Agenda 6th June 2004

From Hacklab

>> Back to previous minutes (http://wiki.hacklab.org.uk/index.php/Previous_Minutes)

[edit]
==============================================

The meeting will be at 5pm at Freedom Press Bookshop, Whitechapel.

The address: Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. The alley is next to the KFC near Aldgate East tube, Whitechapel Art Gallery exit.

1:' Hacklabbers in attendance

2: Apologies

3:' Previous Minutes and the matters arising from them.

4:' Agenda 

  * Benefit feedback, location of next event
  * The Media Hacklabs' birth day
  * Planing of joint benefit for mid-June
  * Decision on ISP choice/Who to set up
  * Update on tutors skill share list
  ( Please add your own agenda points )

5: Date/Lineup for next benefit.

6: Date/Agenda for next meeting.

7:' Any Other Business.

8: Type up and mail the minutes to the list/update the wiki.



''''''''Minutes of this meeting'''''

( please add or adjust any details missed )




Hacklabbers in attendance: Chris (minutes),Ana, Joyce (facilitator), Jane, Cain, Meskalito, Paquito, Goyo, Javier,


Apologies: - Reuben, Stefano, Allesio, Victor, Asa

Previous minutes were passed because no one had read them so no one had any objections. The solution would be to run through the minutes before moving onto the next agenda point (if anyone had them with them). If someone wants to adjust them later ( once they have read the group minutes email ) then they can by logging into the wiki themselves and editing them LIVE.

No one had brought an agenda so we made one up:


  • Festival of resistance against BP/Big Oil
  • Bank Account
  • ISP
  • Financial contribution
  • Benefit
  • Opening date
  • AOB
  • Software ideas patents
  • Nomad Translation project
  • Free/non free software - practical aspects.


1. Festival of resistance against BP/Big Oil

Jane has posted an excellent writeup of this item which I have included here so it gets into the minutes. (Thank you Jane). The contact email address is slowcode@riseup.net. Or go to Fortess Road.


At todays hacklab meeting there was a presentation about an upcoming arts festival of resistance aginst big oil 15-21 June. "A celebration of DIY expression and organisation, fighting corporate control with creativity"

The background can be found at http://www.risingtide.org.uk/pages/news/art_festival.htm

As part of this, there are plans to make an internet radio stream, experiment a bit with sound etc in a liberated space. There are people who want to learn and experiment and create the material (and who have plans to use the things they learn in this for an ongoing project), but - in order to make this happen we also need: a bit of pre-prepared kit (streaming and editing boxes), and a wireless connection, a bit of skill sharing esp on audio software.

The project, being a festival against corporate control, is intended to run on foss/linux/freebsd. It would be a place for hacklabbers to exchange skills with each other, with the non-techies, and generally experiment a bit, as well as making something actually work. Other ideas could also include to produce some documentation: an abc of setting a similar thing up, also documenting some free software audio products where this is found to be a problem.

People who are interested in getting involved are invited to come along tomorrow to a meeting the Grand Banks social centre 8:00pm

Those who are interested but can't come along tomorrow, please let me know (there'll be an email address in the minutes, but i didn't note that down... so until that arrives..)

(There was also a suggestion that hacklabbers might want to take linux to the streets, or participate in other ways in the festival - so think about it and suggest to list (or wherever) - but tomorrow's meeting is regarding the audio stuff)


2: Bank

We opened a letter from the bank which had been left for us in the hacklab. The bank want further documentation from some of the signatories. Chris to contact people with details. Asa is one of the signatories but he is out of the country for some time. It may be possible to open the account anyway without him.

3: ISP

This topic came up a few times under different points. We reached agreement that we should go ahead as soon as possible in getting broadband using UKFSN. There are still some questions but we agreed we should not let them hold us up as we felt we would be able to get round them. See Financial contribution below. Martin K has already agreed to be the account holder. Chris to contact Martin.

3: Financial contribution

There has been recent discussion amongst the Freedom people about whether we should be asked to pay for the space. No decision has been taken yet,they hope to decide at their meeting on monday 14th June. The opinion of Freedom people who attended our meeting was that it was quite unlikely. If they did it would probably be around 25 ukpounds per week based on 1/8th of their costs as we have one of eight rooms. We felt that this would make the hacklab unsustainable. We discussed other possible ways of contributing, egproviding broadband and a network for their computers, also helping staff the bookshop. We didn't want to commit to helping staff the bookshop as the hacklab is still in early stages and we don't even know how our own rota is going to work out. But we do support the idea of making a contribution in some way, even if it is donations as and when possible.Some people suggested that the space is quite small for a hacklab and that we should think about the possibility of moving anyway.

The issue of broadband is that we have to commit to a years contract with UKFSN even if we have to or decide to move. Some suggestions of what to do if we moved were that Freedom might take over the contract or we might be able to move the connection to the new location. Chris to contact UKFSN to find what the cost is of moving the connection or cancelling the contract.

During this discussion Cain said that the hacklab is lacking a strong core of people to support it and that we should do things to spread the word about it and get people interested. This could involve going to events with some way of presenting the hacklab.Volunteers wanted to go to the Freedom meeting next week for discussion about paying a contribution. (Monday 14th June, 6.30 but you don't have to be there for the whole meeting and you don't have to arrive at the beginning.). Please say on the list if you can go.

4: Benefit

We decided that we would not plan another benefit during the next few months. We have enough money for broadband and we don't really need any more for now but we do need to put time into sorting out the space so better to direct our energies there. Also experienced benefit/party organisers say that it is more difficult and not so productive to do benefits in the summer because everyone is doing other things, making it difficult to organise and difficult to get people to come.

5: Opening date

Opening date to be set for soon after we get the broadband connection.

6: AOB

AOB got in here somehow but who cares. Joyce introduced an event called Serve. Rachel Baker of the Arts Council has booked LARC for this event where individuals involved in use of communications technology and servers can talk about possible ways of using them for alternative purposes. Joyce will write something to the list.

7: Software Ideas Patenting

This is an issue which could potentially destroy the free/open source software movement as well as many other areas of small scale and creative software development and put control of IT into the hands of a few multinationals like IBM. The European Commission is trying to re-introduce legislation to allow the patenting of the ideas used to create software and programs. It was previously proposed but was rejected by the European Parliament. Now it has come round again.

Patent is different to copyright.A good analogy is with music. Copyrighting a piece of music protects that piece of music. If patent laws for music were introduced it would be possible to patent something like the idea of stretching a piece of string or wire between to points and drawing a bow string across it to make it resonate. Even though musical instruments eg violin have been using that technology for centuries it would suddenly become the property of the patenter and you couldn't write or play music involving those types of stringed instruments unless you paid a licence fee to the patent holder.

Please act now by going to http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html where they have plenty of suggestions for what to do.

8: Nomad Translation project

This is a major project which Javier is involved in. It is a project to provide a real-time translation service for events around the ESF involving people to translate and technology to get translated speech to members of the audience. It is planned to make the project ongoing to be available for other events after ESF finishes. Javier to put some information on the wiki. It will involce a call for help with translation and with technology.

9: Free/non free software - practical aspects.

I didn't get notes on this as I ran out of steam but here is what I remember. The issue of using proprietary software (windows and applications that run on windows) has been discussed from an ideological point of view on the list. This discussion was about some legal and practical aspects. Ana pointed out that if we were to use proprietary software without licence we could put not only the hacklab at risk but also Freedom. Jane felt that that was extremely unlikely. There would be more risk if we were to advertise courses or training using commercial software.Some commercial software companies are quite active in tracking down unlicenced copies of their software, eg Macromedia Dreamweaver. Jane thought that being caught would be a positive result for free/open sourcesoftware as it would highlight the benefit of using f/oss.

It was felt that Freedom should made aware of the situation and that people connected with the hacklab who strongly wanted to continue using Windows software should have an opportunity to be involved in the debate. No firm decision was reached.

Retrieved from "http://wiki.hacklab.org.uk/index.php/Agenda_6th_June_2004"