AgoraFest 2014 Summary

This weekend I was at the second annual AgoraFest. As the event’s namesake is taken from agorism it’s no surprise to know that it was total anarchy. That is to say the event was absent of coercive force, devoid of hierarchy, and much mutually beneficial trade occurred. Unlike political events, AgoraFest’s speakers didn’t spout of violent hate speech. There were no psychopaths urging the bombing of a foreign country, arrest of nonviolent people, or further militarization of the police. We were fortunate to be joined by Jack Shimek, a agorist who was good friends with agorism’s founder, Samuel Edward Konkin III. He’s working on some interesting things that I’ll discuss more when they’re announced to the public.

In addition to giving an introductory course on firearms (which was requested by an individual who didn’t even show up) and lock picking I also spent my time being the event’s network ninja. We setup a mesh network using Ubiquity NanoStation and PicoStation access points running Commotion Wireless firmware. The event was hosted at the Villa Maria in Frontenac, Minnesota so cell coverage was sparse. Likewise the Villa Maria only has Internet access in the main building. Using our access points we were able to span the distance between the main Villa Maria building and the cabins where the event took place. Overall we covered a distance of roughly 1,200 feet, which was made difficult by sparse availability of power outlets (we had one 500 foot span because there were no power outlets that allowed us to shorten the distance). While the Villa Maria’s Internet connection isn’t stellar the setup allowed us decent coverage of slow Internet access instead of no coverage at all. It was a fun experiment and I look forward to improving the network next year.

I had a great time but it was also a lot of work so I’m taking today off of blogging (at least anything other than the Monday Metal entry and this post) to recuperate. Between Defcon and AgoraFest I’m pretty burned out this month but it was well worth the hassle.