Our Communities, Resiliency, Our Future

The talk argues that community is central to humanity's future, yet it is under strain from authoritarian politics, manipulative social media, polarization, trolling, and soaring housing costs. Mitch Altman draws on a lifetime of community organizing, from student group houses and a food co-op to nonprofits and the hackerspace movement that grew from a handful of US groups founded after a 2007 conference talk.

Much of the middle focuses on Noisebridge, a San Francisco hackerspace he helped start. Its culture was tested after 2011, when newcomers who did not share its values drifted in and long-time members left. The response was a 2013 reboot in which everyone was asked to leave and only people willing to clean and rebuild were let back in. Afterward the group relied on one deliberately subjective rule, a shared definition of who belongs, greeting tours for newcomers, and yearly projects to pass its culture along.

The main takeaway is that every community needs self-regulating checks and balances, and that ups and downs are inevitable and can be learned from. When conflict or public call-outs arise, he suggests contacting the person affected privately rather than piling on, and staying respectful even when angry. The talk closes by urging people to build supportive local communities instead of waiting for leaders to solve these problems.