[sudo-discuss] membership reboot?

[David Keenan]

Im not entirely up on this 'Hub', but in my view, the economic question is
still being invisibilized. At 400 a month, who exactly is being served by
this Hub in our community? Employing people of color and having gender
balance, while great, does not address this question, namely the question
of creating a space for everyone including poor people, regardless if
creed, who could buy one laptop a month at that price.

When they opened, i swung by to find out what they were all about. I asked
if the woman of color behind the counter if they were a nonprofit, to which
she replied: "Oh no. We are DEFINITELY for-profit'. I remember coming into
Sudo and telling that to Anthony..

I worry that what we're seeing here is a way another way to monetize social
space, the IRL social space of hackers and the traditional subculture that
attends it. Its funny because I feel like bay area hackerspaces effervesced
in part as a response to the appropriation and corporatization of hacker
culture in the workplace, ie the viral business model adoption of 'startup
culture'. Now, hackerspaces themselves, once refuges of sorts, are being
recuperated (in the Situationist reading) or mythologized (in a
structuralist, Barthes-ian reading) by these same forces. Except that
theyre not hackerspaces, theyre 'co-working' spaces.. spaces with no
culture, except the fukture of work - finding work, 'networking', making
yourself more marketable - nothing 'wrong' with that per se, except that
its also a subtle if effective reframing of hacker culture into one thats
perhaps entirely framed by money and capital and helping yourself, rather
than learning cause its just fun, or helping others, or caring..or about
community in the traditional sense.

Ie it serms to me, albiet from afar, thst its far more a business, than a
community; a model, not a culture; about helping yourself, rather than
helping others.

Thats my worry anyway - not a critique as such, just my worry.

On Thursday, March 27, 2014, Jehan Tremback <jehan.tremback at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Eddan's got it right:
>
> "Additionally, I think there may be some misunderstanding about what
> having an open knowledge, commons-oriented set of agreements. The logic of
> open knowledge systems is to celebrate the spread of these norms as they
> become more widely adopted - concern about 'copying and pasting' seem to
> perpetuate an exclusive rights kind of thinking."
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 9:39 AM, eddan.com <eddan at sudoroom.tv<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','eddan at sudoroom.tv');>
> > wrote:
>
>> While I agree with concerns about top-down ownership, I think it is
>> important to recognize their success in regards to diversity. Both in terms
>> of who works there during the day and the kind of events they hold, I have
>> been impressed by how connected the place is to the community - at any
>> point in time you'll see a majority of people of color and more often more
>> women than men - both areas in which Sudo Room has struggled with since its
>> inception.
>>
>> Additionally, I think there may be some misunderstanding about what
>> having an open knowledge, commons-oriented set of agreements. The logic of
>> open knowledge systems is to celebrate the spread of these norms as they
>> become more widely adopted - concern about 'copying and pasting' seem to
>> perpetuate an exclusive rights kind of thinking.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 24, 2014, at 8:55 PM, Yar wrote:
>>
>> > On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 8:11 PM, Danny Spitzberg <stationaery at gmail.com<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','stationaery at gmail.com');>>
>> wrote:
>> >> I'm currently renewing my HUB membership (already
>> >> 3 years in, a really open-minded organizer is has their community
>> engagement
>> >> role) and was prompted to click agree/disagree with the following:
>> >>
>> >> [snip]
>> >>
>> >> So, my question: has there been any discussion around membership
>> >> recruitment/ retention/ rebooting?
>> >
>> > I added this to our meeting agenda on a whim. Most of the discussion
>> > was me being bitter about their co-option of language. Hol had the
>> > quote of the night: "they're ctrl-v-ing the hell out of us", referring
>> > to the Kopimist cut-and-paste mantra.
>> >
>> > I'd always been skeptical of them. Their fundraiser got 100k in one
>> > night, and they charge $400/month for their co-working space. They
>> > have paid positions, and their leadership appears hierarchical and
>> > opaque. For example, there is no mailing list, only a glitzy
>> > "newsletter". While I was inspired by their hosting Oakland Data Day,
>> > I felt most of the value came from volunteer attendees. In other
>> > words, where is that money going?
>> >
>> > This ridiculous video didn't help me take the "impact hub" concept
>> > seriously: http://vimeo.com/35373512
>> >
>> > Put simply, Sudoroom is a grassroots organization and always will be.
>> > Our ultimate goal is to serve our communities. I believe the HUB's
>> > ultimate goal is to extract rent from our communities.
>> >
>> > After reading on Oakland Wiki yesterday that their building is owned
>> > by Signature, the same developers behind Brooklyn Basin, I believe all
>> > hypothetical good faith I had in that project has vanished. It's
>> > marketing, marketing, marketing. You could argue the HUB is not their
>> > landlord, but then why are they naming their new building complex "The
>> > Hive"? It turns out this "hive" also includes the 5 story condo
>> > building a block from Sudo that has literally had a "now selling" sign
>> > since we moved in two years ago. This is absolutely a collaboration
>> > between speculators and gentrifiers in my mind, and I think it is
>> > extremely gross and fucked up.
>> >
>> > To be honest, I think we'd be very wise as an organization to
>> > explicitly distance ourselves from these kinds of projects.
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > https://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>>
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