[wsfii-discuss] proposed structure and timings for WSFII

Wed Aug 3 16:59:50 UTC 2005

Dear all,

Over the last few months, in highly distributed, wobbly conversations,
the following structure for the event has emerged for me. I hope this
isn't a hallucination ... please wade in with comments and criticism:

1. Preparatory week from 26th - 30st September

detail:

    - Based at limehouse town hall : http://limehousetownhall.org.uk
    - Provision of bandwidth, desk space, some tech resources
      (projectors) etc.
    - Housing / food provided by arrangement - details soon, or
      self-provided
    - How-to production: Each stream is invited to produce a simple,
      accessible how-to. How to build a free community network, how to
      build your own national geodata infrastructure, etc. etc.  There 
      is an opportunity (more details soon) for these to be printed 
      and distributed.
    - Preparation for wsfii: the point of wsfii is not just to
      meet and 'cross the streams', but also to figure out how best to
      communicate our marvellous ideas to 'the public', so this week
      will also help us figure out how to do that, together,
      effecgtively. Prepare workshops, stories (see below) and other
      useful materials.
    - Focused events: if you have business to attend to, that relates
      to your area of FII interest, why not use Limehouse as a venue
      to do it. There are already two proposed focused projects that
      will use this preparatory week as their 'nest'. 
      - http://okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/Wsfii2006Organisers (to prepare for
        wsfii 2006 in India)
      - http://okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/BookSprint (to prepare unified
        training materials for building free networks in so-called
        'developing' countries.
    - Socialise, drink, have fun. You know how.

2. 1st and 2nd October - WSFII itself.

    - 'Stories from the front': Organised into loose 'panels' 20 minute
      presentations by veterans of FII - your experiences of setting up
      Free Information Infrastructures in your communities and
      localities. This is intended to introduce people to the idea of
      FIIs in an accessible and entertaining way. 
    - Workshops: running concurrently with the 'stories', will be
      hands-on workshops, showing people who'se interest has been tickled
      by the stories how to do some of the things they've just been
      hearing about.

That's it! As for 'lightning talks' as you are suggesting Jo and Rufus, I
don't think it's a good idea to break up the simplicity of the format of
stories and workshops.  There's something really good about a shared
presentation space where everything happens - even if it happens pretty
fast..  There's plenty of space in the programme I think..  Here's my
notional outline:

Each 20 minute talk would have a discretionary 5 minutes for immediate
questions and comments - if the speaker wants any, they can factor 5
minutes into that. If they just want to talk - that's their business.

__Main Hall:__

11:00 - 11:20 - story 1   \
11:20 - 11:40 - story 2   } --  panel 1
11:40 - 12:00 - story 3   /

12:00 - 12:30 - coffee & talking

12:30 - 12:50 - story 4   \
12:50 - 13:10 - story 5   } -- panel 2
13:10 - 13:30 - story 6   /

13:30 - 14:30 lunch & talking

14:30 - 14:50 - story 7   \
14:50 - 15:10 - story 8   } --  panel 1
15:10 - 15:30 - story 9   /

15:30 - 15:50 - coffee & talking 

15:50 - 16:10 - story 10  \
16:10 - 16:40 - story 11  } -- panel 2
16:40 - 17:00 - story 12  /

17:00 onwards - drinking, eating and talking

20 minute presentations

__Workshop Room:__

Space for 2 concurrent workshops at any 1 time:

12:30 - 13:30 - workshops 1 & 2
13:30 - 15:30 - workshops 3 & 4

(nice to bookend the day with communal activities + this allows workshops
to prepare in the morning and run on in the afternoon)

That's 24 stories over 2 days, which can be split up into 4 'streams' /
day - I'm sure there's easily enough space to accommodate all the streams
we've identified so far, and even leave one open to all comers as a kind
of 'open wsfii' stream for all comers.

I have one extra proposal to make - we have the famous 'slackers lounge'
in the 'map room'. A place where people can go and talk - check email,
eat baclava and read collected material from the emergent limehouse
library, as well as the slacker's lounge provided material. I talked a
little bit to Lisa Haskel and Patrice Riemens about WSFII when I last saw
them. I'd love to invite them to come and do the lounge here again - it
was wonderful last time they did it at limehouse.

so, 

__Map Room:__

10am - 5pm:  Slacker's Lounge

?

Enough for now. 

X

S.

-- 
-- http://chinabone.lth.bclub.org.uk/~saul/