Hello fellow squatconfers,

i unfortunately failed to attend the squatconf meeting yesterday as i was
was busy with childcare, in the heat of writing an article
for a german magazine [1], frantically planning my JIT travel to
the redecentralize conf in London this weekend [2] and managed to forget
about our online meeting :/ I'll be reading any minutes and next time
make sure i setup some physical alarm or something.

Anyways, FYI below two positive mails i received from Gabriella and Sophie who
are involved with hackademia. I didn't yet mail the general hackademia
list and would like to discuss with interested squatconfers regarding
squatconf/hackademia collaboration.

best,
holger

[1] http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/46/46278/1.html
[2] http://redecentralize.org/conference/


P.S.: I am leaving for the redecentralize conf this morning

Hello Holger,                                                                                       

Very nice to hear from you again. I am excited to hear that Squatconf                               
might move forward and in a way to involve academics, artists, etc who                              
write about hackers. Holding it right before or after Re:Publica is a                               
great idea and I certainly would attend and help coordinate in whatever                             
way I can. I would also be able to pitch in a modest amount perhaps for                             
food (even if we cook it) or the venue if also needed but I like the                                
self-organized element to it.                                                                       

In terms of involvement I could imagine some folks, especially Europe                               
based, who would want to be more involved in coordination) and I don't                              
think we would have any issue getting some folks out there (the                                     
hackademia list has over 250 subscriptions). I guess the question would                             
be whether we would leave it rather open or try to narrow down some                                 
themes for panels/participation.                                                                    

There is a lot to discuss but again am happy to do so and am very                                   
excited at this prospect.                                                                           

All best,                                                                                           
Biella 

------

Greetings from sunny Montreal!                                                                      

Glad to hear the Squatconf is well under way. I'd love to participate if                            
i can get to Berlin around those dates. At this point, I can't say for                              
sure, but I am definitely interested and so I'll try!                                               

Bringing closer together researchers (including academics, journalists,                             
writers, etc.) and hackers (and maybe artists too?) is totally an idea                              
worth pursuing. The question here i guess (or at least for me), is how                              
can we do it differently than in other settings? The Camp and Congress                              
are awesome spaces as they provide a mix of talks and workshops that are                            
appealing to a wide audience, but can we also go beyond this?                                       
Especially, if we are a small group. My question is how can we try to                               
foster collaboration like the one you described with the D-Cent? Would                              
planning spaces to discuss about specific issues brought up by people be                            
one way to do it? To really harness everyone's expertise and passion?                               
Whether it is a researcher that wants to explore a question or an idea                              
deeper with others in attendance or a tech activist who wants to juggle                             
ideas with social scientists or others? I think organised and structured                            
spaces of experimentation, "validation" or even controversy might be                                
interesting to have.                                                                                

Another way to do it, is having a specific project people who are                                   
attending squatconf would focus and collaborate on. To illustrate the                               
latter let me take an example. A few years ago, I participated in a                                 
number of barn-raisings in the USA where a bunch of people would gather                             
for 4-5 days in a rural town to help launch a low power fm radio (a.k.a.                            
community radio) that had just gotten a license. Everyone present would                             
help the project get on its feet while also attending lectures and                                  
workshops on community radio related topic. These were some of the best                             
activist-tech-research gatherings i participated in.                                                

All and all, I think it is really worth while bringing folks that are                               
evolving in different environments and fields closer together.                                      

What were you thinking about? Any thoughts?

Hope all is well,                                                                                   
All my best,                                                                                        
Sophie