LvL1 Inc.
1023 Attachment
Response to Part IV
The mission of LVL1 is to provide a shared, physical space for collaborative technical and artistic experimentation in the Louisville area. We are a non-profit organization following the hackerspace model currently flourishing in cities all over the world. Our goal is to create an open workspace where engineers, artists and educators can meet and collaborate on scientific and educational projects.
An understanding of the history of the hacker and hackerspace movement will help to articulate LVL1’s past, present, and future activities. While the term “hacker” currently has a strongly pejorative connotation, it was originally coined by Stephen Levy in his seminal book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Published in 1984, Levy documents the history of the people who tinkered with mechanical and or electrical systems in order to better understand how things work. In other words, the primary motivation behind the first hackers was simple curiosity. Although Levy marks the beginning of the modern hacker movement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Tech Model Railroad Club in the 1950’s, it should be noted that throughout human history, technological advancement arose in large part out of curiosity about the natural world. Engineers, scientists, musicians, and artists are all part of a larger community that seeks to enhance the human experience.
What sets hackerspaces apart from previous endeavors is the acknowledgement that discovery thrives when individual hackers are able to communicate and share their knowledge in-person and in a hands-on fashion at a designated meeting place. The physical building of a hackerspace provides a centralized gathering place for peer-learning and knowledge-sharing. In addition, it provides the necessary infrastructure and resources for the community to work on both their individual as well as group projects. While academics tie-ins to academic organizations are welcome, unlike academia, there are no external pressures at a hackerspace to publish a certain number of papers (often limited to particular topics), or write grant proposals biased towards scientific trends that are being allotted a certain amount of monies. Instead, a hacker is encouraged by the hackerspace community to simply explore whatever areas interest him/her the most. Thus a more diverse set of topics may be pursued, and this diversity leads to greater societal benefit.
Because of this rich history and the presence of a thriving global community, LVL1 embraces the term hackerspace and strives to provide its members and the public-at-large a physical place for people to explore and play at the intersection of science, technology, and art. Although we don’t restrict our geographical scope to Louisville, KY area residents, we encourage people who reside outside of the area to join their local hackerspaces so that they can also benefit from the physical aspect of hackerspaces[1]. Since our activities are conducted strictly by volunteers who are either members or guests of LVL1, our approach is to only take on activities that are fun for the volunteers and participants. Thus far the activities we’ve participated in have been public project demonstrations, weekly open build sessions, workshops on various topics, and weekly study groups. To celebrate having a regular hackerspace, we hosted an open house on July 6, 2010, for the public to view and interact with projects built by both LVL1 members and members of the public. To increase our outreach, we have also performed project demonstrations on-site at local events such as the The Late Seating of Actor’s Theater of Louisville[2].
At present, we host regular weekly meetings with an open build session afterwards that are completely open to the public. If a non-LVL1 member has questions about how to proceed with his/her own project, or would like to participate in a LVL1 group project, the LVL1 community is available to mentor and encourage. In addition, we currently have Three bi-monthly special interest study groups: microcontrollers, alternative fuel/energy, and soundbuilders. The purpose of the study groups is to encourage peer-learning and discussion on the topics. The meetings and study groups don’t require any additional funding other than what’s collected in membership fees. Note that all meetings are open to non-members as well, so it’s not a requirement to pay membership fees to attend these activities. We also provide public workshops that are funded by workshop fees that are advertised on our website[3]. In the past, the workshops included:
Currently two other organisations use LVL1 facilities, Kentucky Open Source Society and Kentucky-Indiana Personal Computer Users Group. Kentucky Open Source Society or KYOSS is a group for the adoption and understanding of open source software. KYOSS holds its monthly meetings and discussion on open source software along with special events to educate the public on open source software. All meetings and events put on by KYOSS at LVL1 are open to the public and free of charge. Kentucky-Indiana Personal Computer Users Group or KIPCUG is a non-profit corporation, focused on educating and encouraging newcomers to computing as well as sharing technical information. KIPCUG stores computer and education equipment at LVL1 that is used for public education on computers and technology.
In the future, we intend to continue our philosophy of only hosting and participating in activities that are at the pleasure of the members. If it’s a burdensome activity, it’s not sustainable. Even though we are a fairly young local organization, we are quickly discovering what kinds of activities work for us as a whole. Besides our weekly open build sessions and study groups, we will continue to host workshops on a variety of topics as quickly as the workshop topic is proposed by a member. Some proposed workshops to help illustrate the breadth of topics (and our fun in coming up with them) include knitting, android application development, and zombie/post-apocalyptic survival tips. However, our primary focus is on hacking and making - both individual as well as group projects. So the percentage allocation in the past, present, and future between projects and activities is 70/30. We look forward to a future full of member enrichment and continued public outreach, and hope that many excellent things are built at LVL1.
[2]http://actorstheatre.org/thelateseating.htm
[3]http://www.lvl1.org