how to start hackLab

This is a how to about starting a local chapter of hackLab.

People

Of course, the most important ! And for a hackLab to be succesful you need a mix of technically oriented people and politically motivated ones. Ana's suggestion of approaching indymedia is a good one - for finding politically motivated people. However not all of those people will have a technical background. So one suggestion would be to contact local Linux User Groups (LUGs).

You could start with the groups nearest you and join the mailing lists. Then propose the idea of a hacklab. You might find some people there who are interested. To start off you will need 4 or 5 volunteers.

Space

OK, this is the next most important thing - of course you need a space to meet and to discuss, experiment, hack (!), provide workshops, etc. Some hacklabs are open every day of the week, others only one or two days a week. To start off, you might want to aim to be open just one or two days a week. The space you pick can vary from hacklab to hacklab - in southern Europe many hacklabs take place in social centers, in northern europe squats are more common (but this requires a lot more organisation and volunteers !). It may be that there is some charity or social group in your city that is willing to give you some space to get started. It's also possible to get a low-rent place and have the volunteers cover the costs for one or two days a week. Anyway this is probably the most difficult thing.

Once you have your space, then decide when you will be open - this depends on the nature of the space and the number of volunteers - you should aim to have at least 2 volunteers there all the time when you are open, so that one is available to answer questions at any time. Other things you might consider - how much space is there for computers, is there a quiet workshop space, how safe is it to leave equipment, and do you want to provide a bar (for beer or soft drinks depending on local licensing laws). You'll also want to have a tin for people to leave donations - this can help cover your expenses.

Equipment

Most hacklabs run on the principle of donated equipment. Once you are ready to roll, you can approach local charities and businesses to see if they have any equipment they are throwing out. Even an old 400MHz Pentium can be refurbished as a GNU/Linux webbrowser (another tip - send off for some Ubuntu CD's - they are gratis software as well as free, and they will gladly send you a box of 50. You can use some of the CDs to refurbish old equipment, and give the rest away). You can also find old PC's on the streets that people are throwing out. Even if the machine doesn't work, they can often be stripped for parts. It's also very good to have an internet connection - depending on the place, there might be something there already, otherwise look for a good deal. You might be able to cover this from donations.

Install OpenOffice.org, FireFox/Mozilla, and Gimp, and you have pretty much everything that people need. A printer is also useful if you can find one, and people generally don't mind paying a little per copy for the ink and paper costs.

Other stuff

Of course, once your hacklab is running, you will need to build it up. So you will need a mailing list that people can sign up to. You might also consider streaming the audio/video of your workshops.

Once you are up and running, find out what people's interests are - both volunteers and the people who drop in. Some of them might be willing to run workshops. It's a good idea then to have a mix of political and technical workshops. These can draw more people to your hacklab, and foster interesting relationships.

Try to build up your volunteer base - this will allow you to open the hacklab longer - but make sure there aren't so many volunteers there that they are using all the computers themselves !

References

• freedomLab mailing list e-mail from 16 Jun 2006 23:31:22 -0500