Hacking Is a Mindset, Not a Skillset: Building Solidarity Infrastructures

Friday, July 12, 2024: 9:00 pm (Marillac Auditorium): You don't need to have tech skills to build a mesh network! In this talk, moshfet will share how he helped spawn an anti-capitalist mesh network in Tucson, Arizona with just a bit of COVID stimulu...

Friday, July 12, 2024: 9:00 pm (Marillac Auditorium): You don't need to have tech skills to build a mesh network! In this talk, moshfet will share how he helped spawn an anti-capitalist mesh network in Tucson, Arizona with just a bit of COVID stimulus money and a wish upon a (shining) star. His goal is to inspire the possibility of building infrastructure in common in local communities - like mesh networks - to push back against the corporatization and monopolization of critical infrastructures more broadly.

In the presenter's words: "We didn't choose to work on providing Internet access because we're tech experts (we're not!), but as a demonstration to ourselves and our community: if complicated technologies such as the Internet can be given away at cost by a network of volunteers, what's to stop people in Tucson from doing the same thing with cellular service? Libraries of Things? Repair cafes?"

moshfet