We are sincerely sorry to announce that the 8th Wifipicnic has been cancelled. A major hindrance forces us to postpone the event to a date probably in august, in Paris. Stay tuned!
Thank you for your fidelity,
Natacha, Sacha and the Wifipicnic team.
July 26 at Maussane-les-Alpilles, France. (Google Maps)
What’s WiFiPicning? (Wikipedia)
Télécharger cette vidéo au format MPEG-4.
Abonnez-vous au vidcast :
flux rss
lien direct pour s’abonner via iTunes
Filmé par Sacha QS avec un Nokia N95.
Join our next Wi-Fi Crazy Party : The WiFiPicning 3.0. May 30, 2006 at 6 pm. We’ll be expecting you at the bandstand in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris!
More information : http://www.memoirevive.tv/archives/cat_wifipicning_en.php
Un pique nique Wi-Fi quelque peu perturbé par un objet volant non identifié.
N’oubliez pas que le prochain WiFiPicning aura lieu (sans OVNI) le mardi 30 mai à 18h au Kiosque de la Musique du Jardin du Luxembourg, à l’occasion de la Journée Européenne des Voisins. Venez nombreux. 
Télécharger cette vidéo au format iPod (.m4v).
Abonnez-vous au vidcast : flux rss lien direct pour s’abonner via iTunes
Vidéo envoyée par Sacha QS.
Incrédibulle is the name of the association founded by Natacha, Sacha and Tristan, three friends, fellow bloggers and neighbours in the 5th district of Paris. They invite you, owners of laptops equipped with wifi capabilities, to participate in an experiment : a wifi picnic, an original concept that mixes proximity and network.
We’ll be expecting you at the bandstand in the Luxembourg Gardens where a wifi bubble (a local wireless network) will be operational (not connected to internet and battery fed). The bubble covers a distance of about 100 metres in the confines of which ‘bubblenauts’ can freely consult multimedia content reserved exclusively for bubble use, interact with each other, or take part in group activities (chats, exchanging of documents : music, photos, video, texts, etc).
The wifi picnic is a fun gathering, dedicated to conviviality, citizenship and sharing. The aim of this experience is to promote more social interaction thanks to the democratisation of wireless technologies and greater mobility. The wifi picnic allows participants to converse and get to know each other, either through the medium of the computer or face to face. It’s an opportunity to merge the real and the virtual (your avatar and yourself), and bring a little human warmth to a world of cold technology. Why not escape our own bubble and connect to a bigger one ?
Instructions :
Turn your laptop on in the designated bubble area, connect to the wireless network ‘wifipicning’ and go to wifipicning.com ; once there, you will be able to connect to the bubble thereby becoming a ‘bubblenaut’ able to speak in the chatroom with other participants who are physically present (but out of reach).
Past wifpicnings have taken place on two separate occasions in 2005, one at the Luxembourg Gardens (Paris) on the Neighbour Day, the other at Maussane les Alpilles (in the Provence region of France) last July. Thirty enthousiastic participants were attracted there from several different countries including the mayor of the town himself. This gave us the opportunity to measure the overwhelmingly positive welcome of the participants, whatever their age or technical ability.
We’ll be expecting you at the bandstand in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris on May 30, 2006 at 6 pm : Come with digital documents to share (legal exchanging of documents : music, photos, video, texts, ideas, poems, etc).
Make bubbles not war !
For further information : www.wifipicnic.com - European Neighbours Day
People to contact :
Natacha Quester-Séméon natacha_at_memoire-vive.org
Sacha Quester-Séméon sacha_at_memoire-vive.org
Tristan Mendès France tristao_at_memoire-vive.org
• Story of the bubble
• Press (in french)
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
Organised by the blog ‘Memoire Vive‘ (RAM)
Natacha, Sacha, Tristan and Tatiana invite you to a Wifipicning in the Alpilles in July
The next wifipicning will take place 23 July at Mausanne les Alpilles
The Baux de Provence Valley - with its olive and cypress trees, its wild hills, Roman ruins and Troubadours, the sweet pleasures of Queen Jeanne and Frederic Mistral - is our own little Tuscany. It is right here in this wonderful olive oil producing region (one of the best in the world nonetheless) that the bubble masters have chosen to come together in July to blow up a wifi bubble for a wifipicnic under the plantain trees and to the song of the cicada of Maussane les Alpilles in July.
Rendez-vous Saturday 23 July at Maussane (30 kms from Avignon, 19 from Arles - details further on). Bubbles will also be appearing in August in Normandy, Paris and other locations.
Our first wifipicning took place at the Luxembourg gardens in Paris 31 May 2005 at 6 pm, with the support of the people in charge of Neighbours’ Day celebrations, the association The Associated Humans and the questure of the senate.
What is necessary in order to participate:
1) a laptop computer (Mac or PC) equipped with a wifi card
2) openness and a desire to share a moment of conviviality
3) a basic knowledge of chat - it makes it easier
4) some ideas and your digital camera, for example, with the digital cable
5) respect for the location and observance of the principles of netiquette and responsible picnicking
Wifipickning dedicated to the franco-brazilian friendship (franco-brazilian year).
Links :
The first Wifipicning review
Album photo du 31 mai, Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris.
Story of a bubble
Smartmob Howard Reingold
Maussane les Alpilles (site officiel)
Galerie photos du Moulin Coopératif de Mouriès (La Vallée des Baux et les Alpilles)
Tristan Mendès France is an ardent human rights supporter. He writes books and articles, leads enquiries, makes documentaries and short art films. He also composes music, collaborates on numerous projects, participates in a number of associations and is also parlementary assistant in the Senate.
http://mendes-france.com and blog
Natacha Quester-Séméon and Sacha Quester-Séméon are both active in the humanist association « Les Humains Associés» - founded by Tatiana Faria, who, among other things, has had her own virtual community for ten years (web sites, forums etc). Recently, the association took part in the planetary protest against the war in Iraq. Their company I-marginal is responsible for the creation of web-sites and their contents, journalistic activities (written press and Web), conception, production, publishing, graphic design, photography and other related services.
http://humains-associes.org (The Associated Humans, NGO) and this blog (moblog, phone blog) : http://memoirevive.tv
Contacts : natacha@memoire-vive.org, sacha@memoire-vive.org,tristao@memoire-vive.org
Nos blogs : memoire-vive.org et mendes-france.com
Copyright photos : “la vallée des Baux” par Natacha Quester-Séméon, “Place de Maussane” (maussane.com).
One day in May when the three of us were visio-conferencing, we said to each other, “in eight days, it will be Neighbour’s Day, what if we invited our Net neighbours to join us outside for a wireless connexion.”
We have experience in setting up rapid-fire operations, so we wrote the text, came up with the concept, created the logo, found the the technical solutions (hardware and software) and wrote to a few friends. The guru of virtual communities, Howard Reingold, the inventor of the concept of Smart Mobs and lecturer at the Stanford Humanities Lab, immediately greeted our project with enthousiasm. Francis Pisani, a California journalist and collaborator with the newspaper Le Monde, helped us spread the word.
Wifipicning, may 31, 2005, Luxembourg Garden, Paris:
We wanted to create our wifi bubble in the Luxembourg Garden. By creating a bubble with a limited range, we would be implementing a geographic restriction in a public venue. This in order to reduce the physical space between the participants in the zone covered by the local wifi network - cut off from the net. Thus, we are able to create a micro net with a human face.
D-day, 6 pm : Arrived at venue. A Policeman from the Senat come to provide us some electrical outlets in case we don’t have enough batteries (two hours and a half later they weren’t empty!). Turned on the computers. The chat was installed on a laptop, the photo gallery on another and the DNS server on a third. The home page came up. Everything was working. Thank goodness ! 6.30 pm : the first computers were connected here in this beautiful and charming bandstand. Fellow Web surfers arrived and passers-by were taken aback. Not all of the participants had computers, so we shared them, lent them and mixed up the pseudonyms. Tatiana spoke with everyone and welcomed all the participants and onlookers in this house without walls. Some of them ask us what we are doing here. They regret to haven’t been informed earlier, otherwise they would have taken their laptops with them. In one corner three astrophysicists (two French, one Russian), in Paris for a scientific symposium, were discussing with the others in French and English and even sent a few words in Russian (всем привет and хорошо сидим). All three have been working for several years on a concept in cosmology called “ superbubbles“. Yet another coincidence…
A participant has no wifi card, no problem, she is connected to the bubble via an ethernet cable. A researcher from the neighbourhood stopped to speak with us ; we lent her a computer. A journalist friend tried to get aquainted with the others in the Chat. A researcher in molecular biology leaving for London by shuttle in one hour came in. He saw from far a group of laptops… composed of Macintoshes only! We explained the concept to him. He opened his Powerbook, connected to the bubble, introduced himself and spoke with everyone in English and German. We spoke with one another via the computers. Conversations criss-crossed as we glanced from one to another.
We added champaigne bubbles to the bubble, ate excellent heart-shaped chocolates and laughed at the silent jokes in the Chat. The photos taken on the spot are put online at once in our bubble. Everyone of us can leave a comment and choose those who are publishable. Only the Mac that hosts the chat has some signs of slowdowns. If we have more participants we shall have to find another solution to host the chat and be able to chat on the same computer.
We tested the range of the bubble at a distance of thirty metres! Our tiny wifi router performed miracles! We could have been dozens around the bandstand.
Just like a flash mob, the wifi bubble constitutes a small, short-lived and friendly community, mixing the real and the virtual, a kind of happining. In the context of shared activities, the wifi bubble possesses big potential and opens up the possibility of amusing and unexpected perspectives. Natacha, Sacha, Tristan et Tatiana have a lot of ideas for developing the concept : inviting a well-known personnality to speak via the chat with those present. Sharing files, multiplying proposed services ; A DJ performing live in the bubble for a mini-concert outside. Participants could write a story together, chat on the beach, in the mountains, in a museum, in a night-club, in a library, in the middle of a field, in a café, in the street…
Two and a half hours later, it was over. We shut our lap-tops and promised to blow another bubble this summer in Paris, in Maussane les Alpilles (near Les Baux de Provence) and in Normandy. We were delighted, everything went well. We were fifteen. The experiment was a success. The atmosphere was so convivial we cannot but begin again. And we are not alone, Bresilians on the web are already talking about launching sparkling bubbles under a southern sun.
To read also
Story of the bubble, may, 2005
Tristan Mendes France is an ardent human rights supporter. He writes books and articles, leads enquiries, makes documentaries and short art films. He also composes music, collaborates on numerous projects, participates in a number of associations and is also parlementary assistant in the Senate.
http://mendes-france.com and blog
Natacha Quester-Sémeon and Sacha Quester-Sémeon are both active in the humanist association « Les Humains Associés» - founded by Tatiana Faria, who, among other things, has had her own virtual community for ten years (web sites, forums etc). Recently, the association took part in the planetary protest against the war in Iraq. Their company I-marginal is responsible for the creation of web-sites and their contents, journalistic activities (written press and Web), conception, production, publishing, graphic design, photography and other related services.
http://humains-associes.org (The Associated Humans, NGO) and this blog (moblog, phone blog) : http://memoirevive.tv
All started in Paris with, Tristan, Natacha and Sacha, all thirtysomething. We didn’t know one another, although our paths had been running parallel to one another for years - during the course of certain events we may very well have met, and the same goes for our parents. Through our family histories the three of us knew it was necessary to give meaning to one’s life by serving humanist ideas. When we were kids, we already had computers and game stations, and then Internet came along. Our journeys have been different, of course, but similar in many respects.
So it comes as no surprise that we crossed paths on the net, too, while engaging in virtual activism. It is this very same humanist commitment that naturally brought us together. One day we finally made contact by email. We began bridging the gap with words without ever having met for real. We not only shared information but a peculiar sense of humour, as well. Then, later on, we met in ‘real life’. We put a face to the words and recognized each other. And we became conscious of a troubling coincidence; we felt close for a reason: We were neighbours! We lived in the same neighbourhood, Place Maubert (Paris Ve). And buy our bread a the same bakery…
For years now, whether it be for our association activities or for work, we have been on line every day, or almost (see notice below). Sacha, Natacha and their mother Tatiana already have a ‘wifi bubble’ at home; the whole family uses the Net for work purposes and for their association. Tristan also has his ‘own bubble’. He contributes to multiple projects and is good at hunting down wifi hotspots; it is quite common to see him working in cafés in the Saint-Germain-des-Près quarter of Paris. We share the same philosophy based on collaboration, friendship, respect and free exchange of goods and ideas.
As friends, Web surfers and neighbours, a pleasant mix has been created; the gap between the real and the virtual has been bridged, spheres interconnecting one person to the next. We speak together via Chat, e-mail, audio or visio-conferencing (and sometimes IRL !) We share information, opinions, and laughs. Thanks to recurent - immaterial - exchanges, a deep friendship has formed. We are like next-door neighbours. We exchange links, ideas, salt or sugar.
The idea of wifipicning arose during the natural course of our relation. The three of us were on the videophone when the concept emerged. Our bubbles drew closer together, a collective intelligence materialised. Why oppose the real and the virtual, why believe that technology is necessarily cold and distant? What if there were other neighbours to discover, other connections to make, other ways of meeting people, of having fun without fear, of thinking and creating together, of contributing to ideas in a spirit of ‘gai savoir’. In a society divided along economic lines, into political, religious and ethnic communities, each with its own customs and beliefs, people come together less and less and are less open and tolerant. We could choose to be favourably disposed to that which unites us rather than that which divides us. We would like to expand our bubble of friendship to include everyone, a humane and universal bubble, not a closed circle. The noosphere in the geosphere.
To read also
The first Wifipicning review, Paris, may 31, 2005
NB
Tristan Mendès France is an ardent human rights supporter. He writes books and articles, leads enquiries, makes documentaries and short art films. He also composes music, collaborates on numerous projects, participates in a number of associations and is also parlementary assistant in the Senate.
http://mendes-france.com and blog
Natacha Quester-Séméon and Sacha Quester-Séméon are both active in the humanist association « Les Humains Associés» - founded by Tatiana Faria, who, among other things, has had her own virtual community for ten years (web sites, forums etc). Recently, the association took part in the planetary protest against the war in Iraq. Their company I-marginal is responsible for the creation of web-sites and their contents, journalistic activities (written press and Web), conception, production, publishing, graphic design, photography and other related services.
http://humains-associes.org (The Associated Humans, NGO) and this blog (moblog, phone blog) : http://memoirevive.tv
By Natacha Quester-Séméon, Sacha Quester-Séméon and Tristan Mendès France, internauts and bloggers from Paris fifth arrondissement.
Paris is the third most WIFIed city in the world. More and more wireless surfers are to be seen with their portable computers in cafés. The distinction between what is the private and what is the public sphere is blurred, and is becoming irrelevant: armed with a phone or a computer it is possible to work, chat, have fun anywhere.
In a society where communication is paramount, where individualism is king, never have we been more lonely. Lonely to such an extent that more and more people are turning to those encounter sites on internet as an answer to the lack of real relationships.
Some interesting initiatives have recently arisen that could mark the end of this isolation. New York invented the Flash Mobs, London initiated Mobile clubbing. In both cases people who didnt know one another met for a few minutes in a specific area. The idea was fun, but a bit frustrating if you really wanted to meet someone.
That is why we decided to add our “French touch” and propose a new concept : Wifipicning (Wifi picnicking).
Here is the idea : A group of people meet at a specific time and place with a wifi enabled computer to create a live chat room. A local link between the wifipicnickers will make it possible to mix real and virtual chatting. Each person will thus be able to get in contact with all the others, creating real relationships between the wifipicnickers. At last bringing down the barrier between IRL and IVL.
The first ever Wifipicning will take place in Paris on the 31st of May around 6:30 PM on France’s “Neighbourhood’s day“.
And what do you know, this was thought up by 3 real neighbours…
Paris fifth arrondissement
natacha@memoire-vive.org - sacha@memoire-vive.org - tristao@memoire-vive.org
Our blogs:
memoire-vive.org
mendes-france.com
About us :
http://www.european-neighbours-day.com/
http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/05/25/wifipicning_wi.html
