Re: [CNSIG-Council] BeyondTheNet and SIG Strategy

Hi all, On 03.05.2018 22:20, Ramon Roca wrote: Regarding this point by Ramon I would like to inform you that with the Sarantaporo.gr NPO we organize a "regional" conference in Sarantaporo on July 6-8th with the support of the netCommons project. For now we try to do more "targeted" invitations and we have not shared this publicly but I think that all people in this list would be very welcome to join anyway and perhaps know relevant people that would be interested (unfortunately we don't have funding to cover travel expenses but for special cases we could try to offer free participation "subsidized" by the fees paid by those with available funding). Ideally, such regional conferences could become part of a "series" which could be organized in a way to contribute to a common pool of knowledge and experiences. A possible "beyond the net" project could be responsible to structure this information and also fund the organization of such events including the participation of "local" actors with no funding otherwise. Here is a first draft of the invitation text: On July 7-8th researchers, practitioners, and key actors in the development of Community Networks around the world will visit one of the success stories of this movement in Greece, the Sarantaporo.gr Community Network, for a 2-day workshop organized by the netCommons project and the Sarantaporo.gr Non-Profit Organization. Organizing gatherings and workshops where the real action takes place is important for all parties involved. The local community feels recognition and empowerment, and realizes the importance of their endeavor at a global scale. The people working on the global technical, social, economic, and political challenges that these networks face get the opportunity to progress their agenda in an environment that is full of information on how things work on the ground, but also full of inspiration and motivation being in contact with the people's particular stories related to their CN. The Sarantaporo.gr CN being located close to the highest and most popular greek mountain, the mount Olympos, offers also a great opportunity for informal discussions and socialization in nature, a collaboration experience that can prove much more productive  than airconditioned rooms and powerpoint presentations, both in the short and in the long term. Please express your willingness to participate by sending an e-mail to panayotis(a)nethood.org (maximum number of participants is 30). More details for the organization of the event are made available here (and will be updated soon): https://etherpad.netcommons.eu/p/sarantaporo-july-conference Note that no travel expenses will be covered by the organizers, and there will be a registration fee at the range of 250-300EUR depending on the actual costs, which will cover accommodation, transport from Athens or Thessaloniki (if arrival/departure times fit the planned transport), and most meals. Note also that you might need to arrange your travel to arrive on the 6th and leave on the 9th, and that on the 9th there is another public event being organized in Athens (at the Impact Hub). Current Participant List George Klissiaris, Sarantaporo.gr Achileas Vaitsis, Sarantaporo.gr Vassilis Chrysos, Sarantaporo.gr Panayotis Antoniadis, NetHood Alexandros Papageorgiou, NetHood Ileana Apostol, NetHood Aris Pilihos, Athens University of Economics and Business Leonardo Maccari, University of Trento Renato Lo Cigno, University of Trento Virginie Aubree, University of Trento Felix Treguer, CNRS Leandro Navarro, UPC Steve Song, Village Telco Adam Burns, Free2Air Juergen Neumann, Freifunk.net Jane Coffin, ISOC