CDR: Re: europe physical meeting

[Tim May]

At 2:19 PM +0200 9/4/00, Tom Vogt wrote:
>
>- a place
>=========
>since the number of participants is a total variable, that's a difficult
>part. I'm currently looking for some kind of cafe or other place with
>both indoors and outdoors seats/tables that's large enough, has an
>acceptable atmosphere and is otherwise suitable.
>
>
>- an agenda
>===========
>there should be at least a rough outline and a topic or two. if anyone
>wants to speak about a specific topic, tell me.

First, good luck on your meeting.

Second, here's my experience with informal Cypherpunks physical meetings:

* 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.)

* 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.

* 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.

* and don't be afraid to discuss politics and political implications 
of technologies. Again, this used to be more common in the early days 
of the Bay Area Cypherpunks meetings. (As time passed, as meetings 
grew larger, politics just about vanished completely. Perhaps this is 
too harsh an assessment, but I believe the Bay Area Cypherpunks 
meetings in the past few years have just become the place for 
twentysomething geeks to show up to talk to others and to check out 
job prospects. Almost _none_ of the 50 or so attendees at a typical 
Saturday gathering are participants in the Cypherpunks list, 
tellingly.)

Bigger is not always better.

In conclusion, I encourage you to just "hang loose." ("lose sein")


--Tim May



-- 
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.