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Noisebridge is an
anarchistic maker and
hackerspace
A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sc ...
located in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, inspired by European hackerspaces
Metalab
The Metalab is a hackerspace in Vienna's central first district. and
c-base
c-base e.V. is a non-profit association located in Berlin, Germany. Its purpose is to increase knowledge and skills pertaining to computer software, hardware and data networks. The association is engaged in numerous related activities. For exam ...
in Berlin. It describes itself as "a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring, and learning," and outside of its headquarters forms a wider international community.
It was organized in 2007 and has had permanent facilities since 2008.
Organization
Noisebridge allows anyone to contribute, including non-members. All workshops and activities are free, with some exceptions for materials costs, and all are open to the public. It is a registered non-profit California corporation, with
IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...
501(c)(3) charitable status, a Board of Directors, and volunteer officers including a President, Treasurer, and Secretary.
History
Locations
During most of 2007 and 2008, Noisebridge was a group of people meeting in new
locations weekly. In October 2008, the Noisebridge group began renting a small commercial property in San Francisco's Mission District; it quickly
outgrew that location.
In 2009, the space moved into 2169 Mission St., a 5,200 square foot space on the third floor of the building. Early in its history, in 2009, Noisebridge had around 100 members.
By 2018, the organization was looking for a new space as its lease was under threat. A large donation in 2020 kicked off a new search. The group then moved to its current space at 272 Capp Street, directly behind its former building.
Activities and projects
Many meetups, workshops, and classes are held at the space, including the long running Circuit Hacking Monday,
San Francisco Writers Workshop The San Francisco Writers Workshop is one of the oldest continuously running writing critique groups in the United States, meeting every Tuesday night, except for major holidays, since 1946. Successful published authors who first workshopped their b ...
, Wikipedia meetups, Hack Comedy, Five Minutes of Fame, game development groups and classes, Free Code Camp, Code Day, and the Stupid Hackathon.
Past workspaces prior to June 2018 included: an
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...
lab,
bycology lab, biotech lab, bitchen, digital audio workstation photo development darkroom, book scanning workshop, photo booth, and a lights-out
cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...
lab
with more than 100 computer cores and contributed resources to several
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
projects, including the GCC
compile farm
A compile farm is a server farm, a collection of one or more servers, which has been set up to compile computer programs remotely for various reasons. Uses of a compile farm include:
* '' Cross-platform development'': When writing software that r ...
.
Noisebridge members have been involved with research projects that won the best paper awards from top tier academic conferences
Usenix Security Conference
and
CRYPTO.
Media coverage
Noisebridge has been covered by international media for a myriad of projects involving their membership, including
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
,
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
,
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
,
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
,
CNET
''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
,
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
,
Heise Online
Heise (officially ''Heise Gruppe'', formerly ''Verlag Heinz Heise'') is a Germany, German media conglomerate headquartered in Hanover, Lower Saxony. It was founded in 1949 by and is still family-owned. Its core business is directory media as we ...
,
ORF
ORF or Orf may refer to:
* Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF
* Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute
* One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel
* Open reading frame, a portion of the ...
,
Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
,
Die Welt
''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE.
''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...
Online,
Die Zeit
''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The ...
Online, and
Der Standard
''Der Standard'' is an Austrian daily newspaper published in Vienna.
History and profile
''Der Standard'' was founded by Oscar Bronner as a financial newspaper and published its first edition on 19 October 1988. German media company Axel Springe ...
.
Physical space
Noisebridge is located at 272 Capp Street, a 6000-square-foot commercial space in San Francisco's
Mission District
The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...
. The current space has many workspaces, which change dynamically. As of Nov 2022 these include two outdoor patios, a laser cutter, wood shop, 3D and 2D print shop, sewing workshop, music room, vintage video game archive, paper book library, and electronics workroom.
Community participation
![Noisebridge Arduinos For Total Newbies workshop July 2011](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Noisebridge_Arduinos_For_Total_Newbies_workshop_July_2011.jpg)
Noisebridge members have spoken internationally at events including
Defcon
The defense readiness condition (DEFCON) is an alert state used by the United States Armed Forces. (DEFCON is not mentioned in the 2010 and newer document)
The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and unified and spe ...
,
Blackhat, The Chaos Computer Club's
Chaos Communication Congress
The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and online ...
, CCC Camps, and
HOPE
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...
, presented at the local event
Maker Faire
Maker Faire is a convention of do it yourself aka-DIY enthusiasts started by ''Make'' magazine in 2006. Participants come from a wide variety of interests, such as robotics, 3D printing, computers, arts and crafts, and hacker culture.
History
...
, and contributed to the founding of hackerspaces elsewhere.
Noisebridge is part of the Bay Area Consortium of Hackerspaces, along with sister spaces
sudo room,
Double Union, and Ace Monster Toys.
Spacebridge
![Spacebridge balloon at cloud tops](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Spacebridge_balloon_at_cloud_tops.jpg)
Noisebridge had a
near space
The mesosphere (; ) is the third layer of the atmosphere, directly above the stratosphere and directly below the thermosphere. In the mesosphere, temperature decreases as altitude increases. This characteristic is used to define its limits: it ...
exploration program in 2010, which launched weather-balloon probes exploring altitudes of nearly 70,000 feet, carrying a variety of smartphones and digital cameras for imaging and altitude sensing using a GPS system.
Altitudes reached have exceeded the operational limits of consumer level GPS systems.
NoiseTor
NoiseTor (or Noisebridge Tor Project) was a Noisebridge initiative to create and operate additional
Tor relays. The project accepted financial donations to sponsor additional nodes.
The project was shut down officially by 2022.
Awards and honors
* Noisebridge won the
SF Bay Guardian
The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaun ...
2010 ''Best of the Bay'' award as "Best Open Source Playground"; the review concluded, "the vibe is welcoming and smart."
* In 2011 the ''
SF Weekly
''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...
'' awarded Noisebridge ''Best of San Francisco'' as "Best Hacker Playground", describing it as "the ultimate in DIY ethic" and noting its "distinctive sense of humor."
Controversies
As of 2013, many women have reported instances of being sexually harassed and assaulted at Noisebridge. Co-founder
Jacob Appelbaum
Jacob Appelbaum (born 1 April 1983) is an American independent journalist, computer security researcher, artist, and hacker. He studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology and was a core member of the Tor project, a free software network ...
was accused of multiple instances of sexual harassment. In June 2016, amid an uptick in accusations against Appelbaum and statements from various other groups banning him from their spaces, Noisebridge did the same, stating in an official blog post that "Jacob is no longer welcome in our community, either in its physical or online spaces". In their statement, they explained that his alleged actions (as well as those of other Noisebridge participants accused of harassement), although they had occurred before its instating in 2014, were in violation of their Anti-Harassment policy.
Cultural references
The hackerspace features prominently in
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...
's 2013 novel ''
Homeland
A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...
''.
It also influenced
Annalee Newitz
Annalee Newitz (born May 7, 1969) is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals ''Popular Science'' and ''Wired''. From 1999 to 2008 Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column call ...
's novel Autonomous, which was partially written at Noisebridge.
The video game
Watch Dogs 2
''Watch Dogs 2'' (stylized as ''WATCH_DOGS 2'') is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the sequel to 2014's ''Watch Dogs'' and the second installment in the ''Watch Dogs'' series. It was ...
was reportedly influenced by Noisebridge.
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control
Culture of San Francisco
DIY culture
Education in San Francisco
Hackerspaces in the San Francisco Bay Area
Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco