Contact

Association

A Hackstub

Founded in 2012, the Hackstub is a hackerspace based in Strasbourg, in the premises of La Semencerie, an artist workshop in Strasbourg. The association raises awareness of the local public to the culture of Free Software and carries out a work of popular education, through formats such as workshops, screenings, radio, debate, etc. It has notably had two highlights in the organisation, in Strasbourg, of Avenirs d'Internet(s) in 2016 and the Libre Software Meeting in 2018.

Accessibility

La Semencerie (42 rue du ban de la roche) is partially accessible by wheelchair: the restrooms aren't accessible due to a few steps leading to the basement (work in progress). The usual members don't sign. Feel free to get in touch with us via one of the ways above for any specific requirements.

Functioning

Membership = 5 €/year, payable on the spot during Stammtisch or other events (ask in person).
Agenda available on the dedicated page of our website.
The statutes of the association are available on Github.
We sometimes accept internships or civic service missions, depending on motivation and available resources.

Our definitions

Computer science is used, learned, thought and developed as a science of information systems (from washing machines to routers, including smartphones, as well as physical and virtual networks). Even more than other sciences and techniques, computer science is neither 'pure' nor neutral but, as an industry, is the product of complex power relations: economic, ideological, geopolitical, social, environmental... And we conceive hacking as its artisanal, human, awake, curious and critical practice.

FLOSS, to define it simply, claims a humanistic conception of culture, where everyone should have the right to use, study, modify or share a resource. The fight for the preservation of the Commons generally involves the free distribution of the product, as opposed to proprietary recipes, and distribution under so-called free licenses, which ensure and perpetuate, when they are sufficiently restrictive, the free circulation of a resource.

The neologism "Hackstub" could be translated as the "heated room of hacking" in contemporary Alsatian. The association was created in 2011, by a bunch of nerds (people passionate about science and technology) from Strasbourg and its surroundings. In the rest of the world, such places would be called "hackerspace" or "hacklab".

Objectives

The Hackstub association, a non-profit organisation, aims to contribute (at least locally) to individual and collective techn(olog)ic emancipation, in all the domains concerned (e.g. art, media, agriculture, law, economy...). In other words, to strive to study and debate, experiment, develop and exchange, ideas, materials, knowledge and critical aesthetics, free from dominant technologies.
In short, to enable people to control machines, rather than the other way around.

Actions

In concrete terms, and to achieve this objective, Hackstub proposes:

Public

Hackstub is also a place of life, meeting and exchange, where various publics mix; associations such as Alsace Réseau Neutre (an associative ISP), collectives such as StrasHack (a group passionate about computer security) or other communities. Each person can come with technical requests, which the members of the hackerspace answer (or not, see charter) every Friday evening during the Stammtisch, a slot intended to welcome people looking for (free) technical support.

Hackstub is therefore open to all audiences, in a philosophy close to (decolonial feminist) popular education. All competences or views are complementary, legitimate and relevant, at all levels. We wish to share all subjects, even the most technical ones, with all people/groups generally oppressed/repressed/exploited for the benefit of capitalism. A charter specifies the conditions of access and excluded behaviours.

History

Since its foundation in 2011, Hackstub has moved: first in flats and bars in the city centre (friendly but not stable enough); in the UFR of math-info of the University of Strasbourg (stable but too constraining); in an ad-hoc roommate in the rue de la Broque (free but too confidential) ; before the opening of the Shadok, the "digital factory" of the City of Strasbourg (welcoming before the change of management in 2019, suddenly hostile); in the premises of the association Aube, a Mutual Aid Group intended for neuro-atypical people; finally, today, at the Semencerie in the Gare-Laiterie district.

Several events have marked the life of Hackstub: in 2015, the cycle of conferences and workshops "Future(s) of the Internet" brought together nearly 200 people at the Médiathèque Malraux and at the Shadok to question the evolution of computer networks, with regard to science fiction; in 2018, the 2nde Strasbourg edition of the Libre Software Meeting (LSM), which federated more than 1,000 people from the librist communities from all over the world, as well as the local population. These events were conducted in collaboration with the informal federation alsace.netlib.re, the associations Alsace Réseau Neutre (ARN), Seeraiwer, the Amicale d'Informatique de l'Université de Strasbourg (AIUS), the collective sxb.so and the Linux User Group (LUG) of Strasbourg.

Throughout the history of the association, its members have changed, according to their personal backgrounds, sensitivities and technological, political or aesthetic affinities. Over time, the sociology of the association has also evolved, from being fairly homogeneous, almost exclusively technical, male and Western, to a greater diversity of profiles, paths and practices. Today chaired by Harmonie Vo Viet Anh, a lawyer in digital law, the association is finally catching its breath after the enormous voluntary effort required to organise the LSM 2018.

Prospects

The future of the association, fluctuating according to the people between pro-amateur militancy and professionalization in some places, is apprehended, since a few years already, between: the maintenance of the existing activities (regular meetings, thematic or not); the development and the perpetuation of some strategic activities (popular education, support to research and development of alternative technologies); in the long term, by the creation of a cooperative company (SCIC/SCOOP) around free cultures and technologies.

Since all work will always be part of a class struggle, it is better to take a clear position. Contribute as much as we can to the decolonisation of technologies, built on more than 2 centuries of imperialist exploitation. Share knowledge and free practices between social groups, in all their diversity.