Subscriber Meeting 29-10-2007
From NodelWiki
This NODE.London "Subscriber's meeting" was held on Monday 29 October 6.30pm - 9.30pm, at the Gasworks Gallery, 155 Vauxhall Street, London SE11 5RH Thanks to Mia and Anna for hosting the session.
17 people attended, several for the first time. We discussed the four 'models' for Node London, although many people were not familiar with them so it wasn't possible to come to any firm consensus about which way Node London might go. Various suggestions for events and tie-ins were raised.
Anna Colin and Mia Jankowicz from Gasworks Gallery gave a presentation about 'Disclosures' their project planned for spring 2008, which will examine the current applications of open source to the economies of the visual art field, and to advance the critical analysis of the socio-economical and political conditions behind FLOSS, while linking its use back to visual art–oriented practices. One of the main objectives is to instigate a greater dialogue between a range of initiatives, projects and protagonists working within different systems (through presentations, lectures, roundtable discussions, commissions and guest-curated events).
Saul Albert gave a short presentation on some events which are coming up in London in March/ April 2008. These include: - the Gasworks 'Disclosures' project: scheduled for 6-7 April - the Open Knowledge Conference on March 15 at LSE (see http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ ) - the Technology for Social Action workshop "Designing for the 21st Century: Using Web 2.0 Technologies(and Social Networking Tools)for Social Action" on 11/12th March 2008 in London. (See http://www.technologyandsocialaction.org/designing_for_the_21st_century.)
Linking Node London in with events like these might provide an interim event, a sort of stepping stone, since we haven't yet settled on anything more substantial. All these events are related but cover different Venn diagrams.
Saul volunteered to write an open call for similar events in March/ April next year
In the meantime we need a better website. Saul mentioned the NM-X site (http://nm-x.com/)as a possible parallel, and undertook to see if he could find someone prepared to develop a Drupal site free. The site could act as an events guide.
Saul also argued that we should produce another reader, whcih would help to contextualise different discourses. WE discussed various ways of getting writers to contribute either free or for a share of any future profits(The last reader made a profit, eventually) or of getting funding.
Next subscriber meeting Will be on 29 November, when Michelle Kasprzak (from New Media Scotland and Upgrade!) will present. Venue may be LSE (London School of Economics) though we're waiting for that to be confirmed.
