Boston is one of the oldest and largest metropolitan centers in the United States, with over 2 million people in the Greater Boston area. It is known by many names and stories -- the Cradle of Liberty for its role in the American Revolution; the City on the Hill; the Hub of the Solar System; Beantown for its fondness for baked beans (leading, no doubt, to the Great Molasses Flood of 1919).
Cambridge (formerly Newtowne, capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) has been a city since 1846; even the streets laid out in the 1630s when the area was first settled are still in use today. It now has around 100,000 permanent residents, and today is known for its two famous universities, Harvard and MIT.
The Boston Convention Bureau has information about transportation, weather, money, tipping, history, shopping, etc. online in multiple languages: Bienvenue, Bienvenido, Benvenuti, Wilkommen, and Welcome.
Strong support has been offered by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society ("Berkman") of the Harvard Law School (HLS), which is eager to host the conference. The MIT Media Lab has also recently indicated strong support.
Berkman is a young addition to the law school focusing on the intersection of law and technology with society; this past spring Jimbo became a non-resident fellow there. Harvard (formerly "the New College"; motto: Veritas) is a venerable institution in the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts (part of Greater Boston), studded with idiosyncracies and wine cellars.
The HLS campus is just north of Harvard Yard, in Harvard Square, and west of the university's science buildings. The campus stretching north from Harvard Yard to the end of the law school, and east to Sanders Theater, containing all of the buildings mentioned below, is connected by footpaths and unbroken by streets.
The Media Lab, founded in 1985, focuses on interdisciplinary research, including the future of publishing, wearable computers, and human-computer interaction. MIT (formerly also the "Boston Society of Natural History"; motto: Mens et Manus) has grown steadily in popularity since moving across the river to its current Cambridge location on the bank of the Charles River.
Rooms: We could have the main event in Berkman's Austin Hall, with Sanders Theater or the nearby Science Center audioria for the opening and plenary sessions. Austin has space for four large parallel sessions, with videoconferencing in each room -- good for involving guests who cannot be there in person.
There are some great organization rooms both on Harvard campus (in dorms, and in the computer science building) and on MIT campus (if part of the conference is held there). There is active, funded support from both staff and grad students at both universities, if we need it.
Budget: All spaces at the law school would be free, as would basic tech and staff support. Most spaces at MIT would be free as well (including classrooms, the Media Lab atrium, and the campuses most beautiful large auditorium).
Using Sanders Theater as a main hall | $1,000/day |
400+ beds in HLS dorms, 100m from the venue | ~$40/person/night (singles, some cheaper doubles. negotiation possible.) |
100+ dorm rooms in Lesley College dorms 2 blocks away | ~$30/person/night (depends on bldg and dates) |
100-400 beds on MIT campus, 2 miles away (15 min via subway & foot) | $20-$60/person/night (cheaper for programs at MacGregor, for instance; probably all doubles) |
Catered lunch | ~$8/person/day |
Fees for overtime tech support/video & videoconf support/union catering | ? perhaps $500 - $2000/day, depending on use. |
Speaker/sponsor party, 60? people | Space covered, in the DeCordova Museum? Food & Drink : $4k |
General party, 300 people | MIT Media Lab? Sponsored. |
Sponsorship: Staff and faculty support from the Berkman Center. Large party offered by the Media Lab; extensive support (space, equipment, etc) from their Electronic Publishing group. Financial support interest from MIT's Tech Review, IBM Research, Novell. Other support (inviting speakers, sponsoring art and technology exhibits, Spanish language support, &c.) from the W3C, the DeCordova Museum, and many academic projects [MIT's Education Arcade, the Free Biology project, Harvard's [iic.harvard.edu/ Initiative in Innovative Computing], ...].
Global scope: Latin American groups at the Kennedy School of Government and BU's international relations department, international clubs at Harvard, MIT, and BU; and Boston cultural organizations can help develop networks with countries from which we want attendees to come. They can also connect with mass media in the United States in a dozen languages, to make sure the diverse communities within the country know about the event.
contact: egeorge (at) cyber.law.harvard.edu We have access to and free use of many buildings and rooms on the Law School campus. The two most promising are Austin Hall and Pound Hall. Pound Hall is modern, with more rooms (6 presentation rooms in all) and a function room upstairs, for a 1000-person total capacity; Austin Hall is a stunning building, with 4 large rooms and videoconferencing support in each one, and a capacity of 750. Note that no streets have to be crossed to get to any of the buildings mentioned below.
Unless otherwise noted, capacities below are for auditorium seating. More chairs can almost always be provided. For multipurpose rooms, receptions can generally fit 20% more people than that capacity. Distances given are from Austin Hall on the Law School campus ( map), the most likely main hall, 50m from the Berkman Center.
Austin Hall for parallel sessions. A Science Center auditorium or Sanders Theater for plenary and opening/closing sessions (50m or 100m away). Ropes Gray (in Pound Hall) for other large gatherings and receptions.
Meals outside, in Ropes Gray, or in the HLS Harkness cafeteria.
I. Major halls:
II. Presentation and other rooms (all part of HLS)
III. Hacking days Requirements for a good hacking environment are slightly different; access after normal work hours, tech books and flatscreens rather than legal archives in the background, lounges and whiteboards. A vending machine full of ice cream. MIT has such spaces all over campus. The Harvard CS department at Harvard has such space just abutting the Law School, in the Maxwell-Dworkin building.
IV. Other rooms (organisation, staff, speakers, interviews/press, storage):
By coordinating with the local tech support and catering crews, we can provide our own volunteer support for many things. We can also pay for catering and A/V work through the Law School.
There will be some mandatory technical/catering/overtime fees depending on what we need and how late we use various facilities. For instance, union rules state that meals in the Ropes Gray room must be catered by the university; and certain tech facilities (for broadcasting audio over room speakers in certain Pound rooms, for instance) require a campus technician, not just a volunteer trained in using the existing setup.
Below are estimated round-trip travel costs from all continents, searching an american travel site (searching for the dates 6/22 to 6/26 and 7/12 to 7/18).
|
|
Airport <-> HLS
Accomodations <-> HLS
contact: egeorge (at) cyber.law.harvard.edu
Main accommodations: The most convenient accomodation is in dormitories on and near the law school campus, in the middle of the university (within a stone's throw of the venues above); and with other local attendees.
The Cambridge Tourism board has a list of accomodations that people can match to their price level.
The nearest campus cafeteria to the venue, Harkness Commons, serves meals during the week. Group catered meals can be arranged for $8-$15 for lunch; we can do better by finding our own vendor. Food packages are available through Harvard kitchens, but are expensive (individual cost: $7/$12/$18 breakfast/lunch/dinner).
Local restaurants and food prices : A meal in Cambridge can cost anywhere from $6 to $25. One can get a perfectly good dinner across the street from the law school for $10 at any of a variety of restaurants. Discounts may be available from a friendly gourmet pizza house (~$4/person) and ice cream store (good friends with User:Mysekurity).
Large function halls >150 people
Smaller functions <150 people
This section lists definite commitments made. There is active interest from dozens of other groups around Boston; for a full list, see the page for local sponsors.
For a full list of supporters and the local team, please see the local support list.
One hurdle for a cheap conference with limited space to overcome, is the preponderance of locals who see it as a nice way to enrich a weekend, taking spaces that others would gladly travel thousands of miles for.
There may be >1000 in town over the summer with interest in attending. Taking advantage of this, a handful of public lectures aside from the conference itself will help alleviate this attendee-pressure, and generate extra publicity and funds for the project.
Boston is one of the oldest and largest metropolitan centers in the United States, with over 2 million people in the Greater Boston area. It is known by many names and stories -- the Cradle of Liberty for its role in the American Revolution; the City on the Hill; the Hub of the Solar System; Beantown for its fondness for baked beans (leading, no doubt, to the Great Molasses Flood of 1919).
Cambridge (formerly Newtowne, capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) has been a city since 1846; even the streets laid out in the 1630s when the area was first settled are still in use today. It now has around 100,000 permanent residents, and today is known for its two famous universities, Harvard and MIT.
The Boston Convention Bureau has information about transportation, weather, money, tipping, history, shopping, etc. online in multiple languages: Bienvenue, Bienvenido, Benvenuti, Wilkommen, and Welcome.
Strong support has been offered by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society ("Berkman") of the Harvard Law School (HLS), which is eager to host the conference. The MIT Media Lab has also recently indicated strong support.
Berkman is a young addition to the law school focusing on the intersection of law and technology with society; this past spring Jimbo became a non-resident fellow there. Harvard (formerly "the New College"; motto: Veritas) is a venerable institution in the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts (part of Greater Boston), studded with idiosyncracies and wine cellars.
The HLS campus is just north of Harvard Yard, in Harvard Square, and west of the university's science buildings. The campus stretching north from Harvard Yard to the end of the law school, and east to Sanders Theater, containing all of the buildings mentioned below, is connected by footpaths and unbroken by streets.
The Media Lab, founded in 1985, focuses on interdisciplinary research, including the future of publishing, wearable computers, and human-computer interaction. MIT (formerly also the "Boston Society of Natural History"; motto: Mens et Manus) has grown steadily in popularity since moving across the river to its current Cambridge location on the bank of the Charles River.
Rooms: We could have the main event in Berkman's Austin Hall, with Sanders Theater or the nearby Science Center audioria for the opening and plenary sessions. Austin has space for four large parallel sessions, with videoconferencing in each room -- good for involving guests who cannot be there in person.
There are some great organization rooms both on Harvard campus (in dorms, and in the computer science building) and on MIT campus (if part of the conference is held there). There is active, funded support from both staff and grad students at both universities, if we need it.
Budget: All spaces at the law school would be free, as would basic tech and staff support. Most spaces at MIT would be free as well (including classrooms, the Media Lab atrium, and the campuses most beautiful large auditorium).
Using Sanders Theater as a main hall | $1,000/day |
400+ beds in HLS dorms, 100m from the venue | ~$40/person/night (singles, some cheaper doubles. negotiation possible.) |
100+ dorm rooms in Lesley College dorms 2 blocks away | ~$30/person/night (depends on bldg and dates) |
100-400 beds on MIT campus, 2 miles away (15 min via subway & foot) | $20-$60/person/night (cheaper for programs at MacGregor, for instance; probably all doubles) |
Catered lunch | ~$8/person/day |
Fees for overtime tech support/video & videoconf support/union catering | ? perhaps $500 - $2000/day, depending on use. |
Speaker/sponsor party, 60? people | Space covered, in the DeCordova Museum? Food & Drink : $4k |
General party, 300 people | MIT Media Lab? Sponsored. |
Sponsorship: Staff and faculty support from the Berkman Center. Large party offered by the Media Lab; extensive support (space, equipment, etc) from their Electronic Publishing group. Financial support interest from MIT's Tech Review, IBM Research, Novell. Other support (inviting speakers, sponsoring art and technology exhibits, Spanish language support, &c.) from the W3C, the DeCordova Museum, and many academic projects [MIT's Education Arcade, the Free Biology project, Harvard's [iic.harvard.edu/ Initiative in Innovative Computing], ...].
Global scope: Latin American groups at the Kennedy School of Government and BU's international relations department, international clubs at Harvard, MIT, and BU; and Boston cultural organizations can help develop networks with countries from which we want attendees to come. They can also connect with mass media in the United States in a dozen languages, to make sure the diverse communities within the country know about the event.
contact: egeorge (at) cyber.law.harvard.edu We have access to and free use of many buildings and rooms on the Law School campus. The two most promising are Austin Hall and Pound Hall. Pound Hall is modern, with more rooms (6 presentation rooms in all) and a function room upstairs, for a 1000-person total capacity; Austin Hall is a stunning building, with 4 large rooms and videoconferencing support in each one, and a capacity of 750. Note that no streets have to be crossed to get to any of the buildings mentioned below.
Unless otherwise noted, capacities below are for auditorium seating. More chairs can almost always be provided. For multipurpose rooms, receptions can generally fit 20% more people than that capacity. Distances given are from Austin Hall on the Law School campus ( map), the most likely main hall, 50m from the Berkman Center.
Austin Hall for parallel sessions. A Science Center auditorium or Sanders Theater for plenary and opening/closing sessions (50m or 100m away). Ropes Gray (in Pound Hall) for other large gatherings and receptions.
Meals outside, in Ropes Gray, or in the HLS Harkness cafeteria.
I. Major halls:
II. Presentation and other rooms (all part of HLS)
III. Hacking days Requirements for a good hacking environment are slightly different; access after normal work hours, tech books and flatscreens rather than legal archives in the background, lounges and whiteboards. A vending machine full of ice cream. MIT has such spaces all over campus. The Harvard CS department at Harvard has such space just abutting the Law School, in the Maxwell-Dworkin building.
IV. Other rooms (organisation, staff, speakers, interviews/press, storage):
By coordinating with the local tech support and catering crews, we can provide our own volunteer support for many things. We can also pay for catering and A/V work through the Law School.
There will be some mandatory technical/catering/overtime fees depending on what we need and how late we use various facilities. For instance, union rules state that meals in the Ropes Gray room must be catered by the university; and certain tech facilities (for broadcasting audio over room speakers in certain Pound rooms, for instance) require a campus technician, not just a volunteer trained in using the existing setup.
Below are estimated round-trip travel costs from all continents, searching an american travel site (searching for the dates 6/22 to 6/26 and 7/12 to 7/18).
|
|
Airport <-> HLS
Accomodations <-> HLS
contact: egeorge (at) cyber.law.harvard.edu
Main accommodations: The most convenient accomodation is in dormitories on and near the law school campus, in the middle of the university (within a stone's throw of the venues above); and with other local attendees.
The Cambridge Tourism board has a list of accomodations that people can match to their price level.
The nearest campus cafeteria to the venue, Harkness Commons, serves meals during the week. Group catered meals can be arranged for $8-$15 for lunch; we can do better by finding our own vendor. Food packages are available through Harvard kitchens, but are expensive (individual cost: $7/$12/$18 breakfast/lunch/dinner).
Local restaurants and food prices : A meal in Cambridge can cost anywhere from $6 to $25. One can get a perfectly good dinner across the street from the law school for $10 at any of a variety of restaurants. Discounts may be available from a friendly gourmet pizza house (~$4/person) and ice cream store (good friends with User:Mysekurity).
Large function halls >150 people
Smaller functions <150 people
This section lists definite commitments made. There is active interest from dozens of other groups around Boston; for a full list, see the page for local sponsors.
For a full list of supporters and the local team, please see the local support list.
One hurdle for a cheap conference with limited space to overcome, is the preponderance of locals who see it as a nice way to enrich a weekend, taking spaces that others would gladly travel thousands of miles for.
There may be >1000 in town over the summer with interest in attending. Taking advantage of this, a handful of public lectures aside from the conference itself will help alleviate this attendee-pressure, and generate extra publicity and funds for the project.