Prelude 

If you find the structure or the organisation of the wiki, not to your liking.. and the information highly disorganized, my apologies. I have never done this sort of thing before and I'm still learning my way around all of this. I've never edited a wiki before and even though its not rocket science, it takes awhile to get used to, especially when the objective is not to learn how to use a wiki but setting up a hack space in Chennai : ). Besides, at the moment, this entire wiki is a one man effort. So please bare with me until I get all of this organized as well as it should be. 

You can view the other pages in the wiki using the navigation widget on the right. If there are any changes, or comments you want to make, please feel free to do so. It's a wiki, so anyone can edit it.

Goal of this Wiki

Hello and welcome to this wiki for the "madhack" hackerspace. This wiki will be a central point of information pertaining to madhack for the foreseeable future. As you can see everything is still disorganized. Don't be surprised if you have some difficulty finding the information you seek. We are still going through the process of giving birth to madhack, this wiki, the primary website and so on. So please bare with us, until we can bring some sense of order to this wiki. I am not sure how long it's going to take. But once the online presence is set up, we can move on to the hackerspace itself. Hopefully, there should be something up and running in the near future. And right after that, we can have our first meetup. In the mean time, we will use this wiki to co-ordinate our efforts to get the space up and running. The primary goal of this wiki is to bring together the various folks interested in this idea. This wiki is intended to be used as the public face of the hack space until a proper website  can be designed and hosted. That being said, No one is under any obligation to use their valuable time to support the efforts of those trying to get madhack functional. However any help will be sincerely appreciated : ) 

One other thing. The name "madhack" was a suggestion from Rohan. I met Rohan on Reddit. My thanks to him for the name suggestion. Rohan, if you have any more suggestions, you are welcome to edit this wiki to add them. The name of the space is not set in stone yet. So, for now , we shall use the moniker "madhack". I believe the name will go through a few more changes. So all those folks interested in seeing this space become a reality, feel free to suggest more names by editing this wiki or posting on the mailing list. I have already sent a few emails to other interested folks from Chennai with whom I've been in touch regarding the space. Hopefully, we will have many different names to choose from.

The reason for setting up some kind of online presence before venturing out and setting up the hackerspace right away, is to keep things simple, cheap and straight forward. Through this wiki and the mailing list and maybe the website, we will get an idea of how many people are interested in the idea of a hackerspace. If there are a handful of people that show some interest, then I guess it would make more sense to proceed. But if there are very few people who like the idea of a hackerspace in Chennai, then we might as well stop before we even begin, to save some costs and avoid going through the trouble of expending all that effort in setting up a hack space from the get go. If this is the case, then we would have to conclude that Chennai is still not ready for a hack space type social communion. And probably will have to try again a few years down the line. I hope you guys would agree with me on this approach. Besides, Abi mentioned in one of our email exchanges, that it would make sense to gauge the interest in the idea first, before going all out, "gung ho" style. And I agree with him. 

That apart, If you don't have the enthusiasm, energy or the time to be a part of this endeavor, no worries. Just keep checking back, to see our progress. Hopefully, after we grow a bit more bigger and become more established, you will have the motivation to join us. That being said, we would like to take this opportunity to tell you that madhack is and will be a community effort. Ultimately its success or failure will depend on "us". Not "me" or "you" nor any one individual. On a long enough time scale our persistent pursuit will bear fruit, as long as at least one of us never gives up ;) 

Why

Why do we need a hackerspace in Chennai? Well, that's not really a difficult question to answer. But it's a question that has many different answers depending on who you ask. If we had to break it down to the most generic reason that applies to most of us, it would be because as human beings we have a natural urge to satisfy our intellectual curiosities. We have a natural affinity to tinker, hack, modify, break, take apart and explore. Each of us, are interested in different things. And it is this similarity in our differences that gives us an opportunity to learn from one another. To teach each other. To help one another. To support one another. After all, no one individual is an expert on everything. Ultimately, our limitations are a direct consequence of our inability to leverage each other's strengths. And this is precisely what we want to change. We want an environment where we can leverage and complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. For example, in any group of 10 randomly chosen individuals, there is a very good chance that a majority of them are good at different things. There is a very good chance that each of them has an interesting idea. But no idea ever stands alone. You cannot sit in a corner all by yourself and think up "Google", "Microsoft" or any other meaningful venture. An idea is not a creation. It is a process. It is an evolution. You augment bits and pieces of knowledge and information from different places and different sources over time, to make a complete, well formed figment of thought, that eventually becomes an "idea". And that is why we need a place for people to mix and mingle. A place where they have the freedom to pursue their interests without fear of failure or retribution. A place where all sorts of intellectual adventures are actively encouraged. A place that vehemently pursues creativity and innovation. A place where thinking differently should be the norm rather than the exception. In short, a place to freely express, share, agree, disagree and debate our views devoid of any favoritism and politics.

Other than that, I have one other ulterior motive for starting a hackerspace. This may not be important to most of you so you can skip the rest of this section. I am just putting this out here none the less, for those of you that are curious about my intentions. I am lucky to have traveled to many different places. Grateful to have met different kinds of people. And fortunate to have had the experiences that I've had. Through all of that, I've learnt some valuable lessons about the world around me and about myself. No matter where I am or where I go, I have this perpetual necessity to proudly display the fact that I'm an Indian. At times, it can be a bit over the top. You may say I'm a nationalist. It has nothing to do with communism, socialism or democracy. It's more of a feeling, an emotion, a relationship that I share with my country and my country men. I see other countries. And then I look at India. As an Indian, I can't help but wish that we are on par, if not better than other countries in the world. After all, in what way are we deficient compared to any other country? In an ideal world, the economy of Germany would be smaller than our economy. Their population is 70 million. We are 1200 million. For every German there are 17 Indians. Shouldn't our economy be 17 times larger? But the real world truth is that the German economy is twice as big as ours. Maybe you can't apply such proportional logic. But it is still undeniable that we aren't where we are supposed to be. I want to change that. I want us to be a shining beacon of light in the darkness that prevails the world today. I want the world to look at us and learn that peace can prevail in an ocean of differences. No where else, have I seen, so much diversity and unity in the same place. 100 odd kilometers in any direction from any point in India, you will find people with different customs, beliefs, food habits, languages and religions. And yet, here we are.. after half a century of independence, chugging along in peace. Things could have been worse. But it's not. So lets not talk about it. On the other hand things could have definitely been a lot better. A lot lot better.

One of the most important things I've learnt about life is that, if things don't go your way, it is absolutely important that you blame yourself, even if it is not your fault. Especially, if you are to have any chance of rectifying the situation. There is no point in blaming anyone else because no amount of blaming the other person is going to make them do your bidding. On the other hand, when you blame yourself, when you start believing, well and truly that you are the reason for things not going your way, you will stand up to take the initiative and make amends. Because that is the only way to survive. But you have to believe in your deepest heart of hearts, that you are truly to blame yourself. And so likewise, having said that, as a citizen of this country I take the responsibility for India being the way it is. I strongly believe in my assumption that because of me, India is what it is today, when it could have been a 1000 times better or more. I am guilty for my inactions and actions, whatever they may be. Because, whatever I have done or haven't done is the reason India is what it is. And I don't want to blame my country men, the poor infrastructure, the dirt and dust, the pot filled roads, the lethargic justice system, the dirty rivers, our lack of innovation, our pathetic educational system, the corruption and the sea of dodgy politicians. I don't want to blame any of that, because they are all things I have no control off. I don't want to waste my brain cycles thinking about things I cannot control. Instead, I would rather blame myself for what India is today and try to focus my attention on initiatives that can bring about constructive change. I don't want to change the system by confronting it. I want to change the system by circumventing it. And then encircling it. As a single person, It would be extremely difficult for me to challenge the existing status quo, head on. So my strategy, is to weaken the prey by strangling its neck. Not to fight it head on.

And this is another reason why I want to start a hackerspace. I want to start one in Chennai and then I want to make this a nation wide movement by encouraging people in other parts of the country to do the same. Our strength derives from the diversity of our demography. Nothing significant can be achieved if more than half the population is uneducated and below the poverty line. We can't expect a third person or the government to uplift them from their miseries. The only way to bring the other half of the population in line with the normal standards of living is for each of us to do our part. And I must do my part. I don't need permission from the government to help my fellow country men. My reasoning is that, If I want India to be the way I want it to be then I must do it. I can't ask, force, coerce, compel or cajole someone else into doing it for me. I can't wait for the government to do it for me. I can't wait for the people around me to do it. I must do it. Even If I know that my chances of success are abysmal, I must at least try and do what I can. I do not know how far I will go. But unless I try I will never know . We all have to start somewhere. And starting this hackerspace in Chennai is my starting line. We all have our desires, visions and dreams. But for me, bringing about constructive change to India, is not a dream, vision or desire. On the contrary, it is my responsibility. Before I leave this good earth for good, it is my responsibility to bring India atleast one step closer to what I envision it to be. You may think I'm dreaming but ultimately it can't be denied that, I am doing what I think is one of the ways to bring about constructive change. I am sure many of you, will have far more brilliant ideas. I am sure many of you are far more qualified to engage in such an undertaking. But I am doing what I think is right. I might be wrong. I will either learn that I am wrong when someone tells me I am wrong or when I realize from experience that the path I am taking is wrong. In either case, the only way to learn is to make that mistake : ). I am sure some of you, sitting in your chairs reading this, think I'm probably going to end up in failure for a lost cause. I am sure some of you think that India can never be changed. I have heard this argument countless times. And to those that think that way, all I have to say is that, it is better to have tried and lost than to have never tried at all : ). However, there is a speck of optimism lingering somewhere deep in the recesses of my heart. For all our deficiencies and inadequacies, I still believe in "us".

If you have gotten this far, congrats. Seems like I managed to convince you of my vision : ). Having said that, I also want to make it clear that starting a hack space in Chennai is a single cog in the bigger system of gears that I imagine. For now, I only want to concentrate on getting this space up and running. All that I've said above are the guidelines I use, to steer my day to day actions and it has nothing to do with the hack space in Chennai itself. Those of you that are interested only in the idea of a hack space in Chennai, can forget all I said in the last 3 paragraphs. On the one hand I didn't want to confuse you guys by saying too much, but on the other hand I wanted you guys to know my true motivations and reasons for wanting a hack space in Chennai. I chose the latter option simply because I felt I'd probably be doing more harm by keeping it a secret ;)