ATTN: south jersey hacker space

[lordwud]

Hey everyone,

Just got back, had such a blast at the con i want to start a hackerspace. The first meeting will be at the brooklawn diner Thursday august 23rd at 8pm, we'll just get a few tables, and chat about what we want to accomplish. anyone can come, so tell your friends. Let me know if you're interested either by posting here or emailing jesuswudchrist@gmail.com


Until the group comes up with a name I will be keeping updated information at this URL:

http://sjhs.wudfirstindustries.com

[mouseling]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space - Hacker Foundation

Terrific! and in my backyard too!
This is part of what the Hacker Foundation is trying to bring about everywhere they can.
When Agent X gets back from CCC camp (Hackers on a Plane) - you might want to get in touch with him for ideas and suggestions - the CCC is one of (maybe the) biggest and most well established of the hacker spaces - Rop was telling me he's been attending since 1988.

-mouse

[Wumpus]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

I'm definitely interested, though this may be a little far for me, I'm more Central/Coastal NJ.

Great idea!

[xor]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

Being From Philly Definitely Interested

xor

[lordwud]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

So right now there are 4 confirmed people coming and about 10 people who expressed some kind of interest. I just updated http://sjhs.wudfirstindustries.com with this:

After reading about the hacker foundations hacker space initiative I believe that this project must be a non profit organization to succeed. Whether or not we want to try to be associated with other groups is up to the group to decide. Here are some things I suggest people look into for discussion at the first meeting.

• Forming a Non Profit corporation
• Ways to raise money
• Prices for leasing space, in different areas
• the hacker foundation. mostly this link http://www.hackerfoundation.org/wiki...ces_Initiative

[xor]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

Commercial space is very expensive, by the square foot; unless someone has a rich uncle. Camden, NJ would no doubt be the cheapest, but I don't know if I would want to go there at night being the high crime area that it is, and with the murder rate going up in both Philly(dubbed murder city, by CNN) and Camden. If anyone knows some people at the other groups, perhaps we could ask how they got started, an better yet, how they maintain it as that is usually the real trick.

On the lighter side I wanna know why these people never seem to hit the people they are shooting at. It's always the person with the most to live for that gets killed. The bullet must come out of the gun and think to itself, hmmm who's the mother with the most to live for, recent college grads, any professional that just a got a new job, newly weds, ahh there's a child prodigy over there let me get him. It's just so sad; gun violence sucks.

xor

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

Camden, NJ would no doubt be the cheapest, but I don't know if I would want to go there at night being the high crime area that it is, and with the murder rate going up in both Philly(dubbed murder city, by CNN) and Camden.

actually, Camden's troubles have been relatively on the decline. things spiked back up a bit in 2006, but the trend has been downward overall.

<here's the part of the thread that Cot will likely want to consign to /dev/nul for getting a bit political>

sadly, things in camden have often directly coincided with periods when the city government gets its head up its ass and funnels municipal improvement funds into the Drug War™ instead. you want to know the #1 difference between Philly and Camden in terms of crime? look at the drug trade. (please understand that while the following lines of commentary make reference to ethnic gangs, i am in no way making ethnic generalizations... just speaking about the local social trends and black market economic factors.)

in Camden, the Latino gangs run most of the bigger operations. They are exceedingly well-organized and disciplined. They have very hard and fast rules about territories which are typically not fought over. (they don't stake out street corners, really, but instead operate out of housing projects. it's a really wicked and frightening but amazing sight, actually.... to see people up on roofs or in high windows with Nextel phones, letting the ground crews know when cars pull in and out, etc.) Profits are not wasted on spoiled product, bad deals, etc. Heroin is the big product moved in the mid-atlantic region now (coke & crack are still around, but nowhere near on the levels of NYC or the DC metro area) and here on the Jersey side of the river most reports state that it's not as stepped on and can be safer.

in Philadelphia, on the other hand, the city police wage an unceasing and horrendously destructive war on the poor, predominantly Black communities. Drug dealing is also a main avenue of revenue for gangs and underworld types in Philly, but it's nowhere near as organized as in Camden. it's a house-to-house or street dealer operation everwhere, with mostly African American dealers operating very independent of one another. Supply lines are very frequently disrupted and the chain of commerce is frequently disjointed. Product changes hands between people who don't know each other well, resulting in dangerously-cut substances and/or deals ending violently. Territory disputes and squabbles over deals gone wrong are very high on the list of causes of gun violence in Philly.

as much of a totalitarian measure as i think it is, i'm actually curious to see how the proposed policies of Philly's next mayor, Michael Nutter, will affect crime in the city. He favors overly-broad use of on-the-spot searches (an aggressive "stop and frisk" policy) and curfews. while i have a huge problem with curfews, i would be curious to see how stop-and-frisk would go down. given that PA is a shall-issue state, anyone who is not a felon can get a permit to carry legally... maybe such aggressive measures could cut down on some of the damn illegal weapons on the streets.

</politics>

as for a south-jersey hacker space, i would love to know more about that as it develops. heh, if some of my TOOOL buddies wind up moving out of the building they're using for their business, perhaps it could be an option. It's located in Haddon Heights... it's an old train stop. it's directly on what is now the freight line... i love sitting there when the trains rumble slowly by. not a huge place, but a really neat space with a loft area and amazing beams and rafters up in the ceiling.

i'll ask them if sub-letting is allowed, maybe they'll post some photos and other details.

[lordwud]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

Yeah I don't think Camden is a good idea. I was thinking either Pennsauken, or Paulsboro. I suggest everyone ask around for prices to get an idea of what were going to be dealing with.

However I think our first order of duty should be organizing as a non profit corporation. It will make it easier for us to solicit and keep track of donations. Make things cheaper since we wont have to pay taxes. Plus it would keep us from being personally liable, as a family man thats important to me.

Once we get passed that fund raising must begin. Obviously donations from members at first. I know alot of bands, we could probably have a benefit show. We might even be able to get corporate donations. I think to pull that one off we would need to have a good list of things we plan on doing to give back to the overall community. Maybe we refurb junk machines and give them away, or hold free classes. Really this all depends on the skill set/drive of the group.

As for sustaining funds. set up a zen box and sell virtual servers, do web hosting, etc. aka leverage the talents of the group. This could get interesting quick, But also depends on who shows up and how much effort they put into it.

It shouldn't be that hard to scale the place to the size of the group. There is no reason we cant start out small, with a bit of office space and a cable connection. Then later move on to a where house With an OC48.

Just some ideas, I really plan on letting the group mentality take over so those with the most drive lead the way with the rest of the group making suggestions.

[xor]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

I've been firing the old neurons over the space issue and have an idea I'll like to run by people. I'm a relatively recent graduate of Drexel University which makes me alumni. Drexel has a killer network wireless & wired, more space than they know what to do with, virtually unlimited resources $$$, lots of talent with a virtually non ending supply coming in every year, and as a top notch technology university always looking to make a name for itself.

Perhaps in exchange for space and resources, we could provide educational services & tutoring to students and community, and of course give them shared kudos on any exploits or projects we come up with.

Drexel Hacker Foundation discovers Vista remote code execution vulnerability; just an example of course wouldn't want to disparage Microsoft, yeah right. You can't buy advertising like that for any amount of money.

I hate to sell out here, but I wish it wasn't called the hacker foundation. Something like IT Security Research foundation sounds much better to the people who control the purse strings. Hacker has such negative imagery to people who don't know better.

Let me know what you think. It doesn't have to be Drexel necessarily, any technology university would be a good target I just like Drexel. It's a great school, you won't find better in the tri-state area for technology.

I went to Temple also, I liked Drexel much better; go Dragons.

xor

[lordwud]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

Id rather it be in jersey, but I'm not in stone against it being in the city, we'll just let the group figure it out. I figured the name would end up being some kind of inside joke that doesn't have anything to do with hacking or computers at all. If we could get a University to provide a free place that would rule. My old band once played at an art house in Massachusetts where a group of people got together and talked a doctor into renting an unused office attached to his building for $1 a month. They setup a gallery and had all kinds of bands play, and on Saturday mornings they had breakfast for neighborhood children.

Just make sure anyone interested comes this Thursday. I only know of 4 people coming so far, and ill be reminding them today.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

if only i had the cash right now to realize my dream of buying up some old plot of disused farm land out in Medford or some similar region... i'd totally donate a whole back acre barn to the project.

ah well, i'll keep looking around and seeing what i can see. if the school where i work was cooler about things i'd make some huge basement room available. the TOOOL people have seen this place since we've had a few of our meetings here... they like to say it reminds them of Hogwarts. However, the occasional evening in the great hall is one thing... having an assortment of random hackers coming and going at odd hours is quite another.

oh well... maybe they'll make me headmaster someday and i can have it happen then.

[theprez98]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

if only i had the cash right now to realize my dream of buying up some old plot of disused farm land out in Medford or some similar region... i'd totally donate a whole back acre barn to the project.

ah well, i'll keep looking around and seeing what i can see. if the school where i work was cooler about things i'd make some huge basement room available. the TOOOL people have seen this place since we've had a few of our meetings here... they like to say it reminds them of Hogwarts. However, the occasional evening in the great hall is one thing... having an assortment of random hackers coming and going at odd hours is quite another.

oh well... maybe they'll make me headmaster someday and i can have it happen then.

The room you seek is really right in front of you...the Room of Requirement!

(ok, enough HP for one day!)

[Thorn]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

The room you seek is really right in front of you...the Room of Requirement!

(ok, enough HP for one day!)

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
- The best line in the whole series.

[theprez98]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
- The best line in the whole series.

I've always thought it would be so cool to have my own Marauder's Map...

"Mischief managed!"

<we now return this thread to its original programming>

[HighWiz]

Re: ATTN: south jersey hacker space

I've been debating for a few days on whether or not to reply to this thread, but I have a few minutes so I will.


1) Having connections at Drexel, I did ask someone about it and they said it would be very unlikely to happen. It's not impossible but it would be a very very hard sell. In the Ten minutes we talked about it there were a whole bunch of issues we thought of stemming from any university actually sponsoring.

2) I noticed that someone mentioned setting up a Non-Profit for this project. On one hand this is definitely the way to go, but on the other hand setting up a 501(c)(7) will definitely be a pain in the ass. I hope someone has a good lawyer that specializes in setting up Non-Profits, because it's a lot of work.

I hope it comes together and takes off, I'd love to visit it. But it will be a lot of work, and will take a bit of funding. Besides a lawyer it also wouldn't be bad to have a local congress person (state) to be able to help push through your paper work.

Some further Reading: http://www.irs.gov/charities/nonprof...=96189,00.html