Announcing a Cooperative Real-Time Convention Weblog

Noreascon 4 will be setting up a Wi-Fi network in the Hynes Convention Center which will be available free to N4 members. We're also going to set up a cooperative real-time weblog to report on the convention, which we are inviting people to contribute to. If you have the equipment and expertise to upload pictures and create weblog entries using TypePad, and are willing to report on some of the convention activities you attend, you are invited to become one of our guest editors for the run of the convention. Please drop a line to blog@noreascon.org with a pointer to your current weblog (or some other indication that you have the necessary skills), and we'll send you information on how to participate. With your help, we can make the people who stayed home eat their hearts out, and create a really cool fannish artifact in the process.

Comments

[Kate Nepveu]

1) Will the WiFi be encrypted? Will it support 64 as well as 128-bit encryption?

2) Can anyone who's used both TypePad and Blogger comment on how similar they are? I don't want to sign up for TypePad just to see how its interface is (and the screenshots at its web page don't include a post page), but I believe it was meant to be fairly simple.

3) How real-time will be wanted?

[Leslie Turek]

1) I'll find out and get back to you.
2) I transitioned from Blogger to Typepad and it was very easy. If you can use Blogger you can use Typepad. We can set things up so you can do a pre-con test post.
3) Well, we were hoping for sometime during the convention, rather than a week or two afterward.

[Kate Nepveu]

3) Oh sure--but literally real-time, or is a couple hours after okay?

Thanks!

[Leslie Turek]

Couple hours after is fine. I'm still waiting to hear from the tech guys on the answer to 1).

Also, I'm looking for a name for this thing. I've been working so hard on the convention this week that my brain cells are fried, so if anyone has a good idea for a name I'd love to hear it!

[Leslie Turek]

Here's the response to question 1):

The public WiFi will not be encrypted. There is no reason to do so as the only time it would be of use is when two laptops inside the Hynes were talking to each other.

However, assuming the Hynes isn't blocking it (and I don't know why they would), we will be passing through any type of VPN that people may want to use. So anyone who needs a secure connection to an external point will have one, as long as both ends support whatever they're doing.