NETWORK DEVELOPERS AND IMPLEMENTERS, POLICY EXPERTS, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS WILL GATHER AT LOYOLA COLLEGE IN COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, MAY 18-20, 2007 TO EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF BROADBAND.
The CUWiN Foundation and the Center for Community Informatics (CCI) will host the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks from May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland.
The summit is the largest gathering of wireless network developers, technology and policy experts, and community organizers working to build universal, low-cost broadband networks around the world. "We are proud to host an event that brings together technologists and activists committed to universal access to informatics," said Marco Figueiredo, CCI Director.
"The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks explores the opportunities and challenges facing the growing movement to build nonprofit, open-source, community and municipal broadband networks," said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder and Executive Director of CUWiN. "This event showcases cutting-edge technologies and develops political strategies to increase digital inclusion."
Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, over 300 Community Internet and municipal broadband projects have sprung up in the United States alone. The summit will focus on how these networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and software innovations.
Presenters at previous summits have included Jim Baller of the Baller Herbst Law Group, Annie Collins of Fiber for Our Future, Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, Harold Feld of Media Access Project, Robert W. McChesney of Free Press, Matt Rantanen of Tribal Digital Village, Greg Richardson of Civitium LLC, Paul Smith of the Center for Neighborhood Technologies, Jim Snider of the New America Foundation, Dana Spiegel of NYC Wireless, Esme Vos of Muniwireless.com and many other luminaries.
"High-speed broadband access is the electricity of the 21st century, yet many rural and poorer urban communities are being left off the grid," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, the DC-based policy think-tank. "The innovators and organizers at the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks are blazing the trail to make broadband affordable and available to everyone."
For more information on the summit will soon be available at:
www.WirelessSummit.org
Hope to see you there,
--Sascha Meinrath
Summit Director
The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks is the largest gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies. The Summit focuses on building the alliance of technologists, policy experts, and implementers, and encouraging participants to discuss the great variety of challenges and opportunities facing the movement, including:
- How can community wireless networks better serve their target populations?
- What is the future of unlicensed spectrum and what policies and regulations will support/hamper innovations in community wireless technologies?
- How can the hundreds of independently-operating community wireless initiatives join together to create a positive future for the movement?
- What technological and software innovations do we already have, and what projects are currently being worked on?
- What are the pros and cons of different wireless systems currently available?
The 3-day Summit allows participants to engage in extended conversations with presenters and with each other. Attendees will help develop strategic plans to expand community wireless network deployment and ensure that the federal government regulates spectrum to increase unlicensed access. Come join us for what is certain to be a spectacular event!
Español
Desarrolladores, implementadores, expertos en políticas de redes y organizadores de comunidades se reunirán en el Loyola College, en Columbia, Maryland del 18 al 2 de mayo, 2007 para explorar el futuro de la banda ancha.
La Red Comunitaria Inalámbrica de Champaign-Urbana (CUWiN) y el Centro para la Informática Comunitaria (CCI) serán los anfitriones de la Cumbre Internacional de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas que tendrá lugar en el Loyola College, en Columbia, Maryland del 18 al 2 de mayo, 2007.
La cumbre es la renión más grande de desarrolladores de redes inalámbricas, expertos en políticas y organizadores de comunidades que trabajan para construir redes universales de banda ancha a bajos costos alrededor del mundo. "Estamos orgullosos de ser los anfitriones de un evento que reúne técnicos y activistas comprometidos con el acceso universal a la informática", fueron las palabras de Marco Figueiredo, Director del CCI.
"La Cumbre Internacional de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas explora las oportunidades y los retos encontrados en el creciente movimiento para construir redes open-source, sin fines de lucro, de banda ancha, comunitarias y municipales," expresó Sascha Meinrath, cofundador y Director Ejecutivo de CUWiN. "Este evento exhibe tecnologías de ahorro y desarrolla estrategias políticas para la inclusion digital."
Desde la primera Cumbre Nacional de de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas en 2004, más de 300 proyectos de la Comunidad Internet y de banda ancha municipal han surgido sólo en los Estados Unidos. La cumbre se enfocará en cómo estas redes pueden dar major servicio a una población específica, en las políticas necesarias para respaldar implementaciones más amplias de sistemas comunitarios inalámbricos y en las últimas innovaciones tecnológicas y de software.
En las cumbres previas se han incluido presentadores tales como Annie Collins de Fiber for Our Future; Mark Cooper de la Consumer Federation of America; Harold Feld de Media Access Project; Robert W. McChesney de Free Press; Matt Rantanen de Tribal Digital Village; Greg Richardson de Civitium LLC; Paul Smith del Center for Neighborhood Technologies; Jim Snider de la New America Foundation, Dana Spiegel de NYC Wireless, Esme Vos de Muniwireless.com y muchas otras luminarias.
"El acceso a banda ancha de alta velocidad es la electricidad del siglo XXI, sin embargo, muchas zonas rurales y comunidades urbanas pobres han quedado marginadas," expresó Ben Scott, director de políticas de Free Press, el think-tank de políticas de DC. "Los innovadores y organizadores de la Cumbre Internacional de Redes Comunitarias Inalámbricas están abriendo camino para hacer la banda ancha asequible y accesible para todos".
Más información sobre la cumbre estará a disposición en:
www.WirelessSummit.org
Espero verlos allí,
--Sascha Meinrath
Summit Director
Portuguese:
DESENVOLVEDORES E IMPLEMENTADORES DE REDES, ESPECIALISTAS EM LEIS E REGULAMENTAÇÕES, E ORGANIZADORES COMUNITÁRIOS IRÃO SE REUNIR NO LOYOLA COLLEGE EM COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, ENTRE 18 E 20 DE MAIO DE 2007, PARA EXPLORAR O FUTURO DA BANDA LARGA.
A Rede Sem Fio Comunitária de Champaign-Urbada (CUWiN -
http://www.cuwireless.net) e o Centro de Informática Comunitária (CCI - http://cci.cs.loyola.edu) vão hospedar a Cúpula Internacional de Redes sem Fio Comunitárias, entre 18 e 20 de Maio, no Loyola College em Columbia, Maryland.
A cúpula é o maior encontro de desenvolvedores de redes sem fio, especialistas tecnológicos e de regulamentações, e organizadores comunitários trabalhando para construir redes de banda larga de baixo custo e universais. "Nós estamos orgulhosos de hospedar um evento que agrupa tecnologistas e ativistas comprometidos com o acesso universal à informática," disse Marco Figueiredo, diretor do CCI.
"A Cúpula Internacional de Redes Sem Fio Comunitárias explora oportunidades e desafios enfrentados pelo crescente movimento de criação de redes de banda larga comunitárias e municipais, não lucrativas e de fonte aberta,"disse Sascha Meinrath, co-fundador e Director Executivo da CUWiN. "Este evento apresenta tecnologias de última geração e desenvolve estratégias políticas para aumentar a inclusão digital."
Desde a primeira Cüpula Nacional de Redes Sem Fio Comunitárias em 2004, mais de 300 projetos de Internet Comunitária e Redes de Banda Larga Municipais apareceram nos Estados Unidos apenas. A cúpula vai focalizar em como estas redes podem melhor servir suas populações alvo, as regulamentações necessárias para apoiar um crescimento mais amplo das instalações de sistemas de redes sem fio comunitárias, e as mais recentes inovações tecnológicas, tanto hardware quanto software.
Palestrantes das cúpulas anteriores incluíram Annie Collins da Fibra para Nosso Futuro, Mark Cooper da Federação de Consumidores da América, Harold Feld, do Projeto de Acesso à Média, Robert McChesney da Imprensa Livre, Matt Rantanen da Vila Tribal Digital, Greg Richardson da Civitium LLC, Paul Smith do Centro de Tecnologias da Vizinhança, Jim Snider da Fundação Nova América, Dana Spiegel da Nova York Sem Fio, Esme Vos do muniwireless.com e outros luminários e luminárias.
"Acesso a banda larga e de alta velocidade é a electricidade do século XXI, porém várias comunidades rurais e urbanas mais pobres estão sendo deixadas de fora do sistema de distruição," disse Ben Scott, diretor de regulamentação da Imprensa Livre, um thin-tank baseado em Washington DC. "Os inovadores e organizadores da Cúpula Internacional de Redes Sem Fio Comunitárias estão estabelecendo o caminho para fazer a banda larga disponível e ao alcance financeiro de todos."
Para mais informações sobre a cúpula ou para registrar, visite www.WirelessSummit.org
2007 Community Wireless Summit Program & Schedule
- Sascha Meinrath, Summit Director
- Pete Tridish, Prometheus Radio Project
- Steve Walker, Maryland Informatics Coalition
- Jim Baller, Baller Herbst Law Group
- Richard MacKinnon (Panel Coordinator), Austin Wireless/Less Networks)
- Michael Lenczner, Île Sans Fil
- Francois Proulx, Île Sans Fil
- Aaron Kaplan (Panel Coordinator), FunkFeuer
- Nemanja Topovic (Panel Coordinator), BGWireless
- Ramon Roca, guifi.net
- Wolfgang Nagele, FunkFeuer
- Matthias Uferer , Freifunk Leipzig
- Andreas Marksteiner, FunkFeuer
- Marco Figueiredo (Panel Coordinator), Center for Community Informatics
- Andrew Greig, Koolu
- Lee Thorn, Jhai Foundation
- Satish Jha, James Martin & Co, Digital Partners India
- Sanjit Biswas, Meraki
- Matt Westervelt (Panel Coordinator), Seattle Wireless
- Kristijan Fabina, Croatian Wireless Association & HRFreeNet
- Bogdan Tancic, Serbia Wireless and BGWireless
- Daniel Meredith, CUWiN Foundation
- Michael Lenczner (Panel Coordinator), Île Sans Fil
- Anthony Townsend, NYCwireless
- Francois Proulx, Île Sans Fil
- Jon "Maddog" Hall, Linux International
- Aaron Kaplan, FunkFeuer.at
- Dave Chakrabarti (Panel Coordinator), Grassroots.org
- Josh King, Acorn Active Media Foundation
- Dharma Daily, The Ethos Group
- John Zoltner (Panel Coordinator), ???
- Sylvia Cadena, WiLAC
- Michael Maranda (Panel Coordinator), Chicago Digital Access Alliance
- Dana Spiegel (Panel Coordinator), NYCwireless
- Peter Fleck, Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Fund Advisory Board
- Michael Lewis, Wireless Harlem
- Robin Chase, GoLoco
- Laura Forlano (Panel Coordinator), NYCwireless
- Dillip Pattanaik, Information Resource Management-India
- Kristijan Fabina, Croatian Wireless Association & HRFreeNet.
- Jon "Maddog" Hall, Linux International
- Ermanno Pietrosemoli (Panel Coordinator), EsLaRed
- Steve Okay, Inveneo
- Sonesh Surana, University of California - Berkeley
- Pablo Osuna, EHAS (Enlace Hispanoamericano de Salud)
- Ian Howard (Panel Coordinator) Adapted Consulting Inc.
- Jeff Buderer, One Village Foundation
- Peter Baldwin, Digital Opportunity Trust
- Toby Morning, Urban Technology Ventures
- Joy Tang, oneVillage Foundation
- Ben Scott (Panel Coordinator), FreePress
- Jim Baller, Baller Herbst Law Group
- Joanne Hovis, CTC Columbia Telecommunications Corp.
- Benoit Grégoire (Panel Coordinator), Île Sans Fil
- Francois Proulx, Île Sans Fil
- Sascha Meinrath (Panel Coordinator), CAIDA
- Dewayne Hendricks, Dandin Group
- kc claffy, CAIDA
- Laura Forlano (Panel Coordinator), NYCwireless
- Eddan Katz, Yale Information Society Project
- Naveen Lakshmipathy, New America Foundation
- Alison Powell, Île Sans Fil/Concordia University
- Anthony Townsend, Institute for the Future
- SpeedGeek (20 Minutes)
- Panel Synopses (30 minutes)
- Breakout Groups (60 minutes)
- Reconvene to discuss issues as a whole (30 minutes)
- Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN Foundation
- Harold Feld, Media Access Project
- Jon "Maddog" Hall, Linux International
Last updated: May 27, 2007
Official Summit Tag: IS4CWN
All events, unless otherwise noted, took place at the Loyola College Graduate Center: 8890 McGaw Road, Columbia, MD 21045.
Friday May 18, 2007 Pre-Summit: COMMONS Strategy Workshop
Room 230
By invitation only, please contact Sascha Meinrath if you are interested in attending. More information on COMMONS is available here.
- 10:00am-Noon: COMMONS Strategy Review & Updates.
Noon-1:00pm: Lunch.
1:00-2:30pm: Breakout Sessions.
2:30-2:45pm: Break.
2:45-4:15pm: Next Steps Strategy Sessions.
4:15-4:30pm: Break.
4:30-5:00pm: Report Backs.
Friday May 18, 2007 Summit Kick-off
4:00pm-6:00pm: Check-in/Registration, Open House, & Social
Atrium
6:00pm-7:30pm: Opening Plenary
Room 230
7:30pm-9:00pm: Dinner (on your own).
9:00pm-???: Friday Night Social
LOCATION: The Greene Turtle.
Casual, sports- (some would say Irish-)themed restaurant. In the plaza directly next to the Summit site.
8890 McGaw Rd
(410) 312-5255
Saturday May 19, 2007 Sessions
9:00am-10:00am: Breakfast, Social, Registration, and Demonstrations
Atrium
10:00am-11:30am: 1st Concurrent Session.
| Room 260 | |
| Social Networks and Wireless: An Update on the Progress and Development of Social Networking Applications. |
Join Rich MacKinnon and Michael Lenczner in a lively discussion on the state of social networking applications within WiFi and whether these |
| Room 261 | |
| Community Wireless: What's Happening in Europe. |
We will present and discuss current trends - technological as well as social and political - in community networks in Europe. People from FunkFeuer/Freifunk will be present, as well as from one of the bigger networks in the EU - guifi.net (Spain). Reports on how to create a self sustaining infrastructure model and mesh routing advances will be presented. Lastly, we will discuss and compare our solutions and approaches to common problems in establishing community wireless networks. Presentations: |
| Room 270 | |
| Low-Cost PCs and Community Networking |
The successful deployment of community wireless networks in low-income communities depends in large part on the availability of low cost computing devices that can be easily integrated into the network infrastructure. There are several projects promoting the deployment of large numbers of low-cost computing devices to address the digital divide in developing countries. While these projects may address the provision of wireless connectivity in their hardware and software architectures, their proposed deployments are not always linked to the creation of a citizen-centric community wireless network. The panelists will include providers of low-cost computing devices, developers of community wireless networks, government agents and community activists. The technologists will present their views on how their proposed solutions address the overall challenge to promote digital inclusion in a context where the complimentary technology is utilized, i.e., low-cost computers creating community wireless networks and/or wireless networks enabling the use of low-cost computers. The government and community representatives will present their business models for the integration of both technologies. Presentations:
2007-05-19-ErmannoPietrosemol-WirelessSummit.pdf 14.2M 2007-05-19-PabloOsuna-WirelessSummit.odp 23.2M 2007-05-19-PabloOsuna-WirelessSummit.pdf 12.5M 2007-05-19-SoneshSuranaTIER-WirelessSummit.odp 10.7M 2007-05-19-SoneshSuranaTIER-WirelessSummit.pdf 3.7M 2007-05-19-SylviaCadenaWiLAC-WirelessSummit.odp 22k 2007-05-19-SylviaCadenaWiLAC-WirelessSummit.pdf 92k |
| Room 272 | |
| Community Wireless Technologies |
Community wireless technologies utilize a dispersed development model in order to provide software that is more flexible to diverse situations on the ground. This session will discuss the opportunities and challenges of implementing these technologies and the impacts on Community Wireless Implementations around the globe. |
11:30am-1:00pm: Lunch, Social, & Exhibitors
Second Floor Atrium, Room 230
1:00pm-2:30pm: 2nd Concurrent Session.
| Room 260 | |
| Citizen Hackers: Their Disappearing Role in the Community Wireless Movement. |
With the combination of the growth of the MuniWireless market and the growing emphasis on policy, what is the place of citizen hackers and builders in the Community Wireless Networking movement? Join us for a group debate and discussion on our changing roles.
|
| Room 261 | |
| Wi.Fi – Developing a Community Wireless Domain. |
How would you develop the domain wi.fi? What if the community wifi folks developed it collaboratively? What could we do with it? Come join our discussion to give your two cents, but be warned that doing so might result in your direct involvement in the development of the domain! |
| Room 270 | |
| Community Wireless Networks: What's Happening in South America. |
This panel will focus on the innovative wireless projects in South America, particularly in the development of community wireless networking for rural and economically marginalized communities. Ms. Cadena will present on TRICALCAR, a project which helps develop community wireless networks in Latin America and the Caribbean. Similarly, Mr. Zoltner will present on his work on legal and regulatory reform to empower communities in Chile. |
| Room 272 | |
| Holistic Planning & Deployment of Wireless Networks. |
When considering how to create a wireless network, it isn't enough to just put together a plan for the installation of access points. A successful network plan must also consider issues of computer availability, training, and supporting applications. Especially for municipal networks, the only way to (almost) guarantee success is to ensure that the community doesn't have to just subsidize universal wireless access. If your network has primary uses that are NOT just providing free or affordable internet, such as meter reading, municipal employee mobility, or emergency services, your network would be able to survive--both economically and politically--even if you have no paying end users. This panel will look at a few good examples of existent or proposed wireless networks, and investigate how a holistic plan can help ensure success. |
2:30pm-2:45pm: Break
Atrium
2:45pm-4:15pm: 3rd Concurrent Session
| Room 260 | |
| CALEA: What You Need to Know About the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. |
CALEA imposes compliance obligations on virtually all providers of wireless broadband services to the public. Who must comply and what should have been done under the law by the recently-passed May 14, 2007 deadline? Should you be worried? |
| Room 261 | |
| International & Developing World Projects. |
This panel will focus on the impact of wireless technologies in the developing world. From empowering communities by bringing access to information to tackling problems concerning regulation and administration, the panelists will present on their current projects from around the world. |
| Room 270 | |
| Adaptations of Wireless Technologies for Long Distance & Solar Applications. |
This panel will discuss several initiatives designed to improve the Media Access Layer and enhance performance by using high gain antennas to extend range. An especially relevant topic for rural areas where interference, the Achilles' Heel of WiFi, is less pronounced and the lack of traditional infrastructure prevalent, this panel will focus on how initiatives have been implemented and networks established in countries of South America, Africa and India. |
| Room 272 | |
| Economics of Community Wireless Networks in Developing Countries. |
Wireless networks and other low-cost technologies that are co-related have already begun to unseat classic telecom and information hegemonies world wide. In particular, these technologies have introduced a threat to monopolies and have brought new services to the formerly un-served base of the pyramid population. These disruptive technologies have also played a pivotal role in creating a more sustainable and socially just world by improving communications, access and increasing the role of people in taking a more active role in the design of their communications architectures and infrastructures. This panel will discuss the economics of community wireless in emerging markets– with particular emphasis on the development of innovative business models that are designed to sustain community networks but also stimulate local economic development. |
4:15pm-4:30pm: Break & Snack
Atrium
4:30pm-6:00pm 4th Concurrent Session
| Room 260 | |
| National Policy & Regulatory Battles Affecting Community Wireless. |
The National Policy & Regulatory panel brings together three experts in telecommunications policy that come from different perspectives. The topics covered in this discussion will include: municipal broadband authority, spectrum auctions and unlicensed spectrum, local franchising, network neutrality, open platforms, and the future of technology in community broadband. Expect to hear insights from the panel on law, technical research and analysis, as well as lobbying and politics. If you have an interest in why policy matters for community wireless, this is for you. |
| Room 261 | |
| WiFiDog Workshop: How to Build Your Own Multimedia Community Wireless Infrastructure. |
A short presentation of the current status and the near future of the WiFiDog project (20 minutes) followed by a hands-on workshop on flashing routers to run WiFiDog. If time permits, there will be demonstration on how to install a wifidog auth server and general question period. Note: The goal is for everyone to leave with a functional WiFiDog router to test. A very limited number of Linksys WRT54GL will be on hand to buy at the conference, so it is recommended you bring your own. |
| Room 270 | |
| Taking COMMONS Global. |
The COMMONS Project began as an idea to peer community, municipal, regional, state, and enterprise networks using national (US) fiber infrastructure. The phenomenal growth of interest in this initiative begs the question, can we build a global network research testbed that provides scientists with the data they need and communities with the bandwidth they desire? Following up on the pre-Summit COMMONS Strategy Workshop, "Taking COMMONS Global" investigates how to build an alternative global Internet that's cooperatively run and meets the needs of researchers and communities. |
| Room 272 | |
| Shaping the Research Agenda for Municipal and Community Wireless Networks and Access to Broadband |
This panel and roundtable discussion will explore the ways in which researchers can work to better inform policy debates around municipal and community wireless networks and spectrum policy. Panelists will present (very) brief summaries of their ongoing research projects as background to the discussion. What research exists and what is needed to make effective policy arguments on these issues? How can the research community connect better to existing municipal and community wireless projects? How can municipal and community wireless projects better serve the public interest and what is the role of a coordinated research agenda in holding such projects accountable? |
6:00pm-8:00pm: Dinner (on your own).
8:00pm-???: Saturday Night Social
LOCATION: Nottingham's Pub.
8850 Stanford Blvd.
(410) 290-0077
(see map for more specific directions.)
Sunday May 20, 2007
9:00am – 10:30am: Breakfast, Social, Registration, and Demonstrations
Atrium
10:30am-12:50pm: Plenary -- Strategizing & Next Steps.
Room 230
1:00pm-1:50pm: Sunday Lunch, Social, & Demonstrations
Atrium
2:00pm-3:30pm: Closing Plenary.
Room 230
2007 Summit Background
- The Cable and DSL duopoly (which controls 98% of the broadband market) is lobbying to make municipal networking illegal (spending over $70 million on state lobbying in 2005). Cutting through the scare tactics, hype, and misinformation has become both increasingly important and an effort needing input from a coalition of publi service supporters.
- Congress and the FCC have not opened up the public airwaves for more and better wireless broadband solutions.
- Our elected representatives are still largely unaware of the depth of our technological problems, our lack of global competitiveness, and the dangers of information inequality in the Information Age.
- Worse yet, the FCC has eliminated the bedrock communications policy of open access and the Congress now stands at the brink of blithely rejecting network neutrality protections -- the last defenses that keep the Internet open and free from discrimination against content, applications, and new devices.
- A public venue for frank and honest assessment, discussion, and debate over the technology and policy sponsored not by vendors or special interests, but non-profit organizations;
- Collaborative meeting space for stakeholders to share information, develop an agenda for further research, and solidify the leadership of the community broadband coalition;
- Grassroots event for everyone from wireless neophytes to seasoned veterans to learn about ongoing projects, new technologies, and success stories;
- Forum to crystallize a public message that rallies broad support for an open Internet and universal, affordable broadband access;
- Strategy meetings for advocates to share tactics to both defend the gains made over the past year and expand the social benefits Community Internet projects offer;
- Lobby day for wireless engineers to visit the FCC, local project managers to visit Members of Congress, and advocates to publicize the campaign to bridge the digital divide and keep the Internet open.
[To Be Updated Soon!]
In August 2004, over two hundred technology experts, policy analysts, university researchers, and on-the-ground specialists deploying state-of-the-art community broadband projects came together to discuss technology, policy and organizing issues as well as the practical solutions to problems facing community broadband. In addition to addressing best practices for both technologies, community organizing, and innovative business models, the National Summit for Community Wireless Networks supported the critical alliance between technologists, national policy advocates, and the communities and organizations implementing wireless networks around the country. Participatory meetings and workshops helped the leaders of community broadband initiatives build a strategic plan for expanding the deployment of networks and lobbying the federal government to create policies that expand broadband access, open more unlicensed spectrum, and break the duopoly market power of cable and DSL that stifles economic growth and social opportunity through technology.
The first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks was a seminal event that helped launch what we now call the Community Broadband Movement. It was a timely prelude to the explosion in technological development, local implementation, and policy debates over the future of broadband.
Since this initial gathering, community wireless networking has become a national phenomenon. Over 300 communities around the United State are planning or building local networks. Headlines over flagship projects in Philadelphia and San Francisco are backed up by a hundred success stories in rural America. City planners and consumer advocates have linked forces with high tech companies and ISPs. The market for community broadband solutions has grown exponentially. Recent market analysis expects over $1,000,000,000 to be spent on new municipal wireless networks over just the next three years. Including community fiber and hybrid systems, this is a multi-billion dollar market. It is generating enormous economic growth, challenging the market control of incumbents, and bridging the digital divide through competition and entrepreneurial innovation.
The more successful community wireless technologies become, the more policy challenges we face:
We stand at a paradigm shift in technology policy that demands a groundswell of public support to guide our leaders toward the right decisions. We need a national coalition of technology experts, community leaders, policy advocates, and innovative businesses. With this goal in mind, the 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks provides:
Summit organizers expect attendance to be several hundred strong. Lindenwood University has generously offered to host the 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks and has donated the use of a building large enough for this weekend event. Yet an event of this scope still needs sufficient financial support to be successful. Most conferences rely on corporate donations for this support. However, Summit organizers are loathe to engage in the “money for access” quid pro quo that undermines the independence of many of these types of events. Instead, a coalition of public interest organizations is being approached to help fund this Summit. If our goal is to create broadband networks whose first priority is supporting the public interest, then we must create an environment conducive to honest discussion can take place and opportunities to build these infrastructures can flourish.
This is a critical opportunity to catalyze the community broadband movement and create tangible goals in technology, policy, and public education.
The Big Picture
The National Summit for Community Wireless Networks distinguishes itself from typical technical and academic conferences by engaging all participants in an ongoing dialogue that encourages a strategic approach to community wireless network development and spectrum policy reform. Panelists will not simply present their own work and opinions -- they will also serve as facilitators of a process that records lessons learned and produces a comprehensive "to-do list" of action items for the coming months and years. While three days may not be long enough to develop a truly comprehensive strategic plan that everyone can agree to follow, this Summit represents a significant opportunity for thinkers, developers, and stakeholders to produce substantial recommendations for the future success of community wireless networks. The Summit is, in essence, a gathering of leaders in the field and an opportunity to shape the future of this movement. Read more background on the 2006 Summit here.
How It Works
Each discussion session includes a facilitator who will be responsible for managing the interaction between the panelists and other participants in the room. Panelists will be given adequate time to present their experiences and recommendations, and the audience will be encouraged to engage the panelists in dialogue. Panelists will also be encouraged to interact directly with each other. Questions will be asked, answers may or may not be provided, and all the while, the facilitator will be recording good ideas, lessons learned, questions to be considered, and things to do. Near the end of each session, the facilitator will share what has been recorded so far, and all participants will assist in approving or modifying the list. Think of this as a brainstorming session -- nothing should be taken off the lists, but corrections and clarifications to existing items may be allowed and new ideas can be added. This collection of ideas and recommendations will be considered again, along with the collections produced in other sessions, during Sunday's "Strategizing/Next Steps" plenary session.
The Strategizing & Next Steps session will allow for the prioritization and consolidation of recommendations and for the beginning of the production of a document or series of documents that records, as much as possible, the relevant collective knowledge and consensus of Summit participants. The resulting document(s) will be made available to all participants under a Creative Commons license and as a Wiki-type CMS to allow ongoing modification.
2007 Summit Logistics
Map of the Summit area:
- Map of the area, with restaurants and hotels labeled, as well as walking routes from the conference center to the nearby hotels.
Flight Instructions
You can fly into any Washington, DC airport; however, the Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) is the most convenient and is roughly a 10-15 minute drive from the Summit hotels and event site. Airport shuttles from BWI to Columbia are available through SuperShuttle, but reservations will need to be arranged ahead of time and will cost up to $24 per person. Taxis from the airport to Columbia are also available at $30, one way. Public transportation from BWI to Loyola is available through the Howard Transit system. Simply take the Silver Route from BWI to Snowden Square (Stop No. 4), the closest stop to the summit site.
An hour's drive away from the Loyola Graduate Campus is Dulles International Airport (IAD) which is located right outside the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Shuttle service from Dulles to Columbia is available through SuperShuttle International (Phone number: 800-BLUE-VAN or 800-258-3826).
Additional airport shuttle services are also available through Airport Shuttle, Inc., (Phone number: 800-776-0323). The shuttle provides direct service to Columbia hotels.
Driving Directions -- 
The Loyola Graduate Campus Center in Columbia, MD:
Directions to the Loyola College Graduate Center Columbia Campus
The Columbia Campus is located between Snowden River Parkway and Dobbin Road at 8890 McGaw Road, about one mile from Exit 41 off Interstate 95, just minutes from the Capital (I-495) and Baltimore (I-695) Beltways.
Directions from I-95:
1. From I-95, follow 175 west towards Columbia
2. From 175 west, take the 3rd exit, Snowden River Parkway. At the end of the exit ramp, turn left at the light to go south.
3. Follow Snowden River Parkway to the 2nd light and turn right on McGaw Road, where you see Apple Ford.
4. Follow McGaw Road past the Gramophone store and just before the light at the intersection of McGaw and Dobbin Roads, turn right into the Loyola College parking lot.
Mailing address:
-
Center for Community Informatics
ATTN: Wireless Summit
Loyola College in Maryland
Columbia Campus
8890 McGaw Road
Columbia, Maryland 21045
Accommodations
Walking Distance to Conference Site:
- 8890 Stanford Blvd.
Columbia, MD
(410) 872-2994
Suite with Kitchen: $85/night
(Ask for the special Loyola rate)
Amenities include fully equipped kitchens, workspaces with computer dataports, and wireless high-speed internet access available for the extension of your stay for $4.99.
- 8910 Stanford Blvd.
Columbia, MD
(410) 290-0002
Weekend Rates:
King Standard with sleeper sofa: $109/night
Double Queen: $139/night
Each room is wired for complimentary high-speed internet access.
A Short Drive to Loyola Campus:
- 5485 Twin Knolls Rd
Columbia, MD
(410) 997-1060
Located 3 miles from Loyola campus.
Amenities include onsite dining, local transportation, wireless high speed internet access.
- 7900 Washington Blvd.
Columbia, MD
(410) 799-7500
Located 3.7 miles from Loyola campus.
Features wireless internet access.
- 8320 Benson Drive
Columbia, MD
(410) 872-9200
Conveniently located 2 miles from Loyola.
- 10207 Wincopin Circle
Columbia, MD
(410) 730-3900
Located 4.6 miles from Loyola campus.
Wayport high-speed internet access available in each room.
Restaurants in Columbia and Map of the Summit Area
Delivery:
- www.carryoutmenu.com: a delivery service from 42 different restaurants in Columbia.
www.papajohnsonline.com: pizza that can be ordered online.
In the plaza next door to the Summit: there are several restaurants right next door to the Summit site.
- The Greene Turtle, the Friday night social location, serves American bar food with an Irish twist. They have burgers, French fries, Irish nachos, various sandwiches and appetizers, and more.
Atlanta Bread Company serves pastries, bagels and coffee for breakfast and panini sandwiches, salads, pizzas, pasta and soup for lunch. They also have free wireless.
Red Parrot has Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Japanese, and Chinese foods including fresh seafood dishes, sushi, steaks, chicken, and vegetarian entrees.
California Tortilla has specialty burritos and tacos.
Cheeseburger Cheeseburger serves classic diner food including burgers, French fries, milkshakes, etc.
In Columbia: A short walk or drive from the Summit site, there are other restaurants.
- Bertucci's Brick Oven serves slightly upscale Italian cuisine, specializing in steaks, seafood and pasta. $10-15 per entree. 9081 Snowden River Parkway, (410) 312-4800.
The Mango Grovehas vegetarian Indian food described as light, delicious and healthy. $8-10 per entree. In the Dobbin Center, 6365 Dobbin Road. (410) 884-3426.
Sushi King has not only the traditional sushi, both cooked and uncooked but also has a great variety of specialty rolls and sashimi. 6490 Dobbin Road # G, (410) 997-1266.
Lonestar Steakhouse serves steak, chick, prime rib, lobster, shrimp, and other entrees. Directly between the Extended Stay and the Marriott, 8900 Stanford Blvd. (410) 290-2886.
2007 Summit Participants
Panel Coordinators
Sylvia Cadena - WiLAC
Sylvia is an Industrial Designer. She has worked with non-profit initiatives involving civil society organizations, government and international aid programs and projects, and socially responsible citizens. She became interested for the first time in ICTs for development when she was selected to be the United Nations National Volunteer assigned to the Southlinks Project, for almost 2 years. She has been an active member of the APC Women's Networking Support Programme as a trainer and designer, and also with other regional and global initiatives such as the Latin-American School of Networks-ESLARED where she coordinates the technical training workshops about content since 1997. In July 2003, she received the Annual Award for Young Professionals in Communications for Development offered by the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas – ICA and the International Development Research Centre – IDRC. She served at IDRC regional office in Montevideo, Uruguay until November of 2004. Right now,she is working as a consultant for several ICT projects with global scope, providing content reviews, web platform design and training.
Marco Figueiredo - CCI
Marco Figueiredo is an affiliate member faculty at the Computer Science Department of Loyola College in Maryland. He also directs the Center for Community Informatics (CCI) at Loyola College since January 2006. Marco engaged in digital inclusion activism in 2001, first supporting the Brazilian government as a consultant and later estabilishing the Gems of the Earth Rural Community Telecenter Network in the northeast of Brazil. He is also the president of the Gems of the Earth Network, a non-profit organization that mobilizes the Brazilian Diaspora to support social development in Brazil. Marco has been a high-performance computing researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center since 1992.
Laura Forlano - NYCwireless
Laura Forlano is a Ph.D. candidate in Communications at Columbia University researching the socio-economic implications of the use of mobile and wireless technology. She is a board member of NYCwireless, a non-profit organization that promotes the deployment of free public WiFi networks, who she currently represents on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. From 2002 to 2005, Forlano worked as Project Manager for the Information Technology and International Cooperation program at the Social Science Research Council. From 2000 to 2005, she wrote a monthly technology column for Gotham Gazette, a New York City news and policy Web site. She has also consulted for international organizations including the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union and United Nations. Forlano received her Master's in Science and Technology Policy from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Ian Howard - Adapted Consulting Inc.
As a managing partner at Adapted Consulting, Ian finds new ways to use technology and business ideas to improve the lives of those in areas where others do not see opportunities. A technologist at heart, Ian has worked in management and team building capacities, while still tinkering with technologies and finding new ways to employ them. Combining his passion for economic development with an aptitude for re-purposing technology, he has pioneered the use of processes and systems to address the needs of under-served markets. Ian is presently enrolled in the International Masters of Business Administration (IMBA) at the Schulich School of Business, in Toronto, Canada. He specializes in entrepreneurial development, strategic management and sustainable value creation.
Leon Aaron Kaplan - FunkFeuer
Aaron studies math and computer sciences in Vienna, Austria. He is from the generation when network access was still extremely expensive in Vienna before the big internet boom. He is Unix user and programmer since 4.3BSD-Lite / FreeBSD 1.0. He has been working for major telecoms, IBM, ESA, banks and heavy industries mostly doing Unix consulting/programming since 1997. Aaron is also one of the founders of the FunkFeuer, a wireless community network in Austria. FunkFeuer covers Vienna, Graz and certain areas which have little or no DSL connectivity in Austria (Weinviertel, Bad Ischl). Since its creation , FunkFeuer has been constantly expanding and innovating. Currently Aaron is working on the OLSR-NG project in order to enhance the possibilites and scalability of the OLSR (RFC 3626) mesh routing protocol.
Michael Lenczner - Île sans fil
Michael Lenczner is a community organizer for development of local ICT infrastructure and healthy community information ecologies. He has been working in the field since 1998 and has been a partner or researcher in related academic groups since 2003. He is the initiator and co-founder of Île sans fil and CivicAccess and he has been a contributor to the FLOSS project WifiDog since it's inception. His blog is at mt13p.ilesansfil.org.
Michael Maranda - Chicago Digital Access Alliance
Michael Maranda advocates and organizes around media policy issues and the public use of technology. He fights for digital literacy, access & equity as executive director of CTCNet Chicago, founding chair of the Illinois Community Technology Coalition, and co-founder of the Chicago Digital Access Alliance. As president of the Association For Community Networking (AFCN), Michael promotes local and regional networking—the foundation of the global community information and communications technology (ICT) movement. Michael bridges community media and technology sectors locally through Let’s Talk Media networking events. He established Get Illinois Online [GIO] as the center of statewide dialogue and as a rallying cry for broadband deployment proponents of all stripes. Among community technologists, he actively applies the principle of Movement as Network, opening space for cross-sector dialogue and partnership. An avid proponent of community-owned and driven solutions, Michael is dedicated to promoting cooperative solutions and creative support structures in the non-profit/voluntary sector. Michael is a co-founder of NPOTechs, a Chicago volunteer network bringing open source and free technologies to non-profits.
Sascha Meinrath - CAIDA
In 2006, Sascha became the Director for Municipal and Community Networking for the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and heads up the COMMONS Project, an initiative to interlink municipal and community wireless networks utilizing national fiber infrastructure. Sascha is the co-founder and Executive Director of the CUWiN Foundation, the world's leading open-source wireless projects. From 2004-6, Sascha worked as a policy analyst for Free Press and continues to regularly brief Federal Communications Commission and Congressional staff on issues related to wireless and broadband networking. Sascha is Vice President of CTCnet, a US-based network of more than 1000 organizations united in their commitment to improve the educational, economic, cultural and political life of their communities through technology. In 2006, Sascha founded The Ethos Group an international consulting firm focusing on maximizing the community benefits of broadband technologies. In 2004, Sascha organized the First National Summit for Community Wireless Networks, helping to launch what has now become known as the Community/Municipal Wireless Networking Movement. In 2005-2006, Sascha coordinated the Community Wireless Emergency Response Initiative – helping rebuild mission-critical telecommunications infrastructure during post-hurricane Katrina disaster recovery. Sascha is also an editor for MuniWireless.com, the leading source for municipal wireless news and information, and a regular contributor to Government Technology’s Digital Communities, the online portal and comprehensive information resource for the public sector.
Ben Scott - Free Press
Ben Scott is the Policy Director for Free Press. He heads up the Washington, DC office, dedicated to monitoring and analyzing media policymaking in order to increase public awareness and participation. Before joining Free Press, he worked as a legislative fellow handling telecommunications policy for Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the US House of Representatives. He is also in the final stages of his doctoral degree in communications from the University of Illinois. He is the author of several scholarly articles on American journalism history and the politics of media regulation as well as co-editor of Our Unfree Press (The New Press, 2004) and The Future of Media (Seven Stories, 2005).
Dana Spiegel - NYCwireless
Dana Spiegel serves as the Executive Director and a member of the Board of Directors of NYCwireless, a New York City non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless networks. The organization was formed in 2001, and is primarily focused in New York City and surrounding areas. It is most widely recognized for its work in deploying free Wi-Fi access a number of New York City public spaces, including Bryant Park, City Hall Park, Tomkins Square Park, and the South Street Seaport. NYCwireless is a member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee, and is an international leader among Community Wireless Groups. As Executive Director, Dana created and produced Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art and the City, a three-day event in the Fall of 2003 and 2004 that highlights the diverse ways artists, technical innovators and activists are using communication technologies to generate new urban experience and public voice. Spectropolis was co-produced by the Lower Manahattan Cultural Council and sponsored by the Alliance for Downtown New York. He has also appeared as a speaker at Wireless and Media Industry conferences, and has guest lectured at NYU, SUNY Purchase, Parsons School of Design, and The New School University.
Nemanja Topovic - BGWireless
Nemanja organizes social happenings for the BGWireless Community Network. In the last seven years, he has organized many humanitarian activities, including computer schools, sporting events and tournaments, many educational events, and seminars. He has participated in and lectured at many seminars. Currently, he is part-time lecturer of Computer Science at the International School in Belgrade, Serbia.
John Zoltner - CTCNet
John Zoltner is a Santiago, Chile-based consultant working with public, non-governmental and private entities to design strategies, projects and methodologies that take advantage of the power of information and communication technologies to empower individuals, organizations and communities. John is currently working as an advisor for the telecentre.org program and the Chilean chapter of the Center for the Democratization of Information Technology. John also raises funds for and/or manages innovative development projects involving ICTs on the national and regional levels in the Americas.
Matt Westervelt - Seattle Wireless
Matt Westervelt is the founder of Seattle Wireless and an evangelist for FreeNetworks worldwide. He left the corporate world to start Metrix Communication LLC, a company created to supply FreeNet workers with high quality, standards-based wireless networking products. As a child, he watched a lot of Sesame Street and has a firm (perhaps misguided) belief that cooperation can solve a lot of the world's problems.
Panelists
Jim Baller - Baller Herbst Law Group
Jim Baller is the founder and president of the Baller Herbst Law Group in Washington, DC. Over the last decade, he has been involved in most of the Nation’s leading municipal cable, fiber, and wireless projects and in every major legislative and judicial fight against state barriers to public involvement in the communications field. NATOA named him its Member of the Year for 2001 and MuniWireless awarded him its first “Esme Award” in 2006. The Fiber to the Home Council and the Public Technologies Institute have both called him "the nation's most experienced and knowledgeable attorney on public broadband matters."
Robin Chase - GoLoco
Robin Chase is founder and CEO of GoLoco, an online ridesharing community. GoLoco helps people quickly arrange to share car trips of all lengths between trusted friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and handles online payments from passengers to drivers for their share of the trip costs. Robin is also founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world. Zipcar’s use of the Internet and wireless technology enables rental cars to emulate personal cars. Robin is frequently consulted by transportation and planning departments, city and state government agencies, and NGOs about wireless and mesh networking applications in the transportation sector, innovation and economic development. She served on the Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force, and the Governor-elect’s Transportation Transition Working Committee. Robin graduated from Wellesley College and MIT's Sloan School of Management, and was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and three children.
kc claffy - CAIDA
kc claffy is principal investigator for the distributed Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), and resident research scientist based at the University of California's San Diego Supercomputer Center. kc's research interests include Internet workload/performance data collection, analysis and visualization, particularly with respect to commercial ISP collaboration/cooperation and sharing of analysis resources. kc received her PhD in Computer Science from UCSD in 1994.
Kristijan Fabina - Croatian Wireless Association HRFreeNet, Dugave.net
In 2004, Kristijan founded Dugave Wireless, a local wireless community in Zagreb, Croatia. Today, Dugave Wireless is one of the biggest, most respected networks in Croatia. As the President of Dugave Wireless, Kristijan also administers Dugave Wireless network servers & routers. In 2005, Kristijan was one of the founders and the first president of Croatian Wireless Association - HRFreeNet. Today, Kristijan is the HRFreeNet Project manager and heads up a few projects for HRFreeNet with Metronet Telecommunication company and Croatian Academic and Research Network. As the President of Croatian Wireless Association he was the youngest presenter on the 1st and 3rd SouthEast-East Europe Telecom Arena in Zagreb (2005-2007). Kristijan is also an independent journalist and the founder, administrator and editor for Novi-Zagreb.info, one of the leading sources of information and news in New Zagreb. He is a student on the Technical University for Information and Communication technology in Zagreb, specializing in the field of networks and mobile communications. At the moment Kristijan works for the family firm Tehnet as a sales manager and as a consultant focusing on municipal wireless networks and wireless broadband technologies. In his spare time, Kristijan is also the webmaster, administrator and editor for Sah-Dugave.org chess web portal in addition to playing soccer for local soccer club "NK Zelengaj" and Jiu-Jitsu.
Harold Feld - Media Access Project
Harold Feld is Senior Vice President of the Media Access Project. He is the primary author of many of the current public interest filings on spectrum proceedings at the FCC. He joined MAP in August 1999 after practicing communications, Internet, and energy law at Covington & Burling. In 2002-2003, he served on the ICANN Names Council as representative of the Noncommercial Constituency, and currently serves as the Noncommercial Constituency representative to the Advisory Committee of the Public Interest Registry (which administers .org). Mr. Feld has written numerous articles on Internet law and communications policy for trade publications and legal journals. Media Access Project is a nonprofit public interest law firm working to ensure a public voice in telecommunications policy.
Peter Fleck - Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Coalition
Peter Fleck was a member of the Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Coalition which drafted the original Community Benefits Agreement which served as a base for community benefits in the final contract for wireless network deployment in the City of Minneapolis. The Agreement provides for the funding of initiatives that will bring broadband Internet to low-income households and will provide diverse and localized content. He uses his PF Hyper Blog as a means of reporting on broadband initiatives in the Twin Cities. Peter currently serves on the Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Task Force Portal Committee which is deciding on freely available content for the entry pages to the Minneapolis wireless network. He is also a member of the newly-created Digital Inclusion Fund Advisory Board which will oversee and fund digital inclusion proposals in Minneapolis. During the day, Peter is the Technical Webmaster for the University of Minnesota Cancer Center. In addition to keeping the web servers happy, he champions collaborative web tools like wikis, social bookmarking, podcasting, and blogs. He graduated in 1989 from Metropolitan State University. He is currently pursuing his Masters of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute. After a childhood on northern Minnesota's Iron Range, most of his life has been spent in Minneapolis. He is long-married to lovely wife Mary and fortunate to enjoy his daughter's three beautiful grandsons, ages nine, three, and one.
Joanne Hovis -
Joanne Hovis is President of Columbia Telecommunications Corporation. At CTC, she leads the company's work for non-profit agencies and the Federal Government. She also oversees CTC's educational offerings and public interest training programs. Joanne has co-authored extensive white papers on communications topics for government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, and non-profit organizations such as the Stanford University Center for Internet and Society, the William Penn Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the ACLU. She leads the CTC team that advises the City and County of San Francisco regarding fiber-to-the-premise networking and served as lead author of CTC's pathbreaking fiber report for San Francisco. She has advised numerous local governments and non-profits regarding community networking, including Los Angeles; Tucson, AZ; and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Joanne also serves on the Board of Directors of NATOA, the national association that represents local governments and promotes community interests in communications matters.
Pablo Osuna Garcia - EHAS Foundation
Born in 1980, he got his telecommunication engineering degree in 2006 from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM). In 2003 he started to work for Telefonica I+D, in 2004 he moved to Ireland and worked for Digiweb, an innovative Irish Wireless ISP, mainly involved in wireless setups (Wi-Fi and preWimax equipment). In 2005 he started to work for the EHAS Foundation (Enlace Hispano Americano de Salud), an NGO whose main concern is to give health service providers access to a series of low cost communication tools and telemedicine services, both adapted to rural areas in developing countries. He is currently working for EHAS as Wi-Fi consultant, mainly involved in the development of a low-cost Wi-Fi router. His current technical interests are Mesh networks, long distance Wi-Fi links, Wimax technology and its adaption to low cost scenarios. He is currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Benoit Gregoire - Île sans fil
Benoit Grégoire holds a computer engineering degree and primarily works as a consultant to Québec's public education sector, specializing in e-learning, learning objects standards, metadata management and UI, free software project management, and wireless technologies. Benoit was heavily involved in several Open Source software projects (he started the LibOfx (OFX banking protocol implementation), was a core developer of GnuCash (accounting software), and is the current projectn leader and main architect of the WifiDog project. He also has a keen interest in telecom policies, privacy issues and the ethical background of community wireless policies (he is responsible for putting most of Île sans fil's in writing).
Andrew Greig - Koolu
Mr. Greig is recognized as a futurist and visionary with an outstanding talent for conceiving creative ideas and making them both successful and profitable . A born entrepreneur certified in Novell NCLS, Nortel Fibre Optics splicer/tester, Broadband Internet V-Sat Installation and Wireless Infrastructure Installation, Mr. Greig has 20 years of experience in building companies including a Consumer Electronics company which yielded over 1 million in revenues in its first year in business.
Jon Maddog Hall - Linux International
Maddog is the Executive Director of Linux International, a non-profit association of computer vendors who wish to support and promote the Linux Operating System. During his career in commercial computing which started in 1969, Maddog has been a programmer, systems designer, systems administrator, product manager, technical marketing manager and educator. He has worked for such companies as Western Electric Corporation, Aetna Life and Casualty, Bell Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, VA Linux Systems, and SGI. Maddog has worked on many systems, both proprietary and open, having concentrated on Unix systems since 1980 and Linux systems since 1994, when he first met Linus Torvalds and correctly recognized the commercial importance of Linux and Free and Open Source Software. He has taught at Hartford State Technical College, Merrimack College and Daniel Webster College. He is the author of numerous magazine and newspaper articles, many presentations and one book, "Linux for Dummies". He has consulted with the governments of China, Malaysia and Brasil as well as the United Nations and many local and state governments on the use of Free and Open Source Software. He serves on the boards of several companies, and several non-profit organizations, including the USENIX Association. He has traveled the world speaking on the benefits of Open Source Software, and received his BS in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel University, and his MSCS from RPI in Troy, New York. In his spare time, Maddog is working on his retirement project: maddog's mansion for math, music, microcomputing and microbrewing. He still likes talking to students over pizza and beer (the pizza can be optional).
Dewayne Hendricks - Tetherless Access
Dewayne Hendricks is currently CEO, of the Dandin Group, Inc., based in Fremont, California. Dandin Group offers a comprehensive range of products and services for wireless communications via the Internet. The Dandin Group will begin to deploy the first exclusively wireless-based communications system, including voice, data and video, in the Kingdom of Tonga later this year. He is also an active member of the Federal Communications Commission Technological Advisory Council (FCC/TAC). He has been involved with radio since receiving his amateur radio operator's license as a teen. He currently holds official positions in several national non-profit amateur radio organizations and is a director of the Wireless Communications Alliance, an industry group representing manufacturers in the unlicensed radio industry. Dewayne’s background includes several other entrepreunerial positions as CEO and founder, and inclusion on various “top 100” lists as an innovator in the industry.
Josh King - Acorn Active Media
Josh studied both Computer Science and Philosophy. He utilizes his computer skills in a variety of areas related to political and social activism. As a member of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, he applies his knowledge of Linux system administration to the task of maintaining the Chambana.net community webhosting service. As a network engineer for the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network, he uses his skills in web-programming and application development to work on the Alexandria community media-portal project, as well as deploying wireless networking hardware by clambering over roofs like the trained monkey he is. Normally an elusive creature in the wild, if cornered he will talk your ear off about Leibniz, Spinoza, and YouTube videos.
Satish Jha - James Martin & Co India, Digital Partners India
Satish is actively engaged in non-profit activities and over the years co-founded Tarahaat, Baramati Initiatives, DESI Power, and Digital Partners India among others and chairs e-Healthcare Foundation. Four projects supported by him were selected as finalists at the Stockholm Challenge Award and one of them was awarded the honor. He also co-founded PUCL Bulletin, the civil Rights Journal of India in early 1980s and has supported a couple dozen initiatives in ICT for Development. He also co-founded Jansatta, a national language daily for the Indian Express Group and was the chief editor of Dinamaan, the newsweekly of the Times of India Group and has written for journals across Asia, Europe and the US. His focus is on using contemporary technologies for improving quality and design of work and efficiency as well as development that improve the quality of life for the common people. Since joining Hoffmann-La Roche in 1990, Satish has been closely associated with managing IT in pharmaceuticals and healthcare sectors. Initially, he was recruited to start the healthcare and pharmaceuticals practice of James Martin & Co in the US and was also asked to oversee the US operations of Telos Consulting. His clients included Pfizer, Westchester Hospital, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Ranbaxy, Apollo Hospital, Escorts Heart Institute, State of J&K, Employee State Insurance Corporation. Lately he has been supporting healthcare organizations such as Caremark in their integration efforts due to merger of three large Pharmacy Benefit Management companies.
Eddan Katz - Yale Information Society Project
Eddan Katz is the Executive Director of the Information Society Project and Lecturer-in-Law at Yale Law School. He has written articles and teaches in the areas of cyberlaw, intellectual property, telecommunications, and bioethics. He also wrote the hypertext poem Revolution is not an AOL Keyword, which has since been made into a T-shirt through the public domain license under which it was released. Eddan received his J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law at UC, Berkeley in 2002, with a Certificate in Law and Technology and honors in Intellectual Property Scholarship. He was a Visiting Scholar at the School of Information Management and Systems at UC, Berkeley in 2002-3; and a Resident Fellow with the ISP in 2003-4. Eddan received his B.A. in philosophy from Yale in 1997.
Naveen Lakshmipathy - New America Foundation
Naveen Lakshmipathy, Program Associate for the Wireless Futures Program for the New America Foundation, contributes to the program’s efforts to broaden public access to the airwaves through research, writing, and outreach. In addition, he manages the program’s web content and print publications.
Michael Lewis - Wireless Harlem
Michael Lewis is founder of Wireless Harlem Initiative, a New York based non-profit, which is advocating to bring affordable wireless broadband to Harlem in order to close the digital divide. He has more than 15 years of communications marketing, policy and grassroots campaign work for high innovation and advocating on behalf of open, standards-based computing. Over the years he has worked with MCI (Washington, D.C.), Hewlett-Packard, Oracle (San Francisco), Avaya and GSM Association (New York). Following passage of the Telecommunications Act, Lewis helped devise MCI’s messaging and outreach strategy on Capitol Hill and for local markets. For HP, he led a team focused on its Linux server market which won the coveted Gold SABRE award for strategic marketing and communications.
Casey Lide - Baller-Herbst Law Group
Casey Lide is an associate attorney with The Baller Herbst Law Group, PC, a national law firm based in Washington, DC, and Minneapolis, MN, that specializes in representing local governments and public power utilities in matters involving telecommunications, cable television, high-speed data communications, Internet access, wireless telecommunications, right-of-way management, pole and conduit attachments, and barriers to the public-sector entry into telecommunications.
Andreas Marksteiner - FunkFeuer
Andreas Marksteiner is a student of computer sciences (and a little electrical engineering) at Vienna University of Technology. He works as software engineer in projects related to automotive, gui-apps, streaming media and 802.11 - mainly using the programming languages C and C++. Andreas is one of the founders of FunkFeuer - a wireless community
network in Austria. He contributes to many sub projects within FunkFeuer and is one of the initiators of the cost-covering community housing project from FunkFeuer. Andreas is also involved in maintainance and expansion of the backbone infrastructure from FunkFeuer Vienna, which is collectively used by the wireless network and housing project.
Daniel Meredith - CuWin
Dan is a self-described technologist who utilizes over 7 years of experience to apply technology to address social justice and community needs. Dan is one of the founding board members and Senior Network Engineer of the CUWiN Foundation (Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network), one of the world's leading open-source, ad-hoc mesh network research and development projects. Dan is also a leading tech member of the Chambana.net project, a low-cost web hosting services for non-profit organizations, small businesses, and individuals, both locally and internationally. Along with his professional work as system administrator for OJC Technologies, Dan volunteers as the system administrator for both Radio Free Urbana (WRFU 104.5FM) and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.
Richard Mackinnon - Austin Wireless City Project/Less Networks
Richard MacKinnon is president and founder of the Austin Wireless City Project, a cooperatively-owned community network of 100 Free WiFi hotspots sharing common authentication, logging, statistics, monitoring, reporting, and branding. Founded in Fall 2002, AWC's nearly 150,000 registered users with roaming capabilities in 73 cities and 9 countries sharing the same platform have diverted $3.7M in unpaid access fees to their venues in the form of increased business revenues. Richard is also founder and CEO of Less Networks, a commercial-grade Free WiFi solutions provider for small and medium-size businesses and corporate franchises in retail, hospitality, and automotive industries. Less Networks provides complimentary services to eligible non-profits, charities, and select divisions of governments such as the Austin Public Library, Belton Wireless Project, Shreveport Parks and Recreation, Capital Metro Transportation Authority, Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce, and KDHX Radio.
Toby Morning - Urban Technology Ventures
Toby identifies and unveils the hidden potential of IT companies. As CEO of Urban Technology Ventures LLC (UTV), he has made UTV into one of Americas leading investors in seed, early and expansion stage minority owned technology companies. Through investments in technology, UTV plans on participating in the development and nurturing of minority owned firms for the 21st century and beyond. Their investments to date have primarily been focused around digital media and providing technology solutions for Entertainment Company’s. The next ten years will see UTV focusing on investment vehicles for Africa to support the rapid growth the internet in these emerging markets where there is less then 2% internet penetration currently. Toby has a strong background in wireless technologies and is currently in an advisory role helping oneVillage Foundation to identify relevant technologies around a entrepreneurial program to ensure the rapid replication of effective ICT4D strategies in Africa. His company has social responsibility mission that is committed to “MAKING POVERTY HISTORY” and distributes a portion of his company’s profits goes towards that goal.
Steve Okay - Inveneo
Stephen Okay is a volunteer technologist and trainer with Inveneo, a San Francisco social enterprise which designs and supports affordable, sustainable communications systems for organizations (NGOs, governments, private enterprises) who operate in remote in rural places in developing countries regions.He has been involved in a number of ICT wireless networking projects and conferences since 2002. From 2004 through 2005 he worked with Mark Summer and Bob Marsh to develop the first version of the Inveneo Communication Station.He is a passionate proponent of the Free Software movement, wireless networking and mobile computing.
Dillip Pattanaik - Information Resource Management-India
Dillip Pattanaik is the Director of Information Resource Management Association-India, a non-profit organization that promotes information technology in rural communities to assist in sustainable development.
Ermanno Pietrosemoli - EsLaRed
Ermanno lives in Merida, Venezuela, where he has taught Telecommunications at Universidad de los Andes since 1970. He designed RETIEM, the wireless network of the state of Merida, and as Project Leader for Spike Technologies has performed wireless networks planning and installations in Argentina, Nicaragua, Peru, Trinidad and other cities of Venezuela. Ermanno is president of Fundacion EsLaRed (Latin American Networking School) and has been participating in ICT training workshops and development projects for Latin America and the Caribbean since 1992. In 1996 he was a lecturer at the wireless training workshop held at ICTP in Trieste, Italy and has continued to contribute to these annual events. Having an interest in low cost telecommunications solution, has been experimenting in long range WiFi and in April 2006 was able to span 279 km using off the shelf inexpensive routers and modified reflectors.
Alison Powell - Île Sans Fil
Alison Powell is a PhD candidate in the Communication Studies department at Concordia University in Montreal. Her work focuses on the uses of mobile and wireless internet technologies in public spaces, as well as on the politics and culture of community wireless groups, and their impact on the development of communications policies and practices. She is a member of the Canadian Research Alliance on Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN), where she examines community and municipal wireless projects. She is also a member of the LabCMO research group on computer-mediated communication, at Université du Québec à Montréal. She has presented and published on the relationships between ICTs, citizenship, and public space, as well as on the emergence of community technology groups in Canada. She is also the academic liaison for the community wireless network Île Sans Fil. She was an invited researcher at l’École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris in the Summer of 2006.
Francois Proulx - Île Sans Fil
Francois Proulx is currently completing a B. Eng. IT Engineering degree in Montreal, Canada. He is also the V.P of R&D for the non-profit community wireless group Île Sans Fil. Over the past few years, he has taken part in the Montreal open source community through his contributions on the WifiDog captive portal solution. He built the prototype for the HAL project that now enables local artists to distribute their music and short films on small servers on the Île Sans Fil network. Recently he was a researcher at the MIT SENSEable City Lab where he designed and developed iFIND, a location-based social software using the Wi-Fi access points as a positioning system.
Ramon Roca - Guifi.net
With 20 years of experience working for IT industry leaders Mr. Roca, like many of the activists interested in wireless networking, started to use wifi for access broadband for teleworking at home, in a rural area north of the region of Barcelona in early 2000. In 2003, after having discussions with other activists in the region, he realized that although building wifi communities is a local phenomenon, the technology skills were not generally available to fill the need for resources to make community networks truly available to those hoping to effectively overcome the digital divide. To solve this, in early 2004, Mr. Roca founded guifi.net with other activists from other municipalities.
Bogdan Tančić - BGWireless
Bogdan is one of the founders and network administrators of BGWireless community network, a non-profit organization that promotes information technology and builds independent network infrastructure in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. As the biggest network in region, their goal is to become the most relevant factor in the telecommunications branch in the country. Many technical projects from this community network are used worldwide. Working for Siemens, Bogdan did considerable research on the telecommunications industry in Serbia. Also, he has been a lecturer in many seminars in Serbia. He is finishing his studies on Electrotechnical faculty in the department for computer technology and informatics.
Joy Tang - oneVillage Foundation
Joy has a background on ICT marketing with Cisco. After a 7 years at Cisco first in marketing and then as Cisco Fellow she helped to pioneer Cisco’s Emerging Market strategy. She then went on to found oneVillage Foundation. She is now as VP of marketing for Accton; an electronics company based on Taiwan that makes routers and other networking equipment. She will discuss the role of ICT in transforming lives and building human networks. This will include examples of how FOSS and community wireless networks can impact the wireless environment at the corporate level, while keeping its values and integrity at the grassroots level while keeping in mind that corporate system might offer some guidance especially with consideration to mass dissemination of wireless/telecenter best practices.
Lee Thorn - Jhai Foundation
Since 1967, Lee has worked as a strategist and activist on an international basis within the Independent Living movement for people with disabilities and the Veterans movement for peace. He wrote legislation, lobbied, fundraised, and created strategy at the highest levels. He also developed first multi-service, peer-led agencies. Lee founded in January 1998 and run since the Jhai Foundation, an international reconciliation and rural development NGO that has spun off six businesses, two NGO’s, and a coffee cooperative. He has created and tested the low power, low cost JhaiPC and communication system. He developed Jhai Networks, a method for the illiterate to use the internet; has helped the Jhai Coffee Farmers cooperative sell coffee at prices up to double their competitors in Laos, doubling their co-op’s sales yearly. He has won the Stockholm Challenge Award in education, laureate status in the Tech Awards and five ‘best practices’ designations, including one from the UN Secretariat.
Anthony Townsend - Institute for the Future
Anthony has been researching the implications of new technology on cities and public institutions for over a decade. At the Institute for the Future (IFTF), Anthony's research focuses on several inter-related topics: pervasive computing, the urban environment, economics and demographics, public and nonprofit organizations, and the media industry. Prior to joining IFTF, Anthony enjoyed a brief but productive academic career at New York University, where he directed research sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security. Anthony is active in international futures research networks, and received a Fulbright scholarship in 2004 to study the social impacts of broadband in South Korea. He was one of the original founders of NYCwireless, a pioneer in the municipal wireless movement. Anthony received his Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003.
Steve Walker - Informatics Coalition
Steve Walker is President of Steve Walker & Associates and Managing Partner of Walker Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund specializing in the Mid Atlantic region. Previously, Steve was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trusted Information Systems, Inc. (TIS), which he founded in 1983. Before its purchase by Network Associates, TIS had become a publicly traded company, employing more than 350 people with offices throughout the world. Prior to TIS, Steve had a 22-year career with the Department of Defense at the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Steve was a member of a team that developed the ARPAnet, the breakthrough packet switching system that evolved into the Internet. He is nationally recognized for his pioneering work on the DoD Computer Security Initiative, establishment of the National Computer Security Center and the Defense Data Network. Steve is currently the chairman of the Technology Leadership Consortium, a volunteer group of leaders of technology organizations across the region. In that role he is leading the Informatics Coalition, an effort to recognize the significance of informatics in all aspects of our region’s development.
The 2006 Summit
- How can community wireless networks better serve their target populations?
- What is the future of unlicensed spectrum and what policies and regulations will support/hamper innovations in community wireless technologies?
- How can the hundreds of independently-operating community wireless initiatives join together to create a positive future for the movement?
- What technological and software innovations do we already have, and what projects are currently being worked on?
- What are the pros and cons of different wireless systems currently available?
SUMMIT DOCUMENTATION:
Official Summit Tag: Tag your photos and other media with "NS4CWN"
Additional summit documentation is now available on the 2006 Summit Schedule page (updated April 19, 2006).
Photos
Wendy's Summit Photos -- some fantastic pix from CUWiN's Wendy Edwards.
Matt's Summit Photos -- some fantastic pix from Matt Westervelt of Seattle Wireless.
Audio & Video
Podcasts from the Summit! -- check for the podcasts labled "Wireless Summit" [Currently Unavailable]
Blogs & News
A Blog of Her Own -- Lisa Yeo's extensive blogging from the Community Wireless Summit.
Bob at WITS (St. Louis Bridging) -- Bob Babione blogs from the Community Wireless Summit.
Ken from Seattle Wireless -- commentary from the Summit.
CUWiN's own Sascha Meinrath -- public ponderings from the Summit Director.
OCCN's Angela Stuber -- Diary of a Community Technology Advocate.
ISF's Michael Lenczner -- extensive blogging on the WiFiDog project & Community Wireless Summit.
Toronto Wireless' Dory Kornfeld -- pix and experiences of the Summit.
St. Louis Independent Media Center -- post-Summit wrap-up.
Evaluations
Compiled evaluation comments are available here.
The First National Summit for Community Wireless Networks was a seminal event and helped launch the Community Wireless Networking Movement. Building on this momentum, on March 31-April 2, 2006, the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN), Free Press, and Mid-Rivers Community Wireless Network will host the Second National Summit for Community Wireless Networks at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO.
The Summit is the largest gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies focused on building the alliance of technologists, policy experts, and implementers, and encouraging participants to discuss the great variety of challenges and opportunities facing the movement, including:
The 3-day Summit allows participants to engage in extended conversations with presenters and with each other. Attendees will help develop strategic plans to expand community wireless network deployment and ensure that the federal government regulates spectrum to increase unlicensed access. Come join us for what is certain to be a spectacular event!
2006 Summit Background
- The Cable and DSL duopoly (which controls 98% of the broadband market) is lobbying to make municipal networking illegal (spending over $71 million on state lobbying in just the last year). Cutting through the scare tactics, hype, and misinformation has become both increasingly important and an effort needing input from a coalition of publi service supporters.
- Congress and the FCC have not opened up the public airwaves for more and better wireless broadband solutions.
- Our elected representatives are still largely unaware of the depth of our technological problems, our lack of global competitiveness, and the dangers of information inequality in the Information Age.
- Worse yet, the FCC has eliminated the bedrock communications policy of open access and the Congress now stands at the brink of blithely rejecting network neutrality protections -- the last defenses that keep the Internet open and free from discrimination against content, applications, and new devices.
- A public venue for frank and honest assessment, discussion, and debate over the technology and policy sponsored not by vendors or special interests, but non-profit organizations;
- Collaborative meeting space for stakeholders to share information, develop an agenda for further research, and solidify the leadership of the community broadband coalition;
- Grassroots event for everyone from wireless neophytes to seasoned veterans to learn about ongoing projects, new technologies, and success stories;
- Forum to crystallize a public message that rallies broad support for an open Internet and universal, affordable broadband access;
- Strategy meetings for advocates to share tactics to both defend the gains made over the past year and expand the social benefits Community Internet projects offer;
- Lobby day for wireless engineers to visit the FCC, local project managers to visit Members of Congress, and advocates to publicize the campaign to bridge the digital divide and keep the Internet open.
In August 2004, over two hundred technology experts, policy analysts, university researchers, and on-the-ground specialists deploying state-of-the-art community broadband projects came together to discuss technology, policy and organizing issues as well as the practical solutions to problems facing community broadband. In addition to addressing best practices for both technologies, community organizing, and innovative business models, the National Summit for Community Wireless Networks supported the critical alliance between technologists, national policy advocates, and the communities and organizations implementing wireless networks around the country. Participatory meetings and workshops helped the leaders of community broadband initiatives build a strategic plan for expanding the deployment of networks and lobbying the federal government to create policies that expand broadband access, open more unlicensed spectrum, and break the duopoly market power of cable and DSL that stifles economic growth and social opportunity through technology.
The first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks was a seminal event that helped launch what we now call the Community Broadband Movement. It was a timely prelude to the explosion in technological development, local implementation, and policy debates over the future of broadband.
Since this initial gathering, community wireless networking has become a national phenomenon. Over 300 communities around the country are planning or building local networks. Headlines over flagship projects in Philadelphia and San Francisco are backed up by a hundred success stories in rural America. City planners and consumer advocates have linked forces with high tech companies and ISPs. The market for community broadband solutions has grown exponentially. Recent market analysis expects over $750,000,000 to be spent on new municipal wireless networks over just the next three years. Including community fiber and hybrid systems, this is a multi-billion dollar market. It is generating enormous economic growth, challenging the market control of incumbents, and bridging the digital divide through competition and entrepreneurial innovation.
The more successful community wireless technologies become, the more policy challenges we face:
We stand at a paradigm shift in technology policy that demands a groundswell of public support to guide our leaders toward the right decisions. We need a national coalition of technology experts, community leaders, policy advocates, and innovative businesses. With this goal in mind, the 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks provides:
Summit organizers expect attendance to be several hundred strong. Lindenwood University has generously offered to host the 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks and has donated the use of a building large enough for this weekend event. Yet an event of this scope still needs sufficient financial support to be successful. Most conferences rely on corporate donations for this support. However, Summit organizers are loathe to engage in the “money for access” quid pro quo that undermines the independence of many of these types of events. Instead, a coalition of public interest organizations is being approached to help fund this Summit. If our goal is to create broadband networks whose first priority is supporting the public interest, then we must create an environment conducive to honest discussion can take place and opportunities to build these infrastructures can flourish.
This is a critical opportunity to catalyze the community broadband movement and create tangible goals in technology, policy, and public education.
The Big Picture
The National Summit for Community Wireless Networks distinguishes itself from typical technical and academic conferences by engaging all participants in an ongoing dialogue that encourages a strategic approach to community wireless network development and spectrum policy reform. Panelists will not simply present their own work and opinions -- they will also serve as facilitators of a process that records lessons learned and produces a comprehensive "to-do list" of action items for the coming months and years. While three days may not be long enough to develop a truly comprehensive strategic plan that everyone can agree to follow, this Summit represents a significant opportunity for thinkers, developers, and stakeholders to produce substantial recommendations for the future success of community wireless networks. The Summit is, in essence, a gathering of leaders in the field and an opportunity to shape the future of this movement. Read more background on the 2006 Summit here.
How It Works
Each discussion session includes a facilitator who will be responsible for managing the interaction between the panelists and other participants in the room. Panelists will be given adequate time to present their experiences and recommendations, and the audience will be encouraged to engage the panelists in dialogue. Panelists will also be encouraged to interact directly with each other. Questions will be asked, answers may or may not be provided, and all the while, the facilitator will be recording good ideas, lessons learned, questions to be considered, and things to do. Near the end of each session, the facilitator will share what has been recorded so far, and all participants will assist in approving or modifying the list. Think of this as a brainstorming session -- nothing should be taken off the lists, but corrections and clarifications to existing items may be allowed and new ideas can be added. This collection of ideas and recommendations will be considered again, along with the collections produced in other sessions, during Sunday's "Strategizing/Next Steps" plenary session.
The Strategizing & Next Steps session will allow for the prioritization and consolidation of recommendations and for the beginning of the production of a document or series of documents that records, as much as possible, the relevant collective knowledge and consensus of Summit participants. The resulting document(s) will be made available to all participants under a Creative Commons license and as a Wiki-type CMS to allow ongoing modification.
2006 Summit Logistics (How to Get There, Where to Stay, etc.).
The Spellmann Campus Center -- our 2006 Summit Location.
The National Summit for Community Wireless Networks is conveniently located 10 minutes from the St. Louis International Airport and near several major interstates. See the "Getting There & Away" section below for driving instructions. Shuttle services between hotels and the event sites will be provided during the Summit itself. Attire is casual to business casual, but feel free to dress up if you desire.
HOTELS
Sheraton Four Points West: Free high-speed access in room, free wireless in lobby; Free shuttle to/from Lambert Airport and Lindenwood University, as well as official summit functions.
Distances: 7 miles to Lambert Airport; 6 miles to Lindenwood University
Website: http://www.360stlouis.com/fourpointsstlouiswest/
Email: fourpoints-stlwest@hmahotels.com
Telephone: +1 314 291-6800
Fax: +1 314 291-4049
Promotional Code: NSCWN, expires 03/24/2006
Single: $79 + tax
Double: $79 + tax
Triple: $79 + tax
Quad: $79 + tax
Directions: Conveniently located just one exit west of I-270 and I-70 – at the Earth City Expressway North (exit 231B). Turn left at Rider Trail South, cross two intersections and turn left into the hotel entrance.
Quality Inn: Convenient location and lowest price. Free dial-up speed high speed Internet in room, free wireless Internet in lobby; modest continental breakfast.
Phone: (636)946-6936
Website -- NOTE: check online for even better "Internet User's Rates."
Promotional Code: NSCWN
Single -- $72
Double -- $72
Triple -- $72
Quad -- $72
plus taxes of 14.42 %
Directions: From Hwy 70 East, take Exit 229B (Fifth St.) make left onto Bass Pro Drive. Make left into parking lot. From Hwy 70 West, take Exit 229, make left at bottom of exit onto Fifth St. Make left onto Bass Pro Drive. Make left into parking lot.
Comfort Suites: Convenient location and moderately priced. Free high speed Internet in room, free wireless Internet in building; deluxe continental breakfast.
Phone: (636)949-0694
Website -- NOTE: check online for even better "Internet User's Rates."
Promotional Code: NSCWN
Single -- $95
Double -- $95
Triple -- $95
Quad -- $95
plus taxes of 14.42 %
Directions: I-70 West to exit 229B. I-70 East to exit 229.
Embassy Suites: Most convenient location and highest price. Most costly Internet ($9.95 – $19.90 per day); best breakfast – free and cooked to order.
Embassy does not have a promotional code.
Phone: (636)946-5544
Single -- $115
Double -- $120
Triple -- $125
Quad -- $130
plus taxes of 14.42 %
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Information about:
-
Flying to the Summit
Shuttle Service
St. Charles Convention Center
Maryland Yards at the Water Works
The Spellmann Center
Trailhead Brewpub
Maps
Flying to St. Louis
Fly into St. Louis Lambert International Airport--the Summit location and our suggested hotels are closer to the airport than to downtown St. Louis.
Shuttle Services
Shuttle Services to and from the Lambert International Airport if you are staying at the Sheraton. If not, you will either need to rent a car or take a taxi to your hotel.
During the Summit, we are still finalizing the details of the shuttle services. Our goal is to provide shuttle access from the four hotels mentioned above to all the summit sites: the St. Charles Convention Center, Lindenwood University, Maryland Yards at the Water Works, and the Trailhead. Check back to this space for more details, which should be available by 9 pm on Wednesday, March 29, 2006.
FRIDAY's Activities at the St. Charles Convention Center
The St. Charles Convention Center is located off Interstate 70 at the 5th Street exit on the Corner of Veterans Memorial Highway and Fairgrounds Rd. Below are directions from the North, South, East, and West. You may also download this information as a PDF document.
When Traveling From The East (Downtown/Airport): Take Interstate 70 West over the Blanchette Bridge To St. Charles. Take the second exit after the Bridge, 5th Street South Exit 229A, and go to the first light at Veterans Memorial Parkway and make a right. Go One mile to the Fairgrounds Road light. The Convention Center will be immediately on your left. Make a left onto Fairgrounds Road and enter to the rear of the complex.
When Traveling From The West (Columbia): Take Interstate 70 East to St. Charles. Take the First Capitol (State Highway 94) exit 228, make a right at the end of the ramp and go South. Turn left at the first light and head East onto Veterans Memorial Parkway. Go approximately two miles to Beverly Street and make a right. The Convention Center will be immediately on your left.
When Traveling From The Southeast (Clayton / Kirkwood): Take Interstate 270 North to Page Road (State Highway 364). Go West on 364 (Page Road Extension) approximately 6 miles over the Bridge To St. Charles. Take the first exit after the Bridge, Arena Parkway, and make a right to head North on Arena Parkway. Go past the Family Arena and make a right at the light onto South River Road. Go approximately 4 miles to the second light at Veterans Memorial Parkway. Make a left onto Veterans Memorial Parkway. Go one mile to the Fairgrounds Road light. The Convention Center will be immediately on your left.
When Traveling From The Southwest: Take Interstate 64/State Highway 40 to State Highway 94. Go North on Highway 94 to St. Charles. Highway 94 (First Capitol) will intersect Veterans Memorial Highway before Interstate 70. Turn right and head East on Veterans Memorial Parkway. Go two miles to Beverly Street and make a right. The Convention Center will be immediately on your left.
When Traveling From The North: Take the Interstate 270 loop to State Highway 370. Go West to State Highway 94. Head South, be careful to stay on Highway 94 through St. Charles. Turn left after crossing over Interstate 70 at the intersection of Veterans Memorial. Head East on Veterans and go two miles to Beverly Street and make a right. The Convention Center will be immediately on your left.
Maryland Yards at the Water Works
Friday night's social activity will be held at Maryland Yards at the Water Works. Maryland Yards is located in the St. Charles historic district. To get there, take Exit 229B on I-70. Turn right at Boonslick Road. Turn right at Main. Maryland Yards will be on your left.
Getting to the Spellmann Center
All Saturday & Sunday panels will take place at the Spellmann Center on the campus of Lindenwood University.
From Interstate 70/270 Interchange: Take Interstate 70 W across the Blanchette Bridge (Missouri River). Exit 229 at First Capitol Drive. Go Right. Follow First Capitol Drive for 3/4 mile to Kingshighway. Go Left. Lindenwood will be on your left.
From Interstate 64 in Chesterfield: Travel west across the Daniel Boone Bridge (Missouri River). Exit at Highway 94. Go right. Follow Highway 94 north and cross interstate 70. The name of Highway 94 changes to First Capitol. Proceed to Kingshighway. Go left. Lindenwood will be on your left.
Parking: The entrance to Lindenwood is a little complicated to navigate. Coming from the south on First Capitol, First Capitol will bend to the right and the street that continues is Kingshighway. Turn left at this intersection.
Coming from the east on First Capitol, you need to go straight at the Kingshighway and First Capitol intersection.
Once you have driven onto the campus, you will follow the curve to the left. At the end of the street, you can turn right. Park anywhere, but keep in mind that you will want to enter the building with the clock tower. Registration is on the third floor, which is the level with the entrance directly below the clock tower.
Trailhead
Saturday night's social activity will be held at Trailhead. Trailhead is located in the St. Charles historic district. To get there, take Exit 229B on I-70. Turn right at Boonslick Road. Trailhead is at the corner of Boonslick and Main on the far left. Many parking spaces are available if you pass Main and veer right.
Maps
 Map of St. Charles |
 Map of St. Louis Metro Highways |
 Map for St. Charles Convention Center |
 Map for Lindenwood |
Have Other Questions?
Contact the Summit Planning Team at:
2006 Summit Participants (Organizations & Panelist Bios)
Participating Organizations
The Summit is a participatory environment where all attendees are encouraged to be involved in the panels and discussions. Technology and policy leaders, decision-makers, WISPs, municipal networking representatives, students, researchers, and other participants in wireless networking and community networking initiatives will all be in attendence. Individuals affiliated with organizati