The autumn session is over! It was a great preparation for the "real" C@TS that we are planning in the summer, but also and mostly turned out to be a great trip outside the city to hangout with lots of friendly folks.

Basic structure

Everything was really relaxed, sometimes even slow. We started only on saturday afternoon, even though we arrived on friday.

We started with a round table, pop-corn style, where people presented a huge list of topic suggestions, things they wanted to talk about.

Then we forgot we didn't introduce each other so we made another round.

In the end, we didn't cover even a significant part of the topics, but it was a fun weekend.

The event took place at ?where. See where for directions.

Reportbacks

The following session have actually happened and have data stored here:

Suggested topics

  • social history of colonialism
  • social history of oppression of popular movements
  • bioinformatics / n-gram analysis
  • making outdoor gear
  • gmail/facebook wtf? - life outside the hive mind
  • open access for academic publication
  • making bread
  • organise food for the afternoon
  • mapping hack spaces in mtl / history
  • knot tyin for your shoes and more
  • ping pong
  • how to smash the state (APAQs)
  • sailing
  • how to run
  • crrafts (how to fix or make things)
  • vegan recipes
  • encouraging use of free software
  • austerity & neoliberalism
  • radical network protocol analysis
  • name that bird / mushroom
  • (e-)book reading / library
  • C@TS meta debrief / planning
  • keysigning
  • BGP for good and evil
  • exit strategy from the digital age
  • backup hygiene
  • git annex
  • FM radios
  • monkeysign trust network / PGP / crypto
  • networking without internet / reseau libre
  • math (diffie-helman key exchange)
  • dancing
  • massage
  • stop motion animation
  • audio field recording
  • secular calendar
  • resistance to charte des valeurs
  • imagemagick / PDF hacking / LaTeX

People present

  • aliss
  • anarcat
  • dkg
  • goldjian
  • jerome
  • lepunk
  • linse
  • ludost
  • micah
  • mvc
  • pollo
  • seb
  • stoopt
  • xSmurf

See who for transportation and people planning.

Debrief

popcorn style

  • awesome
  • great that we didn't accomplish much, hang out, make food, run was great
  • wish we did more, but glad we didn't to more
  • feels great to do it again
  • meet more often, do less
  • need disconnect, emptiness
  • hacker culture is about making, but we need void
  • more fun less work
  • friendly
  • really great to meet everyone
  • no internet means less computers, so we see each other
  • having a debian mirror would have been useful
  • have a day for setup to have a server to dump/exchange files, a pirate box
  • didn't bring my computer, i didn't miss it
  • resist the network, don't get sucked in
  • bring one machine, N disks for N people
  • when the disk is plugged in the machine, it is sucked in
  • too short
  • a week wouldn't be too long
  • games was the best, what we did the most of the schedule
  • common meals are awesome
  • larger than i thought (16 vs 8) but was smooth
  • sleep vs noise should be improved
  • rent a spa
  • how much structure do we want?
  • organise food, potluck didn't work so well
  • having no organisation is great
  • we could have a loose openspace
  • we had plenty of food
  • lack of awareness of the food
  • make the commons visible, show the list of topics
  • don't wait for the summer
  • CATS used to be every 3 months, rotate the cities so logistics are shared
  • having an informal session helps in testing for the 'real' cats

Next event

  • what scale? don't grow too much?
  • who we are? we shouldn't restrict
  • get organised in person before the next event
  • camping? have one big tent
  • chalet beaumont means cohabitation with others, it's a public space, unless we book it (it's around 60 ppl)
  • there are two cabins in Maine, limit of 14 ppl. river and kayaks and weird beach.

Next steps

  • we'll meet again in person, in january/february?
  • at l'escalier? in montreal
  • not a full cats, just a coordination meeting

Logistics

We have organised this first informal session mostly through the wiki and a few posts on the mailing list.

Choosing the dates

We're thinking of doing a first smaller session a weekend in october! any takers? Let's see if we can find a date. --anarcat

Update: turns out the date will be 23-24 november!! We now have to choose where since ?alex isn't available that weekend. But put those days down in your calendar, we'll start on the morning of the 23rd (so put down the night of the 22nd as well, just to be sure ;). --anarcat

It was at alex's chalet.

Transportation

Everyone is responsible for their own transportation. Some people will carshare, see who for car coordination. Others may need to take the bus, see where for more information on the bus options.

Food

Bring your own food! There's a kitchen with enough plates, pots, etc (plus a coffee machine). There's a grocery store nearby in Chertsey open until 21:00. We will eat every day "potluck" style - feel free to exchange your best recipes with your friends, but also make sure you have enough to eat so that you can actually share! You can also organise yourselves beforehand, for example per car.

See mium for what we like to eat

Lodging

The cottage is fully furnished, but we have to leave it as clean as we found it, so please bring a sleeping bag or at minimum your own sheets & pillowcases so that we don't have to spend Sunday afternoon doing laundry. If this isn't convenient because you're arriving in Montreal by air, try to arrange for someone local to bring that for you.

The cottage has 2 sofas, 2 single beds, 3 double beds, and 2 "mini" beds, so we'll need a few inflatable air mattresses (especially for people who prefer not to share a bed).

  • I will bring a matress. I'm still young and healthy and I can take on a little back pain! -- pollo

Transportation details

This is how we coordinated transportation.

This is the official registration. If you are not here, you are not registered! We have room for about 15 people, so hurry to reserve your place by assigning you to a car below!

Found transportation

Those people have found transportation: either they rented a car themselves or have squeezed into someone else's car.

  • anarcat - rented a Communauto car (#1580, rosemont/st-denis), 5 seats, leaving from beaubien metro in montreal on the 22nd, hopping by the airport at 17h, then back to micah's place to leave around 19h30, coming back late on the 24th

    • micah
    • dkg
    • LePunk
    • goldjian
  • mvc - renting a Communauto car (#1693), 5 seats, leaving from koumbit (6833 ave de l'Épée suite 308, montreal) at 18:00 on the 22nd, arriving back on the 24th by 14:00 - total cost to share including gas will be $92

    • Aliss
    • seb
    • xSmurf
  • The calicoes are renting a car to Alex chalet (leaving friday night and coming back on Sunday). Expect this kind of cat mobile engine The calico car include:

    • stoopt
    • linse
    • ludost
  • jerome - will be travelling with his car, 5 seats

    • pollo (sorry for ditching mvc's car, but it's more convenient for me and less boring for jerome)

People having yet to confirm

Those people registered on the doodle but didn't allocate themselves to a car.

  • Votre nom

See also the full list of people who manifested an interest, below.