[nettime-see] Hacklabs, from digital to analogic

[Monteparadiso HackLab <mphacklab@paranoici.org>]

Evo jednog zanimljivog clanka sa e-zina http://suburbia.sindominio.net
kojeg su napisale Nomada and Montserrat Boix, a radi se o fenomenu
hacklabova. Mozda bude inspirativan za kreaciju vise hacklabova na ovim
podrucjima. Inace ovaj engleski prijevod je bio na thk mailing listi.
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Hacklabs, from digital to analogic
Wednesday 10 September 2003
Translated    06 June         2004

The history from the hacklabs has been around since 1999, year of the
second edition of the italian hackmeeting celebrate in Milan where it
was discussed the need of going a big step forward to the digital
comunication and create physic links between the people interested in
the use of new technologies with a social background.
But letīs go step by step... What is a hackmeeting?... The hackmeetings
rise in Italy in 1998. The manifest of the italian hackmeeting in 2003
underlines that itīs a
"meeting from the comunity and the digital alternative" setting out a
"hacking vision like an attitude nor exclusively related to computers".
Our to be "hacker"- Says the manifest - itīs showed in the everyday life
even when we donīt use computers. Itīs showed when we fight for changing
everything that we donīt like as the false maked-up information, the use
of technology to defend dignity and freedom, the merchantilism and the
restriction imposed in the division of knowledge and wisdom. Itīs convoked
yearly, usually having a 3 day duration, for wich are organized, talks
and conferences related to the world of a liberated telematic, the free
software, the cyberights, the criptography, and hacking in general and,
most of all, itīs setted out with a strong link with social colectives
that use the net like a space of comunication,spreading and figh of
their causes.

Soon we see the necesity, however, that besides of this anual meeting
and the contact trough the telematic networks itīs created physic
permanent spaces, autonomous spaces wher we can experiment, create and
learn next to other people with similar interests. Itīs setted out so
the first hacklab or LOA hacklab.
After that the virus is growing in the largest locations " because is
hardly useful even sad to experiment alone those things that you can
easily do with other people; because we donīt want to be isolated but
the opposite, from the world that surround us; because the room of each
other is too small to mount networks; because the digital doesnīt
subsitute to the organic; because is enjoyable to learn and make things
together" is emphasized in the hacklab website of Madrid WH2001 aka
"Cielito Lindo".

It is not a fruit of the chance of an initiative that is setted out in
this mediterranean country, with a large surround and presence of social
movements and free radios. Because in those times already existed
telematic autonomous colevtives with big repercusion that fulfilled the
needs the presence in the net to every type of civil organization.
Groups like Autistic, Isolle nella rete, communicative experiments in
internet like Radio blackout, Strano network...

Later, and repeating the italian adventure, in Spain during the
Hackmeeting of Leioa in Bilbao, it was presented the first hacklab:
Kernel panic, an open place located in the CSOA "Les Naus" in Barcelona.
Later is borned th WH2001 ( Wau Holland 2001 in honour to the recently
deceased  founder of the Chaos computer club), then Metabolik Biohacklab
in Bilbao, Downgrade in Zaragoza, Cuca Albina in Alicante, Vklab in the
Vallecas neighbourhood in Madrid, The hacklab of the enchanted house in
Santiago de compostela in Galicia... and the ones are gestating in
diverse locations.( actually there are  many more about 13 see
www.hacklabs.org for details)

The paths of social openness are multiple and varied and in these ones
are valorated the search of autonomy and independece, the rent of a
place or the use of social space inside Social centres (CSOAS) are the
options more frecuent. All of them are self-managed , reason for what
decisions are held in periodic meetings where anyone can decide and
opine about any issue. The objective is not to fall in any piramidal
organization and bet for the horintalized decision and activities
following a model of cooperation without leadership.

An key element is the self-sufficiency. To maintain this capacity, the
hacklabs are self-financed raising funds trough t-shirts, free softwrare
distributions,selling drinks, parties, and the fund ofany individual
friendly to the project, in a simbolic fee depending on the  personal
economy of the person. Frecuently it is dismissed the council
allowacne due to usually this can mean the lost od the independence in
their way of working.

All the hacklabs have a local network with DSL trough internet, where
they can offer free conectivity to every person who would like to use
the instalations.
Usually with use of recycled computers or rescued from the rubbish and
like the free software spreading is one of the main causes, all of them
run under free systems like
*BSD and GNU/Linux.

The hacklabs offer a field full of posibilities and initiatives open and
without hampers to the colaboration of all the people that interested
would like to contribute in the colective. It doesnīt maater if you are
an experimented "hacker" or a person who never knew how to check the
email... you just have to get into this "magic" saces with the
enthusiasm and the positivism of create and learn from the people.

With the prespective of changing things to something  better and
supporting the free movement and distribution, the hacklabs offer
workshops and classes related with the varied use of new technologies:
networks, programming, graphic design, etc... all of them, of course,
using free systems. Promoting the use of free software is an
unnegotiable objective of the hacklabs.


Is in this field of personal culturin and cooperative where is borned a
social and politic compromise. But donīt be confused... we are not
talking about partisan ideologies.
It is about the need of improving the coexistence and the quality of
life that everyone, from valuing the colective and the need of a better
democracy real and active.
|From the union of the words "activism" and "hackers" sets out
"hacktivism" a new way of setting out the civilian fight.

The harassment to that ourselves see subjugated related to decisions
taken in offices of big corporations supported selfishly by government
make us being, in the union, more able to react towards them and emerge
initiatives from every kind to fight for what we considere legitimate
and from good common, discussing it and organizating inside our land in
wich we move better. One of the main tools of comunication that we use
is the mailing list to wich we encourage you to participate.

There are some initiatives that have arisen in and around the hacklabs,
for instance, to laws so polemic and famous LSSI or the INFOXXI plan.
Supporting the campaigns previously initiated for groups like
kriptopolis, conduct talks in universities,asociations,etec... to give
to know the cutting of liberties that  assume the establishment of this
laws, collection of sigantures for the retirement of these ones and the
later handing of these ones in the same hands of the minister Pique.

Many of this actions might  be considered like insignificant and
uneffeicient, but without doubt is worst to be just standing there doing
nothing to avoid it. If we promote the civilian response in a creative
and original way, we are convinced that we can have the shoeīs on the
other foot in many aspects.

In this logic, the hacklabs arenņt closed to anyone that comes with new
ideas and concepts. It is normal then that the participation in the
locals of the member of colectives with affinities. Wireless network
communites like Guadawireless.net o Zaragozawireless, asociations
dedicated to the boost  of free software like CPSR-ES,
Colectives pro-feminist like Heterodoxia and Women in networks, that use
the network like tool of communication and movilization; Telematic
antagonist projects like Sindominio and the different indymedias;
Hacktivist groups like Runlevelzero/Hacktivist spain and groups that are
more in the underground term like Linenoise and Dtfzine...
are returning, and many of them are participating actively in the hacklabs.

There are many  initiatives and actions that have been developed till
this moment:

The "Wireless conferences", celebrated in the month of july for the
meeting, debate and  to share the aspect of view of diverse comunities
of spain convoked and organized from the hacklabs of Metabolik and Vklab.

The Hacklab Kernel-Panic reinvented the street actions og Reclaim the
streets ( parties organized in the street reclaiming the creation and
recuperation of public spaces invaded for shopping centres,highways... )
This action has been adopted in many other hacklabs. The objective is to
squat streets or squares with computers... Parties, talks, Free software
distribution, showing the use and creation of civilian wireless
networks, alerting of the dangers like patents, etc. A good oportunity
of communication and interrelationship for hacklabbers and pedestrians.

The Metabolik, took the gates of It4all, a congress of big corporations
of the industry of telecomunications and computers, In this said action
a hacktivist disguised like a
friendly penguin ( pet of the linux movement) distributed leaflets to
the people attending the congress,all this while another group invited
to connect freely to internet trough
~ wireless in computers with Debian GNU/Linux. This action was named like
Money4them and with it was pretended to show and report that another
kind of technoligies are poossible, created also for the civilians like
a response to the economic and politic interest of the big corporations.

The first comunity of wireless in spain: madridwireless.net, borned from
the hand of the Wh2001 hacklab. This important group that promotes the
creation of civilian wireless networks participates actively in the
dynamic of the various hacklabs. The Wh2001 has been converted then in a
meeting point where to teach how to build antennas, the creation of
wireless nodes, etc and discuss about the organization of the
metropolitan network that bit by bit is growing. When a person takes
contact with madridwireless, discovers not only the technical and social
~ posibilites of wifi.. it discovers that all that network is born from
the free cooperation between the people with the free software as a
point of reference.

After the confereneces against copyright organized in march 2003 in
Madrid, we saw the need of creating a copycenter with copyleft material.
The copycenter has been created in the space of Wh2001 and it offer the
posibility that anyone can copy and go back to distribute all kind of
copyleft material: music, video, literature, technic stuff,
magazines, software and so on. The proposal results a practic sample of
the initiatives that an be taken against the requirements in asociations
like the SGAE (similiar to RIAA in US )  and delegating coppyright and
patents. The path that is been initated against the free flow of
information and the data (like the recient dinounce against users in
P2P), is taking the governors pressured for groups of interess to
attempt against privacity and freedom. Opposote to that, the diffusion
of the free licences like the LGPL,BSD,GPL,etc... is a path to take like
a legal weapon of fight and so to evade that they put us on the "sack of
intelectual piracy"

The creation of the distribution Live-cd X-evian trough Metabolik, a
"distro" that make works a GNU/Linux system withouth the need of
instalation in the hard disk, is a bet to make possible to distribuite
the free software to all the people who never dared to use it because of
fear and ignorance. Build from the starting point of Knoppix, it has an
added value, it can be used in old computers not very powerful like a
Pentium 100 with 32mb, allowing to use lots of multimedia tools and
programming.

Active participation in the hackmeeting or the conferences of copyight,
in conferences like Richard Stallman in Zaragoza, creating a ne
independent centre of information to diffuse the response of civilian
against the participation of spain in the Irakīs war trough streaming
via wireless using free software, the creation inside them like
radio-pwd and the Ezine Suburbia...

The hacklabs reintroduce the hacker philosophy, the free information "
The information wants to be free" and responding like activism in
positive to the stereotyped image and negative created around the
"hacker" like a social danger. The creation, the fight in favor of
freedom and the diffuse of knowledge are premise inside the comunity,
trying to recover the esence of the first hackers from MIT... the thirst
from curiosity and the creation like a way of initiative and protest
from the social perspective  like a bet of change to something better in
this "dark" times of nowadays.



By Nómada and Montserrat Boix ( Suburbia:[Telemacktical MediaZine]) in
collaboration with Mentes Inquietas.Originally published in citated space.

This document is free. And is under the licence of Creative Commons. So,
it can be diffused, citated and copied partially  or fully, for any
proposit and any media, always that itīs maintained this covering note
and is cited the procedence.

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