PopTech and MeshForum background

I am at PopTech this week, networking in person. I am observing how a conference which is similar in some ways to what we hope MeshForum will be actually works.

My full conference coverage will be on my personal blog, Searching For the Moon though I may summarize it here at MeshForum as well.

MeshForum, for anyone reading this for the first time, is a conference on Networks and the effect of Networks that I (Shannon Clark) and others (see the team section) are organizing. MeshForum will be in Chicago in early April 2005.

For 2005 we are focusing on bringing together a diverse group of experts on Networks. Some will be academics, many of whom study the theory of Networks (usually within a framework of one field). Others will be experts on a specific type of network - including broadcast networks both TV and Radio, social networks and social network analysis, TCP/IP networks, power grids, airlines. logistics, marketing, franchisees, politics, and various government agencies from the Fed to the military to various other groups. As well anyone who is interested in spending three days in deep conversations and discussions.

To attend you have to pay, or more in keeping with the spirit of networks, get someone else to pay for you. Sponsors (if interested contact me directly) are asked to provide both a number of participants as well as help bring other experts. All attendees will also be participants - while we will have a few keynotes framing and guiding our conversations, the focus of MeshForum is on active interaction and discourse.

Attendees should come with lots of questions. Attendees should come prepared to explain networks in their particular field or environment, with a focus on thinking broadly about that network.

Networks are connections between things - the things can be computers, people, companies, transformers. The network is the nodes and the links. By mapping it, studying it, measuring it, navigating it and observing it we can learn and influence the world around us - whether it is ensuring that a package gets to its destination or that the "right" people buy your new CD we are all nodes and actors within and on networks.

At MeshForum our format will be a few keynote speakers or panels providing a common framework for discourse. Then, attendees will interact in small or large groups to share and continue the discourse. Meals are a critical part of MeshForum. There will be many other surprises.