[sudo-discuss] membership reboot?

Thu Apr 3 17:00:38 PDT 2014

Co-working real estate may be the nature of the HUB business model, but
that is an oversimplication. The Hub is also an active site of
controversial dialogue among authentic Oakland stakeholders.

For example, last night the HUB hosted another Oakland
Reconstructed<https://www.facebook.com/events/727972357230147/>panel
with over 200 long-time Oakland/ east bay residents in attendance to
hear directors of Greelining.org and EBASE
<http://www.workingeastbay.org/> discuss
the city's future – the guests were overwhelmingly people of color asking
questions "what if the face of gentrification looks like me?" and "what are
the policies in place that enable 80% foreclosures" and, most bitingly,
"how did 60% of the good, middle-wage jobs lost during the recession get
replace 1-for-1 by low- and minimum-wage jobs?" The main rallying point was
building jobs by and for Oakland residents so they can keep their
livelihood. Added to this were calls to join a labor union and organize and
be organized for inclusive development.

My interest in the HUB is motivated by what we might learn around
membership, but it goes further to value brought to Oakland. Clearly, the
HUB folks are convening their membership with what Phil refers to as the
"External Community Layer" – consisting of dialogue like what I'm
summarizing here – is worth much more than money paid for co-working access.

My main allegiance is to Sudoers and our peers. Yesterday I drove up to
Sacramento and filed to incorporate for the Omni Oakland Collective and am
dedicated to our advancement.

Thanks to everyone for the contributions thus far, especially in the spirit
of learning, much like Phil's take-aways (with sections and headers!).

Onward,
Danny

On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 11:42 PM, Jehan Tremback
<jehan.tremback at gmail.com>wrote:

> Phil sums it up- some people just want an office, they provide that, at a
> price competitive with other offices. Simple as that.
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 6:29 PM, Eddie Che <eddiemill at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ew, don' tripp - aren't there better coding to work on?
>>
>> Sudo Room is an open, non-hierarchical, collaborative community of
>> humans, including tech developers, citizen scientists, activists,
>> artists--and all combinations in between and beyond!--who are
>> interested in and working towards social change. Our goal is to create
>> the first inclusive, dedicated hackerspace in downtown Oakland, to
>> share ideas and projects in citizen science, digital citizenship and
>> literacy, environmental sustainability, community engagement, and
>> self-government.
>>
>> Sudo Room is committed to access, empowerment, transparency, and
>> public/social good. Sudoers have a great diversity of interests and we
>> emphasize respect and solidarity among ourselves and with others.
>>
>> And from https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association/Membership
>>
>>  Membership includes 24/7 access to the space with a personal access
>> method, for example code and/or rfid. (Which is, minimum of 10
>> "dollars" per month)
>>
>>     Unanimous consent
>>
>> Non-members can use the space as much as they want when other members
>> are present, but cannot access the space when no members are there and
>> have to leave when the last member leaves.
>>
>>     Discussion, mostly vibe-y
>>
>> To empower members to deal with problematic non-members, non-members
>> can be thrown out at any time by a member if that members feels that
>> the non-member is being a problem, _unless_ some other member present
>> in the space is willing to vouch for the non-member as a guest.
>> Non-members being asked to leave must be told that they can further
>> discuss the incident at a Wednesday meeting or on the mailing list.
>>
>>     Discussion: Some way of logging the incident?
>>
>> Like some people went into the public school room and locked
>> themselves in.... https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Sleepers
>>
>> SYNHAK Akron:
>> We exist as a free public resource. If you have an idea that needs
>> realized, it can happen at SYNHAK.
>>
>> Hackerspace Santa Barbara:
>> After having tools stolen by a guest, they made it so that a guest has
>> to leave when the last member does for the night. I went with my
>> sleeping bag down the street a ways.
>> IF YOU ARE STEALING TOOLS FROM A FREE TOOL SHOP YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.
>>
>> Saw another one that was that they have 12 members who are financially
>> soluble, and then encourage free users to come by and use the space.
>> That they're set. ACCESSIBILITY
>>
>> Would be even better if one had a treehouse. Or develop the
>> hackerspace to not have rent.
>>
>> https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Hacking_hackerspaces
>>
>> Alternative society: it's like this :
>> https://soundcloud.com/nebulous-nymph
>>
>> It's like this: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/mesh -
>> https://peoplesopen.net/ to get to free wifi for the people
>>
>> It's like this:
>> http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/communities_and_ecovillages/
>>
>> On 3/28/14, Phil Wolff <pwolff at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > re: Impact Hub.
>> >
>> > I spent a month there, attended numerous events and spoke with the
>> > organizers, room tenants, and members. My observations:
>> >
>> > It's a business.
>> >
>> > Like many for-good businesses, the Impact Hub adds a layer of societal
>> > benefit to its for-profit bottom line. Others have described this but
>> I'll
>> > add that the Impact Hub Oakland is just a local component of an
>> > international network of such spaces, each culturally adapted to the
>> local
>> > scene.
>> >
>> > Their landlord is independent from who they are or what they do (the
>> way I
>> > hope Sudo Room's is from ours).
>> >
>> > As to the prices, they are pricy if you make $12/hour. Not so much if
>> you
>> > bill $100/hour. They have to find a mix of paying customers that keep
>> them
>> > liquid. They probably make their monthly nut by renting out the fifteen+
>> > private offices (there's a waiting list). For those flying solo, they
>> offer
>> > differential pricing to maximize revenue subject to capacity (if they
>> could
>> > fill the floor every day at $1000/day, they would; since they can't,
>> they
>> > sell some seats at $400/month, others for less).
>> >
>> > This is a real estate play. Their competitor is http://www.regus.comwhich
>> > rents office space by the hour/day/week/month, no questions asked so
>> long
>> > as your corporate check clears. Impact Hub's advantage is that they pick
>> > cheaper digs, offer fewer amenities, but still are a step up from
>> meetings
>> > at Farley's. And they come with a light veneer of social responsibility,
>> > which matters to some people.
>> >
>> > As a place to dock and meet for work, it's a clean, well lighted place
>> for
>> > (mostly) free agents.
>> >
>> > Impact Hub is done for the next two years. They're full and now they
>> have
>> > to optimize for steady low-cost low-churn operations. They may have new
>> > growth opportunity as their block is rebuilt with more retail, office,
>> and
>> > residential construction. But for now, they are baked.
>> >
>> > What can Sudo learn from them?
>> >
>> > *Business models can be put at the service of a higher cause. *
>> >
>> > For example, we might have (raised the money and built out the space and
>> > rented the offices) so ongoing costs were covered. (Playing landlord.)
>> But
>> > our choices would differ: We'd likely recruit different office tenants,
>> > define classes of membership according to our own expectations (full
>> > sudoers who subscribe to and affirm our values vs. tenants vs. guests).
>> > We'd provision the space differently, of course (more power-tool
>> > friendly).
>> >
>> > *Small teams can run a huge space. *
>> >
>> > I think they started with three people and now have fewer than eight
>> FTE,
>> > including an event coordinator and AV/electrical guy. They are open more
>> > than fourteen hours a day, seven days a week.
>> >
>> > *The External Community Layer is worth money. *
>>
>> >
>> > They worked their professional, social, religious, and political
>> networks
>> > to forge ties between Impact Hub Oakland and hundreds of other groups.
>> > Through reciprocity and trust-building they strengthened those ties. So
>> > when it came time to Kickstart and then when it came time to move and
>> > relaunch Uptown, their community rallied. They rallied because they felt
>> > aligned and connected to the people and the cause.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > *The External Community != Internal Community*They are actively
>> cultivating
>>
>> > their own in-house community among the people who show up frequently.
>> For
>> > now it is mostly social and collegial but it's the natural first step
>> for
>> > trust-building within the building.
>> >
>> > *People like to work at Ikea. *
>>
>> >
>> > The place feels roomy, spare, very clean, coordinated, well lit, with
>> fresh
>> > coffee, lots of power outlets, reasonable Wi-Fi, and minimal noise (no
>> cafe
>> > Muzak). It has lots of nooks and crannies if the main floor doesn't suit
>> > you. There are four small quiet "phone booth" rooms for taking noisy
>> mobile
>> > or video calls away from the quiet work areas. A conversation yurt. A
>> > bungee cord hammock. A classroom big enough for thirty. Liberal use of
>> > whiteboard paint, markers, and post-its. Two large configurable commons
>> > areas; I've seen them rearranged for product launch parties, hackathons,
>> > spirtual workshops, birthday parties.
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> Eddie Miller, BU '10
>> eddiemill at gmail.com | 440-935-5434
>> Facebook.com/eddiemill | Twitter.com/eddiemill
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> sudo-discuss mailing list
>> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>> https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> sudo-discuss mailing list
> sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
> https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://sudoroom.org/pipermail/sudo-discuss/attachments/20140403/9851c6ec/attachment.html>