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 organizations and projects from across North America and Europe are already attending*:
5lowershop
Acorn Active Media Foundation
Association for Community Networking
Austin Wireless
The Baller Herbst Law Group
BG Wireless Community Network
Boston Wireless Advocacy Group
City of Geneva, IL
Civitium
Cleveland Digital Vision
Common Ground Collective, New Orleans
Community Technology Center Network
Community Technology Consulting
Concordia University, Montreal
Conxx
Consumer Federation of America
Consumer's Union
CRACIN
CTCnet Chicago
CUWiN
Dandin Group
Federal Communications Commission
Fiber for Our Future
Free Press
Heads on Fire
Highland Community Technology Center
Holistic IT
Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center
Hungarian Wireless Community
Île Sans Fil
Illinois Community Technology Coalition
IMAPRO 2000
Indymedia
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Institute of Communications Research
Internet Educational Equal Access Foundation
Lewis and Clark Discovery Expedition of Clayton, Mo.
Lindenwood University
MaxSpot
Media Access Project
Media Democracy Fund
Metrix Communications
Michiana FreeNet
Mid Rivers Wireless Initiative
Mt. Vernon Net
Muniwireless.com
MyVoice Progressives
New America Foundation
NewburyOpen.net
The New York Times
NYC Wireless
Ohio Academic Resources Network
Ohio Community Computing Network
Ohio State University
OJC Technologies
Open Spectrum International
Partners for Progress
PITH
Prairienet
Prometheus Radio Project
Radiophoney
Rochelle Municipal Utilities
Simdesk
SLACO
Slice Network
Sociable Design
SLACO
Solidbase Technologies
S.P.A.Z.
SpectrumPolicy.org
St. Louis IMC
St. Louis WizKids
Tech Superpowers
TMT Coop
Thin Wires
Tribal Digital Village
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Missouri-St. Louis
University of Nebraska, Omaha Wifi Project
Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center
Washington University in St. Louis
Wireless Internet Service Providers Association
Wireless Toronto
WISPCentric
WITS
WNMap
WRFU 104.5 LP -- Radio Free Urbana
* Please note that participation by individuals affiliated with the organizations listed above does not necessarily imply endorsement, partnership, or formal participation by the organizations themselves. Please see the schedule of events for a full list of presenters.
Panelist Bios
Bruce Alexander
Bruce Alexander is the Technical Marketing Manager for the Wireless Networking Business Unit at Cisco Systems. He has been working with RF technologies for more than 27 years and during the past 17 years, has worked with RF WLAN technologies. Bruce attended Akron University, where he majored in Computer Programming and Business Administration.
John Atkinson
John Atkinson directs the Wireless Ghana project out of Apirede, Ghana. Wireless Ghana aims to bridge the emerging literacy of Ghanaians with access to the tools of a reading culture. John has been teaching math and computers in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer since 2004.
Jonathan Baltuch
Jonathan Baltuch is a founding partner in MRI, a firm which specializes in creating and implementing brand identity and economic development blueprints for municipalities. MRI envisioned, developed and managed the process that created the Cyber Spot for the City of St. Cloud, Florida, a suburb of Orlando. On March 6, 2006 St. Cloud deployed the nation’s first 100% free citywide hi-speed wireless system delivered as a public service. MRI is currently consulting with other cities around the country to help them to develop and integrate Municipal Wireless systems into their communities.
Ron Bauer
Ron Bauer, Founder, Mid Rivers Wireless Initiative
Sue Beckwith
Sue Beckwith is the Project Manager for St. Louis WizKids at The Youth and Family Center. St. Louis WizKids is a youth-directed project that aims to improve student academic performance by providing access to educational tools including those available through broadband Internet.
Joshua Breitbart
Joshua Breitbart is currently the Communications Director of Media Tank and an organizer of the annual Allied Media Conference. He was a founder and director of Brooklyn's Rooftop Film and a consulting editor with Clamor Magazine. From 2000-2005, he helped organize the Indymedia movement, working with Independent Media Centers throughout the United States and in South America.
Annie Collins
Annie Collins is the Chairwoman of Fiber For Our Future, a municipal broadband project seeking to establish Fiber to the Home (FTTH) in the TriCities. She is a longtime community activist and a strong advocate of municipally owned, fiber optic networking for community development.
Peter I. Collins
Peter Collins is the Information Systems Manager for the City of Geneva, Illinois, and President of the Illinois Municipal Broadband Communications Association. He resides in Batavia, Illinois with his wife Annie (Chairman - Fiber For Our Future) and their sons. He has been involved in the Information Technology field for over 15 years and has written for the NATOA Journal of Municipal Telecommunications Policy. He currently oversees all networking services provided via Geneva’s internal and municipal fiber optic network. He is a vocal proponent of the rights of municipalities to set their own telecommunications destinies.
Mark Cooper
Dr. Mark Cooper holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He is Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America where he has responsibility for analysis and advocacy in the areas of telecommunications, media, digital rights, economic and energy policy. He has provided expert testimony in over 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People’s Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts and legislators in almost four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada. He is the author of Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age (Center for Internet & Society, Stanford University, 2003), Cable Mergers and Monopolies (Electronic download) (Economic Policy institute, 2002, paper), The Transformation of Egypt (Johns Hopkins, 1982), and Equity and Energy (Westview, 1983).
Dharma Daily
Prometheus Radio Project's Spectrum Mama. In the mid 1990s, Dharma Dailey learned about an LPFM pirate radio station that broadcast out of a housing project in Illinois. As a teen mom who grew up in low income housing projects, she immediately recognized the potential of LPFM and wondered why something that was so good for community building was illegal for those who could use it most. Airwave access for everyone is still her dream.
Rick Dearborn
As a broadcaster, writer, and college professor, Rick Dearborn has worked with cutting edge media technology for over 30 years. Rick holds an MS in Mass Communications, and a BS in Physics. He has worked in radio and television broadcasting, film, corporate communication, and media education. He has worked in Chicago, Boston, New York and St. Louis, and he was Chair of the Mass Communication Department at Principia College. He has consulted to some of the largest communications companies in the United States, and is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. He has completed FEMA training IS-100, and has received recognition for his exceptional service directing emergency communictions in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.
Robert S. Dixon, Ph.D., PE
Bob Dixon, Chief Research Engineer, Office of the CIO of Ohio State University and OARnet, is a recognized mentor, resource provider, motivator, and "evangelist" in advancing the state of H.323 video conferencing technology and its value throughout the Research and Education community. He is the organizer of the annual MegaConference, the largest international videoconferencing event, the participants of which span the globe and number in the thousands. He is a developer of the "Internet To Go" small mobile Internet satellite system, which provides high-speed Internet connectivity anywhere. He developed wireless video cameras, which allow live video to be originated from anywhere. He directed the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at the Big Ear radio telescope of Ohio State University, and is now involved in development of the next generation of radio telescopes, called Argus. He is part of the team that is providing community wireless systems to small towns in Appalachian Ohio. He is the author of two books and many scientific publications and presentations.
Dr. Alan Escovitz
Alan Escovitz, Ph.D. serves as Director of External Affairs in The Ohio State University Office of the CIO with the responsibilities for promoting distance education linkages between Ohio State and business, professional organizations, government, and service agencies; translating technology, campus research, and knowledge to the regional and global distance education markets; assisting the CIO in defining the external outreach agenda for distance education to promote partnerships and collaboration within and beyond the local community; and connecting and extending the university distance education resources to support outreach and engagement initiatives. He is a member of the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) Program Panel and ADEC Distance Education Policy Collaboratory and the Ohio Learning Network Academic Outreach Committee. Dr. Escovitz currently served as Co-PI on Ohio State’s initiatives under a NSF-Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project (funded through ADEC), Tri-State Aquaculture Outreach Using Technology grant (funded through the U S Department of Agriculture and the American Distance Education Consortium), a Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign, and an Ohio Board of Regents Technology Initiatives Program grant.
James D. Evans
James D. Evans is the Provost and Dean of Faculty at Lindenwood University and has served as a faculty member there since 1974. He has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Iowa State University. An advocate of technology use to simultaneously improve service and cost-effectiveness, Dr. Evans is an ardent supporter of the emergence of wireless communication on university campuses.
Harold Feld
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.
Laura Forlano
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.
Benoit Grégoire
Benoit Grégoire is the current technical coordinator of Île Sans Fil. He holds a B.S. in computer engineering and primarily works as a consultant to Québec's public education sector, where he specializes in e-learning, learning objects standards and free software project management. Benoit was also involved in several Open Source software projects (he started the LibOfx (OFX banking protocol implementation), got heavily involved in GnuCash (accounting software), and currently works on the WifiDog embedded captive portal system.
Dewayne Hendricks
Dewayne Hendricks is currently CEO, of the Dandin Group, Inc., based in Fremont, California, USA. Dandin Group offers a comprehensive range of products and services, including research and product development, for wireless communications via the Internet. The Dandin Group will begin to deploy the first exclusively wireless Internet 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).
Nazeer S. Holmes
Nazeer S. Holmes is a Community Organizer with the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO). Established in 1978, SLACO is a coalition of neighborhood associations committed to improving the quality of life in the neighborhoods of St. Louis. SLACO is involved with affordable housing productions, crime prevention activities, after-school programming, and leadership training. Nazeer works with three neighborhood associations providing the resources they request and help make connections with people and organizations that have the ability to help improve quality of life from the perspective of the residents.
Michael Kasprzyk
Michael Kasprzyk, is a founder and CEO of Thinwires, LLC, a Buffalo, NY based Wireless Internet Service provider. Thinwires specializes in residential MDU, Hospitality and Emergency Communications services, and currently operates the municipal network in Buffalo, NY, known as www.buffalowifi.org. Mr. Kasprzyk is also a founder and partner in GeekWarriors, LLC, a technology invester and open source developer, based in Buffalo, NY.
Jeffrey King
Jeffrey King is a Director of Northrop Grumman IT’s Utility Systems business unit with responsibility for municipal networks and business applications. A thirty year professional serving the municipal construction, engineering, water, wastewater and information systems markets in the US, he has brought innovative technologies and products to cities and agencies that enhance efficiencies in municipal operations from meter reading and public safety to communications and field services. Most recently, he has helped the City of Corpus Christi implement an Automated Meter Reading system and citywide WiFi network that is being used across all city departments for communications, operations and automation efficiencies. Jeffrey is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Boston University, is a fellow of the Leadership Houston program and an active participant in multiple industry associations including the Public Technology Institute, American Water Works Association, Automated Meter Reading Association and the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Finley Kipp
Finley Kipp of the St. Louis Independent Media Center, St. Louis, MO;
Naveen Lakshmipathy
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 Lenczner
Michael Lenczner works at the intersection of community, technology, media, and activism. He is one of the founders of Ile Sans Fil and is the Director of Administration. Over the last 8 years he has been involved in assisting different populations to appropriate new technology, including teenage mothers, seniors, teenage immigrants, and medical staff at the MUHC. He has worked in international development in West Africa, has presented across Canada, US and UK on the subject of free information infrastructures and community informatics. He has recently started the Montreal Video Bloggers group and launched a nationwide civic association "Citizens for Open Access to Civic Information and Data".
Casey Lide
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.
Richard MacKinnon
Richard MacKinnon is the President of Austin Wireless, a Texas non-profit organization with the dual roles of public education and community-network operation. Austin Wireless is perhaps best known for its Austin Wireless City Project, an ad hoc volunteer organization with the mission of improving the quality and availability of public free WiFi in Austin. Operating for almost 3 years, the community-owned network includes 100 hotspots and over 30,000 registered users who combine for over 80,000 monthly connections. Network usage doubled over last year. There are also hotspots in 38 other cities and 5 countries that have joined the network, now accounting for nearly a third of the traffic.
Michael Maranda
Michael Maranda, President of the Association for Community Networking, is actively organizing regionally, and locally: Midwest/Illinois, Chicago, and am coordinating this work with attention to national issues and regional cooperation. While working as a Development Officer at a community based organization serving immigrant populations I was given the latitude to pursue funding for technology programs, and to launch them. This was my formal entree to this field. Since that time, and with subsequent expansion of programs I've shifted towards being an activist and organizer.
Robert McChesney
Robert McChesney is the founder and president of Free Press, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and author or editor of 12 award-winning books, including Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935; Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy; The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism (with Edward S. Herman); Our Media, Not Theirs (with John Nichols); Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times; The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century; and, most recently, Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections and Destroy Democracy (with John Nichols). He hosts a weekly program, Media Matters, on WILL-AM radio, the NPR affiliate in Urbana, Illinois.
Arun Mehta
Arun Mehta is an electrical engineer and computer scientist who has studied and taught in India, the US and Germany. He is one of India's early telecom and cyber-activists, trying to obtain consumer-friendly policies that would help the spread of modern communications in rural areas and among the poor. His current passions include village radio and technology for the disabled. He is a professor in the Computer Sciences department of JMIT, Radaur, and CTO of Radiophony.
Sascha Meinrath
Sascha Meinrath is a well-known expert on Community Wireless Networks (CWNs), Municipal Broadband, and Community Internet. Sascha is the co-founder and Project Coordinator of the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN), one of the world's leading open-source, ad-hoc mesh wireless projects. In 2005, Sascha was elected to the Board of Directors 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. Sascha is a policy analyst for Free Press, a Washington, DC-based think-tank, and regularly briefs Federal Communications Commission and Congressional staff on issues related to CWNs. Leading news sources, including The Economist, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and National Public Radio, often cite Sascha's work in covering issues related to CWNs and he is an editor of MuniWireless.com. 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; and, in 2006 organized the Second National Summit for Community Wireless Networks.
Dan Meredith
Dan Meredith is an active member of the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.
Gabe Moulton
Gabe Moulton has been a Technology Engineer with the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the Ohio State University since Jan 2001. During that time he has worked on many emerging technologies projects in the realm of remote communication, collaboration and networking. These include a completely portable satellite based networking system dubbed the Transportable Satellite Internet System. He has been lead engineer on four satellite based community wireless projects, two of which have already been or are being implemented. He has an integral role with the Internet2 Commons initiative, a videoconferencing and collaboration initiative for the education community. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Computer Engineering from The Ohio State University.
Dillip Pattanaik
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.
Charles Paul
Charles Esteban Paul, hailing from Bernal Heights in San Francisco, is currently engaged in the effort to install wireless ethernet throughout all of New Orleans. An embedded software hacker by trade (Blackfin/MIPS/TI platforms), Charles currently bakes excellent peach pies for relief volunteers in New Orleans. If you ask him, he will tell you that he enjoys: long walks on the beach ,getting nasty, history, and Unix.
Michael Peralta
Michael Peralta is a Native American Indian of Luiseno descent. He is a member of the Rincon Band of Mission Indians. He resides on the Rincon Indian Reservation in San Diego County in Southern California. He has attended college at Palomar Community College in San Marcos, Ca. Mr. Peralta has spent the last 5 years as a Tutor/Mentor for youth on the Rincon Indian Reservation. He has been devoted to motivating the youth to pursue higher education and helping them become positive influences in the community. For the last 2 years he has been working for the Tribal Digital Village in an effort to bridge the technological divide that exists for Native American Indians in San Diego County. The Tribal Digital Village has created a High Speed Broadband Network connecting the 18 reservations in San Diego County. Their goal is to provide access to technology and the information highway to the underrepresented peoples of San Diego County. Mr. Peralta has also partnered with his co-workers to start a wireless technology company called Tribal Technologies. Tribal Technologies is currently planning several wireless deployments throughout Southern California.
Chase Phillips
Chase has been a furious hacker since his early days of assembling Legos in ways God never intended. He's worked at NCSA and ANL, and in 2004 went West on a mission for the Mozilla Project. He now focuses on a private affair during the day and public efforts once the Sun sets. He's Rick James, *****!
Victor Pickard
Victor Pickard is a doctoral student in the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois. He spent the summer of 2005 working on media policy in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Telecommunications Policy Fellow for Congresswoman Diane Watson. His research on Indymedia, Internet governance, and political communication has been published in a number of leading academic journals, including the Journal of Communication, Global Media and Communication, Media, Culture & Society and Critical Studies in Media Communication. He is currently writing a dissertation on mid 1940s communication policy and normative theories of media democracy.
Alison Powell
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. Her latest work is forthcoming in Government Information Quarterly. She is also the academic liaison for the community wireless network Île Sans Fil. In Summer 2006 she will be an invited researcher at l’École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris.
Matt Rantanen
Matthew Rantanen was born in Washington, D.C. in 1969, an American, a descendant of The Cree Indian Nation, Finland & Scandinavia. His immediate family moved quite a bit until he was 14. His family followed his father's career in the Air Force and then the private Thoroughbred Veterinary World, taking him to Germany, Texas, Washington State, Kentucky, and California. He graduated from Washington State University in 1992 with a B.F.A., Graphic Design He then moved to San Diego, CA and started a Freelance Design Business, MRRDesign, which led him to a fulltime position as a Senior Web Designer, Artist, and Animator for Blue Mountain Arts / Bluemountain.com / Excite @ Home from 1994-2001, this position exposed him to technology in every aspect. He is fluent in Computer Graphics Applications, Website Construction and Management, and well-versed in networking and troubleshooting of computer problems. He is currently the Director of Technology and Web Services for SCTCA/Tribal Digital Village providing IT and Infrastructure Team Management and Solutions. He has been with SCTCA and the Tribal Digital Village since 2001. As part of this role he also provides technical advice and creates and manages all of the web entities that support SCTCA and the Tribal Digital Village.
David Sandel
David Sandel is the Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer for Net Labs. He is also involved with the St. Louis Regional Exchange Collaborative, the first municipally sponsored not for profit that includes all the surrounding counties and the City of St. Louis on both sides of the river including Missouri and Illinois. The Collaborative organization and business model addresses both the wired and wireless portions for regional infrastructure.
Christian Sandvig
Dr. Christian Sandvig is an assistant professor in Speech Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studies communication technology and public policy. In 2002 Sandvig was named a "next-generation leader in science and technology policy" in a junior faculty competition organized by Columbia, Rutgers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Glenn Sangiovanni
Mayor Glenn Sangiovanni is in his fifth term in St. Cloud. He has served in a Leadership position on various boards. He has served as President of American Cancer Society, Tri-County Florida League of Cities, Chairman of Metroplan Advisory Board, and Intergovernmental Relations committee for the Florida League of Cities, Vice President of St.Cloud Little League. Manager of St.Cloud Youth Basketball, Baseball, Softball, and Football. Mayor Sangiovanni brings unique leadership skills and insight from the management of Information Technology systems to Government. Mayor Sangiovanni led the charge for City Council on the Cyber Spot, bringing 100% free high-speed wireless Internet access to every citizen in his community as a public service.
Gabe Sawhney
Gabe Sawhney is a hacker working at the edges of code and culture. He is co-creator, producer, and technical director of [murmur] (murmur.info), a location-specific oral storytelling project that makes accessible the hidden stories of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary. He is the co-founder of WirelessToronto(.ca), and has collaborated on several other interactive media installation projects.
With an academic background in architecture, film and semiotics, Gabe balances an understanding of technology with an interest in visual design, usability and information architecture. Proficient in a range of wireless and locative technologies, his heart rests with the simple, the intuitive and the cheap.
Ben Scott
Ben Scott is a Policy Analyst in the Washington office of Free Press. Previously, he served as a Legislative Fellow in the House of Representatives, handling telecommunications policy in the office of Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT). He is also currently completing his doctoral work at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has written several articles on the history of American journalism and media policy making. Most recently, he is the editor, with Robert W. McChesney, of Our Unfree Press: 100 Years of Radical Media Criticism (2004).
John Scrivner
John Scrivner has more than 20 years experience in cable television and Internet related businesses. He started an ISP called Mt. Vernon. Net, Inc. in 1997 with his business partner Dan Hamilton. The business began providing fixed wireless broadband services in 1999 and has developed into a very successful operation serving all levels of government, business, education and residents of Mt.
Vernon, Illinois and surrounding rural areas. In 2005 John became the founding President of WISPA which is the first non-profit trade association built to serve the needs of WISP operators. The organization has been very active and effective in areas such as communications lobbying and disaster communications help during Katrina.
Paul Smith
Paul Smith is the CNT's webmaster and systems administrator, as well as the technical lead on the Wireless Community Network project. He's been with the Center for Neighborhood Technologies since 1999.
Jim Snider
Jim Snider is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation. His work focuses on reforming America's telecommunications policies. Mr. Snider holds degrees from Northwestern University and Harvard Business School. He is the co-author of Future Shop, one of the first books on the emerging area of e-commerce. He has also published numerous reports, including the acclaimed Citizen's Guide to the Airwaves.
Dana Spiegel
Dana Spiegel also 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.
Angela Stuber
Angela Stuber has been the Executive Director of the Ohio Community Computing Network (OCCN) since 2000. OCCN has coordinated the grants process for over 5 million dollars in funds from telecommunications settlements while also providing support services to Ohio’s community technology service providers. The OCCN VISTA Program has been awarded over $250,000 in federal funds each year for the past four years to coordinate the statewide 20-member VISTA program for CTCs. Before moving to the Columbus area, Angela was the Project Coordinator of the Coalition to Access Technology and Networking in Toledo (CATNeT). CATNeT was Ohio’s first citywide network of community technology centers and others interested in technology equality. Angela assisted in the creation of CATNeT when she was a graduate assistant at the University of Toledo Urban Affairs Center. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Sociology with an emphasis on Urban Issues from the University of Toledo. In February 2004, the John Glenn Institute named Angela one of the first John Glenn Social Capital Scholar. Angela is currently the CTCNet Board President and has served on the CTCNet Board of Directors since 2001.
Jim Sturm
Jim Sturm has been a Math/Science teacher for the past 29 years and is affiliated with the School District of Clayton in Clayton, MO. As a teacher, Jim has spent his career finding ways to introduce, expand, and implement technologies that are useful to students and teachers. Beginning in 1977, Jim first introduced students to computers in a Chemistry classroom, using and creating programs to help students understand concepts they uncovered in the lab. As the power of computers, networking, and communications expanded, Jim brought increasing levels of usefulness to the classroom. Over the past three years, he and his colleagues have used the TSIS's (Transportable Satellite Internet System) video conferencing and streaming video capabilities to retrace the Lewis and Clark Trail from Pennsylvania to Oregon, bringing people from the world to events and places in real time. As the Lewis and Clark events wind down, Jim looks to use the TSIS to take students to places they could not ordinarily go.
Bogdan Tančić
Bogdan Tančić is one of the founders and network administrator 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 very relevant factor of the telecommunications branch in the country. Many technical projects from this community network are used worldwide. Working for Siemens, Bogdan Tančić did considerable research on the telecommunications industry in Serbia. Also, he has been a lecturer in many seminars in Serbia. He is finishing studies on Electrotehnical faculty in the department for computer technology and informatics.
Esme de Guzman Vos
Esme Vos is the founder of Muniwireless.com, the portal for news and information about municipal wireless broadband projects. Since its launch in June 2003, Muniwireless.com has become the primary resource for cities, counties, consultants, systems integrators, vendors, and service providers in this space. Muniwireless organizes conferences and roundtables, and publishes a quarterly magazine. Vos is an intellectual property lawyer and runs her own company, Lemon Cloud BV, based in Amsterdam. She has served as Chief Legal Officer of Spray Network, a pan-European portal and Director Legal Affairs for Baan Business Systems worldwide.
Jo Walsh
Jo Walsh is a software artist often living in London. She works on the intersection between the semantic web, GIS, bots and wireless networks, helping build different open source software projects to augment the semantic web and bring knowledge representation to more people. She is a co-author of "Mapping Hacks" and a self-appointed organiser of the World Summit on Free Information Infrastructures.
Matt Westervelt
Matt Westervelt (http://seattlewireless.net/~mattw/), founder of Seattle Wireless (http://seattlewireless.net/), 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.
David Young
David Young graduated from Cornell University in 1999, with a bachelor's degree in computer science. He is a software engineer with OJC Technologies in Urbana, Illinois. For three years, he has dedicated himself to lead software development for the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN). His professional goal is to support grassroots networking initiatives around the world, by writing open-source software that runs large-scale rooftop mesh networks.
John Zoltner
John Zoltner is Director of Strategy and Development for the Community Technology Centers’ Network. At CTCNet, John is tasked with designing organizational strategy and securing resources to ensure that CTCNet reaches its full potential to serve its members. In addition to his work at CTCNet, John is Co-Chair of the Board of the National Capital Area Neighborhood Networks Consortium and a founding Steering Committee member of the Telecenters of the Americas Partnership, a collaboration between CTCNet, Aspira, Latin America’s Somos@Telecentros network, and Canada’s Pacific Community Networks Association.
2006 Summit Schedule
- Mark Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America
- Robert McChesney, Founder & President, Free Press
- Esme Vos, Founder, Muniwireless.com -- View Transcript
- Michael Peralta, Networking Administrator, Tribal Digital Village
- Matt Rantanen, Director of Technology, Tribal Digital Village
View the Tribal Digital Village presentation (1.5MB). - Paul Smith, Manager of Wireless Community Networks, Center for Neighborhood Technology
View the presentation - John Scrivner, President, Wireless Internet Service Providers Association
- David Young, Technical Lead, CUWiN
- Bogdan Tančić, Founder, BG Wireless
View the presentation (4.8MB) - Chase Phillips, Furious Hacker, WNMap, CUWiN, and Mozilla
View the presentation (211KB) - Matt Westervelt, Founder, Seattle Wireless
- Richard MacKinnon, Founder, Austin Wireless
- Michael Maranda, President, Association for Community Networks
- Laura Forlano, Board Member, New York City Wireless
- John Atkinson, Coordinator, Wireless Ghana
View the presentation (958KB) - Dillip Pattanaik, Director, Information Resource Management Association-India
View the presentation (9.6MB) - Dewayne Hendricks, CEO, Dandin Group
- John Zoltner, Community Technology Advisor, Municipalidad of Peñalolén, Santiago, Chile
- Arun Mehta, Chief Technical Officer, Radiophony
- Zoltan Orosz, Hungarian Wireless Community
View the presentation (101KB) - Jim Snider, Wireless Future Program Research Director, New America Foundation
View the presentation (8.1MB) - Ben Scott, Policy Director, Free Press
- Harold Feld, Senior Vice President, Media Access Project
- Dharma Daily, Radio Mama, Prometheus Radio Project
- Sue Beckwith, Project Manager, St. Louis WizKids
- Nazeer Sadeeq Holmes, Community Organizer, St. Louis Association of Community Organizations
- Josh Breitbart, Media Tank
- Michael Lenczner, Founder, Île Sans Fil
- Benoit Grégoire, Lead Developer, WiFiDog
- Alison Powell, Île Sans Fil
- Gabe Sawhney, Founder,Wireless Toronto
- Jo Walsh, Organizer, World Summit of Free Information Infrastructures
- Michael Kasprzyk, CEO, Thin Wires
- Paul Smith, Manager of Wireless Community Networks, Center for Neighborhood Technology
- Rogers Wilson, Network Technician, Center for Neighborhood Technology
- Charles Paul
- Esme Vos, Founder, Muniwireless.com
- Richard MacKinnon, Founder, Austin Wireless
- Matt Rantanen, Director of Technology, Tribal Digital Village
- Dana Spiegel, Founder, socialDESIGN
View the presentation (518KB) - Dr. Alan Escovitz, Director of External Affairs, The Ohio State University
- Gabe Moulton, Technical Engineer, The Ohio State University
- Dr. Robert Dixon, Chief Research Engineer, OARnet and The Ohio State University
- Jim Sturm, Technical Director, Lewis and Clark Discovery Expedition
- Ben Scott, Policy Director, Free Press
- Casey Lide, Attorney, The Baller Herbst Law Group, PC
View the presentation (57KB) - Michael Maranda, President, Association for Community Networks
- Steve Schwendemann
- Adina Levin, Founder, SaveMuniWireless.org
- April Glaser, Prometheus Radio Project
- Naveen Lakshmipathy, Program Association, Wireless Futures Program, New America Foundation
- Michael Peralta, Networking Administrator, Tribal Digital Village
- Finley Kipp, Prometheus Radio Project
- David Young, Technical Lead, CUWiN
- Dharma Daily, Radio Mama, Prometheus Radio Project
- Ben West, St. Louis IndyMedia
- Xavier Leonard, Heads on Fire
- Christian Sandvig, Independent Activist Researcher
View the presentation (3.9MB) - Josh Breitbart, Media Tank
- John Atkinson, Coordinator, Wireless Ghana
- David Young, Technical Lead, CUWiN
- Michael Peralta, Networking Administrator, Tribal Digital Village
- Arun Mehta, Chief Technical Officer, Radiophony
- Bogdan Tančić, Founder, BG Wireless
View the presentation (5.4MB)View the notes (25KB)
- Ron Bauer, Founder, Mid Rivers Wireless Initiative
+ To Be Confirmed - David Sandel, Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer, Net Labs LLC and St. Louis Regional Exchange Collaborative
- Matt Rantanen, Director of Technology, Tribal Digital Village
- Dewayne Hendricks, CEO, Dandin Group
- Annie Collins, Chairwoman, Fiber For Our Future
- Peter Collins, Systems Administrator, City of Geneva, Illinois
View the presentation of Annie and Peter Collins (13.4MB) - Dan Meredith, Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center
- Matt Westervelt, Founder, Seattle Wireless
- Ken DiPietro, Senior Network Engineer, Conxx
- John Scrivner, President, Wireless Internet Service Providers Association
- Ben Scott, Policy Director, Free Press
- Victor Pickard, Doctoral Candidate, Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois.
- Harold Feld, Senior Vice President, Media Access Project
- Mark Cooper, Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America
- April Glaser, Prometheus Radio Project
- Naveen Lakshmipathy, Program Association, Wireless Futures Program, New America Foundation
- Steve Pierce, Hudson-Mohawk IndyMedia Center
- Mike Oh, Tech Superpowers
- Dharma Daily, Radio Mama, Prometheus Radio Project
- Ben West, St. Louis IndyMedia
- Xavier Leonard, Heads on Fire
- Christian Sandvig, Independent Activist Researcher
View the presentation (3.9MB) - Linda Forlano, , NYCWireless
- Rogers Wilson, Network Technician, Center for Neighborhood Technology
- Kate Blofson, Prometheus Radio Project
- Richard MacKinnon, Founder, Austin Wireless
- Breakout into tracks (20 minutes)
- Tracks prioritize ideas/action items (60 minutes)
- Reconvene to discuss issues as a whole (60 minutes)
- Harold Feld, Senior Vice President, Media Access Project
Read the text (reconstructed) of Harold Feld's speech - Jonathan Adelstein, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission
- Sascha Meinrath, Project Coordinator, CUWiN; Policy Analyst, Free Press
All locations listed are at the Spellmann Campus Center unless otherwise specified. Times provided are Central Daylight Time. You can click on panelists' names for biographical information. Attire is casual to business casual, but feel free to dress up if you'd rather.
Friday Pre-Summit
THE PRE-SUMMIT IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL!!
All Pre-Summit activities will be held at the St. Charles Convention Center.
9:00am-4:00pm
| Registration 9:00-9:30am | ||
|---|---|---|
| 9:30pm | Welcome Opening Overview Introduction |
James Evans, Provost, Lindenwood University Rick Dearborn, Tech-Zone Radio Show Host TBA, City of St. Charles |
| 9:45am | Municipal Wireless Broadband providing "Free WiFi" in St. Cloud, Florida | Glenn Sangiovanni, Mayor of St. Cloud Jonathan Baltuch, Founding Partner, MRI Ken DiPietro, Senior Network Engineer, Conxx |
| Break 10:45-11:00am | ||
| 11:00pm | Municipal Wireless: What, Why & How - The Corpus Christi Wireless Initiative | Jeffrey King, Northrop Grumman IT Ken DiPietro, Senior Network Engineer, Conxx |
| Lunch 12:00-1:30pm | ||
| 1:30pm | Building Municipal Multi-Application Networks | Bruce Alexander, Cisco Ken DiPietro, Senior Network Engineer, Conxx |
| Break 2:30-2:45pm | ||
| 2:45pm | Municipal Wireless Technologies & Strategies | Ken DiPietro, Senior Network Engineer, Conxx |
| 3:45pm | Wrap-up and Closing | Rick Dearborn, Tech-Zone Radio Show Host Steve Schwendemann, Tech-Zone Radio Show Host Ron Bauer, Founder, Mid Rivers Wireless Initiative |
Summit Kick-off
St. Charles Convention Center
4:00pm-6:00pm
Check-in/Registration, Open House, & Social.
6:00pm-7:30pm -- Opening Plenary
Sascha Meinrath, Summit Director: Summit Legistics
7:30pm-9:00pm
Dinner (on your own).
9:00pm-???
Friday Night Social -- Maryland Yards at the Water Works: a 19th Century city waterworks building converted into a 3-story bar with outdoor deck overlooking the river.
Saturday Sessions
ALL SESSIONS ON SATURDAY ARE AT THE SPELLMANN CENTER ON THE LINDENWOOD CAMPUS.
9:00am-10:30am
Saturday Breakfast, Social, Registration, and Demonstrations -- 2nd Floor Commons.
10:30am-12:30pm
1st Session.
| Tech Track | |
| I. Introduction to Wireless Technologies |
While wired technologies have become commonplace in the world of information technology, wireless technologies represent a rapidly expanding range of possibilities for IT new-comers. This session will engage the novice user with the exciting field of wireless technologies. View the notes (31KB) |
| II. Open Source Wireless |
Open Source 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 this model. |
| Implementation Track | |
| I. Community Wireless Networks 101 |
Imagine a free wireless networking system that any municipality, company, or group of neighbors could easily set up themselves. This panel addresses the fundamentals of getting community wireless networks off the ground. A great panel for those just getting their feet wet. View the notes (52KB) |
| II. International Wireless Networks |
Wireless Networks are flexible enough to meet the demands of diverse communities, whether in “old Europe” or developing areas like Mamelodi, South Africa, and Apirede, Ghana. This panel focuses on international implementations of wireless networks and the possibilities for international cooperation on these projects. View the notes (39KB) |
| Policy & Outreach Track | |
| I. National Wireless Policy 101 |
Interested in the state of wireless networking from a legislative point of view? Curious about what is happening in the development of wireless networking legislation but don't know where to begin? National Wireless Policy 101 will introduce the players and agendas at work in Washington. Download the notes (23.5KB). |
| II. How to Put the Community in Your Community Wireless Network |
Setting up a wireless infrastructure is the easy part. How do you get the local community to take ownership of it? How can you organize people to fight for better policy or healthy municipal involvement? We'll discuss some strategies for community organizing as they apply to the wireless world. View the notes (25KB) |
12:30pm-2:00pm
Saturday Lunch, Social, & Exhibitors - 2nd Floor Commons.
2:00pm-4:00pm
2nd Session.
| Tech Track | |
| I. Tech Focus: WiFiDog, Île Sans Fil, and Hacking Your City |
An 80 minute discussion of how community wireless networks can be a way to make an impact in your community on matters of social cohesion, art, culture, and civic information. Lead by Michael Lenczner (Île Sans Fil) and Jo Walsh (World Summit of Free Information Infrastructures). Following, a 40 minute explanation and Q+A on WifiDog--a captive portal designed for these uses--with lead developer, Benoit Grégoire. View the WiFi Dog presentation (33KB). |
| II. Community Wireless During Post-Katrina Disaster Recovery |
Community Wireless networks provided emergency communication services when information infrastructure was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In the post-Katrina reconstruction, community wireless networks continue to provide a robust and cost-effective alternative to traditional media. Download the notes (28KB). |
| Implementation Track | |
| I. Municipal Wireless Business Models |
Municipal wireless networks challenge major telecommunications companies, but how should municipal wireless programs organize the work they do? Do existing business models work? What about non-profit models, or are new models required for municipal wireless? |
| II. Alternative Internet Connectivity for Rural Community Wireless Networks |
Rural communities suffered from the deregulation of the 1996 Federal Communications Act, often being cut-off from the broadband developments of the last decade. Community wireless networks present a valuable alternative to high-priced, high-speed connections in rural areas. Presentations will include a primer on satellite communications, a discussion on the use of 900 MHz point-to-point wireless links in community wireless systems, and a demonstration of providing broadband access to remote locations using a small satellite station. Download the notes (23.5KB). |
| Policy & Organizing Track | |
| I. State Wireless Policy 101 |
As recent legislation in Pennsylvania suggests, state policy presents opportunities for and challenges to wireless communication. How do state wireless policies differ from federal policies? In what ways can states become partners in developing wireless community networks? What special challenges do state policies present to community wireless networks? Download the notes (35.5KB). |
| II. Get involved: Open House Part I |
Whether you're just getting started or want to learn how to get people started, this is an open space for sharing beginner-level tips and tools. It's an open house, meaning you can come and go throughout the session period and there's space for one-on-one interaction. Part I will focus on questions, answers, and straightforward explanations of wireless policy and technology. Organized by the Prometheus Radio Project and Media Tank Make Your Own Wireless Antenna & Ethernet CablesTech Questions Answered HereSharing the Work, Sharing the Fun: Volunteers, Outreach, Activism and Excitement |
4:00pm-4:30pm
Break.
4:30pm-6:30pm
3rd Session.
| Tech Track | |
| I. Advanced Wireless Technologies (Protocols, Routing, etc.) |
Discuss the latest developments in wireless technologies, including routing, protocols, and hardware developments. |
| II. Angel Investment and Venture Capital for Open-Source Wireless Technologies |
The challenges that wireless networks pose to major telecom companies make wireless technologies prime targets for investors and venture capitalists. Learn more about the investment opportunities available to wireless technology developers. |
| Implementation Track | |
| I. Regional Municipal Broadband Projects |
Regional municipal broadband networks demonstrate the scalability of wireless networks. Discuss the experiences of current regional municipal broadband projects. |
| II. Multimedia Applications & Wireless Integration |
Community wireless networks provide exciting multimedia possibilities. Interact with wireless professionals who are developing multimedia applications. Download the notes (21KB). |
| Policy & Organizing Track | |
| I. Network Neutrality |
The success of the Internet is in some part due to network neutrality, an implied understanding that proprietary data should not be prioritized on networks. Will Congress act to ensure network neutrality or bend to the will of telecom giants? |
| II. Get Into It: Open House Part II |
Whether you're just getting started or want to learn how to get people started, this is an open space for sharing beginner-level tips and tools. It's an open house, meaning you can come and go throughout the session period and there's space for one-on-one interaction. Part II will focus on the kinds of hands-on how-tos that get people excited, like making a cantenna, crimping cable, or hacking a wireless router. Organized by the Prometheus Radio Project and Media Tank Make Your Own Wireless Antenna & Ethernet CablesTech Questions Answered HereSharing the Work, Sharing the Fun: Volunteers, Outreach, Activism and ExcitementView the notes (3KB) |
6:30pm-8:00pm
Dinner (on your own).
8:00pm-???
Saturday Evening Social -- Trailhead Brewery: Nestled in the historic district of Old St. Charles, Trailhead offers traditional hand-crafted beers in their brewery located in the Old Grist Mill at the corner of Boone’s Lick and Main Street.
Sunday Sessions
9:00am - 10:30am
Sunday Breakfast, Social, Registration, and Demonstrations -- 2nd Floor Commons.
10:30am-12:50pm
Plenary: Strategizing & Next Steps.
View the notes (14KB)
1:00pm-1:50pm
Sunday Lunch, Social, & Demonstrations - 2nd Floor Commons.
2:00pm-3:30pm
Closing Plenary.
The 2004 Summit
- Do community wireless networks really serve the populations they ought to reach, and if not, what needs to be done?
- What is the future of the FCC's unlicensed spectrum policies that enable the innovations that drive community wireless technologies?
- Can dozens of independently-operating community wireless initiatives join together to create a positive future for the movement?
- What technological innovations and software innovations do we already have, and what projects are currently being worked on?
- Click here for a current list of summit participants
- Click here for a detailed schedule of events
- Summit Documentation: Videos from plenaries, session notes, summit wikis.
From August 20-22, 2004, the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN), Free Press, and Prairienet Community Network hosted the 2004 National Summit for Community Wireless Networks. The Summit was the largest gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies ever and built tremendous momentum in the emerging community wireless networking movement. The summit facilitated the building of an alliance of technologists, policy experts, and implementers, and encouraged participants to discuss the great variety of challenges and opportunities facing their initiatives, including:
The Summit was held over three days, allowing participants to engage in extended conversations with presenters and with each other. Attendees developed strategic plans to expand community wireless network deployment and ensure that the federal government regulates spectrum to increase unlicensed access.
2004 Panelist Bios
Panelist Biographies
Jim Baller is a senior principal of the Baller Herbst Law Group, PC, in Washington, DC. His practice includes a broad range of communications matters on behalf of local governments and public power utilities in more than 35 states. Over the last decade, he has been involved in most of the leading community broadband projects in America, and he is widely recognized as one of the nation.s knowledgeable attorneys in this area. Since the enactment of the Telecom Act of 1996, he has also participated in numerous legislative and court battles over state barriers to municipal entry, including a case that went to the Supreme Court of the United States. The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors named him its Member of the Year for 2001. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Cornell Law School.
Andrew Ó Baoill (facilitator) - UIUC
Glenn Booth is the Director of Marketing for Vivato. Glenn has over 20 years in engineering and marketing with communications manufacturers and carriers. He is responsible for providing wireless solutions into the rural, city, municipality and educational markets for Vivato. Vivato makes wireless solutions based around their "Smart Antenna" technology enabling communities to build wireless networks cost effectively.
Michael D. Brunelle (facilitator), one of the co-organizers of the 2004 National Summit for Community Wireless Networks, has worked for Prairienet Community Network for more than three years and has supported a variety of community technology initiatives throughout Illinois. Michael holds a masters degree in Library and Information Science and served as an intern for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's U.S. Library Program. Michael recently served on an advisory committee for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine and is moving to Bryn Mawr, PA to pursue a long-held interest in becoming a physician.
Michael Calabrese is Vice President of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan policy institute in Washington, D.C. As Director of the Spectrum Policy Program, Calabrese oversees New America's efforts to improve our nation's management of publicly-owned assets - particularly the radio frequency spectrum. Previously, Mr. Calabrese served as General Counsel of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and as employee benefits counsel at the national AFL-CIO. He is the co-author of three previous books on policy and politics and has published opinion articles in the nation's leading outlets, including the Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
Annie Collins is the Chairwoman of Fiber For Our Future, a municipal broadband project seeking to establish Fiber to the Home (FTTH) in the TriCities. She is a longtime community activist and a strong advocate of municipally owned, fiber optic networking for community development.
Dr. Mark Cooper is Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America and a Fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, the Columbia Institute on Tele-information and the Donald McGannon Communications Research Center at Fordham University. He holds a PhD from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He is the author of numerous articles on digital society and telecommunications issues and five books -- The Transformation of Egypt (1982), Equity and Energy (1983), Cable Mergers and Monopolies (2002), Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age (2003), Open Architecture as Communications Policy (2004). He has provided expert testimony in over 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People’s Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts and legislators in almost four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada on telecommunications and energy policy.
Dharma Dailey works on spectrum issues for the Prometheus Radio Project. Her work seeks to find ways to use unlicensed spectrum to bring free internet access, internet radio, and more to communities all over the world.
Darrin Eden is currently serving as Personal Telco Project, Inc.'s president. Personal Telco develops community-operated networks through volunteer education and in partnership with local businesses offering patrons free, wireless Internet access. Mr. Eden lives and works as a network administrator in Portland, Oregon because of the city's progressive policies, thoughtful urban planning and amazing quality of life.
Harold Feld is the Associate Director 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.
Rob Flickenger - A long time supporter of FreeNetworks and DIY networking, Rob is a founding member of the NoCat Network and one of the primary developers of NoCatAuth. He has written three O'Reilly books about networking, including Building Wireless Community Networks. He often presents ideas and projects at various technology conferences, and enjoys spreading the good word of open networks, open standards, and ubiquitous wireless networking. Rob's current project is Metrix Communication LLC, providing wireless hardware and software that embodies the same open source principles he rants about in his books. He currently lives in Seattle, WA.
Kari Gray is the Program Coordinator for the Common Assets Spectrum Campaign. Common Assets was founded to reassert the public's ownership of the commons by preventing giveaways of our common assets to private interests. While we have three program areas, our founding mission is perhaps most understandable when it is applied to the battle for spectrum and the current departure from Universal Service principles. We are dedicated to supporting efforts that assert the public's legal right to our common airwaves.
Richard MacKinnon is a Founder and CEO of LESSNetworks and the leader of the Austin Wireless City Project. He has built a company around providing free software and services empowering the Free WiFi Movement.
Robert W. McChesney is Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the Founder and President of Free Press, a non-profit organization working to involve the public in media policymaking and to craft policies for a more democratic media system. He is the author of numerous books on media policy including the multiple award-winning Rich Media, Poor Democracy (1999), and most recently, The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century (2004).
Sascha Meinrath, one of the co-organizers of the 2004 National Summit for Community Wireless Networks, is a community organizer, media activist, and researcher. He is the founder and coordinator of the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) and the treasurer for the Global Indymedia Network. He co-founded the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center Foundation and the Tactical Media Fund, an international non-profit organization that is engaged in strategic funding disbursements to grassroots media producers in the Global South. He is a project manager for two software development companies having founded the Acorn Active Media Foundation in 2004 to engage in software, website, and technical development in support of the global justice movement. Sascha was elected to the board of directors for WEFT 90.1 FM and in his "free time" is both finishing a masters degree in psychology and completing a PhD at the University of Illinois, Institute for Communications Research.
Zach Miller has been a systems administrator and web programmer since 1993. He's received degrees in both Computer Science and Linguistics from the University of Illinois. He specializes in network design and management, web design and programming, organizational database development, system administration, and information processing. Zach speaks Perl as a fluent second language. Zach is a co founder of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, the Prairie Green Party, and the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Project. In his spare time, Zach likes to ride bicycles and smash imperialism.
Russell Newman (facilitator) is Program Manager for Free Press. He oversees initiatives ranging from grassroots organization to new research projects. Previous to joining Free Press, he was a professional multimedia designer. He also served as production designer on several independent films and was active in radio for nearly a decade. He holds a degree in Brain and Cognitive Science from MIT.
Michael Oh is President and Founder of the Boston-based IT consultancy, Tech Superpowers, Inc. and founder of NewburyOpen.net, Boston's largest Community Wireless Network. A graduate of MIT, he has constructed one of the most widely-distributed models for free wireless, called the Urban Hotzone Business Model. Started in 2002, before for-pay WiFi was even a blip on the map, NewburyOpen.net was one of the first commercial WiFi hotzones - and the only based on the idea of corporate sponsorship at the time. Since then, NewburyOpen.net has grown to 15 locations in central Boston, and others have sprung up in other nearby cities like Salem, MA and Portsmouth, NH.
Michael Peralta is a Native American Indian of Luiseno descent. He is a member of the Rincon Band of Mission Indians. He resides on the Rincon Indian Reservation in San Diego County in Southern California. He has attended college at Palomar Community College in San Marcos, Ca. Mr. Peralta has spent the last 5 years as a Tutor/Mentor for youth on the Rincon Indian Reservation. He has been devoted to motivating the youth to pursue higher education and helping them become positive influences in the community. For the last 2 years he has been working for the Tribal Digital Village in an effort to bridge the technological divide that exists for Native American Indians in San Diego County. The Tribal Digital Village has created a High Speed Broadband Network connecting the 18 reservations in San Diego County. Their goal is to provide access to technology and the information highway to the underrepresented peoples of San Diego County. Mr. Peralta has also partnered with his co-workers to start a wireless technology company called Tribal Technologies. Tribal Technologies is currently planning several wireless deployments throughout Southern California.
Matt Peterson founded the Bay Area Wireless Users Group (BAWUG) in September 2000. BAWUG pioneered the 'WUG' concept of spreading unbiased CWN and related technical information to audiences worldwide. Mr. Peterson's work in wireless security and advocacy has been chronicled in The Wall Street Journal, Wired, BBC and other media. Matt is currently a SysAdmin at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit law firm specializing in digital rights. During rare offline stints, Matt enjoys traveling in South East Asia along with analog photography.
Chase Phillips is a Systems Programmer at the University of Illinois's National Center for Supercomputing Applications with 9 years of system administration experience and 4 years of software development experience. Chase holds a Bachelor's of Science from Tulane University with a CS major and minors in Math and Philosophy. A supporter of radio spectrum policy reform, he volunteers his time to help community wireless networking through activism, software development, and maintenance. He currently serves as the CUWiN project webmaster and as a CUWiN project developer.
Victor Pickard (facilitator) is a doctoral student at the University of Illinois where his research focuses on communications policy, political communication and democratic theory. He holds an MA in communications from the University of Washington in Seattle where he worked with the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, the Reclaim the Media Conference, and the Seattle Independent Media Center.
Steve Pierce is a long-time media activist, currently working on some of the cable franchise renewals in the sixty communities comprising the New York State Capital Region. He helped organize the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center, and has been involved with grassrooots community radio for the past 25 years. He was formerly executive director of the Deep Dish TV Network, assistant manager of the Pacifica Foundation's WBAI in NYC, and program director of WWOZ in New Orleans. His academic work, for which he reeceived an MS and PhD from the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, focuses on media and democracy.
Tim Pozar - Technical Director of Electronic Frontier Foundation. Pozar has spent much of his career working to ensure that media such as the Internet will stay "democratic." As such, he was an early activist, entrepreneur, and developer in the Internet. He co-founded or was involved in the early stages of a number of companies, such as TLGnet (San Francisco's first ISP), Internet Archive/Alexa Internet, and Brightmail (the first commercial anti-spam company). For 25 years before this, Pozar was a radio broadcast engineer for commercial and community radio stations throughout the west coast. He has also had his hand in starting a number of community radio stations. In keeping with his interests and experience, Pozar is also active in community wireless networking. He is a co-founder of the Bay Area Wireless User Group, and the founder of the Bay Area Research Wireless Network (BARWN). BARWN studies the issues involved in deploying wireless high-speed Internet access in both urban and rural settings, to start to address the digital divide. Pozar is a long-time resident of San Francisco, where he lives near the beach (good ground conductivity) with his wife and son.
Matthew Rantanen was born in Washington, D.C. in 1969, an American, a descendant of The Cree Indian Nation, Finland & Scandinavia. His immediate family moved quite a bit until he was 14. His family followed his father's career in the Air Force and then the private Thoroughbred Veterinary World, taking him to Germany, Texas, Washington State, Kentucky, and California. He graduated from Washington State University in 1992 with a B.F.A., Graphic Design He then moved to San Diego, CA and started a Freelance Design Business, MRRDesign, which led him to a fulltime position as a Senior Web Designer, Artist, and Animator for Blue Mountain Arts / Bluemountain.com / Excite @ Home from 1994-2001, this position exposed him to technology in every aspect. He is fluent in Computer Graphics Applications, Website Construction and Management, and well-versed in networking and troubleshooting of computer problems. He is currently the Director of Technology and Web Services for SCTCA/Tribal Digital Village providing IT and Infrastructure Team Management and Solutions. He has been with SCTCA and the Tribal Digital Village since 2001. As part of this role he also provides technical advice and creates and manages all of the web entities that support SCTCA and the Tribal Digital Village.
Greg Richardson is the founder and President of Civitium LLC, a consulting firm focused on the concept of Digital Cities. Prior to founding Civitium, Greg was the Wireless Consulting Director for Siemens in the U.S., where he lead the wireless broadband consulting engagement for Houston County Georgia, which was co-sponsored by Intel, Siemens and Alvarion. Prior to Siemens, Greg was a founder and the VP of Professional Services for Wireless Knowledge, a pioneering joint venture between Microsoft and QUALCOMM. He is also an author of numerous publications and a regular speaker at wireless broadband industry events.
Charlie Ridgway is a newcomer to the world of wireless. He is an active member of NYCwireless where he is a member of the installer cadre and the Social Impact and Applications SIGs. Charlie is an emergency manager who has recently left the public sector and is currently searching for his next challenge.
Paul Riismandel has been an active participant, producer and researcher in non-commercial and community media for the last fifteen years. He hosts a weekly radio program called Mediageek (http://www.mediageek.org) which focuses on grassroots and community media, emphasizing how we can make media that is more responsive to the needs of individuals and communities. Paul is also a co-founder of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, currently active with its video collective. He has been working with streaming media technologies for eight years, and his day job involves producing and administering streaming media resources for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIUC. Paul brings these ideas and pursuits together in his doctoral work at the Institute of Communications Research.
Christian Sandvig is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studies communication technology and public policy. He currently leads a research project funded by the National Science Foundation to study the cooperative provision of wireless broadband. He recently served as Markle Foundation Information Policy Fellow at Oxford University and has been named a "next-generation leader in science and technology policy" in a junior faculty competition sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dan Schiller is Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a communication historian whose interests center on telecommunications history, and on the role of cultural production in the socio-economic development of the market system. His books are Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System (MIT, April, 1999); Theorizing Communication: A Historical Reckoning (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); Telematics and Government (Norwood: Ablex, 1982);and Objectivity and the News: The Public and the Rise of Commercial Journalism (Philadelphia: Univ of Penn. Press, 1981).
Ben Scott (facilitator) is a Policy Analyst in the Washington office of Free Press. Previously, he served as a Legislative Fellow in the House of Representatives, handling telecommunications policy in the office of Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT). He is also currently completing his doctoral work at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has written several articles on the history of American journalism and media policy making. Most recently, he is the editor, with Robert W. McChesney, of Our Unfree Press: 100 Years of Radical Media Criticism (2004).
Josh Silver is the Managing Director of Free Press, a national media reform organization dedicated to the democratization of media policy debates. Previously, he was the campaign manager of the successful ballot initiative for Clean Elections in Arizona in 1998. Since then, he spent three years as director of development for the cultural arm of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He is the former director of an international youth exchange program, and worked with youth at risk. He has published several articles on media policy, campaign finance and other public policy issues.
Cliff Skolnick is the CTO of Iron Systems. He is an active participant in the community networks movement and a founding member of the Bay Area Wireless User Group (BAWUG), the Apache Group/Apache Software Foundation, and FreeNetworks.org. He has over 15 years of experience in the field of Internet servers, security, and connectivity. Cliff was also co-founder and Chief Information Officer(CIO) of Organic Online. Before Organic, Cliff applied his networking and software skills at Sun Microsystems in the Internet engineering group as the project lead on one of the Internet Firewall Projects. Cliff also worked at Sun as a developer in the Clustered Systems group, and as part of the Sun Professional Services organization.
Paul Smith is the CNT's webmaster and systems administrator, as well as the technical lead on the Wireless Community Network project. He's been with the Center for Neighborhood Technologies since 1999.
Jim Snider is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation. His work focuses on reforming America's telecommunications policies. Mr. Snider holds degrees from Northwestern University and Harvard Business School. He is the co-author of Future Shop, one of the first books on the emerging area of e-commerce. He has also published numerous reports, including the acclaimed Citizen's Guide to the Airwaves.
Dana Spiegel is a distinguished software consultant and founder of sociableDESIGN, a software and consulting firm that specializes in social software and wireless technology research and development. He has worked with industry leading companies including Yahoo!, Nike, Primedia, IBM, ComputerRepair.com, and Bloostone to develop products and programs that utilize innovative social software (including online messaging, chat, and social network analysis and visualization) and wireless technologies. Recently, Dana helped Yahoo! develop a grassroots marketing campaign to showcase Online Holiday Shopping at the Yahoo! Shopping Stores, which included the development of custom Wireless Christmas Trees that provided free public Wi-Fi and broadcast a customized Yahoo! Shopping website into public spaces in New York City and Chicago. Dana holds a Bachelors Degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and a Masters Degree in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Laboratory's Sociable Media Group. Dana also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for NYCwireless, a New York City non-profit organization. Dana serves as a member of the Board of Directors of NYCwireless, a high-profile, non-profit public interest group advocating the development of free public wireless networks. He is currently producing Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art and the City (www.spectropolis.info), a three-day event on October 1, 2, and 3 that highlights the diverse ways artists, technical innovators and activists are using communication technologies to generate new urban experience and public voice. The event explores what is possible when wireless communications (both new and old), mobile devices and media converge in public space. In September 2003, he produced America's first Wireless Art festival, the Wireless Park Lab Days, to critical acclaim. The event showcased up-and-coming new media artists whose work explored the convergence of wireless technologies and public spaces. Dana is also NYCwireless' Director of Community Applications, leading a team to develop software applications that build and support online wireless communities
Heather Stewart is the Research and Policy Coordinator for Common Assets. She is currently a librarian-in-training at San Jose State University. You can generally find her riding a bike, gardening in her yard, or reading about copyright law. Common Assets was founded to reassert the public's ownership of the commons by preventing giveaways of our common assets to private interests. Common Assets works in three program areas: water, energy, and spectrum.
Jack Unger, the founder and President of Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. (formerly Wireless InfoNet) may be the "Grandfather" of the license-free wireless Internet community. He has provided continuous network design, installation, training, consulting, on-site troubleshooting, and technical writing for the WISP industry since 1993. He deployed one of the first public wireless Internet POPs (1995), presented the world's first vendor-neutral broadband wireless WAN deployment workshops (2001), and wrote the industry's first WISP deployment handbook, "Deploying License-Free Wireless Wide-Area Networks" (2003). His book, although strictly vendor-neutral, was published by Cisco Press.
Emy Tseng is currently Senior Policy Analyst for the Community Technology Foundation of California and Director of the Technology Funders Collaborative. Previously, she worked at the Ford Foundation on issues of information and communications policy. She has consulted on technology policy and strategy for Consumers Union and for several community networking projects including NYCwireless. Emy has twelve years experience in the software industry as an engineer, project manager and software architect. Emy received a Master of Science degree from MIT’s Technology and Policy Program (TPP) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Math/Physics from Brown University.
Antwuan Wallace is a social justice advocate who helps construct policy innovations for politically-marginalized and economically-stratified communities. He serves as the Senior Research Associate for BCT Partners, an IT management and policy consulting firm. A doctoral candidate in Policy Analysis at New School University and a Research Assistant at the Community Research Development Center, his dissertation investigates informal learning and social construction by youth-of-color within community-based organizations. He holds a B.A. from Hampton University and a MPA from Indiana University-Bloomington.
David Young graduated from Cornell University in 1999, with a bachelor's degree in computer science. He is a software engineer with OJC Technologies in Urbana, Illinois. For three years, he has dedicated himself to lead software development for the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN). His professional goal is to support grassroots networking initiatives around the world, by writing open-source software that runs large-scale rooftop mesh networks.
2004 Schedule
- Ellick Chan
- Jalal Almuhtadi
- Chad Peiper
- Rob Flickenger
- Zach Miller
- Matt Peterson
- Jack Unger
- Russ Newman (facilitator)
- Harold Feld
- Tim Pozar
- Greg Rose
- Jim Snider
- Josh Silver (facilitator)
- Glenn Booth
- Zach Miller
- Michael Peralta
- Matt Peterson
- Chase Phillips (facilitator)
- Jim Baller
- Annie Collins
- Greg Richardson
- Kari Gray and Heather Stewart (facilitators)
- Mark Cooper
- Harold Feld
- Robert McChesney
- Dan Schiller
- Ben Scott (facilitator)
- Darrin Eden
- Rob Flickenger
- Paul Smith
- David Young
- Michael Brunelle (facilitator)
- Sascha Meinrath
- Christian Sandvig
- Josh Silver
- Emy Tseng
- Victor Pickard (facilitator)
- Breakout into tracks (20 minutes)
- Tracks prioritize ideas/action items (60 minutes)
- Reconvene to discuss issues as a whole (60 minutes)
The schedule for the 2004 NSCWN is currently being finalized. Please note that the following schedule is a work in progress and is subject to revision as panelists confirm their availability. All locations listed are at the Siebel Center unless otherwise specified. Times provided are Central Daylight Time. Click on panelists' names for biographical information.
Provisional Schedule
FRIDAY 2:00pm-6:00pm Check-in/Registration, Open House, Social, and Demonstrations 4:00pm-6:00pm Siebel Center researchers present advanced applications for wireless technologies - Seminar Room (2405)
6:00pm-7:30pm Opening Plenary -- Auditorium 7:30pm-9:00pm Dinner (on your own) 9pm CUWiN Open House, 115 W. Main St. 2nd Floor, Urbana After 9pm Friday night social -- location TBA SATURDAY 9:00am-10:30am Saturday Breakfast, Social, Registration, and Demonstrations - 2nd floor common space 10:30am-12:30pm
Session 1A - Room 3401 Introduction to CWN Technology
Session
1B - Room 3403Organizational Models for CWNs
Session 1C - Room 3505 Spectrum Policy: what's going on
12:30pm-2:00pm Saturday Lunch, Social, & Exhibitors - 2nd floor common space 2:00pm-4:00pm
Session 2A - Room 3401 Hardware in Depth
Session 2B - Room 3403 Building a Municipal Wireless Model
Session 2C - Room 3405 Spectrum Policy: what can we do
4:00pm-4:30pm Break 4:30pm-6:30pm
Session 3A - Room 3401 Software in Depth
Session 3B - Room 3403 Community Media and CWNs
Session 3C - Room 3405 Building local, national, and international coalitions
6:30pm-8:00pm Dinner (on your own) 8:00pm-??? Saturday Evening Social SUNDAY 9:00am - 10:30am Sunday Breakfast, Social, Registration, and Demonstrations - 2nd floor commons 10:30am-12:50pm Plenary: Strategizing & Next Steps - Seminar Room
1:00pm-1:50pm Sunday Lunch, Social, & Demonstrations - 2nd floor common space 2:00pm-3:30pm Closing Plenary -- Seminar Room The 2004 National Summit for Community Wireless Networks will distinguish 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 opportunity will not be squandered.
Each discussion session will include 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 licenses and as a Wiki to allow ongoing modification.
2004 Summit Documentation
- Opening Penary
- Video: Opening Plenary (Streaming Real Player)
- Video: Opening Plenary (MP4)
- Jim Baller: Power Point Presentation (1.7Mb)
- Session 1A -- Introduction to Community Wireless Networking Technology
- Session 1B -- Organizational Models for Community Wireless Networks
- 1B Streaming Video
- 1B Streaming Audio
- 1B Session Notes (Wiki)
- Michael Oh PDF Presentation (3.5Mb)
- Richard MacKinnon Power Point Presentation (668k)
- Session 1C -- Spectrum Policy: What's going on in Washington?
- Session 2A -- Community Wireless Networking Hardware In Depth
- Session 2B -- Building a Municipal Wireless Model
- Session 2C -- Spectrum Policy: What can we do about it?
- Session 3A -- Community Wireless Networking Software In Depth
- 3A Streaming Video (Coming VERY Soon!)
- 3A Streaming Audio (Coming VERY Soon!)
- 3A Session Notes (Wiki)
- Darrin Eden: PDF Presentation (1.8MB)
- Session 3B -- Community Media and Community Wireless Networks
- 3B Streaming Video (Coming VERY Soon!)
- 3B Streaming Audio (Coming VERY Soon!)
- 3B Session Notes (Wiki)
- Charlie Ridgway: Power Point Presentation (208k)
- Steve Pierce: Outcomes of Recent Cable Franchise Renewals (PDF Handout)
(236k) - Steve Pierce: Cable Franchise Renewal Process Overview (PDF Handout)
(62k) - Steve Pierce: PEG Access Basics (PDF Handout) (94k)
- Dana Spiegel: Power Point Presentation (1.8MB)
- Session 3C -- Building Local, National, and International CWN Coalitions
- 3C Streaming Video (Coming VERY Soon!)
- 3C Streaming Audio (Coming VERY Soon!)
- 3C Session Notes (Wiki)
- Session Notes
- Technology Brainstorm Notes
- Organizational Brainstorm Notes
- Policy Brainstorm Notes
- STRATEGIZING/NEXT STEPS Notes
- Video: Closing Plenary (Streaming Real Player)
PHOTOS:
FRIDAY:
SATURDAY:
SUNDAY:
Streaming video provided by ATLAS (you can download the free real-player here). Also, if you don't want to stream/use real player, do not worry, downloadable videos will also be made available in mpeg4 and the audio in mp3 and ogg vorbis.
Are you having trouble getting high quality video and audio from the streams even though you have broadband?
Make sure that your Real Player is set for the kind of bandwidth you have:Click Tools>>Preferences
Then click on Connection in the left hand column.The easiest thing to do is to click the Test Connection button and have Real Player select the proper bandwidth setting. Otherwise, if you know the type of connection you have, select it. The streaming videos are optimized for higher bandwidth, of 256kbps or higher.
2004 Summit Participants
- Ask-Wi.com, Inc.
- Association for Community Networking
- Austin Wireless City Project
- The Baller Herbst Law Group, P.C.
- Batuta-Defensefirst
- Bay Area Research Wireless Network (BARWN)
- Bay Area Wireless Users Group (BAWUG)
- BCT Partners
- Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council
- California State University, Dominguez Hills
- Center for Neighborhood Technology
- Centralia Tech Center
- Chi-Fi
- City of Champaign, IL
- City of Urbana, IL
- Civitium, LLC
- Cleveland Digital Vision
- Common Assets Defense Fund
- Community Technology Foundation of California
- Consumer Federation of America
- Consumers Union
- Cornell College
- Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN)
- Cumberland Internet
- Detroit Wireless Project
- dhTV - Community Television for St. Louis
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- E-NC Authority
- Free Press
- Gads Hill Center
- Heart Technolgies
- Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center
- Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs
- Interconnected Associates, LLC
- John A Logan College
- KDHX - St. Louis Community Radio
- Keyedge, LLC
- lavalsansfil.org
- M@IN
- Make Your Own Media
- Marketex
- Media Access Project
- Metrix.net
- Michiana Free-Net Society
- Muniwireless.com
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- New America Foundation
- NewberryOpen.net
- NoCatNet
- NPOTechs
- NYCwireless
- Office of Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn
- Ohio State Amateur Radio Club
- On Second Thought
- onShore, Inc.
- Personal Telco
- Prairienet Community Network
- Prometheus Radio Project
- Roving Planet, Inc.
- Seattle Wireless
- Tech Superpowers, Inc.
- Tremont WiFi Neighborhood Network
- Tribal Digital Village
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- University of Kentucky
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- UrbanSystems, LLC
- Victory Neighborhood Services Agency, Inc
- Walnut Hills Area Council
- Wifi-Plus, Inc.
- WORT-FM (Madison, WI)
The 2004 NSCWN will be attended by technology and policy leaders, decision-makers, students, researchers, and other participants in wireless networking and community networking initiatives. Individuals affiliated with the following organizations and projects are expected to attend*:
* Please note that participation by individuals affiliated with the organizations listed above does not necessarily imply endorsement, partnership, or formal participation by the organizations themselves. Please see the schedule of events for a full list
of presenters.
Updated August 10, 2004 | home | info@communitywirelesssummit.org