I just emailed Personal Telco, the nonprofit running over 100 free public hotspots in Portland. Here's what I got back. I like his idea about just getting started. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Russell Senior" <[email protected]> Date: Mar 16, 2011 1:09 PM Subject: Re: Community Wireless in Eugene! To: "Nicholas Chase" <[email protected]>
>>>>> "Nicholas" == Nicholas Chase <[email protected]> writes: Nicholas> Greetings fellow internet freedom fanatics! I'm trying Nicholas> to get what you guys got in portland to happen here in Nicholas> Eugene. A I've been having a conversation with people in the Nicholas> Eugene Linux User Group, and there's a lot of enthusiasm for Nicholas> it. A Lorraine Kerwood, the CEO of NextStep Computer Reuse, Nicholas> has expressed interest in supporting a community wireless Nicholas> project. Awesome! Nicholas> I'm a 23 year-old self-taught tech enthusiast who thinks Nicholas> internet should be a human right. A I'm looking to expand my Nicholas> usefulness to my community in this capacity. A Do you have Nicholas> resources you can recommend along these lines? A Could we Nicholas> collaborate or learn from your experiences setting up a Nicholas> network in Portland? A Maybe we could be a satellite of Nicholas> personal telco's! A I just want to play with the Nicholas> possibilities and see how I can facilitate this expansion of Nicholas> information freedom in my community. A Any input you'd have Nicholas> would be much appreciated. Nicholas Chase There are a variety of models you could adopt. We were initially interested in building "alternative infrastructure" using wifi. However, for technical reasons (mostly trees and lack of tall buildings with line of sight) that didn't work for us. Instead, we have gone the wifi hotspot model, with one or two bigger networks. Another model would be mesh networking, though it has some issues. We rely on node hosts to fund the bandwidth. Right now we are relatively hardware rich. In fact we have some gear from the defunct MetroFi network. If you can figure out a way to use it efficiently, we could loan you some of it. The biggest ongoing cost is the internet bandwidth. Everything else becomes inconsequential over time. My biggest advice is to get together with like-minded people and do something to get started. Set up your own node. Cast your bread upon the water, etc. Efforts snowball when results can be seen. Too much talk and planning and not enough action will die on the vine. If you can make it up for a meeting you'd be welcome. If you want me to come down and do a presentation about Personal Telco, I might be able to do that too. Let me know if you have any specific questions. -- Russell Senior, President [email protected]
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