[sudo-discuss] membership reboot?

[Eddie Che]

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.com which
> 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
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