I've just spend the last few days in Iruna (Pamplona) at HACK3NA - the fourth annual Spanish hackmeeting. This was my second hackmeeting and it once again leaves a lasting impression of what's possible when a diverse range of groups and individuals meet and interact in a collectively-managed open space.

Hackmeetings started in Italy in 1998 and are weekend events where community and digital counterculture meet. They are held in occupied buildings, usually self-managed community centers, and aim to bring the wider community together with social and technological activists in order to share experiences and technical knowledge, generate ideas, and create and strengthen action networks relating to the social use of technology. Central to a hackmeeting is the vision of hacking as the fusion of technology with the social movement, along with the rejection of preconceived ideas such as hacking=elite and hacking=non-political.

This year's HM took place in the Gaztetxe of Iruna, a large occupied community/social center in the old quarter of the town. I arrived late Wednesday night and spent the next couple of days taking part in the "reoccupation" of the Gaztetxe. A key aspect of any hackmeeting is the rejection of an organizational hierarchy - there's no coordinating committee and anyone who has ideas and wants to participate can. By Friday night the Gaztetxe had been transformed into a open space with the human and technological infrastructure necessary to support the coming events, including four meeting rooms, a computer area and an infopoint, all connected via a building-wide computer network.

The hackmeeting proper started on the Friday evening with a lively "hacker manifestation" - a 30 minute noisy but friendly march around the local area. The next few days saw several hundred people attending talks, debates, workshops, exhibitions, meetings and other nodes, with subject matter ranging from hactivism and media activism to wireless networks and virus architecture to free software and technopolitics. In true hackmeeting style, twice as many events sprang up in corridors, over delicious home cooked meals, or in the Gaztetxe's bar.

The energy, ingenuity and vision I saw during the hackmeeting comes as a reaction to the current social and political context in Spain - one including oppressive laws restricting internet usage. As restrictions on the use of the internet and other social and technological spaces grow, the right to freely experiment with and within these spaces needs to be all the more closely protected.

"the street will make its own use of technology"

 http://sindomino.net/hackmeeting