[wsfii-discuss] Onward to Africa

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

Thanks Juergen!

As a new participant to this sort of event I was saddened to have 
witnessed and experienced the culture clash. 

I was however *very pleased* with the workshops given by *Elektra*, 
*Sebastian*, *Juergen*, *Laura* and *Gina*.  I also greatly benefited 
from the Air Jaldi conference portion of the event as it was a sort of 
primer to the workshops for a novice like myself.  How often do you get 
to meet and listen to the pioneers in a field! I however sadly missed 
*Kloshii*'s radio workshop, *Cvend'*s mesh work and the fun looking 
video cam stuff *Fred* had going.  However, a Naga friend attended the 
event, and for him, the roadshow was not exactly attuned to his learning 
style, so I hooked him up with Kloshii and Fred, et voila, he loved it 
and really learned allot about  what they were doing, learned allot 
about himself and  got  to experience for the first time how it is 
possible to just do what you luv and share it with others.  There was 
also vlogging workshops conducted by *Ryanne* and *Jay*, and I think 
many of us missed those while a great number of Tibetan students got 
some excellent first hand training.

*Logistics.* Again, as a novice, who traveled a very long way at great 
expense and with a mission, i was torn between what i needed to know, 
wanted to know and should know. Honestly i had not realized or 
completely understood what the two spaces were doing.  I think there was 
a communication thing missing to connect these. I think there was also a 
bit of a logistical issue for participants, the roadshow was in one 
building 10 min minutes walk away, the economic workshop in yet another 
building and Kloshii, Cven and Fred in another, Ryanne and Jay also in 
another, and the washrooms somewhere in between and lunch another 10 
mins away.  It was logistically impossible to attend all concurrent 
workshops.  I missed one morning of the Roadshow for an interview and it 
really set me back in terms of learning and i was reluctant to miss 
another time.  Then there were workshops at lunch to. Also, since 
restaurants and cafe's were 5 km taxi or walk away, it was hard to stay 
after the roadshow for another few hours to participate in other 
workshops.  The day was jammed packed from +/- 9am sometimes right up 
until 6:30 pm.  All were on separate time zones and some of us also 
spent many late evenings out! I think location and logistics need to be 
carefully attended to next time ( i understand how complex it was this 
time), as well as communication *as all the knowledge WSFII people bring 
with them combined with the spirit of knowledge sharing is above and 
beyond what i expected and I would have personally loved to experience 
it all.* 

The *communication* part was difficult logistically because of the 
geographic dispersion of the buildings, the time it took to get to 
stuff, but also because access to the Internet was not always easy (for 
those without a computer), and there were no paper postings of all of 
the events, and i think this is how Kloshii's, Cvend's, Fred's, Jay & 
Ryanne's contributions got missed and they were also not listed on the 
workshop posting on the air jaldi website.   For overwhelmed time zoned 
out people like myself this may have helped me get to those other 
events.  Sadly i missed them, and back here in cold Canada - i kick 
myself.  The bulletin board later created helped a bit.

*London folks*, I heard lots about them but did not meet any of them in 
their former colony!

*As for Local participation*, i think the roadshow had +/- 65% 
local/regional representation (*Tibetan, Ghadi, Punjabi, South Indian, 
Philippines and Nepal*), *+/- 5 women* participants not including *Gina, 
Elektra, Laura and Joy* who were workshop teachers/facilitators, and the 
rest of the participants were from Canada, Germany, US, Africa, and 
Columbia (did i miss any?).  The conference had only one woman speaker, 
Elektra, and the audience had a lower local/regional participation 
perhaps +/- 35 %.  There could have been more Asian countries 
represented, as surely there are some cool wireless things happening in 
Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Shanghai - China, Sri Lanka, East Timor, 
Indonesia, Afghanistan, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia and 
Pakistan.  In East Timor, Afghanistan and Pakistan for instance I know 
of some cool radio activities related to land mine awareness and women - 
also the best medium for illiterate people.   Travel  funds  would have  
helped them attend.

*Future* - Now that I know that WSFII & WSFIIers are an emergent 
chaordic virtual organization, I know that each of us has to mobilize 
our individual networks and knowledge to introduce people, initiatives 
and activities to the events.  I promise to do some digging to find 
stuff in Africa and get them to you all when the time comes to do so.  I 
also promise to be more engaged next time!

*Questions:*
1. If i come across some cool wireless / radio type of initiatives where 
do i send them?
2. Can we put together a list of case studies and if so where would they go?
3. If i want to introduce some people to the Ghana organizers, to whom 
should i introduce them and how should i do this?
4. If people need funding to travel, how will this be arranged?
5. On Monday, I participated on a wireless skype roundtable, and some 
people discussed how they allocated funding for participants to attend 
events, how could we get that knowledge and process shared somewhere?
6. Is there some sort of repository/wiki/blog/webpage/dbase to post 
stuff to?  Joy and I were discussing a centralized repository for this 
type of content on skype yesterday.  Any ideas?
7.  What would be a good way to start a travel fund?

Yikes!  This is really long! Sorry gang! *Lets just say, I am inspired 
by you all*!

Love
tracey

skype - lauriault123
pers. blog - serendipityoucity.blogsome.com
formal bio - https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault





Juergen Neumann wrote:
> Hi Armin and all, 
>
>   
>> as plans are already made for Africa, those who did not make it to 
>> India like me still wonder how it was. Could anyone post a report?
>>     
>
> I can only speek for myself here, but others can always join
> in/disagree, of course - please!
>
> This answer will be al little longer and needs to be split in some
> sections I think:
>
> - The people who came
>
> Where all great! I made so many new friends and the whole atmosphere
> amongst us, the late night sessions, the party - everything about that
> was great. I am very happy I went there, as I thought to be happy
> meeting just a few I could get along with - that turned into everyone
> who came!!! I am very much looking forward to seeing you all again!
> Thanks again to Fred and Thomas and many others for their engagement to
> make the socializing happen! It also gave us a change to meet some of
> the local helpers/supporters from the staff and make friends.
>
> - The place and local hosting 
>
> A great venue - a beautiful place. Locations, food, etc. were all
> perfect. I felt save and really enjoyed the good logistics, food and tea
> every day.
>
> - The number of asian/local attendees
>
> Was very poor. There were about 150 people over all, may be thirty or
> forty locals. I was expecting much more people from asia. I think Thomas
> has addressed this issue in his last mail quite well.
>
> - The airjaldi.summit
>
> Was a long days panel talk with many speakers with "high reputation",
> like e.g. Richard Stallman (see website). I am very thankful towards Jim
> Foster who came in and gave us, the WSFIIers a little (more) space on
> this. Otherwise I think, we wouldn't have had a chance to say anything
> there at all - because of:
>
> - The culture clash
>
> ... Was not amongst the the people who came, but between the local
> organizer and very many of the rest. Technically we had all the support
> but from the heart, there was a deep gap! I must reinsist on something,
> a rule, we WSFIIers had made early after Djursland: Those who are going
> to host a WSFII should have been visiting one before hand. We did not
> stick to this rule in this case. We had lots of promblems in advance,
> because of that. It was topped shortly before, by a heavy attac towards
> one of us that was really in a tone which I found completely
> unacceptable. But we were so close to the event that many people tryed
> to save us from a desaster. Especially Bjarke helped a lot with his
> engagement.
>  
> So I thought, may be things might change once we will meet. But it
> really didn't change. The official side ignored the whole WSFII
> activists until Jim Foster turned in. At the end of the conference there
> was not a word of thanks or a mentioning to those who had also helped to
> make airjaldi happen (especially Fred who was on place before and did
> much more to let it happen). I am not angry about that, but I am very
> sad! We missed so many chances - just because we coulnd't find a way to
> coop. This can't be explained rational by me. It just felt like two too
> different mindsets were clashing together. I am sure "the other side" is
> not happy about that either.   
>
> - The wireless roadshow
>
> ... is such a very important part of WSFII and was really great.
> Sebastian and Elektra were very flexible and managed to integrate a lot
> of other workshops into the courses, to give everyone a chance not to
> miss anything. I think to those attending the worshops it was of great
> venue and Elektra has a new fanclub now ;-).
>
> - The free hackers spirit
>
> ... was hard to to find on the campus. Those few like Kloshi, cven and
> some others had a hard time. One reason was the culture clash mentioned
> above. Another reason was, that the number of people not taking part on
> the workshops, the hackers and others, were way too few. We all missed
> "The London Boys" and their creativity, and many more. As a result of
> only so few being there, those who where there not taking part in
> workshops felt really like being at the wrong place. That is very sad,
> too, and it was really frustrating for them - trying their best to
> organize interesting things (like local radio broadcasts or advanced
> meshing workshops) that weren't attended by anyone or only too few in
> the end.
>
> - My conclusion
>
> With all that frustration from many sides, WSFII is in danger. Some
> might think: not again with those hackers, other might think: not again
> with the roadshow, others might think: not again a conference. I think,
> we really need these three components, but we need more people who
> understand why these three components need to stick togehter. And we
> have to make sure, that the number of people of all "groups" is of
> relevant size and respect each other. And we need organizers who are
> able to bring in more locales and support this idea of bridging
> different cultures and are able to spread a good atmosphere and respect
> to all of the people helping to make it happen and atending. We need
> good vibes and free spirit!
>
> - The Future
>
> I am very much looking forward to Barcelona. I think it is a good change
> to bring toghether a lot of people again and to build a good ground to
> go to Afrika. I am happy that many who are taking us to Afrika have been
> to Dharamsala and will hopefully come to Barcelona, so that we hopefully
> manage to find back to our roots and spirits: we can work ad-hoc and
> practically in place and that we can learn about local needs and how to
> contribute techical knowledge and solutions and build real
> infrastructures to the local community.
>
> Just my 2 cents.
>
> JuergeN
>
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