my personal WSIS

I got back from Geneva on saturday, after having spent 4 days at the WSIS (Word Sunmmit on the Information Society) there.
Just to clear that up, I wasn't actually at the main WSIS event (at least until the last day), but instead was next-door at the ICT4D platform, a sort of ICT for development tradeshow.

We had courteously been invited by the  the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and were one of 18 organisations presenting our ideas and projects at the Danish booth.
As an aside, we were also in charge of the network infrastructure at the Danish booth, and the wireless network was a huge success, strengthened by the complete failure of Swisscoms 'official' network (read a Lawrence Lessig's rant on that subject here)

I'll excercise my right not to comment on the pro's and con's of the official event, and whether or not it was a huge step towards a more just future, or yet another step in the colonisation of the poorest countries on earth, and will only comment on my own experinces.

I LOVED IT. Mostly because I met all the right people. From some of the heroes working with wireless tech on the ground in Indonesia, Laos, Namibia and Cambodia, to some of the decision makers from Infodev and the Canadian Development agency . I had ample confirmation that what we are doing is considered relevant, that our approach captures the imagination of people with a lot more experience than us, and that this is in fact the field I want to build a career in.

There are so may things to write about, and I will, or at least I will try to write a small piece on the most interesting projects I encountered, and to talk a little bit more about what is slowly transmogrifying itself into "our unique approach" to low-cost connectivity projects in the developing world.

I will also be redesigning the homepage at http://www.ict4dev.org/ to better relect the projects we are all about, and perhaps to clear up the relationship between this blog, our danish ngo (http://www.ict4dev.org/) our danish wireless consultancy (http://wire.less.dk/) and our UK NGO (http://www.informal.org.uk/)