Node London kicks off at Boundless

For centuries, Deptford has been a place of ideas and innovation. Growing from a small fishing village into a busy dockyard town, Deptford once served as England's principal dockyard where historic voyages of Discovery (such as Drake, Frobisher, Raleigh, and Captain James Cook) were embarked upon.

The Wireless Wednesday workshop at Boundless this week continues to suggest that Deptford, is inherently a land of pioneers and innovators.

This was one of Node London’s opening day of events, appropriately reinforcing the Node London’s manifesto: "to illustrate the creative and experimental uses of communication media and technological innovation to express ideas and stimulate action in public".

And what better way to begin documenting Node London that by starting with a real node?

Situated in Griffin Business centre at Deptford’s heart, the Boundless workshop is a small, unassuming, techy haven, over-spilling with both technological paraphernalia and knowledge. Dismantled hard drives in varying degrees of disrepair sit stacked in every crevice. Old monitors, keyboards, and mice, all await to be reconfigured and given new life.

Although the Boundless methodology utilises the technological expertise of local people, it is by no means just about technology, more about people and community action. Low tech, grass roots, do-it-yourself media in full affect. Information exchange now replaces the goods exchange which defined this dockyard town.

The ‘Wireless Wednesday’ workshop/clinic is intended for all users of the rapidly expanding Boundless.coop community wireless network in London, which has been running for more than a year now.

This is all part of the Boundless ethic, as Boundless founder James Stevens explained to us.

“The reason I opened this was to make a version of the lab which was focused on doing wireless networking, broadband, community development for broadband users. And my background before that was 'consume.net' - a national advocacy for free networks which stated a few ideas about how we might approach that and build the network among people on an adhoc basis, (non-commercial orientated) broadband infrastructure project."

Ultimately the Boundless ethic is focused on the idea of training people to take control of power.

Our overall experience of Wireless Wednesday was that it wasn't so much of an event put on solely for the purpose of Node London as the name implies, but that Boundless represents a more informal and on-going wireless community/'drop-in centre'. It’s a way of life; a living breathing project run by individuals who live in the community and ultimately who bring a wealth of experience through an exciting community approach.

Node London is clearly more than just a month long festival of ‘digital/media’ events. If Node London continues in this way we experienced on Wednesday, I'm sure all Mazine contributors will benefit.

‘Wireless Wednesdays’ workshops every week 14:30-20:00
@ Boundless, 6 Giffin Square Business Centre, Deptford
Boundless Coop http://boundless.coop