Six Years of Hackerspaces Tours During RIPE Meetings

Maybe surprisingly, there is quite an overlap between the RIPE community and the hackers community. Visiting a local hackerspace has been a tradition for more than five years: during RIPE Meetings, network operators groups, IXP meetings and other technical events. This is a nostalgic look back to the history of these encounters, and an invitation to join us for future explorations.

I've been a Community Builder at the RIPE NCC since 2011 (and a trainer since 1999), but I have been a hacker for much longer: since 1996 I have been taking part in hacker camps, conferences and other events, and now I am a member of several hackerspaces in Amsterdam.

hacker

My favourite definition of the hacker

What is a Hackerspace?

"Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people share their interest in
tinkering with technology, meet and work on their projects, and learn from each other."

-- Definition from hackerspaces.org

There are more than 2,000 hackerspaces around the world today. Most of the "new" ones in Europe were created after 2007, although C-Base is much older, and a few in Amsterdam that I was part of existed before the name "hackerspace" became popular.

hackerspaces signs

Hackerspaces are often similar to each other in many ways: their members are interested in a hands-on approach to technology, sharing their knowledge with like-minded people, and they value belonging to a self-organised community. To me, this sounds very much like RIPE community ethos too!

There are also differences: some spaces are more artistic than others, some are more dedicated to activism & political awareness (often called hack-labs), and some are focused on the general public and offer commercial services (fab-labs and makerspaces). But in most of the European hackerspaces you can find several characteristic things:

Club Mate
3D printers (self-made)
Stickers, T-shirts, other swag
Electronics & soldering workshop area
Collection of books on technical & social topics (cryptography, programming..)
RIPE Atlas probe

Visiting Locals

We have been to about 20 places together in the last six years! Usually it's a small group of five to ten people, and we've had lots of fun exploring various local hackerspaces together. You can find all the links and upcoming events on this page: Hackerspaces_tour#During_RIPE_Meetings.

What can you expect to do when you visit a hackerspace?

A local host often gives us a tour of the local facilities
You can get your "hackerspaces passport" stamped
You will meet people you might have met before on another conference
Drinks are available and you are supposed to leave a donation (a system based on trust)
Please bring some stickers of your favourite Linux distribution/SW/other hackerspace
Be careful when taking photos: some hackers are very privacy conscious: ask first!

hackerspaces passport

Hackerspaces passport: Collect a stamp at each visit

Hackers on Tour: Six Years, 20 Visits

Name	City, Country	Event	Month, Year & Link
MetaLab	Vienna, Austria	RIPE 63	November 2011
CERN	Geneva, Switzerland	Swinog#23	November 2011
CyberPipe	Ljubljana, Slovenia	RIPE 64	April 2012
FixMe	Lausanne, Switzerland	Swinog#25	May 2012
TempInc	Amsterdam, The Netherlands	RIPE 65	September 2012
KIKA	Skopje, Macedonia	SEE2	April 2013
TOG	Dublin, Ireland	RIPE 66	May 2013
Hackerspace Budapest	Budapest, Hungary	BalCCon 2013	September 2013
Hackerspace.gr	Athens, Greece	RIPE 67	October 2013
TechInc	Amsterdam, The Netherlands	MORE-IP	May 2014
Hackerspace.PL	Warsaw, Poland	RIPE 68	May 2014
London HackSpace	London, UK	RIPE 69	November 2014
TechInc	Amsterdam, The Netherlands	RIPE Atlas DataViz Hackathon	March 2015
Belgrade HackLab	Belgrade, Serbia	SEE 4	April 2015
TechInc	Amsterdam, The Netherlands	RIPE 70	May 2015
Hatch	Bucharest, Romania	RIPE 71 (hackathon)	13 November 2015
Karkhana	Kathmandu, Nepal	SANOG 27	January 2016
Labitat	Copenhagen, Denmark	RIPE 72 (hackathon)	May 2016
Illutron	Copenhagen, Denmark	RIPE 72 (hackathon)	May 2016
Makerspace Madrid	Madrid, Spain	RIPE 73	October 2016

Doors & logos of hackerspaces worldwide

Hacking (&) RIPE

I like bringing these two worlds together. I like combining my work and my hacking passions. To this end, I have been connecting

hackers & operators by giving presentations at hackers conferences, bringing input from these events back to the RIPE NCC,

organising hackathons, and having some more concrete mixed projects such as "Internet Governance for hackers"

& "RIPE Atlas probes at hackerspaces".

Map of hackerspaces in Europe with RIPE Atlas probe installed

Call for Actions

Let's strengthen the ties that exist between these two communities!

If you're a hacker:

Take part in the RIPE Meetings - they are fun, you can learn a lot, present your projects, and meet other hackers
Join RIPE mailing lists: that's where Internet policy is made!
Place a RIPE Atlas probe in your hackerspace, register it on hackerspaces.org & tag it on atlas.ripe.net
Invite your members to join our hackathons
Invite other from the RIPE community to visit you

If you are a network operator:

Go visit your local hackerspace - they are fun, you can learn a lot and you can meet other hackers (you can find the list & map on hackerspaces.org )
Make a new local hackerspace!
Organise a hackathon
Go to the hackers conferences: summer camps, winter congresses, and other events

So, join us during RIPE 73 on Tuesday evening: visiting local hackerspace!
See details here

me myself and i