Our motto is Thoughtworks meets Berlin at Werkstatt.
As part of expanding our presence in Germany, Thoughtworks has opened an innovation centre in Berlin called Werkstatt. Werkstatt means workshop – in the cobbler and carpenter sense, a place to roll-up your sleeves and work shoulder-to-shoulder to build stuff. In German the term Werkstatt has a nice ring to it, a mixture of nostalgia, quality work and community.
Berlin has a long tradition of revolutionary politics and has a vibrant, diverse and globally involved activist community. Being in Berlin allows us to work within this community to advocate passionately for social and economic justice. We also draw on the talent of dedicated hackers to further our excellency in software and make a social impact as part of the busy hacker community that has sprung up around the Chaos Computer Club, C-Base and other Hacker initiatives in the last 30 years.1
The mission of Werkstatt is to bring people together to address the most pressing issues and explore the greatest opportunities of our times. We are committed to diversity, inclusion, social justice, sustainability, privacy, technical excellence, community service, and entrepreneurial spirit.
[Thank you to all the unknown participants who came to our first Cryptoparty in the Werkstatt.]
We are proud to host numerous cryptoparties, a number of monthly research groups looking at policy issues and key emerging technologies such as blockchains and WebRTC, reading groups, the kids hacker club, and many others events, including talks and screenings. Berlin is growing as a centre for technology startups, think tanks and has four major universities. Werkstatt gives us a place in this community.
Werkstatt is also an operations hub for Thoughtworks in Berlin, giving us a wonderful venue for Thoughtworks meetings and events, and is always a welcoming place for traveling Thoughtworkers to plug in and get some work done.
We're always open for questions and ideas, so please feel free to get in touch. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, check out our overview presentation, or help us get our own discussion forum going.
- https://www.twitter.com/WerkstattB
- https://www.facebook.com/WerkstattBerlin
- http://groups.werkstatt.tw
1 Werkstatt is located in a Berlin neighborhood recently highlighted in The New Yorker as the home of a small community of expat Internet surveillance experts. (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/holder-secrets)
Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.