NEW NET: New Night, New Place, New Format / NN isues

NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology issues) is trying a few new looks.

Well, they're not absolutely new. The new features for next week's gathering have all been seen at one time or another in the past couple years.

New Night: Monday! To make it possible for some people to attend who've not been able to on Tuesday nights, the tech enthusiast gathering will happen on Monday night next week. There were no NEW NET regular or semi-regular participants that could not meet on Monday. So we'll give a go at Monday nights to see how well those work. Monday night was when NEW NET met in its early days.

New Place: Atlanta Bread Company! To provide some change in scenery, a change for the palate, and possibly facilitate improved interaction amongst the NEW NET participants, next week's locale is Atlanta Bread Company (West) near the Fox River Mall. The plan at this point is to try a new location once a month. Change and a different perspective can be very beneficial in unsuspected ways. Most meetings will continue to be held at Mister Churro, but we will scout out new possibilities for once a month road-trip meetings. Possibly included in this will be meeting in communities other than Appleton if regular and semi-regular participants are willing to commit the extra time for this. Different locations will give those who eat at the meetings a chance to tickle their taste buds with something other than Mister Churro's scrumptious Latino food and not-to-be-beaten fresh churros. Andy M suggested the higher tables at ABC are also conducive to better interaction and more mingling betwixt the meeting participants. NEW NET has met several times previously at Atlanta Bread Company.

New Format: Discuss issues list & Demos/Meeting Topics! Recent gatherings have consisted mainly of informal chatting amoungst the group members. It was suggested a bit more structure be tried at the start of meetings. Announcing when and where we will meet is NEW NET's only formal meeting structure. Other than that, the gathering has consisted of providing whatever activities, interaction and tech information was of interest to those who show up for the meetings, especially catering to those showing up on at least a semi-regular basis. On 05 September 2006 it was suggested the meetings begin by reviewing the weekly tech issues list then spend some time on a specific topic, most likely having someone demo a product related to the topic for that day. At the 05 September meeting, Luke W demo'd HijackThis and TightVNC. A majority of the group felt they learned something of value from that, and it seemed a good use of the meeting time. Topics can and should be suggested by everyone who comes to NEW NET meetings. If NEW NET people are uninterested in the issues list discussion or in the focus topic for the day, they are encouraged to chat informally with each other during those sections of the meetings, but to do it in a way that doesn't detract from those interested in the issues list or focus topic. As always, the meeting format will evolve to meet the needs and suggestions of those participating.

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Below is the initial list of issues for the 11 September 2006 NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 6:50 pm weekly gathering at Atlanta Bread Company (West) by the Fox River Mall, 650 North Casaloma Drive, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA. The weekly issues list will be updated in a post in this blog by 3 pm on 11 September.

1. Philadelphia opens high-tech school of the future http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060907/tc_nm/life_school_dc
2. Penguin revives the serial novel for online buzz http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060907/en_nm/media_penguin_serial_dc
3. Gore's "Truth" DVD boasts earth-friendly package http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060907/tc_nm/gore_dc
4. Plantronics' Wireless Winner http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20060908/bs_bw/tc20060908004830
5. Microsoft Seeks To Patent Verbs http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060907/tc_cmp/192503744
6. Wired News lets users write wiki article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060906/ap_on_hi_te/tech_wired_wiki
7. The end of VC? http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20060904/tc_infoworld/81385
8. Mozilla Updates Firefox 2.0 Beta http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060901/tc_pcworld/127009
9. Supreme Court To Hear Arguments On Software Patents And Open Source http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060905/tc_cmp/192501175
10. Sony scales back PlayStation 3 launch plans http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060906-7672.html
11. Dispute over GPL could be headed to court http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060906-7671.html
12. Microsoft hefts a heavy mithril BrowserShield http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060905-7668.html
13. Google releases open-source OCR tool with HP special sauce http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060905-7664.html
14. NVIDIA introduces GeForce 7900 GS http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060906-7674.html
15. Discussion: Webified Desktop Apps http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/discussion_webified_apps.php
16. Apple Cube reborn http://www.unwiredview.com/2006/09/07/apple-cube-ii-computer/
17. Google News Archive Search http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-09-06-n18.html
18. Really Free Software http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/09/05/linux-ubuntu-opensource_cz_mr_0906shuttleworth.html
19. Fingerprinting WiFi could secure MAC addresses http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060905-7669.html
20. BlackBerry Pearl 8100 http://www.techworld.com/mobility/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=444&pagtype=samechan
21. Mac and Linux Versions of AbbeyNet Firefox VoIP Plug-ins http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2006/09/mac_and_linux_versions_of_abbe.html
22. Why windows takes so long to start up http://www.intelliadmin.com/blog/2006/09/why-windows-takes-so-long-to-start-up.html

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