LAG is a new hacklab project coming out of the SLUG mesh. One of our main goals is to promote free software solutions over proprietary software. We give workshops on how to install, configure and use Linux operating systems, and help solving software problems. We also wish to emphasis the importance of privacy and anonymity in and out of the virtual network, which is especially relevant, but not only, to various activist. To encourage privacy awareness we want to have several workshops on topics such as network security and cryptography. LAG initiative will not only focus on workshops and lectures. We would like to provide anyone who might be interested, with free access to equipment and the space to realize their technological dèrives, develop autonomous software or get creative around electronics by means of collaborative practice. We don’t want to be a service but a learning environment where people share and learn from each others.
LAG is more then just a ‘hacker space’, we would like to introduce the idea of computer(and electronics) give away shop, where recycled equipment can be re-used and given a second life. People looking for help and support with free software have difficulties finding where to go in Amsterdam. It is even harder to find a place where one is free to create and develop projects in a challenging environment away from authoritarian structures.
This is also the reason why we decided to get a stable place, because after years of moving around with the SLUG (squatters linux user group) we realized that critical hacking culture in this city, like in many others, can be more easily created from a solid platform and network. So, rather than keep on blaming evictions for our lack of continuity we decided to engage into a long term project. We perceive from one side a technophobic tendency from activists to distrust and reject technology, and from another side a technofetishist tendency among nerds/geeks to be politically ambiguous.
We position ourselves in the gap created by this two approaches by considering hacking a political practice and we want therefore to encourage and inspire people to challenge the present situation.
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LAG is part of the binnenpret collective at Eerste Schinkelstraat 14-16 in Amsterdam.
You are welcome to get involved at our regular opening hours:
Thursday 17:00-23:00 and Saturday 14:00-23:00.
Contact:
You can join #SLUG channel on IRC (irc.indymedia.org) using your favourite irc client, or webchat
follow the news at https://slug.squat.net
or see and contribute to our wiki at https://wiki.laglab.org