2600 Magazine_ The Hacker Quarterly - Digital Edition - Summer 2011 - 2600 Magazine [35]
Dear 2600:
I am a PhD student in the public administration program at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and would like to attend an upcoming Friday meeting. I would like to interview several 2600 people. These interviews will be used for research purposes only.
My dissertation examines how knowledge practices in contemporary social movements affect administrative practices. The open and free software movement is one of my (three) social movement cases. Based on my research, people working for government organizations benefit from the knowledge that the free and open source movement developed. It appears to me that many movement people informally collaborate with their peers who are employed by government agencies or some people employed by government agencies also participate informally in movement groups. In my case, I look at the 2600 hacker community as well as the community of civic technologists (“civic hackers”) in New York City.
I would like to interview those people who (1) would like to share their opinion/stories on informal knowledge exchanges between the 2600 community and government agencies (excluding law-enforcement agencies). (2) I am interested in learning the opinion of 2600 people about civic technologists who (in my theory) represent the same free and open software movement and its hacker ethics. Civic technologists are involved in government-oriented projects, such as developing open 311 systems.
I believe you have had many PhDs who examined hacker culture in the past. However, my main argument that it is good for government officials to learn from people is something that might be fun for many of you to discuss (or trash).
Is there anyone who would want to introduce me to the 2600 crowd? I don’t want to wander around like a complete stranger (which I am, of course).
Vadym
This letter came in a while back so you’ve hopefully already talked to some people. This is a fairly standard request that is received now and then for our meetings all over the world. We welcome the opportunity to be able to show our perspective to people who are interested in looking at it from an angle that perhaps we haven’t thought of ourselves. For those interested in talking to hackers at the meetings, you needn’t worry about not knowing anyone or standing out in any way. We meet in public because we want to meet the public. You’ll find some remarkably enlightened individuals who attend and, while there is no one voice that speaks for the entire community, if you converse with as many as are willing to talk, you should come away with a sense of what we’re all about. And we’ll probably learn some interesting things from you as well.
Dear 2600:
I would like to attend a meeting in L.A. Do I need to pay, give notice, or just show up?
Jesse
Just show up at the appointed time on the first Friday. All of our meetings are free and open to anyone who wants to attend.
Dear 2600:
Hey, I live in the Netherlands. Do you have meetings there too?
Peter
In fact, we do. There is a meeting in Utrecht. If that’s not convenient, feel free to visit our meetings page at www.2600.com/meetings to see how to set up or find a meeting in your area.
Dear 2600:
I am moving to an area that doesn't have any 2600 meetings except if you want to drive 100 miles to the nearest one. I was wondering if there are any other procedures or are they all on the meetings website?
Paul
The website pretty much says it all but we do prefer that meetings not be too close together, since the idea is to meet people you don’t already know from your local area. A hundred miles is a hike but some might be able to swing that once a month and, if it’s possible, it’s well worth the trouble. Meetings work best in cities since more people are around and they’re easier to get to.
Dear 2600: