Horgesbord - an Experiment in Communal Computing

Horgesbord - an Experiment in Communal Computing

Horgesbord is a call-to-action for experimenting in communal computing a la squatting the data center. The word Horgesbord - a portmanteau of three words. 1) "Hording", the condition of amassing and collecting resources whether being resourceful or at a scale of the absurd. 2) The "Borg", the totalitarian hive-colony-like alien species from Star Trek the Next Generation. And finally "smorgasbord", the Swedish Buffet meal spread which celebrates a casual cosy, open, abundant dining experience.

Horgesbord is the concept that one has many compute devices hanging around in landfills and kitchen drawer, that perhaps can be bootstrapped and re-purposed for a collective computing experience. Induction. Boot camp. Assimilation. On-Boarding. Orientation. Bootstraping. All of these words describe the process of preparing a future member to the processes of the collective. While our devices lack free will, ourselves as owners of these devices do. So with this is the principle of consensual giving up our device to the communal computing environment. We no longer own the device and but we do free-willingly allow our device to be „owned“ by the compute collective. This is to contrast the unwilling and unknowing in habitation and ownership of our devices via malware installed by shadowy networks of hackers and state-sponsored security agencies.

In this lecture, I hope to describe my vision of the Horgesbord and perhaps build connections with the Radical Openness Community to being this project to fruition.