Shanghai Government Proposes 100 Community Hackerspaces 76
taweili writes "According to a tweet from Shanghai Morning Newspaper's Weibo account, the Shanghai Government Technology committee has issued a call for a proposal to build 100 community hackerspaces with government funding for equipment and a community managing the spaces. Hackerspaces have been growing rapidly in China since the first one, XinCheJian, was started in Shanghai last November as reported here by CNN Go. Currently there are three hackerspaces in China, with XinCheJian in Shanghai, Maxpace in Beijing and Chaihuo in Shenzhen. It looks like the governments are paying attention to the trend and are getting into supporting (or 'regulating') the movement."
Bizarro world (Score:4, Insightful)
USA, land of draconian restrictions and propaganda.
Is this going to work? (Score:5, Insightful)
My experience with hackerspaces and government officials is that they really don't think the same way. One is all about breaking the rules and the other is all about living within them. I suppose it's possible for government to fund them and let them loose but it is certainly out of character. Big money tends to draw corruption too and that's death to a knowledge sharing environment.
Re:Bizarro world (Score:5, Insightful)
China, land of innovation and engineering.
USA, land of draconian restrictions and propaganda.
Wait, what?
Do you think those Chinese "hackerspaces" are going to be available without strings attached? Do you honestly think they won't be monitored, censored, and otherwise strictly controlled?
Absolutely. I might even be okay with that here, depending upon the nature of the strings. Anything to promote science and engineering again and maybe give the kids something to do outside of watching TV.
Or are you being "ironic" with "satire"? I can't tell. "Irony" and "satire" has been so overused these days, I don't know what the fuck to think anymore.
Frankly, I can't even tell, and I wrote it. :(
Re:Bizarro world (Score:4, Insightful)
China, land of innovation and engineering.
USA, land of draconian restrictions and propaganda.
USA, land of engineering AND draconian restrictions and propaganda AND a minimum wage higher than China.
China, land of cheap labor for manufacturing products based on designs engineered in US.