14 Oct
2013
14 Oct
'13
10:05 a.m.
I share the desire to be critical of and proceed carefully with
associations with military-sponsored events.
I think it will be important for us to hear directly from the kids if
possible since they have by far the most to gain or lose in this question:
How do they view the sponsorship of the contest, what do they hope to get
from participating in the contest, what do they hope to gain from being at
sudo room (if we will have them)?
On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 1:34 AM, Marc Juul <juul(a)labitat.dk> wrote:
On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 12:25 AM, Vicky Knox
<vknoxsironi(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Marc's response is justified, though I reject
the language of the two
opening questions.
My conversation over the phone with Vivienne lead me to believe that she
was participating in a competition organized by her school and I didn't
carefully scan the email explanation that she sent me afterward to send to
the list. I am really down about my oversight and apologize for it.
I did learn the details of the competition's funding when she and a
colleague came to see the space and pick up the key the night before their
practice, and at that point I processed the explanation of the sponsorship
much differently than Marc.
While she is not happy about the sponsor,
Vivienne's justification of
pursuing this event was that this was a great opportunity for her students
to get a hold of resources and a learning environment they would otherwise
not have had. She wanted to be able to do this event at a hackerspace
because her ultimate goal was to use this competition as a bridge to
connect to a critical, hacker community (for what this bridge is worth,
given the obvious discrepancy). I felt at once uneasy and understanding. I
respect the sentiment that she expressed that she needed to take the
opportunity that was there, just as I am not quick to jump to judgment of
many of my bright and fascinating friends back home who were in a position
in which they (felt that they?) needed to join the military in order to
realistically afford higher education. That said, I stand with Marc in my
rejection of the military industrial complex (or whatever you would like to
call it), but I do not know the answer to more nuanced questions of access
to aspirational education within a race-class divided society. I invite
your conversation.
This is not a question of access to aspirational education within a
race-class divided society. The problem I'm having is that you (and
possibly others?) decided to facilitate something called The Air Force
Association's CyberPatriot Competition, with Northrop Grumman as sponsor,
with some form of association to sudo room. Whatever your personal
decision-making process was, you must have realized that at least some
members would strongly disagree with that decision, yet you moved forward
with short warning and without directly bringing the controversial topic in
front of the group for discussion and decision. This should have been taken
up at the weekly meeting. The fact that it was not obvious to you that this
event was controversial enough to warrant serious group discussion before
proceeding is problematic.
If Marc or anyone else would like to bring up
this topic at the general
meeting, I could not make it this Wednesday but am available the following.
I will be there.
Vicky
On Oct 13, 2013 7:31 PM, "Marc Juul" <juul(a)labitat.dk> wrote:
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On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 4:06 PM, Vicky Knox
<vknoxsironi(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Do you all have any recommendations on how to
expedite this? What is
the current status of the large room and using it for events?
For background, this teacher origianally contacted info@sudoroom but
never got a response, and called the SR number today, slightly frantic. I
think it would be really awesome if we were able to help her out. This
event seems quite an incredible opportunity for young people.
What? What have you been smoking?
The Air Force Association's CyberPatriot? Sponsored by Northrop
Grumman?! Why are people assuming that this is something sudo room
wants to support or in any way encourage?
This sounds terrible. I am going to take this up at this Wednesdays sudo
room meeting. I am completely against anything like this happening in or
near sudo room in any way shape or form. I do not believe I am alone in
feeling like this. I am both surprised and very disappointed that a
critical and sceptical approach was not taken in dealing with something
like this on behalf of sudo room.
--
Marc