Noisebridge

Noisebridge is an anarchistic maker and hackerspace located in San Francisco. It is inspired by the European hackerspaces Metalab in Vienna and c-base in Berlin. Noisebridge describes itself as "a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring, and learning".[1] Outside of its headquarters, Noisebridge forms a wider international community.[2] It was organized in 2007 and has had permanent facilities since 2008.[3]

For the device used to measure the efficiency of antennas systems, see antenna analyzer.

Noisebridge
Formation2007
FounderVolunteers, including Mitch Altman, Jacob Appelbaum and many other hackers
PurposeHacking, Making
Location
AffiliationsPumping Station: One, Chaos Computer Club, Metalab, e.a.
Budget
$140K
Staff
3 (unpaid)
Volunteers
200+
Websitewww.noisebridge.net

Organization

Noisebridge allows anyone to contribute, including non-members. All workshops and activities are free, with some exceptions for materials costs, and all are open to the public. It is a registered non-profit California corporation, with IRS 501(c)(3) charitable status, a board of directors, and volunteer officers, including a president, treasurer, and secretary.[4]

History

Locations

During most of 2007 and 2008, Noisebridge was a group of people meeting in new locations weekly. In October 2008, the Noisebridge group began renting a small commercial property in San Francisco's Mission District but it quickly outgrew that location.

In 2009, the space moved into 2169 Mission St. – a 5,200 square foot space on the third floor of the building. Early in its history, in 2009, Noisebridge had around 100 members.[5]

By 2018, the organization was looking for a new space as its lease was under threat. [6] A large donation in 2020 kicked off a new search.[7][8] The group then moved to its current space at 272 Capp Street, directly behind its former building.

Activities and projects

Many meetups, workshops, and classes are held at the space, including the long running Circuit Hacking Monday, San Francisco Writers Workshop, Wikipedia meetups, Hack Comedy, Five Minutes of Fame, game development groups and classes, Free Code Camp, Code Day, and the Stupid Hackathon.[9]

Past workspaces prior to June 2018 included: an optics lab,[2] bycology lab, biotech lab, bitchen, digital audio workstation photo development darkroom, book scanning workshop, photo booth, and a lights-out cloud computing lab[10] with more than 100 computer cores and contributed resources to several open source projects, including the GCC compile farm.

Noisebridge members have been involved with research projects that won the best paper awards from top tier academic conferences Usenix Security Conference[11][12] and CRYPTO.[13][14]

Media coverage

Noisebridge has been covered by international media for a myriad of projects involving their membership, including NPR,[15] the BBC,[16] the BBC World Service,[17] Wired,[18] The New Yorker,[19] The Guardian,[20] CNET,[2] Le Monde,[21] Heise Online, ORF, Irish Times, Die Welt Online, Die Zeit Online, and Der Standard.[22]

[23]

Physical space

Noisebridge is located at 272 Capp Street, a 6000-square-foot commercial space in San Francisco's Mission District. The current space has many workspaces, which change dynamically. As of Nov 2022 these include two outdoor patios, a laser cutter, wood shop, 3D and 2D print shop, sewing workshop, music room, vintage video game archive, paper book library, and electronics workroom.

Community participation
Arduinos for beginners workshop, July 2011

Noisebridge members have spoken internationally at events including Defcon, Blackhat, The Chaos Computer Club's Chaos Communication Congress, CCC Camps, and HOPE, presented at the local event Maker Faire, and contributed to the founding of hackerspaces elsewhere.

Noisebridge is part of the Bay Area Consortium of Hackerspaces, along with sister spaces sudo room, Double Union, and Ace Monster Toys.[24]

Spacebridge
The "Spacebridge" weather balloon probe above clouds, in February 2010

Noisebridge had a near space exploration program in 2010, which launched weather-balloon probes exploring altitudes of nearly 70,000 feet, carrying a variety of smartphones and digital cameras for imaging and altitude sensing using a GPS system.[25][18][16][26] Altitudes reached have exceeded the operational limits of consumer level GPS systems.[27]

NoiseTor

NoiseTor (or Noisebridge Tor Project) was a Noisebridge initiative to create and operate additional Tor relays.[28] The project accepted financial donations to sponsor additional nodes.[29][30] The project was shut down officially by 2022.[31]

Awards and honors
  • Noisebridge won the SF Bay Guardian 2010 Best of the Bay award as "Best Open Source Playground"; the review concluded, "the vibe is welcoming and smart."[32]
  • In 2011 the SF Weekly awarded Noisebridge Best of San Francisco as "Best Hacker Playground", describing it as "the ultimate in DIY ethic" and noting its "distinctive sense of humor."[33]

Controversies

As of 2013, many women have reported instances of being sexually harassed and assaulted at Noisebridge.[34] Co-founder Jacob Appelbaum was accused of multiple instances of sexual harassment.[35] In June 2016, amid an uptick in accusations against Appelbaum and statements from various other groups banning him from their spaces, Noisebridge did the same, stating in an official blog post that "Jacob is no longer welcome in our community, either in its physical or online spaces".[36] In their statement, they explained that his alleged actions (as well as those of other Noisebridge participants accused of harassement), although they had occurred before its instating in 2014,[37] were in violation of their Anti-Harassment policy.

Cultural references

The hackerspace features prominently in Cory Doctorow's 2013 novel Homeland.[38]

It also influenced Annalee Newitz's novel Autonomous, which was partially written at Noisebridge.[39]

The video game Watch Dogs 2 was reportedly influenced by Noisebridge. [40]

References
  1. "Noisebridge website's Vision page". Noisebridge. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  2. Mills, Elinor (30 November 2009). "Building circuits, code, community at Noisebridge hacker space". CNET News. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  3. O'Brien, Danny (24 October 2008). "Hackers need space to innovate". Irish Times. Retrieved 3 December 2010.(subscription required)
  4. "Details About Noisebridge". Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  5. Mills, Elinor (30 November 2009). "Building circuits, code, community at Noisebridge hacker space". CNET News. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  6. "Facing Displacement, 'Noisebridge' Hackerspace Seeks New Home". hoodline.com. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  7. Feldberg, Sarah (2 March 2020). "Iconic hackerspace Noisebridge is saved by donation of $150K bitcoin". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  8. Feldberg, Sarah (5 March 2020). "After 11 years on Mission Street, hackerspace Noisebridge searching for new home". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  9. protected, email (11 May 2015). "The Stupid S**t No One Needs hackathon was the best tech event ever". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  10. "Noisecloud". Noisebridge. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  11. "Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys". USENIX Security. 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  12. "Lest We Remember: Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys". Proc. 17th USENIX Security Symposium (Sec ‘08), San Jose, CA. Princeton University. July 2008. Archived from the original on 23 February 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  13. "CRYPTO 2009: Program: Best-paper award for Short Chosen-Prefix Collisions for MD5 and the Creation of a Rogue CA Certificate". iacr.org. International Association for Cryptologic Research. 16 August 2009.
  14. "MD5 considered harmful today: Creating a rogue CA certificate". 25th Annual Chaos Communication Congress. Berlin. 30 December 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  15. Kalish, Jon (21 November 2010). "DIY hackers tinker everyday things into treasure". NPR. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  16. Knowles, Jamillah (19 August 2010). "Hackspaces get closer to home". BBC. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  17. "The Arts Hour on Tour in San Francisco". BBC. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  18. Ganapati, Priya (12 August 2010). "Amateurs Fling Their Gadgets to Edge of Space". Wired.com.
  19. Weiner, Anna (2 December 2016). "Trump Preparedness: Digital Security 101". The New Yorker.
  20. "Hackers of the world unite". The Guardian. 13 January 2010.
  21. Eudes, Yves (4 September 2009). "Biohackers: les bricoleurs d'ADN (Biohackers: DIYers of DNA)". Le Monde. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  22. "Noisebridge website's Media coverage page". Noisebridge. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  23. Martínez-Cabrera, Alejandro (11 September 2010). "Hackerspaces nurture creative spirits". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  24. Hackerspaces.org (5 January 2013). "Bay Area Consortium of Hackerspaces". HackerspacesWiki. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  25. Ganapati, Priya (12 February 2010). "DIY Group Sends $25 Balloon to 70,000 Feet". Wired.com. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  26. "Spacebridge". Noisebridge. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  27. "Spacebridge Alpha Launch". Noisebridge. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  28. "About Noisebridge Tor". noisebridge.net. 5 January 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  29. Steele, Sharon (3 December 2016). "Tor at the Heart: torservers.net". blog.torproject.org. Retrieved 17 June 2018. [..] covers legal costs for exit operators when needed
  30. "2014 FOSS Donations". DuckDuckGo Blog. 12 March 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  31. "Noisebridge Tor - Noisebridge". www.noisebridge.net. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  32. "Best Open Source Playpen". SF Bay Guardian. 27 July 2010. Archived from the original on 31 July 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  33. "Best Hacker Hangout – 2011 – Noisebridge". SF Weekly. 19 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  34. Montgomery, Kevin (1 October 2013). "Claims of Sexism and Sexual Assault Plague Noisebridge Hackerspace". Uptown Almanac. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  35. Loll, Anna Catherin (11 October 2016). "Power, secrecy and cypherpunks: how Jacob Appelbaum ripped Tor apart". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  36. "Noisebridge Statement on Jacob Appelbaum". Noisebridge Blog. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
  37. noisebridge/deprecated-bureaucracy, Noisebridge, 20 June 2019, retrieved 29 September 2022
  38. Doctorow, Cory (February 2013). Homeland (text file). Tor books. ISBN 978-0-7653-3369-8. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  39. @Annaleen (30 June 2018). ""Let's just say that I wrote parts of the first draft while sitting in the very first space that Noisebridge had in San Francisco."" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  40. Gomez, Jocelyn Hernandez. "Underground computer culture welcomed by Noisebridge hackerspace". Golden Gate Xpress. Retrieved 19 November 2022.


Wikimedia Commons has media related to Noisebridge.


37.762413°N 122.419313°W / 37.762413; -122.419313

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.