Several years ago, a renewed desire to produce open hackerspaces in North America exploded into a global network of facilities that are now providing much needed educational as well as R&D resources to their local communities. Today spaces across the United States from New York, to San Francisco and stretching deep into Canada provide opportunities for innovation that are already resulting in advances in technology as well as the creation of entirely new areas of economy. More than that an entire generation of our nations most creative people are expanding their own arsenal of skills and bringing them to bear in all aspects of their life.

In keeping with this drive to enable our communities this year we have launched the Agora Link, an open research and development network. Our purpose it to facilitate the safe, responsible, and free transmission of resources across the globe. Agora forms only one part of a growing network of international partners. The Chaos Computer Club’s ChaosVPN has been working with us hand in hand as we develop this network into a functional, and successful resource for us all. And through our collaboration and the future collaboration of others we aim to establish more functional methods for supporting a new type of marketplace for ideas.