[CWN-Summit] Summit Evalutations!

Sascha Meinrath sascha at aya.yale.edu
Wed May 30 12:20:20 CDT 2007


Hi everyone,

I hope everyone's recovering well from the Summit.  Cecille, Faith, and I are
quickly catching up on all the post-Summit paperwork and logistics and we've
just finished pulling together feedback we received on Summit evaluation forms.
 Overall, I would say that folks had a pretty fantastic time -- as always, feel
free to send along additional comments and suggestions.

With the Summit now over, we're going to be scouring the globe for venues and
sponsors for the next International Summit for Community Wireless Networks.  If
you have leads, let me know.

In solidarity,

--Sascha & the rest of the IS4CWN crew

***

What did you like about the Summit?

The venue, the weather, the people, the food. Especially the capacity to
integrate different subjects into every panel.
The panels
Good times
Seeing, meeting passionate and caring people that are quite aware of the
breakthrough job they make. Learning about initiatives that make a huge
difference in their neighborhoods.
Everything.  It was pretty great.
Cool people.  Convenient hotel to conference site.
Lots of spaces for interaction with smaller groups and incredible number of
attendees.
Inspiring panels, possibility to sync up with other initiatives
It's like a family reunion!  I enjoyed the more integrated tracks and the
ability to discuss policy/research/tech/organizing with all of the participants
The opportunity to meet and learn from key leaders who are making such a
difference in this area.  It's been great for me.
People from different countries, different types of networks, other
organizations, etc.
Plenty of time for fairly open ended interaction
Internationality, pace of the event, great choices of lecturers/readers, great
panel discussions.
Meeting people and networking.  Summit/un-conference format.
Very interesting subjects, not a minute lost during 2 days.
The spirit of the people attending
Love the Summit.  Like the participatory panels.  Like the ample time to in the
main room and talk with people.  Like the frequent availability of food and drink.
Lotsa international folks, great organization.
That it happened – that's 1/3 of what's great about it.  Europeans and
developing countries.
Meeting with and making friends with other community wireless network people,
especially international people; collaboration opportunities
The building was spectacular.  The panels were diverse and informative.
Everything!
Everything! This was my first time to be in this kind of gathering and I think
that there should be many organized seminars all over the world.
The true involvement of people, their kindness, the cultural mix.
Logistically, I liked very much not needing a car to get to hotel, food and
conference location. Thought the pacing of the sessions was civilized (10:30
start, etc.).  Glad for international focus.
So many people from different countries.
Socail applications of networks panel. Social night event at Nottingham's. Great
group feeling/joyful.

What would you do differently next time?

Not all the interesting sessions at the same time.  Maybe start early and have 2
sessions in the morning, so you only have to choose from 2 choices instead of 4.
Closer to Washington or something similar
Less tracks, more social events, maybe more technology hands on
Nothing, maybe doing it in Quebec?
More urban location (or rural).  I'd like to experience more application.  Don't
schedule all the cool stuff at the time time.
I would try to implement on a slightly longer scale.
Other location like UCSD would be nice.
Mandate a speed-geek presentation style for panels or create less
powerpoint/lecture style to integrate knowledge of all participants – open
source presentation models?
I hope I will be able to make a much more important contribution, and to be
better prepared.
Location – some place nearer public transit.  Organized tracks on subjects, e.g.
Software, hardware, business plans, deployment, etc.  More outreach to people
who are just starting.
Fewer separate tracks.
More practice stuff like software installations (CUWiNware, stability
comparation, more lessions about wireless network security/hackers).
Strongly consider single track or at least more single tracks.  It would give us
a shared framework of reference.
Not much.  More time, more often.
Spread in time so there were less concurrent sessions
Seek out social places (bars) that are not quite so noisy and mind numbing like
bad TV.
Summit should last a little longer.
More birds of a feather, more time for hacking, more un-conference.
Either more time for panel discussions or more follow-up time.
Panelists register as panels – new system for that.  Better strategy vis-a-vis
social events.
Would like to see more time to the panels.  Would also like to see more hacking
based panels with practical tasks.
If it could last for more days.  And the panelists were in different rooms so I
missed many things that I wanted to hear.
Nothing. Keep it up.
Hack Night Slumber Party!
More time to get to know everybody.
The first bar was too noisy.  Have more hands-on hacking sessions.

Who was not here that should have been?

Well, there are tons of projects we don't know about but what you did
identifying people and aligning them into a coherent agenda was just great!
Just more groups
Cincinatti, Chicago people (WCN/CNT)
East Asia
FCC and (Capitol) Hill people
Arun Mehta.  Daisychain/Pilsen Wifi project in Chicago.
Andreas Tonnesen (OLSR.org), Lindsay Annison.
Some people who were here last year – community and muni folks.  More DC “inside
the Beltway” policy people.  Even more international participants.  Reps from
local areas doing local projects.
Congressmen Mike Sturla.  He would love this summit.  I will invite him next year.
More people who are actually running and building community wifi networks.
People developing community wireless on a smaller scale, working in relative
isolation, city recreation centers, for example.
Thess Wireless (Greece), Zgwireless (Croatia), Czfree.net, HKfree.net (Czech
Republic)
As we talk more about policy – Susan Crawford.  Doc Searls and Jon Udell.
Philadelphia – was anyone here?  Was anyone invited?  Need to get the municipal
activists here so we can learn what's happening and how to avoid roadblocks.
More people from more organizations.
San Francisco, London, Athens, China.
Some of the main wireless technology vendors.
Good question... maybe more new people and hackers.
FCC folks, czfree, Dave Young
WOMEN.
More Asian participants.
Participants from China, Russia, Australia...
Nothing special.
I feel this was a productive size to get things done.  May be appropriate for
this stage of the work.
More geo0mapping geeks (Schuyler, Jo Walsh)

When and where would you like to see the next Summit?

In Latin America next year!
Next year, same time, see question 2 (Washington or something similar)
West Coast
Maybe in Quebec (because it's home).  Maybe in Nicaragua jungle to see how they
use the same technology in as us in a more important way.
DC, Boston
Seattle or other west coast location (not SF or LA)
ASAP.  A closer bike ride from Chicago.
In a city! Preferably one with networking projects that we could visit/hack/play
with as part of the Summit.
Right here (Loyola) is great, if possible.  This date is ok.
Anywhere! As long as there's beer.
San Diego.  May 2008.  Or outside N. America.
Chicago.
Midwest.
Montreal, Quebec, hosted by Ile Sans Fil!!
Next year.
Overseas
This time next year in Europe.
On the east coast so that the new energy from Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec
City, etc. can attend in big numbers – like a schoolbus full.
The time of year was good, as far as when.  Same time next year?  This was a
good location, but somewhere with more restaurants/facilities might be better.
Columbia's facilities were nice but the area kind of sucked.  Maybe somewhere
more urban.
West Coast or Canada.
Wherever.  It could be anywhere as long as these interesting people are there.
The place does not matter.  (I'd prefer the Maldives.) :)
Same time, but maybe more near an international airport in an active city.
The Catskills – kidding! I think it's important to spread the wealth among regions.
Anywhere, same people and more people.
Seattle.

General comments:

Thanks for everything! Looking forward to seeing you again soon!
Definitely fun!
Yay!
Awesome!
Thank you.
Thanks! A wonderful experience, like last year.
Shuffleboard rocks :)
Great to be back, to be able to contribute and to help advance this...
Thanks.
Great CUWiN support!
Have Harold speak again.
Wow! Thanks!
Great work! Congratulations.
Great job!
Great work!
Great job.  It came together way above my expectations.
Erotic shuffleboard?
Very pleased.
I am amazed with the summit and I would like to thank our hosts for hosting us
like they did.
Very good.
Thanks for letting me come to your shindig.  Very much appreciate all of the
effort and thoughtfulness that went into this event.
Love you guys.  Thanks to all the organizers, especially Cecille and Faith
Awesome Summit.  The ambiance was great.  Thanks.


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