2ND ANNUAL FREENET CONFERENCE OPENS IN OTTAWA Pierre Bourque Realtime Online Ottawa 10:25 a.m., August 15th, 1994 National Capital Freenet President Dave Sutherland opened the second annual Canadian Community Networks Conference today. There are over 130 participants from all over Canada. He mentioned that the current online freenet population in Canada now numbers between 30-40,000. He forecasts that between 300-400,000 will be online this time next year. The purpose of the conference is to allow participants to learn from each other and to help transplant enthusiasm throughout Canada for Freenet. He also reminded participants that this conference will see the birth of a new freenet umbrella group, Telecommunities Canada. Sutherland then introduced Hart Davis, from the Information Highway Advisory Council Secretariat. Davis made the point that Freenets are about people, not technology....regardless of income or technological abilities. Participants should not lose sight of that, and he called it "The Freenet Promise". Garth Graham bounded up to the podium next. He's the Conference Program Coordinator and explained some of the procedures that will need to be followed during the conference, including the establishment of a Telecommunities Canada Board of Directors. He then declared the nomination period to be officially open, and explained that bethween 7 and 15 members of the Board are required. He also announced that email and telnet facilities are available onsite for conference participants. Rosaleen Dickson was up next. She explained that a reporting system had been established to provide realtime online reports which would be available via freenet and the internet. ***Keynote Speaker*** Mark Surman - writer, media critic, community television production teacher and information activist - " Social axtivism and the electronic commons: from community television to freenets." Surman asked participants to compare the relative success of community television as it applies to the concept of the electronic commons. And whether or not freenets should follow that path towards achieving some semblance to the mythical concept of open public self expression. If freenets are to be the modern era commons for expression, certain principles will define electronic public space. 1- Free and open access 2- There should be a two way flow of information 3- Care to ensure an accessible level of computer and technological literacy to ensure that we are not shutting off whole sectors of society 4- There must be non-commercial spaces for the electronic commons 5- it should be funded by the people who own the network system. Community television had similar goals at it's inception. Today, it suffers from lack of interest by social groups and agencies, low level professionalism, limitation of things that get covered due to the complex nature of producing television programming. Amateurs find the exercise prohibitive. There is also a growing sponsorship revenue addiction and a subtle influence of commercial interests on programming. He recommends that freenets encourage localness. He suggests that responsibility of content should lie with the writer on freenet and not with the system as it does with cable companies. He feels that cable company responsibility has impeded expression. Surman believes there is an important place for freenet discussion within the context of the overall information highway debate. He recommends that much time be spent on the design of the system wetware , not hardware. If the info highway and the electronic commons is to lead to empowerement, we must go beyond the mere electronic discussion. He also quoted Mitch Kapor of the EFF from a recent Wired magazine article whereby Kapor defined the broadcast model as limited, and one which fostered consumerism, passism and mediocrity. And where the Internet model was decentralized, and fostered critical thinking, democracy and equality. One which would breed a better society. -- Realtime Online - Professional Conference Reporting Team Rosaleen Dickson, Ottawa ac174@freenet.carleton.ca. Pierre Bourque, Michel Careau, Shady Kanfi, Charles King, Andrea Kujala, Jules Lafrance, Bruce MacDonald, Robt Rattey, Natalie Roth, Michael Silvestrini, Stephen Toy.