Tim May wrote:
First, good luck on your meeting.
thanks.
* we in the Bay Area have had numerous informal gatherings at coffee shops, outdoor seating areas, other public areas (a la '2600"). And this is with an attendance sometimes reaching 50.
(Which, in my crotchety opinion, is too high. Attendance over about 20 tends to make the event a lecture rather than a gathering.)
yepp, this is a meeting, not a congress. :)
* agendas are seldom needed. We got by in the first, and most interesting, few years of the Cypherpunks will little or no agenda in advance. We sat around a table or on the floor and we talked. Sometimes someone got up and went to a blackboard, if available, and drew pictures.
I'd like to have a few agenda items as "starters". you know, to avoid people sitting around, wondering "ok, I'm here - what now?". I'm fairly sure that once things get started, any attempt at planning will go out the window anyways.
* too much of a formal agenda tends to encourage "guest speakers," which, in my view, is _not_ a good idea. Sometimes a notable guest speaker is a good idea, but usually the result is that someone not part of the culture talks about what his or her company or organization is doing...things which are readily discoverable from Web sources.
agree on that.
* and don't be afraid to discuss politics and political implications of technologies.
we won't - if nothing else, I'll be heavily discussing the DVD/CSS problem.
In conclusion, I encourage you to just "hang loose." ("lose sein")
"locker sein" :) we will. (I hope)