[okfn-coord] people for OKCon 2008

Mon Nov 19 21:11:01 UTC 2007

cia0 Rufus, thanks for the stream of reassurance :)
On Mon, Nov 19, 2007 at 06:40:59PM +0000, Rufus Pollock wrote:
> particular I'd hoped we might be able to have 2 main sessions before 
> lunch and only one after leaving at least: 1530 - 1830 for the open 
> Is this too little time?

3 hours sounds good to me, and starting at 3:30 means it doesn't look
like it's being shoved at the end, which it seemed a bit last time. 

> There was an email from 9/11 with some suggestions following up the 
> original discussion. I'd still be very grateful for you input on the 
> other people listed there (e.g. Sean Gillies)

Oh, Sean Gillies is lovely and does great work both as a software
hacker and as an open access activist. Are there the kind of funds
that would be needed to ship someone over from North Carolina,
available though?

If Frank Kelly isn't on that list, pls add him and i will finish the
invite that has been sitting in my outbox for a fortnight :/ 
Recalling how WSFII worked out, it was very much the "space between"
the nominal tracks that was the more interesting, so it's all arbitrary...

> <http://blog.okfn.org/2007/01/29/an-open-search-service-regulating-search-the-open-way/>

Okay that is good thinking material to have alongside "The Wealth of
Nations" which i am currently having a whale of a time with. 
> 
> It was mooted I think on the basis that maybe we'd have difficulties 
> with finding 3/4 speakers purely on 'open transport. If have 
> misunderstod I'm sorry really didn't mean to put your back up and hope I 
> haven't 'got your goat' :)

Oh argh, you are probably right. :/ I bet we'll get some interesting
responses to the cfp though - transport data apps are about all i see
being discussed on the mysociety-maps list recently. 

Re the environment topic, i will hang onto my goat and see what comes.

> I'm not quite clear what the difficult is. Generally we all have a 
> preference for the small, authentic and unfunded over the megacorps but 
> is that what is being debated here?

It is in some sense, in an inchoate kind of way that i see around a
*lot* on the lists i listen to - perhaps it's self-selection - 
not in favour of the "authentic and unfunded", but in the difficulty
of building useful things that are commercially sustainable without
being on a "funded community" drip feed, when megacrops can manipulate
what looks like a different kind of money from the kind we humans 
exchange with one another, to use monopoly powers in a redoubled way.
Which your blog post chimes with neatly, but which isn't what is being
debated here :)

I mean, people like Saul and Arnulf Christl have been telling me for
years it seems like "we must stop exploiting ourselves" but it's only
recently, circumstantially starting to sink in. ;)

> There's not much to do to get this show on the road. But without a 
> little bit of effort right now stuff won't happen. The room is booked, 
> the CFP almost written. We just need to sort out our basic panels, etc 
> and we're done for the next few months. :)

Okay, you have got me, past efforts haven't really taken much initial
bootstrapping and the results have always been great fun. 

> PS: i'm trying to hang out on #okfn more regularly ...

Cool, i've been off-irc a lot of this year, but the screenstrain is
generally a lot better, i will lurk there and try to connect more. 

Thanks, and speak soon,

jo
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