jo’s in
yay!
so here’s the panel I put together for the upcoming CWN summit in Missouri:
Panel Description: Hacking the City, Ile Sans Fil, and WifiDog
An 80 minute discussion of how CWN’s can be a way to make an impact in your community on matters of social cohesion, art and culture and civic information. Lead by Michael Lenczner (Ile 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 developper, Benoit Gregoire.
Jo Walsh - lead organizer of WSFII - i’m putting her as a co-lead because she’s doing amazing stuff the the CWN world isn’t paying enough attention to. Namely - the same stuff as me but just smarter.
(ie: using a high level of understanding of semantic web and gis (her), as opposed to waving your hands around a lot and getting so excited you spit on people (me). good thing i’m a better sales person ;-)
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.
Gabe Sawhney - founder Wireless Toronto - because he’s coming from a locative media background, and the reason for his starting WT had *nothing* to do about access
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.
Allison Powell - because I love the recent direction of her research.
Alison Powell is a PhD candidate in the Communication Studies department at Concordia University in Montreal. Her work focuses on the uses of mobile internet technologies in public spaces, as well as on the politics and culture of community wireless groups. She has been working with Île Sans Fil for a year or so, and when not thinking about the “wireless imaginary” in community, municipal, and corporate contexts, she can be found hiking or reading trashy novels.
Benoit Grégoire - because although he’s not “just” a coder it still comes down to the code (as opposed to the vigorous hand-waving)
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.