[isf-wifidog] Re: update from municonference

[Michael Lenczner]

update # 2

Hello,

2nd panel was yesterday:

Wireless networks don't just network geographic locations, they
connect individuals to one-another -- allowing unparalleled networking
and multimedia service opportunities. From geolocational applications
to peer-to-peer information dissemination to participatory multi-media
production -- leaders from the field will discuss the social and
economic implications of these new technologies.

Moderator:
Andrew Rasiej, Advisory Board, FON

Speakers:
Paul Bragiel, CEO, Meetro
Michael Lenczner, Co-Founder IleSansFil/WifiDog
Sean Savage, CEO, Placesite
Charles Ribaudo, Co-Founder of Jambo.net


It was a great discussion.  None of us did demo's - it was just
discussion of some of the concepts of location based services, wifi
user experience, etc.  Very well attended - 60+ people - over 1/3 of
the attendes, including Esme Vos (from muniwireless.com and the
organizer of these conferences).

I managed to get in some points about WifiDog *not* being about
empowering individual users, about the importance of showing people
content that they don't necessarily want to see or agree with, and the
difficulty of trying to answer the question "What should the internet
look like from here?".

I talked to the Fon people and the Google guy responsable for the
Mountain View network.  I'm hoping that together we can advance the
current (pretty pitiful) state of location portals.

A very interesting this is that 10 people have come up to me over the
last 3 days and said how impressed they were with what we were doing.
But each time they were referring to something different.  In some
cases it was the free wifi aspect.  Other times it was the community
education / intervention that we are working towards.  And twice it
was the importance and appreciation that we were building
*open-source* software to address these issues.

We've also gotten some pushback on captive portals and how they don't
work for devices that don't have webbrowsers.  I've always thought
that ISF could discuss a policy of only blocking port 25 and port 80.
But that would have a bunch of implications.