okno / Network Summer

Evento de verão na Bélgica, o okno / Network Summer, discute usos das tecnologias sem fio e suas potencialidades para uso cidadão para além das grandes corporações ou regulações e restrições governamentais.

“This summer, okno (code31, so-on, riseau citoyen) will take a look at artistic networks. In a series of meetings, we share our research and collaborate in hands-on experiments with wireless technology. Whether you’re a visual artist, writer, musician, coder, hardware developer or just have a keen interest in wireless networks, we would like to invite you to come over and join us.

Together, we’ll look for new ways of using networks, investigate their artistic value and their social and geographical context. Wireless technolgies are affordable and powerful instruments. By learning how to make and use them, we can break out of the limits imposed by corporate and government-regulated restrictions. //meh In our hands-on experiments, we’ll be builing antennas, setting up the network and use it for audio and video.

July 12, 2-7pm :: an introduction to the Reseau Citoyen-network and how to work with it by Cidric Thernon – Reseau Citoyen is a Brussels project for a user-run wireless network via wi-fi; free of big operators, run by the people for the people. Riseau Citoyen is not an organisation, it’s much more a phenomenon. Beside its technological aspects, Riseau Citoyen is a vector for ideas. Community network projects are coordinated by citywide user groups who freely share information and help using the Internet. They often emerge as a grassroots movement. Reseau citoyen is run on a voluntary basis. Reseau Citoyen has a distinct ideological approach in putting up a free and open network. The volunteers provide the technological expertise and in a collaborative spirit make it available to the inhabitants of Brussels.

Okno tries to complement the social and technological infrastructure from a cultural point of view, hoping to put together a vehicle for socio-cultural activities in the information age.

July 13, 2-7pm :: hands on experiments with meshed networks by Patrick De Kooning – In this session, we’ll go straight to the technological basics. What is a wireless network? What material do we need? We make our first connections over several ranges, hook up our material and hope to get the network live and streaming. When we get the nodes talking to each other, what will they talk about? How can we use it? Why not just use the internet? What can low power, inexpensive networks add to artistic and social practices?”