Hacking the System

By Josie Anne Maltinsky Gaitens

A hackerspace is more than just a workshop filled with tools. It is a community, built on a common ethos about how knowledge sharing, innovation, and collaboration should function. Often inherently political, at their core, hackerspaces are places where people come together to experiment, learn, and create, with a shared belief in the open exchange of knowledge. Michał "rysiek" Woźniak is one of the founders of the Warsaw Hackerspace, and shared with East of Moon the origin story of this community.

A Community First and Foremost

The origins of the Warsaw Hackerspace trace back to a simple mailing list that gathered a community eager to build a place for collaboration and experimentation. Following the guidelines of existing "Hackerspace How-To" documentation, the group decided on regular weekly meetings. They settled on Thursdays and agreed on a monthly pledge system, pooling resources to rent a space for at least three months. The first attempt, in a squat, proved suboptimal—unreliable electricity and no internet access made for an inhospitable environment. Eventually, they secured two rooms in the basement of a university building, a setting that perfectly embodied the hackerspace ethos. Hidden behind a dark, winding corridor lined with exposed pipes, a door would open to reveal a brightly lit, high-tech oasis.

Growing Pains and Evolution

While similar to makerspaces and fablabs, what sets hackerspaces apart is their political dimension—a commitment to accessibility, self-governance, and the freedom to explore technology beyond conventional boundaries. The Warsaw Hackerspace adopted a board primarily to handle legal matters like signing rental contracts, but decision-making remained decentralized. Early discussions ranged from the practical—how to deal with accumulating mess—to the ideological, such as drafting a code of conduct. Crafting this document proved especially complicated; hackerspaces thrive on self-governance, but self-governance is messy. While the code of conduct needed to outline acceptable behavior, it also had to navigate the reality that some projects skirted boundaries of legality. The result was a text that could be read in multiple ways, clear in context but ambiguous to an outsider.

Over time, the space expanded, taking over more rooms in the basement. But eventually, the university required the space back, and the group found themselves looking for another home. In 2015, they moved to a second location, only to lose that space to developers. Their current home, secured in 2017, is within a building owned by a workers’ cooperative of printers. The aging members of the cooperative, many in their 60s and 70s, welcomed the hackerspace with enthusiasm, seeing it as a way to breathe new life into the building, and recognising commonalities between their interests and those of the new occupants.

Internal Struggles and Cultural Shifts

Any self-organised community is bound to have tensions, and the Warsaw Hackerspace was no exception. Early on, a strong free speech ethos led to conflicts, with some members defending their right to make provocative jokes. But cultural shifts within the community—more than enforcing the official code of conduct—gradually changed the atmosphere. Over time, some of those who once resisted change became the very people advocating for inclusivity, guiding newer members toward a more considerate and welcoming environment.

The community has grown to over 150 members, with an honor-based membership system that allows people to contribute based on their financial situation—although access is equal to any and all Members, regardless of how much they contribute financially. Despite its growth, the hackerspace has retained a distinct character, evident in how it signals its values. Some prospective members attend a meeting and decide not to join, recognising that the space may not align with their expectations. While the community has expelled individuals when necessary, it has never outright denied entry to anyone.

Hacking Society

Warsaw’s Hackerspace has proved itself to be far more than just a work space and site for hobbyists—it is a recognised player in civic and political discourse. Having an official organisation has allowed members to engage with policymakers, even addressing the Minister of Defense in an open letter, when an incident led to the Minister publicly perpetuating the stereotype of hackers as cybercriminals. The community had the credibility to issue a public response, challenging misconceptions about hacking and its role in society.

Hackers from the space have also had tangible impacts on infrastructure and crisis response. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the community mobilised to produce protective visors for healthcare workers. Adapting existing designs and utilising 3D printing technology, they improved upon initial prototypes and coordinated with local businesses that donated materials. Over a span of a few months, they produced 50,000 visors, distributing them for free to medical professionals across the country.

More recently, individuals from the Warsaw Hackerspace have also been involved in supporting a regional Polish train operations company, who were experiencing strange problems with several of their locomotives. The trains were unable to run and displayed aggressive error messages. The hacker group, ‘Dragon Sector’ discovered that this was due to software ‘locks’ built into the operating system by the manufacturers, meaning that the trains were effectively ‘bricked’ and unable to run. The group were able to remove the problem software, but have since faced legal action from the original manufacturers of the train. 

A Hack on the System

At its core, a hackerspace is a hack on the system—an intervention into conventional ways of organising knowledge, work, and social structures. It is an experiment in radical collaboration, where diverse skills and expertise come together in unpredictable ways. The Warsaw Hackerspace exemplifies this ethos, evolving through necessity and adaptation, yet remaining true to its foundational principles of openness, learning, and community-driven innovation.

In a world increasingly shaped by closed systems and proprietary technologies, hackerspaces offer an alternative—a reminder that knowledge should be shared, tools should be accessible, and communities should have the power to shape their own futures.