The first ever conference of the Open Sustainability Network!
This is a BarCamp style conference about free content and knowledge sharing in sustainability, international development, appropriate technology and solutions to poverty. It is open to all those interested in these issues.
Where, when?
TBA. The general idea is in the USA, in October 2008.
Help us find a venue!
If you have ideas for a free venue, please let us know! We're leaning towards San Francisco, or maybe Boston. We want to be somewhere that there are strong communities of students (esp those into these topics), creative appropriate technology people, tech-minded people, and lots of people working in international development. Also, having "unorganizers" close by is important. San Francisco is the lead candidate, but other ideas are welcome.
(We have one possibility, below, but would like others in case it doesn't work out.)
- We can get free state of the art facilities at San Francisco State University, with a main conference room seating 375 and several break out rooms, but we can't reserve the room until the end of May David.reber 19:51, 7 April 2008 (PDT)
Best time in October?
When's the best weekend in (or around) October?
Please suggest/enlighten/vote.
Name
We want a catchier name to use (at least unofficially - like "Wikimania" for the International Wikimedia Conference). Perhaps a conference name along the same lines as similar conferences like ecoCamp, GreenDevCamp and BIL. Openness is part of the concept of a BarCamp so "Open" doesn't need to be in the name.
Who's going?
Individuals passionate about these issues.
We want representatives from many groups that are inspiring or who might get inspired about open sustainability. Some ideas include:
- Open design people (See Open Design Collaboration)
- Fab Labs
- D-Labs/MIT?
- OAN
- p2pfoundation.net
- Wikia
- Appropedia contributors (of course!)
- Greenlivingpedia.org
- Village Earth
- Full Belly
- EWB, ESW, esp USA & Canada
- WiserEarth
- D-Lab
- Rocky Mountains Institute
- "Majority world" orgs and people - very important to have representation from such places.
- Latin American orgs and people - is there a possibility of sponsored travel & billeting?
- Foreign students, especially in relevant disciplines.
- Some, e.g. Asian Appropedians, could be represented by others (does Mel want to do a presentation on the Home biogas system (Philippine BioDigesters)? Chris on GEM mosquito control?)
- influential green bloggers, e.g.:
- WorldChanging
- thesietch.org (Boston based)
- Little Devices that Could (Boston-based)
This list is not meant to be comprehensive (it could go on forever).
Format
- Mainly or entirely "unconference" or "BarCamp" in style , i.e. ad hoc, anyone can run a session.
- Many sessions will be announced beforehand.
Cost
TBA. We hope it will be free (like BarCamp - and this will depend on sponsorship).
Or by donation (with a suggested amount)?
Sponsorship
Sponsorship is very welcome! Please contact one of the organizers, e.g. Curt, via his talk page.
Organizing
Want to help? Great! Please see Open Sustainability Network Conference 2008/planning.