Oktober 2024 – Happy Birthday, Wikidata!

Der Oktober begann und endete mit ganz speziellen Terminen rund um Freies Wissen: Vom 4.–6.10. fand die WikiCon in Wiesbaden statt, das ist die jährliche deutschsprachige Konferenz der Wikipedianer*innen. Auch von uns waren Leute vor Ort und tauschten sich mit den anderen Aktiven aus. Die Aufzeichnungen des Programms gehen gerade Stück für Stück online, so dass sie auch für Zuhausegebliebene nachvollziehbar sind.

Und zum Ende des Monats stand der zwölfte Geburtstag von Wikidata an, einem Projekt, dem wir wie beschrieben schon seit vielen Jahren sehr verbunden sind. Neben Einführungsvortrag, Hands-on-Workshop und Jugendprogramm mit Jugend hackt gab es natürlich auch einen Geburtstagskuchen (Q1195276), der nun stolz in einer Übersicht aller 12.-Wikidata-Geburtstags-Kuchen um die Welt auf Wikimedia Commons zu sehen ist.

Unser frühere Snackautomat wurde derweil in den Ruhestand entlassen und im Oktober gegen einen anderen gebrauchten Automaten ersetzt. Den alten Automaten hatte Maxi bereits im Sommer 2017 bei einer bekannten Kleinanzeigenplattform gefunden und nach Ulm gefahren, wo er lange im Eingangsbereich neben Kaffee-Ecke und später Getränkeautomat stand. Mit der Zeit machten immer mehr Funktionen des betagten Wurlitzer-Geräts schlapp und auch die Münzannahme machte ihn mehr zum Glückspiel- als zum Warenautomaten.

Da das OpenLab in Augsburg seinen alten Snackautomat loswerden wollte, der allerdings noch problemlos funktionierte, stand im Oktober ein Ausflug mit Klein-LKW an. Am späten Abend rollte der „neue alte“ Automat in unseren Küchenbereich und nach ein paar Abenden Anpassungen verkauft er nun Snacks gegen den kleinen Hunger zwischendurch!

Neben dem Automaten war an dem Wochenende auch noch zwei „verschollene“ Paletten von unserem Umzug ins Haus zu schaffen. Als wir im Juli 2022 nach unserem Rauswurf all unsere Siebensachen aus dem Haus in verschiedene Lager transportierten, hatten wir bis fast bis zum Ende eine penible Liste, was auf welcher Palette ist und wo die hingebracht wurde. Aber eben nur fast: Ausgerechnet die allerletzten beiden Paletten mit Umzugsmaterial, Mikrowellenherd, allem möglichen Kleinkram, aber auch gar nicht wenig Server- und Netzwerkhardware wurden am Ende irgendwo hingekarrt – und keiner konnte sich mehr erinnern, wohin sie gebracht wurden. Vor ein paar Monaten kam jemand von uns zufällig an ihrem Lagerort vorbei – zusammen mit einem „ahja, stimmt, da haben wir die damals hingebracht!“ Und so haben ech0 und eine kleine Crew weiterer Freiwilliger an dem Wochenende den Umzug nach nur knapp 17 Monaten endlich abgeschlossen ;)

Neben diesen Sonderaktionen stand natürlich wieder jede Menge unseres gewohnten Programms an. Zwei Einführungen in die Töpfer- und Keramikwerkstatt haben Interessierten mehr Vertrautheit mit der im Sommer neu eingerichteten Werkstatt vermittelt. Das Nähcafé fand zum letzten Mal am alten Termin statt – ab November wird es am ersten Dienstag im Monat stattfinden. RAD-ikal technisch, der OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch und FUCK trafen sich je ein Mal im Oktober. Je zwei Mal standen offenes Elektroniklabor/The Things Network, die IT-Sicherheitsrunde um CTF/PPP und der Maker Monday mit den offenen Werkstätten allen Interessierten offen. Und auch der wieder entstandene Open-Data-Montag fand im Oktober zwei Mal statt – was ja irgendwie super passt, nachdem dieses Thema unser Ursprung war und schon die datalove-Gruppe sich vor über zehn Jahren Montags an der Uni traf.

Ganz kurzfristig gab es zudem einen Samstag, an dem es um die Fotografie für das Freie Medienarchiv Wikimedia Commons vor allem mit unseren eigenen Geräten ging. Mehrere unserer Aktiven beschäftigten sich bei einer kleinen Exkursion parallel mit unserer Hauskamera und mit der Fotodrohne. Alleine mit diesen beiden Geräten haben wir dieses Jahr bereits über 300 Fotos, Luftbilder und Videos unter Freier Lizenz veröffentlicht. Dazu kommen noch viele weitere, die von unseren Aktiven mit ihren eigenen Geräten angefertigt und hochgeladen wurden. Damit noch viel mehr Leute bei uns mit den guten Kameras vertraut werden, wollen wir solche Fototouren regelmäßig wiederholen. Und ganz spontan schloss sich dieser Aktion noch eine gemeinsame Einführung in das Werkzeug StreetComplete an, mit der jede*r mit einem Smartphone die freie Weltkarte OpenStreetMap verbessern kann.

Nach diesem vollen Oktober geht es im November und Dezember wieder auch mit externen Gästen weiter. Im November freuen wir uns sehr, die Jungwikipedianer*innen bei uns begrüßen zu dürfen, die ein ganzes Wochenende lang aus ganz Deutschland zu ihrem zweiten Treffen in diesem Jahr zusammenkommen. Und auch im Dezember gibt es ein besonderes überregionales Jugendangebot, nämlich das Geekend von chaos.jetzt, dem Nachwuchsformat für alle Menschen zwischen 18 und 25 aus dem Umfeld des Chaos Computer Club. Parallel geht natürlich unser gewohntes Programm weiter – wie immer im Kalender einsehbar. Happy Herbts!

Das Ende des September heißt auch: Wir haben das erste Jahr seit der offiziellen Wiedereröffnung am neuen Standort in Neu-Ulm gemeinsam mit dem Haus der Nachhaltigkeit vollendet. Das ist ein ganzes Jahr, in dem wir mit den beiden Vereinen über 4000 Besucher*innen bei gemeinsam über 260 Veranstaltungen begrüßen durften – die örtliche Presse berichtete. Ein Grund zu feiern also. Und das haben wir genauso gemacht wie bei der Eröffnung vor einem Jahr: Mit unserer gemeinsamen Beteiligung an der Kulturnacht Ulm/Neu-Ulm am 21. September.

Während das Haus der Nachhaltigkeit mit Improvisationstheater, einem Waldorchester und Begegnungen mit einem städtischen Baumkontrolleur zum Nachdenken über städtisches raumübergreifendes Großgrün einlud, begann unser Beitrag schon am Nachmittag mit einem Kinder- und Jugendprogramm als Sonderausgabe des Jugend hackt Lab und mit einem Pflanzendruck-Workshop.

Im Lauf des Abends waren zudem alle unsere Werkstätten gleichzeitig geöffnet und luden nicht nur zum Anschauen und stöbern ein, sondern auch zum aktiven Mitmachen. Egal ob Retro-Fotografie mit Game Boy Cameras aus den 1990ern, deren Bilder Instagram-artig ins Netz geladen oder auf Thermopapier ausgedruckt werden konnten, eine Station mit dem Wikidata Guessr oder ein persönliches von einem Stiftplotter als Strichzeichnung gezeichnetes Portrait mit unserer Artist in Residence und Gründungsvorsitzenden bleeptrack – Ausprobieren und Mitmachen war angesagt.

Aber auch unsere vielen Geräte, die Ausstattung der verschiedenen Werkstätten und eigens für die Kulturnacht aufgebaute Installationen luden zum Ausprobieren und zu Gesprächen ein. Uns hat’s wie jedes Jahr riesigen Spaß gemacht und wir haben uns sehr über den Austausch gefreut!

Eigentlich fing die Kulturnacht aber schon am 17. September bei uns im ehemaligen Sport-Sohn-Gebäude an. Es hat uns sehr gefreut, dass sich der Neu-Ulmer Kulturdezernent Ralph Seiffert und die Ulmer Sozial- und Kulturbürgermeisterin Iris Mann unser gemeinsames Haus als Ort der Pressekonferenz für die Kulturnacht ausgewählt hatten – und umso mehr, dass Seiffert stolz auf die gemeinsame Entwicklung unserer beiden Vereine am neuen Standort in Neu-Ulm ist. Ein kleiner Einblick ist im Bericht auf Regio TV Schwaben nachzusehen.

A propos Regio TV: Nachdem das Haus der Nachhaltigkeit bereits im August in einem Beitrag dort beleuchtet wurde, wurde im September auch unser Beitrag zum gemeinsamen Haus portraitiert.

Neben Jubiläum und Kulturnacht gab es natürlich im September auch wieder die gewohnte inhaltliche Arbeit. Wir möchten sehr gerne auch Veranstaltungsort für Projekte rund um Freies Wissen und Freie Software sein und deswegen sind wir sehr glücklich, dass wir die diesjährige Ausgabe von BayTeX, des bayernweiten Vernetzungstreffen von Anwender*innen des Freien Textsatzsystems LaTeX bei uns beherbergen durften.

Aber auch das gewohnte regelmäßige Programm lockte im September wieder viele Aktive und Interessierte ins Haus. Im September hatten wir viele Sonntage und Montage, die zum Rhythmus passten, weswegen wir zu jeweils gleich drei Terminen F.U.C.K. und den Maker Monday mit offenen Werkstätten hatten. Jeweils zwei Mal trafen sich die Aktiven zum IT-Security-Abend bei Capture the Flag (CTF/TTT) und der offenen Elektronikwerkstatt gemeinsam mit dem Treffen der Gruppe von TTN/LoRaWAN. Wie immer monatlich hatten wir das Nähcafé und Mobilitätswende-Gruppe von RAD-ikal technisch bei uns im Haus. Und unser Freies-Wissen-Angebot ist sogar noch mehr geworden: Neben dem monatlichen OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch gab es nicht nur einen Wikidata-Abend Wiki loves offene Registerdaten, bei dem es um die Daten aus dem Handelsregister ging, sondern erstmals gingen wir Dank der Organisation unseres aktiven Mitglieds Tim quasi back to the roots und boten einen Open-Data-Montag an – so wie wir das schon vor vielen Jahren als UlmAPI/datalove getan hatten, bevor die Gruppe in den Aufbau des von uns erdachten Stützpunkts am Weinhof praktisch vollkommen aufging.

Wer in der Aufzählung das Jugend hackt Lab vermisst: Das war im September Teil der Kulturnacht und die dort Aktiven waren auch über das reine Lab-Angebot an dem Abend aktiv. Nicht zuletzt hatte unser aktives Mitglied Lisanne zu einem Vortragsabend Let‘s talk about Africa - Kontinent der Chancen geladen. Und alle Aktiven (und die, die es werden wollen) trafen sich im September zu einem Hausabend, bei dem wir über anstehende Arbeiten und Ideen für die Entwicklung unserer Angebote sprachen.

Als wäre der Rückblick auf den September nicht schon lang genug, stand noch eine weitere Aktion an. Auf der Mitgliederversammlung im August hatten wir beschlossen, einen Teil unseres Stromverbrauchs künftig über eine eigene Photovoltaikanlage zu decken. Unser Vereinsmitglied Jan hatte die Idee ins Rollen gebracht und angeboten, die notwendigen Mittel für einen passenden Batteriespeicher zu spenden. Andere Mitglieder hatten sich bereit erklärt, einen Teil für die Photovoltaik-Module, Verkabelung und Installation mit ihren Spenden zu decken – und so trugen viele Freiwillige am Wochenende vor der Kulturnacht Aluprofile, PV-Module und jede Menge Pflastersteine aufs Dach.

Am 23. September haben wir die Module montiert, in den Tagen danach folgte die Verkabelung und die provisorische Installation mit Nulleinspeisung, bis die Genehmigung des Netzbetreibers vorliegt. Über die Nulleinspeisung in Kombination mit dem Akkuspeicher schenkt die Anlage uns seither Gratisenergie aus der Sonne – mehr dazu aber in einem eigenen Post!

August: Lange Sommerabende, die Menschen kehren in die Stadt zurück und verbringen die langen Abende am Ufer der Donau, das dieses Jahr wegen der angeschwemmten Kiesbänke und des abgesenkten Flusspegels ganz anders aussieht und zum Verweilen auf Strandstühlen einlädt.

Wir haben das natürlich für die Nachwelt erhalten: Wir waren mit der Kamera und der Fotodrohne unterwegs, um die Spätsommerstimmung über dem Neu-Ulmer Wasserturm – auch im Video – der abgesenkten Donau (siehe Bild weiter unten) und dem Alten Friedhof in Ulm einzufangen. Der Alte Friedhof hatte nämlich Anfang August einen eigenen Wikipedia-Artikel bekommen, was uns zu Beginn des August animiert hat, nicht nur eine Übersichtsaufnahme dieses schönen Parks einzufangen – und die Aufnahme des Alten Friedhofs hat es danach sogleich auch in den Artikel geschafft. Das freut uns sehr!

Abseits dieser Fotodokumentationen – auch mit der ganz normalen Kamera – standen natürlich wie in jedem Monat die gewohnten regelmäßigen Termine für die gesamte Öffentlichkeit an. Je zwei Mal fanden im August die Maker Mondays in FabLab und Werkstatt und die offene Elektronikwerkstatt rund um TTN/LoRaWAN statt. Turnusmäßig gleich drei Mal traf sich die CTF/PPP-Gruppe und bot Programm rund um den kreativen Umgang mit IT-Sicherheit an. Auch das Nähcafé und RAD-ikal technisch bespielten wieder ihre Monatstermine rund um die Aufbereitung von Kleidungsstücken und einen technisch-kreativen Umgang mit Fragen zur Mobilitätswende. Die OSM-Community trug zweimal zur Freien Weltkarte bei, einmal mit dem OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch und einmal mit einem Praxisworkshop mit dem einsteigerfreundlichen Werkzeug StreetComplete. Kinder und Jugendliche ab 12 Jahren trafen sich in unserem Räumen beim Jugend hackt Lab, und beim Thementreffen Wikidata meets Uni Ulm ging es um die Verknüpfung von Linked Open Data mit der Struktur der Universität in Ulm.

Abseits der gewohnten und bekannten regelmäßigen Termine gab es im August 3+1 Sondertermine außerhalb des gewohnten Terminzyklus. Wie im Juli-Bericht berichtet ist uns ein Analog-Fotolabor zugelaufen, weswegen es im August zwei Workshops zu Fotoentwicklung und -vergrößerung gab. Und Lisanne bot einen Vortragsabend Let’s Talk about Africa - Was hat Postkolonialismus mit nachhaltiger Entwicklung zu tun? an.

Nicht zuletzt sind wir ein gemeinnütziger Verein mit einer wachsenden Anzahl an Mitgliedern, die sich im August zur jährlichen Mitgliederversammlung trafen. Es war beeindruckend, zu sehen, aus wie vielen aktiven und fördernden Mitgliedern unsere Gemeinschaft mittlerweile besteht, von denen viele für diese Mitgliederversammlung eintrafen – auch ein Zeugnis dafür, wie viele Menschen unsere Arbeit für wichtig halten. Wir hatten ein turbulentes Jahr mit großem Druck durch die abgelöste Spitze der Stadt Ulm hinter uns, genauso aber auch einen motivierenden Neuanfang in Neu-Ulm – viel Dank gilt den Vorstandsmitgliedern, die beiden Aufgaben sehr viel Freizeit gewidmet haben!

Wie schnell sich eine Situation ändern kann, ist quasi das inoffizielle Motto unserer Gemeinschaft. Wie so etwas ganz greifbar aussieht, haben wir in Fotos festgehalten, die zuerst das Hochwasser im Juni, danach die abgesenkte Donau im August zeigen. Wo vorher das Wasser buchstäblich bis zum Hals stand, kann es wenig später einladend und sonnig aussehen. Manche Metapher kann man vielleicht auch übertreiben, aber wir freuen uns, dass wir auch mit den mittlerweile über 250 Fotos unserer Hausfotografie in diesem Jahr laufend zu Freiem Wissen und offenen Daten beitragen können.

Falls ihr das auch tun wollt, gibt es aktuell einen hervorragenden Einstieg, mit dem ihr die Grundlagen von Freiem Wissen und Beiträgen dazu erlernen könnt: Mit der 30-Tage-Challenge von Wikimedia Deutschland bekommt ihr 30 Tage lang jeden Tag ein kleines Häppchen in eure E-Mail-Inbox, mit dem ihr Schritt für Schritt lernen könnt, wie ihr zum Freien Wissen für die ganze Welt beitragen könnt. Es ist quasi wie Duolingo – nur für Freies Wissen und ohne dass man dafür jeden Tag von einer nervigen Eule emotional erpresst wird.

You can tell it’s summer in the city: people frolicked on the Danube and other bodies of water in July and the streets emptied out as soon as the vacations began. For us active people, the summer is also more about swimming than being indoors, but there was still plenty going on in front of and behind the scenes!

Like almost every month, a lot has happened in the workshop and atelier: In the workshop, Seppi and Co are building new organizational aids week by week to be able to tidy up tools and sort construction aids into their right places. In the atelier, both the ceramics workshop and the photography department made huge progress in July. Firstly, Steffi and Patrick’s pottery kiln was delivered and they successfully fired their first pottery pieces in it. Do you want to engage in pottery too? Talk to them or keep an eye on our calendar for upcoming offers to learn or practice pottery together. On the other hand, the vh Ulm has closed down its former photo lab and we were kindly offered to take over parts of it. We are now one of several places where the vh’s analog photography equipment will be given a new lease of life, for which we would like to say a big thank you!

Our event and stage tech has also been given a delightful upgrade. The setup with the sound and lighting mixer was a little overwhelming for some people, so the stage crew came up with a way to make the technology easier to use. All the important things are now controlled via the home automation system and can be controlled with a click on a tablet on the wall. As reported, we were also on the road to collect photos under a free license for Wikipedia and Co—Spoiler Alert, this is also planned for August :)

In addition to all these individual activities, there was of course our regular programming: Starting with the sewing café, where not only items of clothing were repaired, but visitors also fitted and sewed airy summer clothes themselves. The RAD-ikal technisch crew met to work on measures and projects to promote cycling in the twin city. As announced, the Live Let’s Plays are now taking a summer break—but not without having organized one last event at the beginning of July. The group behind LoRaWAN and The Things Network offered two evening events, which could also be used to work in the open soldering lab. The group Capture the Flag, that playfully works with IT security, also met twice and F.U.C.K. again offered two events. Last but not least, the workshops were also open twice for Maker Monday—although one was postponed by a week due to Schwörmontag.

We also met in July for a house evening with all interested parties who are already organizing regular events or would like to do so. Here we discussed current tasks and to-dos.

There are actually a lot of these to-dos, combined with a few exciting additions to the numerous things that are already possible with us. But that will be the subject of an upcoming monthly review :)

June began with a heap of warnings from the German Weather Service and the Bavarian Flood Information Service: Heavy rain was forecast and significant flooding was also expected for the Iller and Danube.

With several instances of water damage caused by heavy rain last year in mind, we began to take precautions. We had to check the drains around the building and the downpipes on the canopy in order to make sure that even a heavy downpour could drain away well. At the same time, we monitored the level of the Iller at the Kempten gauge, which would also affect the level of the Danube with a few hours’ delay.

During the hundred-year flood (of which we have experienced several in the region since then) in 1999, Neu-Ulm city center was spectacularly flooded. Since then, both cities have implemented comprehensive flood protection measures, including mobile levees, so that according to the Bavarian forecast maps a hundred-year flood would be unlikely to affect our house, which is operated jointly with the Haus der Nachhaltigkeit. However, according to the forecast, in case of extreme flooding exceeding the hundred-year-flood mark, we would have been right in the middle of it. So we had to check the basement and make sure that, if the worst came to the worst, there was nothing on the floor that would be spoiled by water, or could contaminate the water.

In the end, unlike the south-eastern district of Neu-Ulm, the city did not experience extreme flooding and the measures were sufficient. Nevertheless, it still looked spectacular in the town. We were out and about with our camera and documented the situation on June 1 comprehensively for Wikimedia Commons. Our images can be viewed in the categories June 2024 floods in Ulm and June 2024 floods in Neu-Ulm and may be reused under the terms of the Creative Commons license. Immediately afterwards, one of the photos was also one of the first images in the Wikipedia article on the floods in southern Germany in 2024 (diff).

The floods still hit us in the end. The Bavarian HND also measures the groundwater level at various measuring points, and it rose very rapidly as the flood crests of the Iller and Danube passed through. And so the water also slowly sept in at the lowest point in our basement. The area was cordoned off very professionally using equipment from our mini construction depot and the water was subsequently pumped out. For a few weeks afterwards, the drying equipment already familiar from last year’s water damage had to suck the residual moisture out of the basement.

Our regular activities

In addition to all the immediate danger prevention, our regular program naturally continued, to which we were once again able to welcome well over 100 people in June.

As usual, we had two open Maker Mondays with an open wood and metal workshop. The RAD-ikal technisch event once again focused on technical tools to promote cycling in the twin city, together with the ADFC. The Live let’s plays are now saying goodbye for the summer break, but still took place once a week with four editions in June. The core program still includes the bi-weekly evenings around The Things Network/LoRaWAN, which also opened our electronics workshop twice in June for all interested people. The CTF/PPP group met twice and is also increasingly appealing to young people who want to immerse themselves in the world of playful computer security. At the Sewing Café, visitors once again repaired the clothes they had brought with them or re-sewed summer items to suit the season. The F.U.C.K. group had two meetings in June for all non-male people who want to get involved with IT, and the Jugend hackt Lab once again offered its monthly meeting point for all young people who want to gain access to IT and free knowledge in a fun way. Free knowledge was also the focus of the third quarter of Wiki loves Basketball, where local activists created machine-readable access to the master data of basketball players in the semantic knowledge database Wikidata.

Like almost every month, there were a lot of caretaking tasks in June. The wood workshop, for example, is currently evolving from week to week, as the rather temporary initial set-up immediately after moving in is now gradually giving way to a more well-thought-out layout, which will also make the newly acquired machines easier to use. At the same time, we are systematically going through the stock that has grown over the years, and mark the equipment and tools that seem to be of little use to our workshop.

Things are also progressing in the atelier: Eli has built and tested another printing press. And the ceramics department is also nearing its grand opening. The clay separators have been built and at least temporarily installed, and the kiln has also been set up and is ready for its first tests. So if you haven’t visited us for a while, you should definitely catch up – because there are a lot of changes to discover.

Thanks to everyone who thinks of us

Whether locally or from afar, we are always happy about everyone who thinks of us and supports us. Be it through a regular or individual donation, for example on betterplace or directly, but also by mentions and telling our stories.

Special thanks this month to the multiple mentions on the panel “Caring for our Web – Software Projects as Care Work” at re:publica 2024. There, tante, who was recently a speaker at Denkanstöße 2024 in Ulm, explained from minute 0:50:07 onwards how a city can interfere with volunteering projects with a great deal of force and dominance. From minute 0:53:56, in response to a question from the audience, he briefly explains the story again and calls the city of Ulm’s approach “the best practice for doing it the worst way”—and Franziska Heine from Wikimedia Deutschland makes it clear that Wikimedia supports us at the new location and that the city’s approach is not a good example of how a municipality should deal with the local volunteer community. Thank you very much for these shout-outs—and of course also for the support from Wikimedia Deutschland, which enables us to continue pursuing our original and self-chosen mission!

May is over—and until the floods at the end of the month, it was almost business as usual. Almost, because in southern Germany it was another month in which there was a public holiday practically every week, which is why (and because of illness) a few events were canceled.

Nevertheless, we again had 16 events with the standard program: from the Sewing Café to RAD-ikal technisch and the OpenStreetMap regulars’ table, two Maker Mondays, two CTF meetings and two open electronics labs with The Things Network/LoRaWAN. Not to forget a meeting of F.U.C.K., a Jugend hackt Lab and four Live Let’s Plays.

As part of the Wikidata competition Coordinate Me, there was also a related meeting for interested parties to assign coordinates to Wikidata objects such as hospitals or government buildings. In addition to the public schedule, internal organizational and working meetings as well as a plenum of local climate protectors took place as usual.

So far, so unspectacular really. Until the last two days of the month, when there were more and more signs that we were threatened not only by persistent heavy rain, but also by flooding—which is why we cleaned the rainwater drains and prepared the house for all eventualities. The result in advance: our feet got wet, but there were no serious consequences. But that will be the content of the June report :)

April has been over for a few weeks now—we may only be reporting on it now because we first had to catch up and celebrate a milestone we reached in March ;) We count (rather conservatively) the number of visitors at all events and we already broke the 1000-person mark on Maker Monday on March 18. If that wasn’t a reason to celebrate!

Another reason to celebrate is the revival of the Jugend hackt Lab, which is now called Jugend hackt Lab Neu-Ulm. The kick-off event took place on April 27 and we are very pleased to be able to firmly anchor this young talent program in the twin city once again. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the newly found team of volunteers who have revived this program and are now running it!

Apart from that, we were back to normal in April with a solid 17 public events. Our machines and equipment were available at the Sewing Café, two open Maker Mondays and two TTN/LoRaWAN evenings with an open electronics lab – accompanied, of course, by a friendly exchange and working on things together. The RAD-ikal technisch continues to focus on interesting technology infrastructure for the mobility transition, the OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch was about free knowledge, the F.U.C.K. group met twice (increasingly with guests from far and wide), three Live Let’s Plays were about computer game culture and twice the CTF/PPP group invited people to playfully deal with IT security topics. A Küche für Alle was also held for the second time.

As always, there was also a lot going on outside of these public events. One group took care of a wall painting as a welcome message at the back entrance, which you can see in the cover picture. We are still busy with a lot of small expansion work on the lighting and home automation. And of course it was once again a point of honor to present our house to the new students at the start of the university semester—after all, we emerged from the student datalove group and still maintain contact with Ulm University today.

Sun! Rain! Sahara dust! Capricious weather! But at least it’s summertime! March brought us all of this, in addition to a total of 19 public events at the temporärhaus. This month, we would like to highlight the lecture on The Human Cost of AI, the workshop evening Wikidata loves Basketball and the three-day LokaliCon meeting of the local community rooms of Wikipedians from nearly all over Germany (which only counts once for the statistics despite the three days). In addition, a Kitchen for All took place for the first time as part of the Climate Alliance, which is also supported by Haus der Nachhaltigkeit.

As the input on the human costs of the current AI hype fitted in so perfectly with the Ulmer Denkanstößen, which started a week later, we were able to get Prof. Rebekka Hufendiek to moderate the event. Mophat Okinyi impressively explained the working conditions of Clickworkers in his home country of Kenya, for example, who not only make the training of “AI” possible in the first place, but also have to fight their way through hate and violence on the social networks of the relevant tech companies every day as the first moderation instance. Thanks to the CCC Ulm and Guido Sondern for arranging and collaborating on this programming!

As usual, there were also 15 regular events, from the OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch to the Nähcafé, RAD-ikal technisch, four Live Let’s Plays and two editions each of F.U.C.K., Maker Monday, CTF/PPP and the TTN/LoRaWAN evening, which, as reported, is now also an open evening for all things related to the electronics lab.

One of the F.U.C.K. meetings was about photography and how ASA/ISO, aperture and shutter speed interact. Almost trivial for Karo, who usually works on quantum optics during the day. Meanwhile, we also played with photography in general to upload images of objects under a free license on Wikimedia Commons. And as described, we would like to use our photocopter to be able to make aerial shots available to the world as Free Knowledge.

House construction work, house cleaning weekend, the woodworking workshop and the new atelier

In the monthly reports, we traditionally only include events that are aimed at the general public or groups from within the digital volunteering community. As has been the case since the beginning of community work at the Weinhof and also since the reopening in Neu-Ulm, these public events are always complemented by at least as many unofficial, internal and purely voluntary work meetings – if not more. Practically everything about the infrastructure, from the fast Wi-Fi to the access system to the drinks vending machines, depends on voluntary commitment—and that requires regular work assignments, which are of course more fun together than alone.

In March, this included a spring cleaning weekend at the beginning of the month, where we tidied up and reorganized our shared spaces together with the active members of the House of Sustainability, plus cleaning windows, floors and other areas. Among other things, we reorganized the electronics lab, dusted, cleaned windows and, last but not least, had brunch together.

We have moved things and equipment to new locations and, above all, tidied up the workshop. Due to a reorganization of the space together with the HdN, we can now set up an atelier space for embroidery, sewing, screen printing, lino printing, cyanotyping and all sorts of other artistic things directly on the other side of the electronics workshop \o/

We have dismantled one bay of the heavy-duty shelving in the wood workshop and procured the necessary shelving stands from Verein funds to create a two-bay heavy-duty shelving unit in the studio area to store all the art supplies. Everything we need for all our artistic activities is now stored there.

However, tidying up the workshop was not just about furnishing the atelier space. On the one hand, we moved one of the workbenches into the atelier so that people can work there in future. And the space freed up by the removal of the shelving is now being used as a place for another mobile workbench.

On the other hand, we now have space in the middle of the wood workshop for the other woodworking tools procured from the DSEE funding, which are now in place. In over seven years, we have been able to gain a lot of experience with running an open workshop—what do people want to build here, what equipment do they need and, above all, what equipment can you use to get good results even if you don’t work with it professionally every day? We don’t want to give too much away here and would rather describe it in detail in a separate post. But if you come to the Maker Mondays, you can already admire the machines - and work with them after running through an introduction workshop!

What’s next

March is followed by April—and on the one hand, a regular new program item from the volunteer work for the general public will be launched, which we will report on soon.

On the other hand, we are not the only ones who run our shared house, which is why we would like to explicitly refer you to the monthly program of our house-sharing partners at Haus der Nachhaltigkeit. The photo exhibition is still running in April and is accessible during general opening hours (see both our calendars). And the April program of the HdN includes gems such as a workshop against right-wing and discriminatory slogans by the VVN Ulm and the FCLR Ulm on 15.4. as well as the opening of the lending bar on 18.4., where you will be able to borrow practical items from a library of things.

Es lohnt sich also, beide Terminkalender im Auge zu behalten. Und wir würden uns freuen, euch bei uns begrüßen zu können – egal ob bei Angeboten des HdN oder bei uns und egal ob ihr zum ersten Mal da seid oder ob ihr wiederkommt!

So it’s worth keeping an eye on both calendars. And we’d be delighted to welcome you—whether you’re here for the first time or coming back!

Although February is the shortest month of the year, we still managed to fit in 16 of our own public appointments in the 29 days – plus an external visit to Backnang, an F.U.C.K. networking workshop in our premises and, of course, lots of internal work assignments.

The Maker Mondays continue to be very popular: around 30 and 40 people respectively came to both events and we are delighted that we are able to help so many ideas to become reality every other week. On February 5, Maker Monday once again coincided with the Sewing Café, so we were able to welcome over 50 people to the house on this day. The group around The Things Network and LoRaWAN met twice. This group now also offers a general opening time for anyone who would like to get involved with our excellent electronics laboratory equipment outside of IoT technology.

With the RAD-ikal technisch group, we have a new monthly offer in cooperation with the ADFC since February. The focus here is on innovation and experiments relating to bicycles and the mobility transition – for example the OpenBikeSensors, which can be used to measure and evaluate the overtaking distance of passing cars while riding a bicycle.

As usual, the weekly Live Let’s Plays focused on computer game culture, while the three Capture the Flag meetings dealt with a playful approach to IT security. In addition to the regional networking workshop organized by FLINTA* and Computerkram, there were also two F.U.C.K. evenings in February, including a soldering workshop where solar lights were built. Last but not least, as in every month, the OpenStreetMap regulars’ table met in our rooms.

Since the Chaos Communication Camp 2023 at the latest, networking with other self-governed spaces in the region has become much tighter. On February 3 and 4, a group of activists from Neu-Ulm visited Backnang for a networking meeting. Many thanks for the hospitality and the exchange!

In addition to all our events, there was of course an equally impressive collection of events organized by the House of Sustainability in the shared rooms. We would like to highlight the Method Lab Liberating Structures, which we also promoted via our calendar. Away from the public eye, there was also plenty to do behind the scenes:

Not only are we still gradually putting the procurements from the DSEE funding into operation, we are still receiving exciting things :) In February, we received a fun addition from the team at Widerstand und Söhne, who left us two large LED matrices that they no longer had any use for. We don’t yet know exactly where to put them, but the first test showed that they look pretty!

Also looking pretty is our new milling table, which Henning is visibly happy about in this picture. And we already know where we want to put it (the milling table, that is, not Henning). After Seppi had adapted and rebuilt the table, it now expands our skills in the wood workshop even further. This is another great new piece of hardware that we were able to get through the DSEE grant – but due to the many new acquisitions, the wood workshop will soon receive its own report. And something else changed in the workshop in February: The temporary dust curtain was replaced with a not-quite-so-temporary molleton curtain.

Our housemates from the House of Sustainability were also busy in front of and behind the scenes in February. As far as shared infrastructure is concerned, the kitchen has enjoyed a proper upgrade and is now better equipped than ever before. Last but not least, to coincide with the Weeks Against Racism in March, the HdN team replaced the “Better Images of AI” photo exhibition in the salon with photographs from the Photovoice project by young people from Germany and South Africa.

The final spurt through the last weeks of winter can begin!

Another month has passed, time to look back on January! With 18 public events, one official visit to us and at least one away mission, we set a new record at the start of the year.

The bi-weekly Maker Mondays continue to take place regularly, and on both dates in January they once again pulled crowds with 30 to 40 people working in the wood workshop, on the 3D printers or on the laser cutter. On January 8, Maker Monday also coincided with the Sewing Café, so that cutting and sewing took place at the front, while people milled and glued in the workshop at the back. The working group for The Things Network/LoRaWAN met three times for their open evenings. A playful approach to the principles of IT security was twice the topic for Capture The Flag/PPP, and five times we dealt with topics revolving around current computer game culture at Live Let’s Plays

Of course, Free Knowledge was also on the agenda in January: we took an Introduction to Wikifunctions with several interested parties to explore this powerful tool, which works almost like magic in combination with Knowledge Graph. One such knowledge graph is the Free knowledge database Wikidata, and at Wikidata loves Basketball, several active people were grappling with the question of how they could use the Basketball Bundesliga player ID to automatically import properties such as height or weight of thousands of basketball players into Wikidata. And last but not least, the OpenStreetMap Stammtisch met again in our rooms.

On January 10th, 2020, the first F.U.C.K. first took place for the region. And as well attended as FLINTA* Und Computer Kram (that’s how it’s spelled out) had been right from the start, only a few weeks of normality remained back then before… you know. So it’s all the more amazing that almost exactly four years later, on January 7th, 2024, F.U.C.K. started up again at our new location. Two dates took place in January, and this meeting now takes place every two weeks at our place - and we are very happy about that!

A visit from Offenbach

In January, we also continued the long-standing tradition already established at Weinhof of showing what we do and what we stand for: A delegation from Offenbach from the Stabsstelle Digitalisierung, the city library and the Digital Retro Park came to visit us and let us tell them why we do what we do, how we worked together with the city of Ulm from the early 2010s and how we now want to support and promote digitization in the twin city. Thank you very much for the open exchange and the gifts! Anyone who would like to find out first-hand what we do and how we do it: We are happy to receive visits, as we have been from the very beginning! :)

Away mission in Fürth

Photo, by Kaethe17, CC BY 4.0

Not only did people visit us, but activists from our space were also elsewhere. Eli was at the workshop on dealing with antifeminism in the FürthWiki-Laden, another local community space supported by Wikimedia Deutschland. The FürthWiki, as one of the still active and very busy city wikis, is a totally exciting project that is mainly about preserving the city’s history (for example streets and their history and historical naming) – but also about digitizing artefacts and historical documents so that they can become part of the collective Free Knowledge.

Anyone interested in such events: The WikiMUC in Munich will be hosting an editathon on female artists of the Villa Stuck in May!

We also continued to network with hackspaces from our region at the Chaos Communication Congress, including Heilbronn, Tübingen, Backnang, Aalen and, of course, freiraum in Ulm. There have already been reciprocal visits here, which we will continue to expand in the coming months.

Even more construction work at SpoSo

In addition to all the public events, there were, as always, a whole series of internal work meetings, time for experiments and rebuilding efforts. We are still working on the building infrastructure, and in January we added a heavy molleton stage curtain on a rail system to the glass entrance door, among other things. The glass doors have impressive gaps, through which the wind literally blows in winter. The curtain will hopefully ensure that not too much heat is lost unnecessarily through the door when the rooms are closed.

We also assembled and installed some other arrivals from the DSEE funding: We assembled ready-to-use tables from the collection of table legs and table tops. Several mobile tables and chairs now complement the existing seating and work areas in the Hackcenter.

And there is now a drinking water dispenser in the kitchen by the entrance area which had been built by the Haus der Nachhaltigkeit crew during the past months. Anyone who simply wants to drink chilled, filtered and, if desired, sparkling water can now get it for free from the water dispenser - this was a long-cherished wish that we were finally able to realize thanks to the funding.