Our Networks is a conference about the past, present, and future of building our own network infrastructures. The event brings together enthusiasts, hardware and software hackers, researchers, organizers and more to collectively explore creative and critical engagements with the Internet and alternative infrastructures.
The event has a Code of Conduct in order to foster an environment we can all be in together. During the event if you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, we ask you to contact an organizer immediately. Those who wish to do so but don’t feel comfortable talking to the organizers in-person can email coc@ournetworks.ca.
We would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which Our Networks will take place. Tkaronto (Toronto) has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.
We are grateful to the First Nations House and Elders Circle (Council of Aboriginal Initiatives) for the language that this acknowledgement is based on.
Organizers
Garry Ing is a designer and researcher centred around the overlap of technology and critical practice. His previous work and collaborations has been with the Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab) at OCAD University, the Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab at the University of Toronto, Normative, Format, and Pivotal.
Sarah Friend is an artist and software developer from Canada and currently based in Berlin, Germany. She is currently Visiting Chair at The Cooper Union. Recent solo exhibitions include Off: Endgame, curated by Rhizome, Refraction and Fingerprints at Public Works Administration, New York, USA and Terraforming at Galerie Nagel Draxler in Berlin, Germany.
Dawn Walker is a researcher and designer bridging constructive and critical approaches. She has explored infrastructures to create lasting alternatives and just transitions within data stewardship, networking, and movement organizing. She completed her PhD at University of Toronto (2022). Her current research looks at emerging practices of low carbon networking.
Mauve is a tech entusiast with a passion for decentralization. They use the web and peer to peer protocols like Dat to create local first software to give people more control over their data and to make them less dependant on centralized services. They are active in open source organizing and enjoy reaching out to communities and bridging between them. Their passion project is Local First Cyberspace—a peer to peer augmented reality platform that uses the web.
Design
Logo by Marlo Yarlo.