Start a Computer Club in the Place That You Live

YOU SHOULD START A COMPUTER CLUB IN THE PLACE THAT YOU LIVE

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| | LASTA NOVAĴO: | |
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i’m glad someone finally said it

WHAT IS A COMPUTER CLUB?
a computer club is where a group of people hang out and do computer together

WHAT IS “DOING COMPUTER”?
doing computer is whatever you want…on computers, together. our bias is towards programming and diy shared computing infrastructure. but there’s also art and music and open data science and circuit-bending and a million other things we don’t know about

WHY SHOULD I START A COMPUTER CLUB?
the political economy of computing is awful. have you read palo alto? me neither. we should read it. we deserve better than the darpa-funded visions of xerox parc technologists

make the political economy of computing less awful and bring it home to you and yours by starting a computer club in the place that you live

RULES
we can’t make you do anything, so do whatever you want. but these are the things we think are really important

hang out in real life: online has rude vibes, real life has kinder vibes. hang out in real life for trust and strength and to ground your computer club in your actual local context
reject corporate sponsorship: corporate sponsorship constrains behavior and undermines collective ownership. computer club isn’t yours if a corporate sponsor might get upset by something you do
computer club is a collective project: you don’t need a mission statement, but you might have an ethos that defines your computer club. computer club is beholden only to that ethos and the people who show up

GUIDELINES
we still can’t make you do anything, so continue doing whatever you want. but these are things we think are important to think about

computing is political, so let computer club be political too
the recurse center social rules foster collaboration and psychological safety, consider using them
be inspired by permaculture
be inspired by small web
be inspired by diy culture
be inspired by computing as a medium through which better things are possible
try to host computer club’s stuff on your own computers in the place that you live
be open to interdisciplinary computing
be open to different histories and “skill levels” with computing

HOW SHOULD I START THE COMPUTER CLUB
there are lots of ways to start a computer club; how you start will be unique to yours. but you could try

talk about what used to excite you about doing computer. talk about how the political economy of computing could be better. talk about these things publicly. the computer club might already be breathing in the communities you’re in
attend preexisting computing meetups and find like-minded people. meetups about “how to node.js apolitically” are sidelining people who want “how to node.js pro-socially.” don’t try to be a recruiter — just be excited at events and find people who are also excited
does your city have a food coop? food coops and computer clubs have a similar ethos; and food coops are a great place to get your food for the same reasons that a computer club is a great place to do computer. make friends at your food coop and find the computer-doers
join a project or start a project and talk to people there about starting a computer club. are you or someone you know doing
web design for a diy venue? work together!
technical support for a cool local project? work together!
communications for your neighborhood’s nascent mesh network? work together!
analysis for local open data projects? work together!

talk to existing computer clubs!

COMPUTER CLUBS AND SIMILAR THINGS THAT WE KNOW OF

cyberia computer club
chaos computer club
bunk computer club (now co-op)
deuxfleurs
LURK
plover digital
SDF
computer clubs are inspired by hackerspaces
[coming soon] your computer club!

TOOLS THAT ARE USEFUL FOR A COMPUTER CLUB

computers (personal computers)
computers (servers)
computers (people doing computer)
chat: delta chat, matrix, zulip, mattermost, signal, discord
love and trust!
the recurse center social rules
a git forge (we like forgejo)
a physical tilde server (it can motivate everyone to create something together)
locations: living rooms, libraries, a cool local bookstore
mob programming: a big monitor, tv, or a projector. computing together is fun and contributes to your computer club’s culture!
a very thorough resource for collective computing infrastructure
connections to other local projects
connections to other local projects
connections to other local projects

WHAT NOW?
go! find the computer club! make the computer club! tell us about it!