Alv20121208 cameras

Outline

Some people have suggested they want a virtual presence, for instance a camera in the space which can be viewed online with or without authentication. Others have objected to this and have said they will not come to the space if there are camera's present.

With the hacker community there have always people who have been wary or opposing to camera presence from a privacy point of view. But hackers have also used cameras to broaden there public and forms of communication. Most hacker-events tended to either be completely free, or as of late have at least a camera free zone to accommodate those opposed to camera presence. Hackerspaces have had a whole range of implementation, pretty much everything between everything publicly viewable for everyone to no cameras at all.

At the moment we have a non-official practise of at least asking those in present if they object, which falls in line with rule 6: Respect fellow members, their privacy and their possessions. Be excellent to one another.

The question now is, do we want to formalise this further? do people want a more permanent virtual presence setup which might or might not mean excluding certain members. If we do, can we think of a way of doing this which accommodates those who would like some visual communication outside of the space and those who would a like a more private setup?

Another argument that has been mentioned is the security aspect, so question I'd like to pose is, do we think cameras add any security to our space and is this to the extend that we find it worth it to sacrifice any privacy issues people might have with this?

* I really don't like permanent cameras in the space (and I have friends
  who would not even visit anymore if there were.)
* At Revspace there are currently/were four(!) cameras active and although
  you can (and have the right to) turn them off, it feels like I'm unadjusted
  so most of the time I don't (and I don't see how new members would feel
  secure enough socially to do so.)
* In addition, I think it gives off a bad message from the hacker community
  about cameras everywhere.  I still don't think it's normal you can't
  walk for long in the city without being filmed, why should we do it inside?
* I have no objection about people making photos/filming because this is
  something you can object to in person, or just get out of the way for a
  moment.
* If there are recordings going on where you can't get out of, (like filming
  for a TV-news-item,) it should be announced (on the maillist) in advance
  so that people know not to show up if they don't want to be filmed.
 
 Brainsmoke