TL;DR: interested in starting or being part of another feminist hacker/makerspace in SF (or elsewhere)? Leave a comment, tweet contact info at me, or send me an email at leigh at hypatia dot ca.
As some of you may know, I have started a couple of hackerspaces. I’ve also recently moved to San Francisco, and joined Double Union, a women’s hacker/makerspace in town. And I didn’t even have to start it! Woohoo 😀
Double Union has proven such a success that we temporarily closed applications last Friday. We have 105 members! Of an organization that’s not afraid to frequently drop the f-bomb! This blows my mind and makes me very happy.
I think that the wider Bay Area but even just SF proper probably have space for another feminist hackerspace (or two), particularly one open to people of all genders (like the Seattle Attic or Portland’s Flux). I have heard from several people that this is something they want.
So! In the interest of connecting other people who want to start something but maybe don’t know each other, if this is relevant to your interests, please let me know! Here in the comments (I can see your email but the public can’t) or via the tweeters or email me at leigh at hypatia dot ca. If this is something you are interested in leading (which for now just means running an email list) please let me know that too.
To be clear: I am just looking to connect people, and specifically find and connect people who are interested in organizing. I’ve started enough hackerspaces for a few years at this point 🙂
I know of several other efforts to start feminist hackerspaces around the country, so if you’re outside of the bay area but interested, please feel free to also comment with some indication as to your geography and I’ll put you in touch with feminist hackerspace peeps in your area if I know of any.
Also you may be interested in the nascent feminist hackerspace design patterns over at the geek feminism wiki. And definitely read Liz Henry’s piece on feminist hackerspaces in Model View Culture.
Note: these things are off-topic in this discussion and will just result in me deleting your comment / pointing and laughing / not giving a shit:
- whining about Double Union being women-only
- whining about feminism in general
- whining in general, really
- reverse proxy-whining about how awesome your hackerspace is but the womenz just don’t seem to show up and are clearly just not interested and you had an e-textiles class that one time and WHAT MORE DO YOU FEMINISTS REALLY WANT I MEAN COME ON WE EVEN HAD AN E-TEXTILES NIGHT.*
*For the record, I love e-textiles. But having had a workshop on e-textiles once is not a Magical Get Out Of Sexism Free Card, sorry!
hypatia dot ca 