I had several brief conversations with the author of nodedb ---
evilbunny. I understand from evilbunny that (s)he has reservation to use
his/her real name for privacy reason, which I respect. But I myself am
puzzling what anonymous identity may entail when one has to assume
responsiblity and liability.

More inline comments ....

On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Terry Schmidt wrote:

> Other open source options include nodedb.com.  http://www.nodedb.com
> It currently has a complete copy of the nycwireless maps database (including the
> other cities to such as San Francisco, and Portland).  evilbunny ( evilbunny AT
> nodedb dot com) is the person in charge of that database, and is part of one of
> the Australian wireless groups.
> Check out NYC at: http://www.nodedb.com//unitedstates/ny/newyork/?
> An example node:
> http://www.nodedb.com//unitedstates/ny/newyork/view.php?nodeid=7

I do not know what Terry meant by that. The information in nodedb is NOT
entirely identical to that in maps.nycwireless. ESSID was not even
listed. That may be fine if one's arm is to be twisted to use only one
generic ESSID. Anyway, I personally have reservation about the
truth of a complete mapping of information between nodedb and
maps.nycwireless, especially by looking at the schema for NODEDB publicly
available at:

        http://www.nodedb.com/schema.sql
        http://www.nodedb.com/ndbcom.dtd


> Another nice feature about NodeDB is that there is an area
> admin/contact for the database, so that each group can specify a person
> or a group of person to be the admin for that section of the database.  

Terry, if you spend sometime to look at the Go-Wireless project, you will
see our schema design incorporates such business logic, and extends MUCH
MORE far beyond that. The Go-Wireless project URL has been posted a number
of times to the NYCWireless as well as the APP SIG. Here again in case one
is interested but misplaced the URL

        http://bonnet2.geol.qc.edu/wireless/

I will reserve my comments on comparing the two schema designs and let the
database experts in the community to make their own judgement.

> It also does XML for all the XML addicts out there.

Again, Terry, if you go to the Go-Wireless system, you will see the data
exchange layer using XML has already been implemented!

> 
> Another one is the Paris Sansfil:
> http://www.paris-sansfil.net/index.php/ParisSansfilEnglishVersion
> Here is their mapping:
> http://www.paris-sansfil.net/carte/
> They have offered to work together with us to create a mapping solution that
> works for all.  The contact for the Paris Sansfil group is kelem AT
> paris-sansfil dot net.  They are working on enabling people to add themselves
> directly from the website instead of having to ask Robin.
> 
> The decision as to which way to go will be made by the nycw-apps group as this
> is their territory.  Ideally the solution would be opensource so that any one
> can replicate it, and also powerful and feature enough to allow all the 
> wireless groups to use it.

Terry, I am surprised you see the issue about nodedb as an issue of a SIG,
rather than all the members of the entire community. Isn't it true that
afterall it IS the members of the community that the node DB is trying
to serve? Then why the decision should not be made by all the members of
the community?

> 
> At this point NodeDB is much closer in obtaining what we want, and I would
> recommend that we pursue getting the NodeDB up to par with everything that we
> need and want, and moving over to that as a solution. 

I respectfully disagree. Unless there are many private emails going on,
the first time I heard of nodedb is when Terry mentioned that in a SIG
meeting, and this is the second time it is mentioned in nycwireless.

If there is any negotiation going on between the screen, I will appreciate
the involving parties brought forth of the negotiation to the front for
all the members of NYCWireless.

> Ideally we can setup multiple maps servers as John Klos suggested, and
> have them replicate in between
> each other so that all the maps servers are accurate, and we are not
> limited to one machine.

Can Terry or someone lay out suggestions how ALL interested parties
of the community can get involved without being left behind? 

Thank you!

Bon



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