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April 23, 2008 • 10:24 am 1

IS4CWN '08 Opening Plenary Speakers Announced

I just received this email from Sascha Meinrath about the speakers that have been annouced for the 2008 IS4CWN conference:

IS4CWN is pleased to announce our opening plenary session will feature Amir A. Dossal, Executive Director of the UN Fund for International Partnerships and Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of Article 19.

Amir A. Dossal, guides the development of strategic alliances for the United Nations with corporations, foundations and philanthropists aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals. He also oversees the management of the UN Democracy Fund (www.un.org/democracyfund) which aims to strengthen democratic institutions and enhance democratic governance in new or restored democracies. Amir has developed numerous partnerships for the United Nations, including with the Commonwealth Business Council, the European Foundation Centre, Google.org, the LTB Foundation, the Synergos Institute, the US Chamber of Commerce, and others. He has also spearheaded the UN’s engagement in new areas including the technology sector working with Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Microsoft and Vodafone.

Dr. Agnès Callamard is the executive director of ARTICLE XIX, an international human rights organization specializing on freedom of expression and freedom of information. Agnès Callamard has evolved a distinguished career in human rights and humanitarian work. She is a former Chef de Cabinet for the Secretary General of Amnesty International, and as the organization’s Research Policy Coordinator, she led Amnesty’s work on women’s human rights. Agnès has conducted human rights investigations, including on violence against women, in a large number of countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She has founded and led HAP International (the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership) where she oversaw field trials in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Sierra Leone and created the first international self-regulatory body for humanitarian agencies committed to strengthening accountability to disaster-affected populations

More information at: www.wirelesssummit.org

Filed under: Community Wireless, NS4CWN, , , , ,

December 22, 2007 • 10:40 am 0

International Summit for Community Wireless Networks 2008 — Washington, DC.

Please help spread the word!

The New America Foundation, CUWiN Foundation, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, and the Acorn Active Media Foundation will be hosting the annual International Summit for Community Wireless Networks in Washington, DC on May 28-30, 2008. More information will be forthcoming at wirelesssummit.org in coming weeks.

Hosted by the world’s largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), this year’s summit will continue its tradition of featuring wireless leaders, innovators, activists, and community networking visionaries from around the globe. “With large-scale network implementations demonstrating the viability of open source wireless technologies, and corporate franchise business model faltering, the movement is at a critical juncture in its development” states Sascha Meinrath, Summit Director. “This year’s International Summit for Community Wireless Networks will explore issues of global integration and local control over these vital communications media.”

Additional summit topics include:

  • The role of community wireless networks in supporting human rights
  • The current state of US and international telecommunications policies
  • Exploration of state-of-the-art FOSS wireless technologies
  • Social networking and other WLAN services and applications
  • Community wireless updates from Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia
  • White space devices, “device as infrastructure” networks, & disruptive tech
  • Legal issues in community wireless networking
  • Alternative business models and sustainable networking

Filed under: Event, International, NS4CWN, ,

April 25, 2007 • 7:18 pm 0

Community Wireless Summit May 18-20, 2007 — Washington, DC.

Here’s the announcement for the “International Summit for Community Wireless Networks”:1 that’s happing in the middle of may. This is a great conference, and I’ll be hosting a panel on holistic design for community and muni-wireless networks.

bq. *INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT TO ADDRESS FUTURE OF BROADBAND*

bq. Community Technology Leaders from Six Continents to Participate

bq. Champaign-Urbana, I.L., April 18 — The CUWiN Foundation and the Center for Community Informatics (CCI) will host the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks (“http://WirelessSummit.org”:1) from May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland.

bq. The summit is the largest gathering of wireless network developers, technology and policy experts, and community organizers working to build universal, low-cost broadband networks around the world. “We are proud to host an event that brings together technologists and activists committed to universal access to informatics,” said Marco Figueiredo, CCI Director.

bq. “The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks explores the opportunities and challenges facing the growing movement to build community and municipal broadband networks,” said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder and Executive Director of CUWiN. “This event showcases cutting-edge technologies and develops political strategies to increase digital inclusion.”

bq. Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, over 300 Community Internet and municipal broadband projects have sprung up in the United States alone. The Summit will focus on how these networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and software innovations.

bq. Presenters at previous summits have included FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Jim Baller of the Baller Herbst Law Group, Annie Collins of Fiber for Our Future, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, Harold Feld of Media Access Project, Robert W. McChesney of Free Press, Matt Rantanen of Tribal Digital Village, Greg Richardson of Civitium LLC, Paul Smith of the Center for Neighborhood Technologies, Jim Snider of the New America Foundation, Dana Spiegel of NYCwireless, Esme Vos of Muniwireless.com and many other luminaries.

bq. “High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, the DC-based policy think-tank. “The innovators and organizers at the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone.”

bq. *About CUWiN (“http://www.cuwin.net”:2)*

bq. The CUWiN Foundation is a world-renowned coalition of wireless developers and community volunteers committed to providing low-cost, do-it-yourself, community-controlled alternatives to contemporary broadband models. CUWiN is fiscally sponsored by Grassroots.org, a non-profit 501c3. CUWiN’s mission is to develop decentralized, community-owned networks that foster democratic cultures and local content. Through advocacy and through our commitment to open source technology, CUWiN supports organic networks that grow to meet the needs of their communities.

bq. *About CCI (“http://cci.cs.loyola.edu”:3)*

bq. The Center for Community Informatics engages Loyola College’s students, faculty and staff in supporting the creation and deployment of informatics tools for community empowerment. CCI develops the Community Telecenter Free Software Toolset; promotes awareness events for the Loyola College community; offer courses in Community Informatics; promotes Digital Inclusion Conferences; researches and develops human-friendly technologies to facilitate inclusion in the New Society of Knowledge; and, evaluates, documents and develops sustainable models for Universal Access to Informatics.

[1]http://WirelessSummit.org
[2]http://cci.cs.loyola.edu
[3]http://www.cuwin.net

Filed under: Community Wireless, NS4CWN, NYCwireless

October 22, 2006 • 1:22 pm 0

International Summit for Community Wireless Networks on May 18-20, 2007

NYCwireless regularly attends the NS4CWN event with lots of other community wireless networks the world over. This year promises to be even better, since we’ll be nearby Washington, D.C., and more of the policy wonks will be able to attend. I’ll be going down with some other NYCwireless members, so I hope to see you there!

bq. *NETWORK DEVELOPERS AND IMPLEMENTERS, POLICY EXPERTS, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS WILL GATHER AT LOYOLA COLLEGE IN COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, MAY 18-20, 2007 TO EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF BROADBAND.*

bq. The Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) and the Center for Community Informatics (CCI) will host the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks from May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland.

bq. The summit is the largest gathering of wireless network developers, technology and policy experts, and community organizers working to build universal, low-cost broadband networks around the world. “We are proud to host an event that brings together technologists and activists committed to universal access to informatics,” said Marco Figueiredo, CCI Director.

bq. “The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks explores the opportunities and challenges facing the growing movement to build nonprofit, open-source, community and municipal broadband networks,” said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder and Executive Director of CUWiN. “This event showcases cutting-edge technologies and develops political strategies to increase digital inclusion.”

bq. Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, over 300 Community Internet and municipal broadband projects have sprung up in the United States alone. The summit will focus on how these networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and software innovations.

bq. Presenters at previous summits have included Annie Collins of Fiber for Our Future, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, Harold Feld of Media Access Project, Robert W. McChesney of Free Press, Matt Rantanen of Tribal Digital Village, Greg Richardson of Civitium LLC, Paul Smith of the Center for Neighborhood Technologies, Jim Snider of the New America Foundation, Dana Spiegel of NYCwireless, Esme Vos of Muniwireless.com and many other luminaries.

bq. “High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, the DC-based policy think-tank. “The innovators and organizers at the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone.”

bq. For more information on the summit will soon be available at: “www.WirelessSummit.org”:1

[1]http://www.wirelesssummit.org

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, NS4CWN, NYCwireless

April 17, 2006 • 12:23 am 0

Words of Wisdom from Harold Feld

A couple of weekends ago, I was at the “National Summit for Community Wireless Networks”:1, Sascha Meinrath’s wonderful conference (the second one, in fact) where I met and worked with Community Wireless organizers from around the country (and around the world, too). The event was inspiring. There are so many ways that people are using wireless technologies to help each other and to connect their local communities.

One of the most important aspects of the work we do is that, unlike traditional broadband, CWNs engage local community members and connect people to each other — as opposed to connecting individuals to commerce and media consumption. There is richness and diversity to the ways that people solve local problems and create new media and avenues for its interaction. CWNs inspire people — not just technologists, but moms and dads, students and teachers, grandparents and grandchildren alike — to discover each other.

I’ve always said that Community Wireless Networks are about *community* first and technology second. This years Summit drove home that point.

Here are some photos from the event:

More Flickr photos tagged with NS4CWN

Harold Feld “wrote up his closing remarks from the event”:3, and I would suggest everyone read them to get a sense for the importance of the work we do:

bq. Because our struggle to make a better world must be a universal struggle. One that changes and betters the lives of everyone, not just the techie elite or the chosen few believers. If there is one failing of the “open source” movement that has crippled it more than anything, it is the failure to understand that real movements help everyone. As long as open source coders see themselves as separate from everyone else, because they will always be able to get around the legal and regulatory restrictions and the rest of the world that’s too stupid to figure it out can go hang, they will remain marginal. Because the vast majority of people cannot figure this out, and therefore do not see why they should care.

bq. We must always remember that wireless is a tool, not a goal in itself. What we do has value because it changes peoples lives for the better. Wireless doesn’t create jobs or educational opportunities on its own. It gives people a new way to get information, to create new kinds of speech or applications, and share these applications with others. We can’t just “unwire” neighborhoods or throw up nodes or write code. We need to reach out to the communities around us, show them what they can do, give them what they need, then let go when they take it in completely different directions.

[1]http://www.cuwireless.net/summit/
[3]http://www.wetmachine.com/item/481

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, NS4CWN

February 15, 2006 • 8:01 am 0

2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks

The 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks will be taking place this spring. The last “Summit”:3, which took place in the late summer of 2004, marked the first time that the Policy, Wireless, and Municipal leaders came together to discuss the future of Community Wireless. The event was organized around both educating each of the different interest groups, and generating goals and next steps for the evolution of Community Wireless Networks.

The landscape has changed significantly over the past one and a half years. Like the last summit, this year’s promises to be a very important event. We’ve made significant headway, in large part because of the connections we made last time.

Here’s the annoucement from “Sascha Meinrath”:4:

bq. I’m extremely excited to announce that CUWiN, Free Press, and Mid-Rivers Community Wireless Network will be hosting the 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO (right outside St. Louis) March 31-April 2, 2006. More information is available here:

bq. “http://www.cuwireless.net/summit”:1

bq. or skip straight to the registration page and sign up here:

bq. “http://cuwireless.net/summit/2006registration”:2

bq. Like the first Summit, we’ll be gathering in a beautiful building and location, holding numerous small discussions and participatory panels, eating great food (and drinking plenty of coffee ;) , and hosting off-the-record evening socials each night of the Summit. Focus areas for this year’s Summit include: Katrina, lessons learned and next steps; how to fight back for public access to the public airwaves; municipal wireless success stories and how-tos; the latest in bleeding-edge wireless technology developments; (free) open source open architecture wireless alternatives; and much, much more.

bq. 2006 is shaping up to be a huge year for wireless networking — and the National Summit for Community Wireless Networks is going to be a key event that will help set the agenda for further wireless growth.

bq. See you there!

bq. Sascha Meinrath

bq. Summit Director

[1]http://www.cuwireless.net/summit
[2]http://cuwireless.net/summit/2006registration
[3]http://cuwireless.net/2004Summit
[4]http://www.saschameinrath.com/

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, NS4CWN

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