RevSpace: the hackerspace in Den Haag
(appeared first on hackerspace.nl)
“Why isn’t there a hackerspace in Den Haag?”. A question frequently overheard during Hacking at Random (HAR2009), the recent hacker camp in The Netherlands. And a good question as well.
Well, the answer now is: because you did not join Revelation Space yet!
There are quite a lot of hackers (which, for purposes of this article I characterize as intelligent people with a critical point of view on
the status quo) in The Netherlands. This fact is evident in the masses of Dutch people that visit hacker conferences, the fact that for a
country as small as ours there is a large number of IT security firms and the realized potential of the four-yearly Dutch hacker camps (HAR2009 being the latest of these).
Now, I do not know much about the history of the CCC, but I do know this club provides structure to the German hacker community. Something that has been lacking in the Dutch hacker community, rooted in the anarchistic Amsterdam eighties. Without something like the CCC, that for all its flaws gives the scene identity and a sense of belonging, the Dutch hackers are a loosely bound community. Hackerspaces might be able to add this structure to the Dutch hacker community, as has happened in Germany and the US already.
Anyway, back to Den Haag, international city of peace and justice. And, on a larger scope, the city-county Haaglanden: Zoetermeer (IT city pur-sang), Delft (home of one of our most well known technical universities), Voorburg, Rijswijk and more. It is only fitting that this region gets a hackerspace, where we can meet, collaborate and come up with great projects.
Not only does such a hackerspace have an inward function, it should also be a center of outreach. A source of education for the masses on how technology touches our lives, and how everyone should be critical.
To make this possible, we need you! Under the name ‘Revelation Space’, a group of hackers from the region are trying to make it happen. Set up the underlying structure, rent a space, decorate it, come up with nice projects and whatever else is involved.
I appeal not only to the hard-core kernel hackers that are out there, geeks who stay up late at night to wrestle through encryption protocols for fun and profit, but also to the artistic among us that play with technology or the social hackers that dive deep into the human mind and find tricks to exploit its design. In other words: hackers of all persuasions are invited to join!
If you are interested, make sure to head over to the RevSpace wiki, join the mailing list or join us on IRC. I hope to be able to say ‘hi’ to many of you in the near future!
Koen Martens (gmc)
gmc@har2009.org
http://wordpress.metro.cx/
