I'm no longer in town but I have something to say.

I think this is a good opportunity to explore. I hear your concerns about their approach, Ryan. I am particularly irked by the inspirational music in the video. *shudders*

That said, I would love to take this opportunity to transmit our collective concerns and critiques to them...call it "hacking their framing". :] Whether one likes it or not, these folks have a lot of power in shaping popular technology development and understandings into the future. While we may not revolutionize Google, we can at least encourage them to do their bidding in a way that is a little less evil.

I'm happy that they're directly reaching out to hackerspaces, which means they may take notes. I'm also happy that they're reaching out to us because our social ecosystem is quite a bit more diverse than theirs and therefore has more potential for wisdom (I wonder, have they reached out to Mothership or LOL?). The tech industry (or any business that requires a steep social capital (whiteness, maleness, ability to work 40+ hours/week, etc.) in order to have a better (or any) chance at getting employed), after all, is largely ableist and culturally stagnant. Please excuse my nesting.