We just celebreated our first new year’s eve in the new space, December and the year-end sprint that came with it are over. Time for a look back!

December is always a special month, what with all the holidays, christmas and new year’s celebrations and of course due to Chaos Communication Congress. Accordingly, we “only” had eleven public events. Maker Monday alone managed to pull 25 recurring and new participants into our venue. The monthly Nähcafé (Sewing Cafe) together with Hochschulgruppe für Nachhaltigkeit has also become a fixture of our programming. Four Live Let’s Plays invited to dive into gaming culture, The Things Network/LoRaWAN met twice publicly, and anybody interested in ITSec could participate twice at the Capture the Flag get-togethers. Last, but not least, the local OpenStreetMap-Community met for their Stammtisch in our rooms.

Remodeling and final Grant preparations

All these public events were surrounded by a lot of work that already began in November and entered into an even busier phase in December. As already mentioned, we managed to get a grant from DSEE that allows us to procure materials and appliances that we’re still missing. And while November saw us listing all the requirements and comparing vendors, literally every day in December somebody from our procuring team was present to accept deliveries, unpack them and enter the new things into our inventory system.

Some of the procurements are meant for the building infrastructure itself that we use together with Haus der Nachhaltigkeit. While we prototyped an infoscreen near the main entrance in October, this has been turned into a fixed installation in the mean time. The screen shows the floor plan and any upcoming events, making it easy to see where to go. And another “status monitor” has been installed: A former pedestrian traffic light and a DIY LED indicator make it easy to see from afar whether the accessible toilet at the ground floor level is available or occupied.

The lighting within the building has been a challenge from the get-go. The building used to be a sporting-goods shop, where all the available lighting was simply switched on from two central points in the morning, and then switched off again at night. That is perfect for a store – but selectively switching individual groups of lights on or off from rows of deceptively labeled switches with no visual connection to the fixtures proved to be difficult. Because, of course, we would like to only use electricity for lighting where light is actually needed. Literally overnight Seppi took up the task (again) and laser cut pendant labels for each fixture group to make clear which switch belongs to which lights.

Just like the former rooms at Weinhof in Ulm, the former SpoSo-building is filled to the brim with fluorescent lighting: The initial count in May 2023 ended up with over 250 individual fluorescent tubes. And just like at Weinhof, this meant quite the headache for us. After all, the EU implementing their European Ecodesign Initiative meant a total sales ban of the typical T8 tubes by August 2023. Sooner or later, defective tubes would have had to be replaced with LED replacements anyway.

Therefore, we and HdN had already decided in May to not only replace and upgrade already defective lights or those that looked to be near the end of their life, but to modernize whole groups of fixtures that are regularly used. This had a real impact on energy consumption: Before, even the “small” (and heavily used) passage lighting in the woodworking workshop used around 200 watts of power. After modernizing the workshop, even the full lighting for the whole room needs only 220 watts – and at the same time, the lighting is much brighter than before.

The grant from DSEE allowed us to expedite modernizing the rest of the fixtures that still remained. About 100 linear fluorescent lights were still on the to-do list. We now have the neccessary parts to modernize them and will continue upgrading the remaining lights in the coming weeks. This will save us significant energy costs in the future!

Meanwhile, this is just the “boring” infrastructure part. Much more interesting are all the new machines and extensions of our capabilities – but we want to reserve them the place and space in their own posts in the future :)

We want to continue our youth work!

Events for up-and-coming hackers and the “Jugend hackt” programming are tightly woven into our community. The student volunteer group that brought Jugend hackt as one of the (back then) four regional events to Ulm in 2015 was the initial seed for the idea to establish a hack- and makespace downtown for all of our activities. Due to our forced moving out of Weinhof and the cancellation of the funds for Jugend hackt lab at the request of Ulm’s CDU faction, we had not been able to offer programming for young people for a while. Since we restarted our activities at the new space, however, re-invigorating this programming has been high on our list of priorities. Therefore, Eli participated at the networking event for all Jugend hackt organizing teams in December in Leipzig.

Besides the mandatory visit at dezentrale, one of Leipzig’s hackspaces, the regional organizing teams spent the weekend exchanging their experiences at “Urban Jungle”, a coworking space in Leipzig. And Eli was able to pick up a lot of ideas how we can’t only make use of our list of already existing workshop ideas for a restart of Jugend hackt Lab, but also what kind of ideas for civic education we could incorporate even more into our programming.

This is because, of course, Jugend hackt is not only about being able to find one’s way around technology. From the get-go, a critical perspective towards the role of technology, code and the structural power that comes with them is a crucial part of what we’re doing. This self-efficacy, especially in the context of formerly powerful institutions has not only been part of the themes of the events over the years.

Ending the year at the 37. Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg and New Year’s in our shared space

Besides the final push surrounding the grant and the procurements, there was yet another opportunity for networking, where Jugend hackt also played a role: For the first time since 2019, there was another Chaos Communication Congress, and of course 37C3 saw a delegation from us (albeit with another new name) – just like at many Congresses before.

Wedged in between Christmas and New Year’s, Congress Centrum Hamburg became a nearly magical place again, as one can imagine when seeing the photos. At the behest of Jugend hackt, Eli offered a printing workshop for anybody who did not only attend conference talks but wanted to do things with their hands as well. Originally, the workshop was only planned for Junghacker*innentag but the demand for art and printing using our own 3D-printed OpenPressProject printing presses was so high, that Eli added two more workshop days. People could carve their own linoleum or tetrapak printing masters to take away custom keepsakes from Congress.

While this congress did not see the customary, large WikiPaka-WG that we used to contribute to, our activists were not only to be found at the youth assembly – where the printing workshops took place – but also at the directly adjacent Bits-und-Bäume habitat. This habitat was the home bases for groups surrounding Free Knowledge such as OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia. That was a great incentive to do even more at 38C3!

Both for the people returning from Hamburg during New Year’s eve as well as anybody who stayed home, the rooms of temporärhaus and Haus der Nachhaltigkeit proved to be the perfect place to spend the evening, recall the past year and celebrate the beginning of the new year. Who could have imagined that just one year earlier?

Because the past year was really eventful. In January, the local press interviewed us (and another space in Ulm) about our plans for 2023. And we really checked all the boxed from back then: We had wished for a new venue, wanted to reinvigorate Jugend hackt in our City and keep up the banner of a counter-model to glossy facades surrounding tech and digitization. One move, one outstanding opening party and – coincidentally! – 42 public events in 2023 later, we can proudly say: That went rather well :)

It’s already mid-December and it’s been winter outside a few times - and if you’re wondering why we’ve posted so little, you’ll find the answer below - spoiler: It has to do with your donations and an unexpected grant we’re currently working on until the end of the year. Together, we’ll get the new house in a better condition than you were used to in the old place by January <\3

That was November

In November, we once again had 14 public events, i.e. an event open to everyone almost every other day – including several events together with the House of Sustainability, with whom we are working ever more closely.

As every month, the sewing café – organized together with the University Group for Sustainability – attracted around 20 people who reworked, repaired and improved textiles on our growing inventory of sewing and overlock machines. There was also a joint meeting with HSGN and the House of Sustainability at the beginning of the month, which was attended by around 30 people.

The Maker Mondays with our open woodworking workshop, 3D printing and laser cutting lab also continue to be popular. Around 30 people attended each of the two events in November. And we are also delighted with the many project photos that people have sent us of the things we build when they are finished – for example the beautiful dog bowl holder in the photo above. The only thing that has been going on in our community longer than Maker Monday is the exchange evening for The Things Network/LoRaWAN, which also took place twice in November.

Even back at the old location, we had regular exchanges on IT security topics: Capture The Flag (CTF) is the name of these meetings and competitions, which had been part of the regular program at Weinhof and started up again in November with the old familiar crew, which makes us very happy! But there are also people coming forward with completely new programming: The Hydra Live Coding Workshop introduced the video synth coding language Hydra to everybody interested. What makes us happy about with these and other programming is that we have a steadily growing base of regular visitors for our regular program. And on the other hand, there are always people coming up with exciting new topics, which are then attended by completely new faces. So it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on our calendar!

This is where you will now also find the OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch, as a regular event. Interested parties and contributors from the region have been meeting for many years to exchange ideas – and since November, this regular meeting takes place within our space, which makes us very happy. The Live Let’s Plays on current and vintage gaming culture are also very popular almost every week – on four occasions in November.

In addition, as in every month, there were at least as many internal construction, organization and planning meetings to further develop the shared house and the offers. And not least because of a wonderful end-of-year surprise.

November and December fever: We’re expanding!

We’ve already mentioned it at the top: Something is happening here (again). Since summer, we’ve been unpacking all our inventory out of boxes and putting it back into operation. And at the latest since our reopening in September, it has gradually become clear what smaller and larger items we are missing in terms of equipment for smooth operations, because it is still stored somewhere in the Weinhof as city inventory that we don’t have access to anymore.

We are very, very grateful that so many people from near and far have supported us over all this time through supporting memberships or on betterplace with direct donations for replacements. Since November, we have been in the process of procuring all the missing equipment and machines that have been financed through your donations.

Totally unexpectedly, a funding opportunity arose from the German Foundation for Engagement and Volunteering (DSEE) at very short notice. The DSEE had already funded us so generously at the end of 2021 that we were able to significantly expand the equipment we had at the time and our associated skills to a truly fantastic level. At the time, however, this was still intended as a supplement to the existing basic equipment procured by the city over the previous five years. In several places, we had replaced the previous equipment with better devices after gaining experience and know-how about what a place like ours needs and what is practical for the public to use. For other parts, however, we were still assuming at the end of 2021 that we would be able to continue the model of a third location that is self-governed by committed volunteers in a city-funded space.

Thanks to DSEE funding, we can now significantly accelerate the replacement of the equipment gaps, which will allow us to expand the quality of our offer and return to what people were used to from us. And last, but not least, we can also continue with some energy-related measures in order to be able to use the charming but somewhat outdated building with slightly less energy.

Of course, this takes up a lot of our free time - over the last few weeks, we’ve been getting our procurement plan up to scratch, putting together shopping baskets and obtaining comparative offers. And last but not least, the incoming orders had to be received, inventoried and sorted. If we have posted a little less in places or emails took a little longer for us to reply to: It could be because of that :D

However, we would of course like to make our new items available to you as quickly as possible. That’s why it’s still worth dropping by. And if there’s still enough time between ordering, unpacking and keeping track of invoices, we want to show you the best purchases here and on our social media channels :)

While it has finally become autumn outside, we have completed the first full month that we have been open – and are almost back to our usual opening hours. We counted 14 public events in October 2023, which means we’re almost back to the “one public event every two days” average we used to have.

In September, we were delighted with the turnout for Maker Monday, where we had 25 people on the premises from a standing start. But that was nothing compared to the three Maker Mondays in October, where 40–45 people were repeatedly active in the wood workshop, at the 3D printer and the laser cutter. Fortunately, more people are now coming forward to help with the workshop every Monday, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to cope with the demand :)

The Live Let’s Play evenings have become a regular new event on Tuesdays, where computer games are tried out live as a cultural form and experienced together. And because we are a third place, this can also take place in our rooms without any pressure to consume stuff – in our opinion, we really need places like this in our cities.

TTN and LoRaWAN have been with us since 2016 – back then, the initiative.ulm.digital set up the first TTN gateways in the city, and the community that has been active with us since then has not only expanded this network, but also encouraged many other interested municipalities to get excited about this free sensor network :) Two TTN evenings took place again in October. And as reported, the Upcycling Nähcafé, which has been part of our community program since December 2016, also started up again in October.

Last, but not least, Free Knowledge is weaved into our DNA, as it has been from the very beginning. The OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch took place in our rooms for the first time in October. And since Wikidata was already the content of the first Germany-wide networking event in the old rooms, it is only logical that we were the location for a joint livestreaming of WikiDataCon 2023 in the region.

On October 3rd, we also spontaneously declared our construction and organization day, which was taking place anyway, to be an open house event. In addition to these public events, our joint house is full of life practically every day, which makes us very happy. There is still a lot of work to be done within the premises – the workshop and soldering lab are continuing to progress, the modernization of the lighting is in its final stages and we have now also found seals for the huge gaps between the glass doors of the main entrance, so that air draw is not as bad a problem as it had been :)

We’ve also been able to integrate the streaming case from WMDE back into our daily routine and have already broadcast several test streams from the living room on Twitch. We want to use this equipment to provide even more live insights into our activities in the future, even if they don’t take place on the “big stage” in the salon. And, of course, we continue to acquire exciting devices that are left to us – for the electronics lab, for the workshop or simply because they’re fun.

The new signpost at the main entrance, currently still based on our Flip 2 display, has a very practical use. Synchronized with our new, finally Google-free event calendar (also available for subscription!), it shows which event is currently running where in the entire building, i.e. also the events of the HdN or of guests. Using this technology, we want to be even more inviting and open to occasional visitors. And by the way, you’ll also notice that our two communities sometimes have three things going on in the building at the same time!

What also brings us a lot of joy: Just as in the old location, we are once again a place to visit for digital politicians and people from the field of administrative digitization who are interested in the experiences of voluntary civic tech. On Friday, October 27, Anna Peters (Green voter for the European elections) and Tobias Bacherle (Member of the German Bundestag, among others in the Digital Committee) visited us and ended up talking to us for much longer than the planned hour about digital volunteering, hack- and make spaces as third places and digitization in municipalities.

We are happy when we can share experiences and pass on knowledge - the next visits are already scheduled for November :)

With all this program for the public and the transfer of knowledge, the community aspect for our community should of course not be forgotten. And so we did not only combine the public pumpkin carving on October 30th with getting to know various groups active in the house, we also grew as a community at the various other evenings, from the house-building event to the spontaneously formed analog photography interest group – precisely because we want to be a third place where people enjoy hanging out.

We’ve been open for about two weeks now – time for a recap of what has happened since.

Our great opening

Highlight of the month is naturally the joint Opening of temporärhaus and Haus der Nachhaltigkeit on Saturday, September 16th. The 99 reserved ticket slots were quickly booked, and, to our delight, so was the waiting list.

Naturally, we aimed to include interested persons who could not attend in person. Hence, we tinkered until the end to provide everybody with a live stream – including a mobile setup for a guided tour across all rooms. Of course, we did not turn away anyone who showed up!

The grand opening also marked the final stretch for most parts of the remodeling efforts which took place basically every day during the weeks before. There are still minor issues to be completed, but the opening date made it clear that the stage, all the PA and event infrastructure, the accessible toilet and a bunch of other construction sites needed to be done by that date. All these remodelling efforts have only been possible due to thousands of volunteered work hours by both our communities. And we are really proud of what we have been able to achieve together as a civic community!

The date for the opening was purposely set for the day of Kulturnacht Ulm/Neu-Ulm. Beginning with the very first day, we wanted to open our shared house for the general public and anybody interested. Harbor songs were played by “The Dogs of The Bay”, a band with members from the Haus der Nachhaltigkeit. Meanwhile, both our groups catered all interested visitors with food and drink, led guided tours across the rooms and let them experience the exhibits: audiovisual animations of Wikipedia edits, better images for the AI hype and interactive exhibits and art by bleeptrack. We were very delighted about the great demand, since queues started to form along the sidewalk right from the minute we opened in the evening!

Regular program right from the opening

Our regular programming started immediately after the opening weekend. The re-opening of our Maker Monday on Monday, September 18th drew a crowd of about 25 people. Right on the next evening, a Live Let’s Play followed.

Wednesday, September 27th saw the re-boot of another favourite of ours that we had previously organized for years in the old rooms at Weinhof: LoRaWAN and TTN is back in business for anybody interested in free sensor networks and IoT. As before, every other week will see either an open evening and a hack night focused on finishing one’s project on a rotational basis.
The same day saw our Temporärhaus hosting the first partner event for ZAWiW’s Fall Academy’: We demonstrated how to contribute to OpenStreetMap’s quality through the StreetComplete app.

On Thursday, September 28th, a four-person delegation of our patron Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) stopped by our house while they were on the way to WikiCon in Linz. Together with 13 of our volunteers we held a planning workshop about what will and can happen in our rooms, how to report our activities to WMDE and how to keep the public informed about our activities.

Along all these “official” events, there is still a lot of work to be done. Some of the construction sites that were temporarily put on hold for the opening need to be completed. The wood workshop has seen a lot of progress and one tool after another becomes usable. We strive to finish all the open tasks together with Haus der Nachhaltigkeit by the end of the year.

That’s not all, by far!

We are looking forward to re-boot all the usual, regular events that you have come to enjoy in the past years. October will see the re-start of Nähcafé, our textile and sewing workshop program. There is still a lot to be done, but having finished the main remodelling tasks allows a lot of other programming to resume – both ones you have been familiar with, and others that are only possible through our new-found cooperation. As before, you are invited to participate to mold our third place for our twin cities.

From 2017 through 2020 we had created monthly activity and transparency reports for one patron and the lord mayor. We want to re-introduce this kind of chronicling – but now, finally, also for the general public, in order to create transparency and accountability.