More than 200 people participated in the activities organized this weekend by the Matehackers of Porto Alegre in collaboration with the Casa da Cultura Digital of Porto Alegre to celebrate Hardware Freedom Day, which was commemorated this year on Saturday, April 20. The event was free and open to the public. In addition to hackers who participated, there were a number of tech newbies including, educators, visual artists, musicians, and academics. All of the events were overflowing with people, which demonstrates the demand there is for this type of event.

On Friday night, the Matehackers screened a documentary about Arduino, a single-board micro-controller and arguably the most famous open-source/free hardware initiative, in the Lutzenberger Garden at the Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana. The film was followed by a presentation by Fernando Krum explaining the real world examples of Arduino in action, and there was a demonstration of an open-source video-game using Arduino that Matehackers adapted. During the day on Saturday there was a series of workshops and presentations about open-source/free hardware. Participants had the opportunity to put together their own Mateduino Nibiru micro-controller (a simplified and less expensive Arduino micro-controller that was developed by the Matehackers in collaboration with Webtronico) and to create programs to use it. There were “lightening” talks about free hardware, free software, and digital culture. The day was capped off with a roundtable that included members of the Matehackers, the Casa da Cultura Digital of Porto Alegre, and the Gabinete Digital of Rio Grande do Sul about the ways that free hardware and related movements represent paradigm shifts and how they possess the possibility to transform society in the coming years.

Matehackers is a group of around 20 hackers (and growing!) from the Porto Alegre metro region that came together last November. Their hackerspace – the Bunker 360 – is located in the center of Porto Alegre. While the group is young they are already preparing for FISL 14. In addition to submitting a number of presentations for FISL, the members hope to harness the enthusiasm generated at Hardware Freedom Day to continue hacking and innovating all the way up to the big event in July.