Samizdat (self-published, in Russian ) was a system in the Soviet-bloc countries wherein people clandestinely printed and distributed government-suppressed literature. The idea was that copies were made a few at a time, and anyone who had a copy and an access to any sort of copying equipment was encouraged to make more copies.

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Herewith some links of the latest goings on from the Access to Broadband Campaign http://www.ABCampaign.org) and the Community Broadband Network http://www.broadband-uk.coop from an 'insider'! Hope these may be of interest to you, your friends, colleagues, website visitors etc.

Forward and share as you wish, I have nothing to lose from my email address being on yet more CD's of active email addresses - I still get less than the 4 million spam Bill Gates gets each day. And I have broadband - well, according to Ofcom definition I have at least 8x 'standard' broadband - 2Mbps/500kbps sat plus a flaccid ADSL connection.

PAH. x8? It ain't even x1 yet.

"But I digress" [Tom Lehrer]. On with the good stuff!

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ABC
Erol Ziya's white paper on Middle Mile.
We feel the White Paper has considerable importance. We hope that by publishing it now, at a time when Pierre Danon has announced his move from BT to Capgemini and with the collapse of the Govt's Regional Aggregation Boards finally publicised, movement may be forthcoming in the unenviable task we all face in moving the Broadband (Britain) agenda in the right direction.

Any publicity you can give to Erol's paper and the ideas behind it would be appreciated. For those who don't know, (as if!) Erol was instrumental in the Campaign for Unmetered Telecoms (CUT) who brought Europe FRIACO - flat rate unmetered internet access for all.

Press Release 30th Nov 2004
http://www.liquidzope.com/abc/1n/middlemilepr
Erol's White Paper - Middle Mile Agenda
http://www.liquidzope.com/abc/3f/midmileagenda

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And then there was Aviemore.  What a conference! Don't take my word for it. Peter Cochrane gave us 10/10 on Silicon.com and Rene Carayol says we gave him his belief back! Wowee, some credits.  But see for yourself

Peter
http://networks.silicon.com/broadband/0,39024661,39125983,00.htm

Rene
http://networks.silicon.com/broadband/0,39024661,39125967,00.htm
"By its end I was blown away, my hopes alive"

Conference presentations
Make a coffee, watch a few - there was some really good stuff going on.  Tell others to watch them too
http://www.liquidzope.com/abc/1n/scotlandconf/presentations
Previous ABC presentations, including the unmissable duo -Malcolm Matson and Peter Cochrane at ABC1
http://www.arwain.net/abc.htm

I know, I know, you've read/seen them already, but read/see 'em again!

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I have some photos on my mobi of Peter's 'travelling kit' which I must dig out - this man is the Connectivity God, and he can connect, anywhere, with that lot! IWantOneTooForChristmas - ooh, there's a thought, Peter,  IWant124Xmas.com?! META tags including 'wireless toys for women' should get you several million page views ;o)

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CBN
CAN mapping exercise
We _all_ know of at least a few CANs personally so CBN are mapping them across the UK. We would appreciate any info from anyone you know involved in a community network - however large, small, commercial or struggling.  Prize draw of MeshBox or half a mentor (which half?!) if surveys completed by 10th December. Go fill it in, send more people to it, power to the people. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=91126729900

The CBN Mentor scheme has been extended and this should be of interest to anyone running a community access network (CAN) in UK - a free day with a guru, c'mon! More info on http://www.broadband-uk.coop

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CANdo Awards
Celebrating the achievement of community networkers (CANdoers), the very first CANdo awards will be presented in January. Everyone's a winner with the CANdo's and they will be presented at the 'informal yet informative' Digital Dales CAN Colloquium - a social networking event hosted within a not so well known (yet!) but damned impressive CAN. If you would like more news of the event, I will add you to the list as we finalise the arrangements - let me know.

You or your organisation can sponsor an award and even choose what you would like it to be presented for. It's seriously cheap - £50 minimum donation buys you in as an AWARDER! Give me a shout if interested - we'd love suggestions for categories even if you ain't got 50 nicker plus to spare. (Any profit from the event is going into a travel bursary fund to help those in CANs get to events they need to be at - always in a good cause, see! Or, if a pitiful amount, a kitty at the bar for everyone when we get chucked out of the venue to make way for the village bingo session at 7pm!)

Categories currently include:
(Sponsored)
ABC Best Network
CBN Community Champion
LocustWorld "A right fine mesh you've got me into"

(Awaiting support)
Most ingenious antenna siting
The JFDI award  (verrrry prestigious!)
Highest antenna installation
Grant funding application "survivor"
Most tireless volunteer
Best community content
Best techie/developer innovation
Best customer relations (based on curvature of spine from bending over backwards!)
...........and many more! 

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And that's it.  Painless really wasn't it?!