Mark Pesce’s closing presentation WDS08
So yesterday overall was the better of the two days of the Web Directions South 2008 conference; Jeffrey Venn was great, Laurel was great, Diana was great … Daniel, Ruth … and finally Mark Pesce.
An odd presentation. A short one. Mark talked about hyperconnectivity, the predicted evolution of the human brain to accommodate a shift and expansion in social capability, the mob and crowd vs community. And then he went on to talk about FAUC, the Future Australian Carrier Interest Group.
Now that wasn’t something I ever touched. That was spawned out of the iPhone data plan costs and contracts - and seeing I don’t have or plan to get an iPhone it wasn’t something I was particularly passionate about.
So basically from what I can tell of Mark’s presentation - he wants to help drive that change from traditional top-down hierarchical follow-the-leader organisation and encourage the crowd to simply get it down. And he’s using FAUC as the starting point for that.
I have to admit I was a little hurt that Mark came across describing us all as lazy and that he’s sick of always having to lead the way and that there’s an unequal and unfair distribution of work … because last year at Web Directions South 2007 Mark gave his presentation about wireless mesh networks and Merakis … and one year later everyone in the audience of Mark’s presentation was holding a flier for Free Australia Wireless. We have around 30 mesh networks or nodes in Canberra, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne. I’ve moved $3,000 worth of Meraki in the past 10 months.
But it was wrong for me to take it personally … because it’s not about me or Jean-Jacques Halans. It’s about the crowd. And the crowd has not spawned Free Australia Wireless. It’s just been me and JJ with the help of Stephen Collins, Matthew Hall and a few others - and of course Mark himself with the Wireless World 2008 exhibition earlier this year.
It’s not ideal. It’s slow, it puts pressure on just a handful of individuals. It’s more easily defeated or stalled.
If the crowd was behind Free Australia Wireless we’d have hundreds, thousands of mesh network nodes in place by now. That’s the difference. Once I realised that I didn’t feel so bad. At least I’m doing something but it shouldn’t come down to individuals. If people think about Free Australia Wireless and they associate that with JJ or myself then it’s all wrong.
But why do people continue to be individuals when there’s clearly such a benefit to a anarcho-syndicalist model for picking up any one thing that’s too much for one person and just rising up as a crowd, a new monster, and steam-rolling it or hurling it into orbit?
But it’s hard to see how the raw power of a rioting crowd that’s capable of running down steel barricades can be then brought to bear on something complicated like setting up a community telecommunications carrier?
I don’t have the answers for that - I’d love to hear them, because seriously people we could use your help with Free Australia Wireless or we’ll be at this for centuries.
And don’t give me “I’m too busy” bulls**t - I work full-time, freelance designer at night, moderator, admin and guest blogger/contributor for Aussie Bloggers and The Music Blogs, I have my own blog, I co-ordinate Free Australia Wireless, organise the Canberra Twitter meet-ups, designer and online community manager for OpenAustralia, a BarCampCanberra unorganiser, contribute to discussions on hundreds of blogs and forums and to top it off I play drums in a band. And I have plenty of time to spare.
And I know plenty of others who work tirelessly on various projects, initiatives and things … and well done for giving up your entire weekends for those things. But it should be about the crowd, not the community or individuals. If everyone came on-board it would completely change how these projects are executed, how solutions are developed, problems solved. Completely change.
So perhaps no more excuses and get your arse into the moshpit 
Mark’s presentation This, That and the Other including full transcript and videos used in his slides is available on his blog The Human Network.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Exactly, my sentiment too. Nothing to add…
September 28th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Sign me up - how do I help out?
September 28th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
[...] that, I was quite busy getting the conference wifi of the ground and keep it running, together with Nat. And can’t help myself, taking pictures [...]
September 28th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
With what Jason? FAUC?
I was talking with Matthew Landauer about this yesterday and we came to the agreement that these sort of projects still require some critical mass, some initial drive and direction-setting; so I guess one or more people need to just take it upon themselves to do some work on figuring out what FAUC should be and how to get there … that way there are entry and adhesion points for the crowd to come on-board. If that were to actually happen that is …
September 29th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Yep the free australia wireless stuff.
Totally agree - there needs to be a way ahead otherwise people will just let things slip. And those that want to get involve don’t know how to help out.
Catch up for a coffee to discuss sometime?
September 29th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Ah ok FAW is different from FAUC. I co-coordinate FAW with Jean-Jacques Halans. FAW has progressed a lot more than FAUC … but once again it’s come down to just a couple of people running it and doing all the admin and coordination work, although we appreciate all the people who’ve purchased Meraki and other mesh networking devices and are running free Internet access nodes out of their homes and businesses.
If you live in Canberra I’m happy to catch up some time to tell you more about FAW and how you can get involved or you can read about it on this page:
http://www.freeaustraliawireless.com/get-involved/
September 30th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Ah, the weather is too nice. That is the problem with Australia. Nice weather. Makes us lazy.
Yes, it would be great to have free Australia-wide wireless, but it is even better to head to the beach, put up your feet up, have a BBQ and not get caught up in the rat-race.
(BIG Generalization) Australians in general are not as competitive, as money crazy, as cut-throat as Americans. We are less likely to chain ourselves in front of abortion clinics or work relentlessly to chain school curriculum. Makes it harder to get the crowd happening.
Yusuf
yusuf.pisan[at]gmail.com
(Australian for the last 10 years)
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Yep in Canberra - had a read of the FAW site - would definately be interested in catching up for a Coffee to discuss you experience with it and what I can do to help out further.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 pm
thanks for the thoughts.
Id love to help the free wireless bit. let me know if you want to set up a working group. and get some things happening.
now is the time for us beach-lovers to do something. and do it where it is most needed. watch this video on ted. where kids in remote areas in india learn how to surf the net and even learn english without any instruction at all - crowd intelligence at its best. (and im not suggesting remote australia relays or am i?)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html