I am very glad that we have Chaos Computer Club in Germany. It's by far more than just a time and place where nerds meetup to do computer, they are already some kind of institution, they have a voice in politics and often requested for independent consulting. But "doing computer" is how it all started.
Around Colorado we call them Hacking Society, and the easiest way we've found to get space has been at coffee shops, though over the years some businesses have opened space for us at times. Considering we've been getting together 3 times a month for nearly a quarter century, you'd think we'd have had more time to update the webpage. https://www.hackingsociety.org/
I would quite happily volunteer some of my time to help interested kids with computer programming. I recently looked around and none of my local school (here in the UK) seem to have after school programming clubs. I am a bit put off by all the organizational and safe guarding issues that would come with starting something.
Similar to computer clubs, I really liked doing coding days in various small communities in Tokyo (in Japanese they're called moku moku kai).
The Python minihackathon[0] group model was particularly great. You show up, write a line or two of what you're thinking of working on onto a whiteboard, and towards the end people go up and present what they worked on for a couple minutes.
It's usually "learning how to use this library" or something, but it's a great way to schedule some OSS work.
This is a bit different from a computer club, but if you have a space you can lock into and can get even 10 or so people together once every couple of weeks (or once a month), then it's a great way to be sure you _at least_ work on something 12 times a year.
I run a maker space in Saint Charles, Illinois. We have space to host these sort of things. If you live near here and (like me) are interested, please reach out. My contact details are easy to find.
>The social rules are:
> No well-actually’s
> No feigned surprise
> No backseat driving
> No subtle -isms
referred to by the post link, i like it. The link is also cc0, which is the only license i'll put on something, really. This sounds like it would be challenging and rewarding and fun; but the only places a "group" can get together and have space is churches around here, so i'd have to travel like an hour to get someplace more amenable to "several computers running" even if laptops that are wall powered.
I have enough spare computing hardware that realistically i can provide equipment for quite a few people. lugging it around would be a pain.
Two other things i've been seriously contemplating is a hyper-local podcast http://adam.curry.com/html/HowtoStartAHyperLoca-16wQvxtGFbH0... and stand up either a static blog server or something "like a wiki" but just for managing information. I saw that johnny.decimal post earlier and maybe i can put something together that is like a "notes and data" blog but organized with johnny.decimal or one of the other alternatives for organization mentioned in that thread.
I should really get started.
Southern Indiana, anyone?
probably crickets, but you never know. I even have a space we could use for meetings, my own pizza place.
> meetups about "how to node.js apolitically" are sidelining people who want "how to node.js pro-socially."
This statement did turn me off a bit. "how to node.js apolitically" would in practice ofc just be "how to node.js", which should be perfectly fine for a computer club, just as a pro-social computing course. Maybe someone wants to use their computing skills for social good, maybe they want to use them for bioscience, smart contracts, home automation, or maybe they just want to create a website for their corner shop. I feel like all of those should have a place in a computer club.
Computer Club in Seattle, anyone?
This whole site makes me happy. Thanks for sharing it :)
If anyone in Denver is interested, hit me up.
>computing is political, so let computer club be political too
I agree but probably not in the way the author intended. To build a working, affordable, modern computer requires handling the most complicated mass consumer supply chain the world has yet seen - and that's before you get into any software you want to run atop it. The fact that such machines can be had new for less than the price of a used car is nothing short of a capitalist miracle.
> …we deserve better than the darpa-funded visions of xerox parc technologists
The principles of “computer club” sound exactly like this with a socialist twist.
One of my fondest early memories of computing was going to my uncle’s computer club held at a school I think after hours. All they did the whole time was copy Commodore 64 games and it was awesome.
Anything like this in Sydney?
Shoutout to the DC Python Doju meetup for basically doing this for python computing
Anything going on these days in Chicago?
> computing is political, so let computer club be political too
this is an instant turn off. this phrase means that the "computer club" is really a political club that lures people through computers.
in my experiences those places are always driven by some kind of narcissistic psychopath that wants everybody to align to their view of the world.
i'd stay away from those places. the risk outweighs the benefits.
>computing is political, so let computer club be political too
So you can have nazi computer club?
How to start a cringe club
> the recurse center social rules foster collaboration and psychological safety, consider using them
> No well-actually’s > No feigned surprise > No backseat driving > No subtle -isms
There seems to be something really magical about the Recurse Center social rules. Or maybe their admissions process. Or both. I did a batch a couple years ago and I was stunned at how fun and drama-free people are there. I've heard occasional stories of negative experiences but nowhere near what Id expect for a group of passionate intelligent creatives working at vastly different levels of expertise.
Anyway glad to see the RC rules propagating and love this idea. I'm inspired to try to start a computer club at my 5yo's school! *crossed-fingers