Second Wifipicning Report

Version française

Maussane les Alpilles a town of 2,000 inhabitants and the first one on the planet to be wifipicnicked on July 23, 2005.

The second wifi picnicking event brought together around thirty participants (Macs mostly with a few PCs) from Paris, Fréjus (Fr), Brussels (B), Geneva (CH), etc, etc. Several nationalites were represented: French, Swiss, Belgian, German… (see photo album)

The first bubble was blown up May 31 st at Luxembourg Garden (Paris) under the music stand. Since then the concept has become known through many different channels including newspaper articles in “Le Parisien” and the magazine “Elle“, a 2.5 minutes report on national broadcast radio “France Info” and several articles in “La Provence“; the mayor of Maussane was encouraging.

July 23 rd at Maussane les Alpilles. The cicadas are chirping. It is around 5 pm and warm under the plane trees at the public central square we like so much, Place de l’Église. Three people get out of a car (the trio); two distinct signs give away the identity of the bubblemasters: Tshirts with the logo ‘Make bubbles not War’, and the Macs we are holding.

The square is busy, a family from Maussane is celebrating a wedding. We arrive and set up by the Fountain with Tatiana - who has supported us since the very beginning - and Etienne (Mac); we open our laptops. The participants are walking towards us, some come from far away: Philippe from Brussels is there; he arrived the day before specifically for the bubble (he has a Mac and has been informed about us by blogosphere). There is John from Geneva (on Mac, heard from us through La Provence), three people with a baby, Nina (two PCs, La Provence), Pascal and his wife Mireille from Maussane (a PC, blogospher), a student from Paris, Zig (Mac, France Info) here especially for the weekend. Sven who lives in Sweden (Vaio, Sony – Smartmob) has come with his father, both are German (see photos). Jean-Jacques with his Swiss friends from the hamlet of the Calans are present and three Normans arrived at the square to drink an aperatif before heading off immediately to Paradou to get their computers ( guess what ? a Mac ). The participants from the very first Wifipicning are here as well: Elsa, Pascale and Katja (Mac, Mac, Mac).

The bubblers have rallied and are grouped around several tables. Etienne is walking round the Plazza. The people of Maussane and the tourists that happen to be here are rather taken aback by our encounter of a third kind.

The mayor, Jack Sautel, came and stayed for the entire bubble session. His wife made an appearance. Catherine from Paradou, who will be directing a play at this very square in August, came round as well as George d’Escanin with his friends Marc and Nicole. Thirty participants from different generations proving that the Wifi bubble is open to everyone and not just for dazed amateurs.

Contrary to flashmobbers bubblers assemble for several hours with the objective of creating relations between the participants and others, giving rise to human contact while using the computer (tool of mediation) as a pretext, this strange and very often cold machine.

In the heart of the bubble microbubbles take shape. Here we are again exchanging computers, walking round, signaling to one another: smiles, winks from a distance, some laugh over words written in silence. Actually the three of us - the trio - spend little time chatting…

CONVIVIAL AND FUN

The atmosphere is warm, friendly and playful. Bubblemaster Sacha is in control of the servers and makes the necessary adjustments. Tristan and Sacha are the walking hotline dispensing help to those who need it (PCs for the most part;) Natacha and Tatiana welcome the bubblers and are able to detect at first sight those with technical difficulties. A lot of conversing goes on away from the computers. We have a drink, eat some sweets and cake. Some of the participants are not familiar with chatting. In this particular case it is clear that the chat room is only for initiating contact and that other more specific activities need to be suggested.

We spoke a long time with the mayor. He said hello to all the bubblers, conversed in and outside the chat room, an excellent human contact. Most notably he has invited us back next year. He told us that Maussane les Alpilles (he insists one uses the full name of his town) will be equipped with a Wifi antenna in 2006 for campers, mostly.

FILE-SHARING

The bubble opens officially at 6 p.m. The bubblers immediately visit the gallery where a selection of books has been made availabe, legally downloadable (Alphonse Daudet and other authors can be found); Tristan has contributed some songs (free MP3s) and a short film, “Vishnu in Provence“, which he has just made in les Alpilles and last but not least space for file-sharing (pictures, video, etc).

The file-sharing (pictures mostly) is an instant success. One participant copies photos from Kazahkstan; Pascal adds pictures from the region (landscapes, the mayor at local festivities,etc); Sven has pictures of Sweden, Phil has some video of his work and John gets us to listen to a song reworked by none other than himself.

Our set-up has more than three hours autonomy, no problems there. Some of the other computers however need to be plugged in; the mayor indicates some sockets behind the stage. Sven, John and Tristan recharg their batteries there.

The bubble triggers a positive response between the bubblers, a desire to share and if only for that reason for us it is a success (especially in this particularly gloomy period, where terror and violence create distance among people, and relations become rigid).

Everyone has his/her way of picning, some are more discreet preferring to stay behind their screens, others move from one micro-bubble to another mixing ‘the real’ and ‘the virtual’. All the bubblers and ourselves included were truly happy to participate to such an unusual gathering. All prejudice and minor apprehensions were swept away by the event. The bubble is a rare opportunity to converse with strangers in a spirit of openmindedness. We would so very much like for this to be possible everywhere, everyday…even without a computer.

List of nicknames - thank you to all participants.

Natacha
tristan
Sacha
tatiapascalou
Elsa
Katja
JJ
zeroocool64
zig
E.T.
phil
domigul
pascaldamico
coucouroucoucou
Nina
Leskalans
sven
justearrivé
m. le maire
fabric
giorgio
nemo

Links :
All photos
Le témoignage de Tristão
report of Sven
Sven’s pictures