The Network; Alpha, or Step 0

We had some forward progress this week, with the launch of an alpha for The Network, catalyzed by an email from Mark N with a link to a wearable computing system, http://grinding.be/2010/07/30/diy-wearable-computer/.

That single email/link spawned a thread that led to a Network gathering on 06 Aug 2010 at Hong Kong Buffet in Neenah, Wisconsin, USA. Eight people curious about or interested in the maker/hacker concept gathered around a respectable Chinese buffet lunch to share what their interests are in making technology tools and products and to learn more about the others' tech and entrepreneurial interests.

Step 0 -- A plethora of discussions about The Network in days and months prior to Mark's 02 Aug 2010 catalytic email.

Step 1 -- The thread launched by Mark's email. The thread included augmented reality (AR), wearable computing, 3D glasses / iGlasses / wearable displays / personal media viewers, dspace, portable x86 computers vs. smartphones for the core of wearable computing systems, non-linear time, Daniel Suarez, Tegra2 / Tegra3, HD micro videocams, polarized 3D contact lenses, The Network, level 40 programmers and the importances of balancing one's time between talking about things and building / making / hacking cool stuff. Included in, or directly tied to, this thread was Mark's registration of a domain for the group...

Step 2 -- Lunch at HKB/Neenah. Discussed launching The Network and building cool stuff.

Step 3 -- Network activities since the 06 Aug HKB lunch and future activities leading up to the Sep 2010 meeting. Those activities will be documented, to the extent that anyone in the network feels motivated to document them, via the website, the Google Group and the IRC channel that Mark and Luke W set up, as well as email/IM/IRC or other communications that occur relevant to this topic.

Step 4 -- Lunch at EZ conference room in Appleton, tentatively at 11:30 on Wednesday, 15 Sep 2010, to be confirmed by Erin QL.

My Step 3 activity for today is a bit o' research on wearable displays / 3D glasses such as Myvu personal media viewers or Vuzix video eyewear. Need to connect with manufacturers or suppliers of these wearable displays and with people and organizations in either Madison or Milwaukee who are interested in wearable displays. After reaching out and developing the right contacts and agenda, we'll organize a Wearable Display Tech Cafe to be held in Milwaukee or Madison, whichever location shows more interest in the topic.

Scheduling and organizing the Tech Cafe will take much more than a couple hours, though, so for today I'll just find out what Skynet knows about wearable displays.

It's the journey not the destination, and the wearable display will enable you to see cool new stuff on your Journey...

*****