Potsdam 2017

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http://OFF.NETWORK Content Hackathon

Four full days of hacking Aug 14, 15, 16, 17 in Potsdam, NY, right after Wikimania 2017, towards the "offlining" aims outlined below, hosted by the State University of New York at Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam). This will be similar to the 2016 Kiwix Hackathon in Esino Lario, Italy and the Spring Hackathon in Lyon, France but with more packagers/implementers represented (Internet-in-a-Box, medical/health publishers, in addition to Wikipedia technical architects etc...)

KEYWORDS: alternative publishing, offline cloud, developing world education, medical health informatics, web scraping, Sneakernet, mesh networking, peer-to-peer file sharing, peer production, mass collaboration, Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, ZIM files, zines, Samizdat, community publishing, library rights, creative commons, copyright, copyleft, open access, free press, freedom of speech, FOIA, DRM, intellectual property, fair use, hacktivism, underground press, citizen journalism, civic resilience, grassroots democracy.

We ask that everyone spend all 5 nights in Potsdam, NY, immediately following Wikimania 2017 in Montreal (Wikimania is Aug 9-13 2017) so that each and all of our 4 hack days and evening hospitality plans are relaxed & productive! In short: arrive in Potsdam, NY late Sunday Aug 13, and leave Potsdam, NY Friday Aug 18 (2+ hour drive to Montreal's airport).

Your departing flight should leave Friday afternoon or evening (Aug 18) from Montreal's airport (YUL). Flights departing morning will generally NOT be possible, given the van/vehicle's 2+ hour drive from Potsdam to Montreal's airport, with delays being common while entering Canada by road!

Please contact holt @ laptop.org immediately if you are considering contributing & partaking, joining the Kiwix and Internet-in-a-Box team during these 4 intense and productive days/nights!

Transportation

Most all of us will drive the ~2.5 hours from Montreal, Quebec, Canada to Potsdam, NY immediately after dinner on Sunday Aug 13, 2017, the moment Wikimania ends:

ARRIVAL: Vehicles will leave Montreal early evening Sunday Aug 13, 2017. Montreal airport (YUL) pickups might also be possible, as it's along the route to Potsdam, NY.

DEPARTURE: Vehicle(s) will arrive Montreal's airport (YUL) around late-morning Friday Aug 18, 2017. Airport's full name is "Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport".

DEPARTURE ALTERNATIVE: Some folks will take the 1:25PM Amtrak train from Plattsburgh, NY, which arrives ~8:50pm in New York City ($65-77) that evening of Friday Aug 18, 2017. Contact us immediately if you're considering this, as there are NO viable public transit options over the 1h 45min rural route from Potsdam to Plattsburgh, but some kind of a joint taxi may be possible among those who contribute to our very generous hosts!

WARNING: There is NO public transportation between Montreal and Potsdam, so you will likely need to rent a car at great expense over 5 days if you do not register early! Hence direct transportation has been arranged to and from Montreal (YUL) for those who register early. So far we have vehicles and drivers arranged for about 12 people, making this ~2.5 hour road trip and border crossing between Montreal and Potsdam very easy, but beware these vehicles WILL fill up :)

Please remember that a passport and US and Canadian visa are likely all required at the Canada/USA land crossing, particularly for those ineligible for the US Visa Waiver Program. To be safe, we will arrange formal letters of invitation to all non-US citizens, from SUNY Potsdam (University) to avoid possible border crossing nightmares. Well in advance: Martin Walker may need your passport number, its expiry date and your date-of-birth here — so please have these handy, given that border protocols have changed dramatically in 2017.

People

Kiwix
WP1.0
Internet-in-a-Box (formerly One Laptop Per Child's School Server Community Edition)
Wikipedia Project Medicine

<email holt @ laptop.org if you'd like to join, Thanks!>

Facilities & Accommodations

SUNY Potsdam (university) conference facility, nearby riverside pub/restaurant, and backyard BBQ thanks especially to Martin Walker's church!

Wi-Fi and hopefully also wireline Ethernet will be provided, so don't let our http://OFF.NETWORK Content Hackathon name scare you too much (though offline dogfooding of all our community products IS encouraged!)

Contact Adam (holt @ laptop.org) to arrange hotel or hosting with friends. Martin Walker and his compadres in Potsdam, NY are greatly assisting to make this all possible, as you will see!

Agenda

Offliners R Us, bringing digital sanity (quality content, open infrastructure) to offline populations everywherever we can!

Please join our 11AM NYC Time voice calls on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month (contact: holt @ laptop.org) if you can help refine this arc of achievable opportunities in 2017, possibly including:

  • kiwix-serve on ARM?
  • mwoffliner: specific enhancements? Include CScott's node-libzim for speed etc?
  • searching across ZIMs? ("imminent: approx April 2017")
  • unified catalog ("imminent: incl OPDS integration approx May 2017") for IdeasCube catalog of content (even if their catalog also indexes other things)
    • basis for Internet-in-a-Box rating/commenting of {Content Packs, ZIMs}. While ensuring http://download.kiwix.org/library/library.xml is offered long-term for both kinds of ZIMs (legacy ZIMs, and ZIMs that include the index within the file)
    • Internet-in-a-Box integration of ZIMs that include index (also support legacy ZIMs?)
  • WikiMed app (very high priority, many of us polishing w/ Doc James Heilman)
  • Mark Roden (with Reno McKenzie) ask about:
    • Monthly publication of Wikipedia data aggregation to generate stats, to generate offline connections/collections (stale since June 2016)
    • FTP server (wp1.kiwix.org) not working: e.g. you can log in but can't do anything else
  • ZimIT improvements? (very challenging, might require more Python expertise)
  • https://github.com/kiwix/zimfarm and similar Home Server peer community curation action, driven by Internet-in-a-Box regional global leaders
  • Rapid-Deploy Containerization norms & best practices, among our broadening global community

Achievements / Impact

Costs

This event is being organized entirely by volunteers, who began investing heavily in Potsdam, NY starting February 2017.

However there will be some small costs for transportation, food and accommodations.

Please contact holt @ laptop.org for details, Thanks!

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