The Golden Age of Wireless

The Summit Presentations were launched with an great meal served in a traditional manner for beginning celebrations. The food is served on leaves and eaten without utensils. That's my hand pictured above delivering goodness to my mouth.

Early on, Yahel Ben David chastised the attendees for using the network to watch the live-feed from our lap tops, thus slowing down the network and making it more4 difficult for people who actually aren't here to see whats going on. Since the day 's program hadn't even begun (waiting on the arrival of dignataries) we're all apparently attracted to the idea of watching a live feed of ourselves. Somebody's got to come up with a word to describe that particular strand of geek narcissisum..

Yahel's opening remarks included a really excellent quote from His Holiness regarding the Internet. I was too busy with audiovisual documentation to write it down, but you can hear it if you view the video Yahel's statement that I've posted below.

Other highlights for me included Dr. Richard Stallman from the Free Software Community and David Hughes. Stallman framed everything from his unrelenting ascetic viewpoint that all software should be be free, but his comments had broad enough strokes to be inspirational to anyone who's passionate about protecting human rights, from any platform. They included the observation that human rights support each other: if we lose one human right, it becomes harder to support all the others. And that the free software movement strengthens the appreciation of of freedom leading to more people willing to resist the revocation of any freedom. Stallman is pictured above in a performative p

And as for David Hughes. The content of his presentation was very instructive and flavored by the experience of installing wireless networks and VOIP systems on Mt. Everest at the advanced age of 75. However, I equally enjoyed the fact that I felt I was receiving these illuminating words on community technology deployment from Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. You'll know exactly what I mean when you h=check out the video here or on the Air Jaldi archive later. The "Public Policy" slide pictured above is just one of many Hughes items I'll later reference in my work.

At one point, the conference structure was opened up to allow attendees to take 5 minute slots at the mic. This allowed for info to slip in in that was slightly divergent from the Summit focus. I was particularly happy to be introduced to Sheel's work with kiva.org, an online tool that allowas individuals to micro finance low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world, and a project called Postamanet that delivers Hi-bandwidth courseware through the mail on cds and flash drives. I think both are excellent examples of using the "right" technology.

Of course after slaving away to document as much of the conference as I could, I manage to somehow not record the closing panel, which included me as a panelist. I'm sure though it will soon be up along with everything else on the Air Jaldi Archive.