What is it?

Hacking Society was dedicated to fostering the geek community, through the shared experience of "Hacking". It was around for a little while, but is inactive currently (Oct. 2006).

Who is it for?

Attendees of Hacking Society are often known to believe that collaboration is the key to success in any endeavor and that it is communities that make computers worth using, and that programming is an art form as opposed to class work or resume fodder. This chapter of Hacking Society also lacks the LUG affiliation which means users of all languages, operating systems, and editors are welcome.

What do you do there?

What can I do to help?

The most important thing you can do to help Hacking Society succeed is show up and contribute. A missed meeting here or there isn't going to hurt anyone's feelings but if programming is something you love doing (or would like to learn to love doing) you should show up as often and for as long as you can. And when you're not showing up, you could print out one of these snazzy fliers.

The Future

To the hackers and geeks of Davis, CA:

I have in some sense been the driving force behind Davis Hacking Society, and while my personal experiences at individual meetings have been productive and inspiring, the lack of attendance has hurt my pride more than once. Lack of time and energy and a perception that people didn't really understand the point of DHS has prevented me from making it as great as I know it can be. But now I'm being removed the equation, on May 15th I start a new job in Cupertino, CA and will be unable to regularly attend DHS meetings. So this is a letter to the hackers and geeks not just of the wiki but of Davis, CA, hacking society was never meant to be my pet project, I never wanted to be the leader of a group, I just wanted the group to exist, so I did what I could to help it exist. Perhaps I was wrong about Davis, perhaps the community just isn't there, but I find it truly bewildering that community that could build and nurture something like DavisWiki could possibly lack the community spirit. Perhaps I never explained what DHS was properly, but that's because I don't know what it's supposed to be, it's not supposed to be a rigidly defined group with strict agendas and time keeping, Hacking Society was never meant to be more than a time and a place and reason for people with a common interest to get together. And that is what it has been, for me and Philip and occasional others. Perhaps I didn't deal with criticism as well as I should have, perhaps I alienated people, whatever I did wrong, or just didn't do, it's now up to you the people if it's worth doing right. I hope in my failure you can find the secret to success. —DavidReid

I wouldn't call it a failure. If you expected 100 people, I guess it was a failure, but otherwise no. When do you leave Davis? You could always commute to DHS meetings... —SteveDavison

I went there 2006-02-16 6:00PM, waited an hour, but NOBODY showed up. Not Philip, not David. —SteveDavison

We were both there at 6:30 or so. I went to grab a burrito because I was hungry. David and I came back and no one else was there (until about 9pm, then we left). —PhilipNeustrom

That's strange, I recall being there at 6:30PM. Hmmm. We must have just missed. —SteveDavison

It's unreasonable to expect everyone to show up on time every time, and the smaller the group of regular attendees (which is 2) the less likely there is to be someone there at 6pm on the dot. Things happen, busses are late, people get hungry, I'm sorry no one was there when you got there at 6, but Philip and I were back at 6:30pm. On another note, every meeting is going to "suck" if you don't have anything to do there. Some people have complained about being ignored in favor of code. I didn't organize Hacking Society as a strictly social event, (this is a college town, there are plenty of those already.) But ... perhaps I'm going about this all wrong, perhaps I should just quit now before I stress myself out anymore about this. So consider this my final plea for help, if you've never been to a Hacking Society, for whatever reason, you didn't think it was for you, there was something that conflicted in your schedule, maybe you just don't like Roma, I don't know, tell me how I can change it so that you will come, so that you will enjoy it, so that _everyone_ can benefit from it. —DavidReid

I really think we should try and get that Philip Neustrom guy to stop showing up. I mean all he does is talk about bears and it makes some people kind of uncomfortable. That would probably solve a lot of the problems. More seriously, I honestly don't know why a bunch of people don't show up and don't care all that much either. Its nice programming and stuff with others around, makes me work better, makes it easier to ask for suggestions and opinions. And its fun to bug Philip and David without them being able to ignore my AIM windows. Roma is perfect for something like this, especially later on in the evening when most of the people head out and we are the only ones there. If people don't show up its their loss. No open minded technically inclined community for them. More power outlets for me. —ZacMorris

I move that the meetings be moved from Cafe Roma to Delta of Venus. They serve food there, have beer, and have Wi-Fi. —SteveDavison

Isn't delta usually packed on thursday nights/have shows (seems they start at 8:30ish)? If we could snag a table early on this might be a good idea, but I'd hate to feel like "that guy on his laptop" :-) —PhilipNeustrom

You're right, Thursday would suck. How about Mondays? One of the reasons for low attendance I believe was scheduling conflicts -a lot of things happen Thursday nights. —SteveDavison

Lots of conversation about this topic that was lost to the ether can now be found at Davis Hacking Society/Talk. Hopefully this will recreate interest in what is a really great idea and maybe more people will start showing up. - ZacMorris

Since nobody was at yesterday's (2006-04-27) DHS meeting, and the founder (Davis Reid) has moved away from Davis, I move that we disband the DHS and consider it absorbed into the LUGOD social meetings. They do have active meetings (10-12 people attend the socials), and it's at nearby Delta of Venus. All in favor? —SteveDavison

  • I haven't actually moved yet, but I am currently out of town and will be moving shortly, however here are my thoughts on the subject. I don't think DHS should be disbanded, but I do think it should coincide with the monthly LUGOD socials. Once a month is just too infrequent for the 4 or 5 hours of hacking that DHS provides. All the other Hacking Societies have a LUG affiliation and the pattern is basically have a meeting every week except for the week that the LUG meets (this isn't necessarily necessary if they meet on different days of the week.) So my final suggestion before I officially leave, is to have DHS meet at the same time and place as the LUGOD social gatherings _every_ week, and let any cross-pollenation happen naturally. —DavidReid
    • This sounds like a good idea to me. —PhilipNeustrom
      • I'm pretty sure it is a unanimous decision then. I've edited to reflect the venue change, however I did not change the start time, according to LUGOD's meeting page the social gatherings don't start until 6:30. I leave it up to the community to decide if the flexibility created by the differences in time schedule is useful, those extra half hours of hacking can really add up. —DavidReid
        • I changed the start time to 6:30PM (it was approx. anyway) for simplicity/uniformity. I think having it first Tuesdays only is better -just because I don't think enough (>3) will show up the other times. Having a meeting with one person is a waste of time; better to concentrate until you have some sort of critical mass. If there were 5 people every week I would say have it weekly. We'll see. Even when we did meet we did almost nothing collaboratively. In a way, it's sort of a backwards-telecommute: instead of getting computer technology so we don't have to travel to a meeting place, here we have technology and meet in person. —SteveDavison
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