[OpenOakland] Community Wireless Networks Across America

[Eddie Tejeda]

Hey everyone!

Checkout this cool project by Preston Rhea, from Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation. He's thinking that Oakland will be one of the pilot cities. There  are existing local mesh network projects in the area, right? People know how those projects are doing? This could be a collaborative opportunity.

http://crowdhitch.millennialtrain.co/campaign/detail/1330

The project is to spread locally-managed community wireless mesh networks around the country. I'll teach local technologists and community organizers how to use regular Wi-Fi routers and free, open source software to build their own community Internet infrastructure.

 

The project will use Commotion, a free, open source software project designed to make it easy for anyone to set up their own mesh network. We'll share tools and methods for participatory technology pedagogy, and the routers that we set up together will remain with the locals to seed their own mesh networks. With these seeds spread, people in each city can continue to grow locally-managed Internet networks and spur innovation on a shared platform accessible to any resident.

--

Eddie A. Tejeda

@eddietejeda

2012 Fellow, Code for America

http://codeforamerica.org

[howard dyckoff]

Most of the Mesh network activity was previously confined to SF.

 

I think there was some activity in North Oakland 2-3 years back.

 

If I recall correctly, the cells have to be within half a mile or a third of a mile of each other....  pls verify, I'm sure the range has increased  gradually.

 

And I think the min cost of a local neighborhood transmitter and antennae was between $500 and $1000 a few years ago.  I hope that pricing is better now.

 

The problem, I think , is that the areas most in need of this have fewer and less successful neighborhood associations and fewer households that could afford to setup mesh nodes. 

 

That's unfortunate since this could provide really inexpensive internet access for everyone.

 

I am sure "Business Improvement Districts" could be involved, but there are few of them operating in  East and West Oakland.  We'd need a big  grant to cover those areas -- or a lot of neighborhood organizing. 

 

And we'd have to plan for some of the equipment being stolen.  As an example, the new library at 81st Ave, where we held an event earlier this year,  had many of its computers stolen a few weeks after it opened. 

 

But I don't want to be too negative here.  I would definitely support this effort.

 

 

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[Tony Barreca]

There's an active Mesh Network project in Oakland once again, the central locus of which is at Sudoroom.

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Tony Barreca
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[Miguel Vargas]

Reading that description I'd say our mesh network project at sudoroom is probably farther along than what he's offering for giving help, though it would still be great to get his help. We recently purchased 100 routers and our putting together plans for doing outreach in a neighborhood, which is probably going to be  San Antonio in Fruitvale.

If anybody is thinking of donating please consider giviving to our local project instead at https://www.wepay.com/donations/oakland-community-mesh-network

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[howard dyckoff]

I'd love this to go down into District 6 and 7, but what are the maximum distances between nodes? 

Will those 100 routers only cover the Fruitvale neighborhood?

I'm down near 90th and MacArthurIf so if I set something up, it would be a network of 1.

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[Miguel Vargas]

Steve,

Yes! We've been on the hunt for locations in the hills. Lets coordinate a scouting trip to your house with a couple people from the mesh team.

On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 11:25 AM, Steve Berl <stev...@gmail.com> wrote:

Not really sure if this is useful or not, but I'd be willing to donate a spot on my roof for an antenna. I'm part way up the hills, and have a line of sight view of Lake Merritt, chunks of downtown, and a wide swath of the flats of Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley. Not sure if I can see the sudoroom, as it is probably obscured by some taller buildings between here and there.

http://goo.gl/maps/bGpNk

Is this useful? Perhaps as a relay between different neighborhoods or something?

-steve

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[Miguel Vargas]

Howard,

We're still deciding what areas to cover, we have some good community partners in the San Antonio neighborhood which makes it attractive for a first deployment. The distance between nodes depends on the landscape, trees, buildings, etc. But in general they do have to be densely distributed, maybe one or two per block.

[howard dyckoff]

That's even denser than I thought.   The Detroit Data Stewards write about getting up to 3/4s of a mile with narrow directional

 antennas. 

I think we should talk with OUSD.  Schools, and libraries too, would provide lots of rooftops and there should be regular access to electric power and the internet.  They could be primary nodes with neighborhood nodes meshing around them. 

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[Miguel Vargas]

We've done tests of over a mile using directional antennas. That's good for backhaul links but in the neighborhood you need a dense mesh of omnidirectional antennas.

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[howard dyckoff]

Of course.   That's why I suggested using schools for the back haul nodes.

There has to be one reliable node to build out from

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[Jenny Ryan]

Hi all!

I've chatted with Preston about holding a workshop at sudo room if he makes it out here. OTI is doing really great work developing community outreach and education initiatives around Do It Ourselves wireless infrastructure and applications. We're planning to use Tidepools (a project I helped out with during my internship with OTI earlier this year) - a mobile mapping app I'd love to plug in with some of the civic apps and tools y'all are creating. Similarly, interested in integrating Oakland Wiki, IndyBay, and other awesome sources of local information through a splash page on login.

For the past six months we've been doing a lot of R&D, and are excited to get this first batch of excellent equipment. We're 80% of the way to covering it and would really appreciate your support! We also love Bitcoins {Wallet ID: 12RxU4DpLpdWcmEBn7Tj325CCXBwt5i9Hc}, rooftops, technical folks, community organizers, and in general your ideas/suggestions (Howard, I think reaching out to schools is an excellent idea). The group is open to anyone who wants to come, learn, and help out - Thursdays from 8:30-10pm at sudo room!

We're aiming to be not only the largest, but the most well-documented mesh in the US!

Jenny
http://jennyryan.net
http://thepyre.org
http://thevirtualcampfire.org
http://technomadic.tumblr.com

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[Steve Berley]

Why IndyBay?  I thought our efforts were apolitical...

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[Eddie A Tejeda]

Is there any way we can connect the two projects? Since Preston is working at multiple cities, i bet he'd offer a valuable perspective.

Are ya'll in contact yet?

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Eddie A Tejeda

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[mark burdett]

Hi, we (510pen) have met w/ folks from New America / OTI in years past so, theoretically we are already connected :D (in fact I'm in that same photo set https://secure.flickr.com/photos/prestonrhea/5879423073/in/set-72157627065752282/ :)  They have some excellent educational materials to teach folks about mesh networking that I think would be worth adapting locally.

With regards to community organizing & training, I am looking forward to the "digital stewards" workshop at AMC here in Detroit (where I am at the moment): https://talk.alliedmedia.org/amc2013/sessions/digital-stewards-new-training-model

--mark B.

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