always said it wanted a printing resource center for the community. It
was pitched consistently as a cross between the IPRC in portland and
Occucopy, that would provide affordable print and art-making tools to the
community - essentially a service bureau on steroids, for everyone, which
sounded awesome. I realize this printing collective is still in a state of
becoming, but $100/pp/mo is e.g. a lot more than the $55/pp/year the IPRC
charges, and seems like a pretty high bar to any kind of community
involvement.
One worry I have about this project in its current state is, from the
description it sounds like six(?) independent, unnamed 'presses'
(businesses?) like TIL who it seems banded together to have a place to
print their own stuff, and perhaps less so really to provide resources to
the larger community. That's not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but I
would like some clarity on this point, since I have no idea who these other
5 businesses besides TIL even are, or how big these businesses are, how
many people are involved with them, etc. And then I have a hard time
understanding how offering one day a week of being open for actual
community use and the rest for private business use, enough to qualify the
project as fundamentally community-oriented.
I had also hoped accompanying the amazing machines, that there would be a
companion area of more pedestrian equipment like a couple pre-press
workstations, tabloid printers, letter laser printers and copy machines
could be made available to those who simply need to make flyers for social
justice events etc quickly and cheaply that would maybe, not cost them
$100/mo? You know, kind of like Occucopy provided.. But maybe that's coming
- I'm not saying they're not moving fast enough. I just wonder where the
space and planning *is* for those machines, that will probably get a lot
more use from the community at large than a C&P? It seems like that's not
part of the plan anymores.. is that true?
Basically there are several still-unanswered aspects about the structure
and application of this print collective that have little to do with how
awesome printing machines are, how awesome the idea is, how awesome the
people involved are, and everything to do with simply being fair to *other*
collectives, with respect to distribution of space, rent and expenses that
all of the collectives in the building must negotiate. IE this application
must be looked at in context of what other collectives are paying and how
they are using shared space too, not just on the merits of the printing
collective alone and what it offers in isolation.
I also think there is a lot of pressure built into this proposal, possibly
unintended but still there, to agree to everything it says and STFU,
because this brand-new collective has already moved all their machines down
there prior to making themselves known, so it doesn't feel like the Omni
collective has much room to have a say about it. It is certainly not the
normal procedure of like, actually deciding on whether a group should move
in and what they should contribute BEFORE they move in. Not after, as if
its just some kind of formality..
If any of these 5 other businesses that have collectivized together to use
their machines in the basement are incorporated, they may have to have
individual legal agreements (leases of some sort) with OOC directly. I'm
not sure actually, but I suspect that may be in order for OOC decisions
made at meetings to trump innate tenant rights laws, and in order that
insurance liability be binding, etc.
With respect to TIL subletting its upstairs office that was mentioned at
the meeting, that could totally break our collective structure and is not
OK in my view.
Subletting is so ripe with problems that undermine collectivity I can't
even begin to count them all. Rather the expectation should be, if TIL
needs less space in that office, then they can rent a desk or 2 in there
from the OOC, and those other individuals / businesses they share that
office with will be their full equals in there, also as tenants, with the
same rights and responsibilities, subject to the same acceptance process
and legally binding agreements as every other tenant in the OOC. In the
OOC, there is equality amongst tenants, that seems fundamental to me. New
tenants, groups or businesses in the OOC should be a group decision, not
one person's or a single group's. Right?
Also with respect to TIL curating shared spaces in the omni, i would say,
please, be sure to let everyone in the omni co-curate all the shared spaces
with you, if that is cool.
Friendly amendments:
I propose this proposal be split into two proposals -
one with regards to TIL and its rent reduction, including its desire to
sublet its upstairs office
one with regards to the print collective & its space, rent, structure, etc.
I see no reason why one proposal should depend on the other.
Questions:
0. Would the collective be willing to turn on the machines and use them
during the Thursday delegates meeting so we can hear how loud (or not) they
are?
1. What are the intended operating hours of this collective?
2. What is the collective structure of this group. How are decisions made?
3. Does this group have open membership - can anyone join and use all the
machines, provided they are adequately trained?
4. Aside from TIL, what are the names of the six other presses/businesses
that appear to largely comprise this group, and who is involved in them?
5. What business or person legally owns which machines in the basement?
6. Is this collective intended to be run as a business (be it a nonprofit
or for-profit), or is this a collective that seeks to make access to their
machines as affordable and available as possible to our community?
IE, if your membership grows and gross revenue rises:
- will your member dues go down from $100/pp/mo?
- or will you simply buy more machines and continue to expand into the
basement?
- will someone profit? If so, who?
- Do you have any thoughts about paying more rent to Omni if your
membership increases? Going with the sliding-scale rental formula of the
omni, based on affordability and ability to pay.
6. Given you can only afford $600 and you apparently have over ten members
paying $100/ea, how did you come up with the $600 figure?
7. It was mentioned at the meeting that running a print studio was
'incredibly expensive'. Given that the print collective will not be paying
more in utilities than say BAPS, who has, increasingly worryingly, no
dedicated space (and no huge power-slurping machines), I am wondering what
these incredible expenses are.
Are you putting consumables like paper and ink that will get made into
things that will be presumably sold, in the same category as e.g. power or
water as an operating expense, when consumables might also be called the
raw materials for a commodity?
Are you counting the purchase of the machines, or the one-time moving costs
of the machines into the basement, as an ongoing expense?
What are these ongoing, super high expenses, ie how much exactly do they
cost? What's the actual budget?
8. Would the collective and its component participating businesses be
willing to disclose financial statements on a regular basis to assess rent
affordability?
9. Excepting TIL & Laura D., who from the printing collective has done any
work on the Omni, or participates in any working groups or work on the
omni, aside from organizing and moving their own printing gear? (I do
realize that was a hell of a lot of work, but I'd like to know, since
generally I never see any of em in the building nor the machines used.)
10. Does the printing collective know how much rent we are collecting, vs
what we will owe in total, come Oct 1? IE does the collective have any
sense at all of the Omni's total financial responsibility?
11. If the machines are too loud for a class to take place simultaneously,
does the collective intend to ask BAPS and other collectives not to use the
basement during their work time?
12. Does it seem a fair distribution of the rent burden that for example a
collective we just met last week who has done no work on the Omni, receive
1/3 of the basement for a little more than half the rent BAPS pays, who
comparatively has no dedicated space? Is it fair that Rise Above, with more
expenses per person, pay $1000 for less space?
13. Does the printing collective believe in a financial model in which
member rosters soar and more people use the omni, but rental income stays
exactly the same, in a period in which we are not actually making rent?
Sorry if I come off as a hardass about this but I am mostly repeating
things I heard all week
David
On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 9:15 PM, yar <yardenack(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 8:52 PM, ▽ ∞ ✳︎
> <forever(a)timelessinfinitelight.com> wrote:
> > *We will bring forth a revised Community Print Studio proposal to Omni
> > soon, which we would like to make a decision on during the October 2nd
> > delegate meeting*. This proposal will address concerns regarding space,
> > noise, and communality that were brought up during the last meeting.
>
> I just want to say that I'm at the CPS meeting right now and they've
> all been really generous and helpful and I believe that we will figure
> out something. It's really just a tough space logistics problem about
> how to orient the machines in the least intrusive way and maximize
> common/shared space. The machines need to somehow be ventilated,
> eventually soundproofed, and have a radius of empty space to work
> around. We will need more time just to solve this geometry problem,
> and that's mainly what's holding up the proposal right now.
>
> In the meantime Kate & I started a wiki page to document all the
> existing and forthcoming machines, their dimensions, what their needs
> are: http://wiki.omni-oakland.org/w/Print_Studio
>
Does the Ebola epidemic in Africa have you freaked out yet? Ebola is all
over the press with pictures reminiscent of a true pandemic. We've been
following the news and have been sifting out facts from fears.
Join us this evening at 7pm in CCL, and we'll help you separate the hype
from the science, and the fearmongering from the human tragedy. Bring your
questions as we talk about how scientists and epidemiologists examine
outbreaks. We will show you how you can help with the relief effort in the
countries hit by Ebola - and maybe even in studying the virus!
*Biohackers Discuss: Ebola!
<http://www.meetup.com/Counter-Culture-Labs/events/207834272/>*
Patrik
last night I plugged a second serial port into the 3d printing computer
and connected it to the robot's floppy drive - and then wrote a program to
man-in-the-middle the conversation between the two.
read 123.JBI from disk:
http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/read123.log
delete 123.JBI:
http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/delete123.log
save 124.JBI: (a copy of 123.JBI)
http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/save124.log
read 124.JBI from disk:
http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/read124.log
if you do a diff of read123.log and read124.log you will see the slight
differences in the packets. Note that the file creation times are
different, not just the filenames, in packets mentioning that info.
the most succinct examples are these:
disk: \x02\x13\x00LST0001123.JBI \x00\xfc
disk: \x02\x13\x00LST0001124.JBI \xff\xfb
yasnac: \x02\x0f\x00FRD123.JBI \xdc\xfc
yasnac: \x02\x0f\x00FRD124.JBI \xdb\xfc
the escape codes (starting with \x) are two-character hexadecimal codes
for unprintable characters. This is how python does it, which means you
can copy these strings directly into python, for example, to test a theory
on how they are checksummed. Like this:
print sum([ord(c) for c in '\x02\x13\x00LST0001123.JBI \x00\xfc'])
that will give you the 8-bit checksum, but that's not what it's using.
perhaps it's a 16-bit checksum?
if we figure this out, we can write programs for the robot with our own
computers and upload them to it, by pretending that we are its disk drive.
i looked through this doc but did not find the info we need at this point:
http://spaz.org/~jake/robot/479236-17-Communications.pdf
poc||gtfo:
https://github.com/jerkey/yasnac/blob/master/src/mitm.py
-jake
The roofer did not do the last skylight b/c the server rack was exposed.
He is coming back tomorrow at 8am to do it, so the servers need to be
covered.
My reccomendation is to take a piece of plywood or one of the spare hollow
core doors under the stage, and cover it with that. (It is ok to use the
new, clean piece of plywood if it is not cut and we can put it back where
it lives tomorrow afternoon.)
The roofer also left some tarps for us in case we wanted to use those,
which are left on the railing of the server platform. Please - DO NOT
RELOCATE these tarps? As they must be returned to the roofer tomorrow. They
can be used to cover the servers if need be - they shouldn't really go down
the floor though as the servers will then overheat. I guess they can go
down a bit over the cool side, but not the hot side.
:)
David
Dear fam, please take a moment to consider this proposal, I really think it
will be great for everyone! I'm going to add the top portion to the riseup
pad later tonight.
Love,
Scott
_____________________________________________
Proposal:
To provisionally rent out the small office (closest to shattuck) located
inside the basement reading room to the forthcoming music/recording
collective (temporarily titled "Omni Music Project", or "OMP"), for
400$/month, which, once the collective has finished soundproofing the
space, will be a common room again.
During the first *3* months of tenancy (this proposal is only for a
tenancy, and specific # of months can be decided before approval,) the OMP
will be working, solely, on soundproofing the ballroom at no cost to the
OOC, provided that the OOC pay for the materials (for the ballroom only),
and that the OOC allows the OMP, at no cost, to throw a large fund-raiser
concert in the ballroom upon completion, in order to help get the
collective off the ground. This particular labor will be organized as the
"ballroom soundproofing wg" or something similar, and will be open to
any/all OOC members.
The OMP also requests, as a condition to this provis. proposal for tenancy,
that the OOC not rent out the rest of the office spaces, since the OMP
eventually plans to use one as a control room (that can still be used for
small meetings etc. by OOC members), and keep the rest as completely free
common spaces (ex: classrooms for BAPS, meeting rooms, quiet rooms). It
should be noted that, while keeping these spaces common, the two other
offices could still generate revenue for the omni (ex: a physical therapist
or acupuncturist could rent out one of the office spaces for 5 hours, one
day a week. Once soundproofed, these rooms will be really conducive for
prospective tenants like those mentioned above.)
[end of proposal]
________________________________________________
More Information about the OMP:
During these first *3* months, the OMP will have a weekly meeting devoted
to figuring out the details of our internal organization, and begin
planning for acoustically treating and soundproofing the basement reading
room.
Some things are already set in stone (to the extent that any open
collective can set anything in stone):
Organization:
1. this collective will be completely open. Anyone can join by *paying*
monthly dues of $100 and coming to the weekly organizing meeting. In order
to accommodate as many folks as possible, dues can be paid not only in
cash, but in labor hours.
a sliding scale of monthly dues would look something like this:
(the exact numbers are TBD)
1. $100/mo and weekly meeting attendance
2. $50/mo " " + 2 hrs labor/week
3. $25/mo " " + 4 hrs labor/week
4. $0/mo " " + 8 hours labor/week
labor hours that will go towards monthly dues must be evenly distributed
between work for the music collective and work for the OOC at large (ex: a
tier 2 member would contribute 1 hr work/week for omni and 1 hr work/week
for music collective).
furthermore, the OMP will have a financial aid process, so as to make the
collective conducive to anyone who wants to be a part of it. Ex: if someone
wanted to be part of OMP who works 40 hrs a week at a low-paying job, takes
care of a child, and couldn't afford to pay any money, we would not ask
them to work 8 hours a week in order to be a part of the collective.
2. In addition to paying dues, members will need to take free (and/or
donation based,) classes (or test out,) in order to have access to
instruments, live sound equip, and recording equip. This access structure
will be split up into two groups, and members are free to be part of both
groups.
The first *access group* will be really easy and accessible, requiring
perhaps only one free/donation class on how to wrap mic cables, properly
handle amps, etc. Upon completion, members of this group will have
unrestricted access to the Omni's communal instruments as well as the OMP's
live sound cables, amplifiers, live mics, and can use the basement reading
room as a rehearsal space (provided there are no BAPS classes, etc. that
need to use room). The basement reading room will also be hardwired with
two room mics, connected to an easy to use 2- or 4-track recorder, which
will allow any member of the collective to make live demo recordings,
on-the-fly, inside the basement reading room. This small-scale recording
system will also be public access, allowing for OOC members (who aren't
part of OMP) to make recordings of classes, reading groups, important
meetings etc.
The second group would involve access to the above but also include
unrestricted access to the control room soundboard and the higher end
recording equipment. This would require *5* more free/donation classes (or
test outs), that would train members on recording software, hardware, and
proper care of control room equipment. While anyone in the OOC who needs it
(ex: for a small meeting) can have access to the control room, only people
who have gone through this training will have unrestricted access to the
control room equipment. The need for this differentiation in access is to
ensure that expensive equipment doesn't get unnecesarrily damaged, and to
allow folks who aren't interested in recording to quickly utilize
everything else the OMP will offer.
3. The OMP, through BAPS, will provide *1-2* free classes that will support
the development of the OMP but also be fun for everyone. One example of
this will be "instrument and music/sound equipment repair" class, in which
folks attending can bring in their own broken equipment to repair, or help
repair lots of broken donated equipment that the OMP will need to fix in
order to become fully operational.
4. The OMP plans to share all work tasks/roles between all collective
members on a consistent, rotating basis. Ex: a member of OMP would be
responsible for cleaning and organizing the space, then switch to
bookkeeping a *week* later, then be assigned to scheduling after that. This
will help to avoid organizational hierarchies and promote transparency
inside the collective.
5. All profits will be shared equally amongst every active member of OMP.
In addition to fundraising, the OMP will generate capital by providing
recording (and possibly mastering, production,) services to bands,
musicians, etc. OMP will employ a "three thirds" model for dispersing money
generated from the sales of each recording:
1/3 to recording artist(s)
1/3 to a specific community service, advocacy group, non-profit, etc.
1/3 to OMP
Use of Space:
The OMP plans on soundproofing and beautifying the entire basement reading
room and all three office spaces, which will all be common spaces, and none
of these modifications will change the current functions. However, one
office space, which will serve as the studio's control room, will
undoubtedly be less useful to the OOC at large, due to the size of the
soundboard, speakers, computers and other equipment etc, but it will have a
comfy couch and be really great for small meetings, phone meetings, quiet
reading, etc.
The work that will be done by OMP to the basement reading room will
actually improve the current functions of the space, allowing for multiple
BAPS classes to occur at once (ex: one in an office, one in the reading
room,) and provide more quiet and intimacy for folks wanting to use the
space for meetings, reading, and working.
The OMP will also build two modular bookshelves on wheels that will live
inside the basement reading room. This will benefit everyone! The basement
reading room will house more books, the room will be even quiter, and the
OMP can use these bookshelves as go-bos (go-betweens) to use for live
recording during available hours. Plus they will look super cool. A few
additional bookshelves along the walls may also be added or built into the
reading room, at no cost to the OOC.
As far as scheduling, the OMP is confident that there will be some limited
daytime hours available for recording, but, even if this can't be achieved,
the basement reading room will be so thoroughly soundproofed that all
recording and live music could easilly take place between the hours of
10pm-10am.
The OMP will also provide the OOC with another upright piano, which will be
accessible to anyone and live somewhere in the basement reading room. This
will help greatly in ensuring space for OOC members to have meetings and
work in the ballroom, since anyone playing unscheduled music in the
ballroom can easilly relocate to the basement.
In order to ensure modularity and common space in the basement reading
room, the OMP will very likely need to secure a small, lockable closet in
the basement. If space permits, this closet could also be used for other
items, non-OMP related.
Ballroom Recordings:
The OMP also plans to hardwire the Ballroom for live recording at no cost
to the OOC. This will be used for:
1. recording live events and concerts in the ballroom
2. renting the ballroom out for live recording purposes (non-event related)
since this will be provided by both the OOC and the OMP (ballroom space and
recording equip.), the OMP would like to split the money earned from these
services with the OOC, at a percentage to be determined at a later date.
These services will help to provide additional money for both the OOC and
OMP, since, once completed, the OOC can offer to provide a HQ recording of
every ballroom event, at a reasonable cost to the renter determined on a
case-by-case basis (ex: cheap/free for sponsored events, more expensive for
high-profile lectures and concerts). The OMP would also like to store
copies of all recordings in order to start a public "Omni Sound Archive",
or to provide copies of all recordings to someone(s) in the OOC interested
in undertaking such a project.
What the OOC gets:
-Free Soundproofing of the Ballroom and Basement Reading Rooms (+ offices)
[OOC pays for cost of materials for ballroom only]
-additional cash-flow for OOC by offering to make HQ recordings of rental
events in the ballroom
-beautification and improvement of functionality of the basement reading
room
-2 modular bookshelves for the basement reading room
-another piano for the basement reading room
-free classes thru BAPS
-an omni sound archive
-a sheet music, music theory, and music lit. library
-possibility for a radio/podcast set-up (which could still be a sudo
project but take place in OMP control room)
-a ready-to-use, public access recording setup in basement reading room for
meetings, reading groups, classes
-a new music/recording collective that ANYONE can join, complete with a
fully functional professional recording studio/rehearsal space,
-$400 a month starting ASAP, which will increase when the OMP eventually
proposes to become a voting member of the OOC
Hello sudo-ers!
I'm writing to ask you to donate to Ada Initiative as part of my campaign
to make hacker and maker spaces a more welcoming, safe, and inclusive
environment for all women!
Here is my post about how Ada Initiative was a catalyst for Double Union:
http://bookmaniac.org/make-hackerspaces-better-support-ada-initiative/
I respect your work at sudo room in making it a safer space for women and
other under-represented people in our community. I wonder if you would
like to have a look at Ada Initiative's resources?
Please donate!
Here is the direct donation link:
https://supportada.org/?campaign=hackerspaces
I am shooting for a goal of $4096 and will match the first $1028 if the
goal is reached!
HACKERSPACE POWER!
Best,
Liz
​ p.s. Tomorrow, Wed. afternoon from 4-6pm, I am hosting a Hackability
meetup at Double Union. You are welcome to come by! We are going to test
drive a prototype WHILL powerchair, talk about our wheelchair and
mobility/accessibility hacks and modifications, and make plans for future
hack days to work on our accessibility and mobility related projects.
http://doubleunion.tumblr.com/post/97665817909/sept-24-4pm-hackability-meet…
--
Liz Henry
lizhenry(a)gmail.com
"Electric ladies will you sleep or will you preach?" -- Janelle Monae
"Without models, it's hard to work; without a context, difficult to
evaluate; without peers, nearly impossible to speak." -- Joanna Russ
very cool looking obliteration, but in case anyone needed to get ahold of
me I wanted everyone to know that my phone is no more. Extremely smashed-o.
I'll letcha know when I have a new one. I'll be at omni tomorrow afternoon
on through the evening.
Love, love love
d
Hi,
I read an article in the newspaper about the popularity of reading groups.
Their focus is on reading a book/pdf/print for a focused 30 minutes. No
internet surfing, no computer monitors if possible (unless you're reading
an ebook).
I'd like to do something similar at SudoRoom. Is anyone interested? It
could be for 30 minutes this Thursday evening from 6:00-6:30pm.
=============================
Romy Ilano
romy(a)snowyla.com
the robot was asking me last night "when can i start carving statues out
of wood? or at least carve SUDOROOM into a piece of wood?"
i answered, sadly, that i didn't have a router for it to use. But maybe
one of you robot-lovers wants to get it one? This would be ideal:
http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DWP611-Torque-Variable-Compact/dp/B0048EFUV8
it also doubles as a human-usable tool. I don't know if we have anything
like this already but if not, let's get something.
I already wrote a program to write SUDOROOM with a sharpie, we could just
use the same program with the router to carve pieces of wood...
-jake
