There will be a tweetup/unconference on Monday in Leeds. Aim for The Armouries and you should be in the right place!! Look for the demonstration and the placards outside....
That is a joke!! Why do people have this strange and very mistaken vision of myself and others in the community network space?! We are the core constituency named in the Caio and Digital Britain reports, the First Third (you can call it The Final Third, but we managed to change 'last mile' to first mile ....!)
We have no idea how to knit yogurt, you know. We can lay fibre in rural areas, and have. The first UK rural community fibre connections were not laid by anyone at the conference this week.... they were laid by us. And there is an awful lot more due to go in to rural fields and verges imminently because now we know we CAN JFDI.
We care about our communities and constituencies, whom we talk and listen to regularly, openly, and in depth. We are putting in open networks. Community owned networks. Sustainable networks. Probably, if the current maths is right, very profitable networks.
And we know, better than anyone, how to get to where we are going. Which is why we are doing precisely that, mainly using the technology now at our disposal eg Google Wave, Skype, Livestream, Twitter, FB, blogs, webcams etc. Fibre. WiMax. FiWi. Sadly, many of the applications don't work as intended over our connections, but we do our best and it will get better as we own more and more of the first mile.
I wish others would use the technology we espouse to its full capabilities occasionally, but you just don't. There is no intention in any way to dis what is happening in the conference by having an unconference or tweetup. It's just another way of adding to what is already happening and achieving the results required. For UK Plc.
If you want to get involved in breaking new ground in the First Third, come and look for the group in wellies and cardis, who will all have "exile" on their delegate badges. Or just get on Wave, Twitter, Livestream and join in, without leaving your sofa.
4 comments:
I'm really curious what would have been on the plackard??
Think the placards would say
'Community Networks
May contain fibre and nuts
Fibrevolution
Unconferences
2009/10'
Actually, it would have been
"Rural broadband contains nuts and fibre" No 'may' about it!!!
shame the tweetup didn't work due to lack of broadband access at the conference. Typical! but a good example of what rural people have to contend with, so it might have been divine intervention ;)
who says He hasn't a sense of humour?
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