I've been talking with Tara and Chris about setting up a better system for the wireless network at Citizen Space. It is one of the few (only?) spaces in San Francisco that still offers free drop-ins (at least for the time being). As such, they've never had a good system for tracking who is using the space. There is a physical guest book by the door, but few people actually use. So we've been talking about changing the network to require users to fill out a basic form before they can access the net (similar to how most public wifi hotspots work). Before I spend too much time on this, I wanted to survey the community a bit...
What are other spaces doing to control internet access at their spaces? Do you require authentication of any kind to get online? Is it simply a password written on a whiteboard in a public area of the space? Do you have individual logins for each person? How are others tracking drop-ins? If you are charging for drop-ins, then you pretty much have to track them in order to bill them. What about those that allow free drop-ins... do you have accurate records of who is using the space and when? Some preliminary brainstorming for a solution at Citizen Space: - paying residents should be able to get online with as minimal a barrier as possible - drop-ins should be forced to "authenticate", which would likely include filling out a basic form with contact information and a brief explanation of why they're at the space (ie. just to work, for a meetup, barcamp, etc). - after authentication, drop-ins should be allowed internet access for a set period of time (24 hours?). The next time they get online, they should have to resubmit the form, but it should probably be pre- populated with the values they used last time, to make it as simple as possible - ideally, OpenID should used for any kind of authentication. This creates a potential technical challenge at the firewall, but I think I can come up with something My twitter followers offered up the following possible packages: - NoCatAuth [http://nocat.net/] - pfSense [http://pfsense.org/] - Wifidog [http://wifidog.org/] Right now, I'm leaning toward Wifidog. It seems to either do everything I want, or have the flexibility that I can add it in. It has the additional advantage of being specifically designed to support a network of access points. That means, in theory, multiple coworking spaces could be connected so that users of one space could login and use the internet at other spaces. So my second set of questsions, regarding this: Would others be interested in whatever solution we come up with, for using at your own space? I imagine some of you may be perfectly happy with whatever solution you've got, but there may be others looking for something better. If so, do you have any developer resources or expertise you'd be willing to contribute toward this effort? Would other be interested in being part of a larger network of coworking spaces like this? This ties in directly with the "coworking visa" idea that's been discussed, just on the electronic side. I think this larger network is much farther down the road, but something to keep in mind. So that's a lot to digest I guess, but I'd love to hear any feedback or thoughts people have on this subject. Once we get an idea of what people are doing, and a plan for moving forward, we can record all of this on the coworking wiki. -will --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
