[okfn-discuss] open knowledge event this autumn: proposal

Tue Jul 4 09:17:25 UTC 2006

Saul Albert wrote:
> hi Rufus,
> 
> On Mon, Jul 03, 2006 at 12:35:28PM +0100, Rufus Pollock wrote:
> 
>>I really enjoyed this, particularly the chance to talk with people 
>>working on a lot of different areas of open knowledge and free 
>>infrastructures and I'd really like to run another similar event again 
>>this year at around the same time here in the UK.
> 
> 
> Yeah, for sure, WSFII was an amazing experience - maybe a bit too big
> though! I think it took us all months to recover from it :)
> 
> 
>>It probably wouldn't be a WSFII because that is taking place in India 
>>this year and it might need to be a more limited as we wouldn't have any 
>>budget to transport people over from different countries as we did last 
>>time. Nevertheless I think we could still cover a lot of ground and have 
>>an interesting and fun time. Perhaps we could entitle it 'Open Knowledge 
>>1.0' ;)
> 
> 
> I think it would be worth networking it as a WSFII event though - there
> are a nice collection of WSFIIs developing on the site (http://wsfii.org)
> and I don't think it's necessary this year to do anything too
> time/energy/resource consuming or to attempt to be global.. The idea is
> local networks, local issues... but networked globally in terms of
> knowledge.

Well it would be great to do something again under the WSFII banner if 
that were permitted (my hesitation had been due to the fact that when I 
raised the idea of a regular annual event in London soon after the last 
WSFII people said that we wouldn't want to distract from the main stuff 
in India). Once/if we have a clearer plan I'll moot this on wsfii-discuss.

> One of the nice things that has been suggested this year for WSFII was
> the idea of RCFII (resource centres for free information
> infrastructures) - places where information and the kinds of bits you'd
> need for developing your FIIs would be available, and where people could
> gather.
> 
> I think it would be really interesting to do something practical this
> year - smaller scale, maybe involving developing a space (Limehouse's
> top room, or perhaps another location - or a few locations) in London
> for ongoing use for regular discussions and practical development.

That would be great too though different from a 1-day event. For me the 
benefit of a single event is that it is a focal point which motivates a 
lot of people to attend who would not otherwise (including me: being 
based in Cambridge means that I am only down in London irregularly). 
Workshops and a single event would seem to be clear complements and an 
event might be a great way to lead in to a set of ongoing workshops on 
particular topics.

> 
>>Culture about Content etc. What do people think? Is there anyone who 
>>would like to help organize it?
> 
> 
> I am helping (a bit) to organize an event about independent online video
> distribution techniques and technologies with several activist groups
> including Clearerchannel.org, undercurrents and others in October.  It
> would make sense to bring that into the picture. That's scheduled for
> Limehouse on the weekend of the 13th/14th/15th October..

That sounds really interesting Saul and perfect item for the proposed 
event.

> 
>>Event Outline
>>*************
>>
>>Duration: 1/2 days
>>Date: Sat 30th Sept - Sun 1st Oct
>>Where: London (Limehouse? or I might be able to find space somewhere 
>>more central)
>>
>>Possible Streams (in no specific order)
>>=======================================
>>
>>  * Civic Information
>>  * Geodata
>>  * Content
>>  * Scientific data
>>  * Wireless
>>  * Hardware
> 
> 
> Looks good to me, but rather than have anything too massive - like last
> time, it could make more sense to focus discussion on one thing, then
> perhaps bring in more practical workshops in each of these areas...

Yes and no. I completely agree that focused events on any one of these 
topics are also useful (and we're already doing them be it in the form 
of open content forums/dorkbot etc etc). For me the purpose of this 
event was to bring together people working on *different* areas. I agree 
that I would not want to do something on the scale of WSFII last year 
but I think it would be perfectly possible to do a smaller scale 1-day 
event (perhaps just focused on e.g. content/civic info/geodata).

> I was so busy during WSFII that I didn't really get a sense of the
> discussions and whether the diversity really worked..

That what comes of being the main organizer/coordinator :)

~rufus