HSP Manifesto 2023

Written By Harini Anand
| 3 min read

The humble tradition of writing down a manifesto for Hackerspace ECC was started by our ex-core team lead, exactly a year ago. As Maya Angelou once said "Traditions are not chains that bind us, but wings that lift us”, it is only right to keep this practice alive that in turn, kept us going as we steadily grew in size, ambition, and impact. The manifesto is a declaration of our collective goals and aspirations for HSP. It helps us be more transparent, remember what we are working towards, and keeps us accountable, together as a club fostering community-powered development.

Year in Review

We have had an exponential year; of learning and records that broke what was once considered successful. Having seminar halls brimming with students attending the most niche workshops we’ve held to culminating a diverse range of quality recruits, loaded with ideas and an unmatched skillset, and from publishing resourceful blogs to giving talks at reputed meetups, every branch that’s unfolded from the sapling, HSP once was, to now, firmly establishing its presence as a mighty Oak, deeply rooted in fostering the spirit of FOSS. The quality of initiatives and the quantity of club members who embody HSP’s vision is an achievement that we proudly celebrate.

What's New?

The core team of 2023-2024 will be actively working towards strengthening this mighty Oak. Pushing boundaries, finding newer challenges to work on, exploring uncharted areas of innovation, and, yet remaining deep-rooted in HSP’s vision:

To keep the spirit of building alive and carry on the tradition of knowledge sharing.

Standing on the shoulders of giants, the new core is all set to amplify what we’ve been nurtured to do; lead by example. Tilde 2.0 was the first initiative that was born from the learning gaps of the older iteration, emphasizing the importance of reiteration and pivots. We built a haven for students during the summer, to actively upskill in their domains of interest and build projects with the help of our expert mentors who volunteered to teach what they love.

Without slowing down the pace, we have been ferviously working on ideas that would help amplify the technical temperament on campus and outside, too! Things in Store include:

  1. Workshops - HSP is known for its niche topics and we promise to deliver nothing less. We have a great bunch of proposals from the mentor team and we’ll be conducting 3-4 workshops this semester.
  2. Fireside Chats - A biweekly meetup at the quadrangle to sit, chill and discuss what you're working on, bottlenecks in your domain of interest, or even think about project ideas you’d work on, during breaks.
  3. Breakdown Series - To inculcate the healthy practice of reading technical papers, we will be having group discussions where we simplify, understand, and question the scope/limitations of these research findings.
  4. Hex - Hackerspace Exchange; a forum that curates knowledge in the form of courses, links, and projects.

These initiatives are not easy to pull off, but we’ve done hard things before and we shall do it again. Starting communities from scratch is a challenge on its own, but keeping one buzzing is another. Irrespective of how hard it may be, it's one of those adventures we look forward to embarking on with you all. We’ll learn, have fun nerding out and spread a seed or two of knowledge as we go.

Closing Note

If you’ve reached here, it means, you’ve been through the ride and I sincerely appreciate it. If you aren’t a member of HSP and would like to change that, then keep an eye out on our social handles for recruitments and if you are an already existing member, then we strongly look forward to seeing your active participation in bringing these initiatives to life. We need you to help knit this up with us, and give in your POVs, your ideas, and your invaluable contributions, irrespective of which domain you come from.

Lastly, you would have also noticed that we’re now going by HSP. This is because we may have started off as Hackerspace ECC, but we’ve grown leaps and bounds in terms of ideologies and initiatives; thus crafting a need to carve out a new, refined, and separate identity for ourselves. Here’s to building; the community and your skillset! Onwards and Upwards!

By:

Harini Anand

Co-Head of HSP

9/8/2022