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September 8, 2006 • 11:57 am 1

NYCwireless OneWebDay + Live Wireless Video Chat

!http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/top.jpg!:1

On September 22 at 12pm Eastern, as part of “OneWebDay”:1, “NYCwireless”:2 will be hosting a live video conference with community wireless groups around the world. We will be discussing the ways that free, public hotspots have contributed to our own and other local communities. We expect the video conference to last about 30 minutes.

The video conferences will be recorded and contributed to the “OneWebDay”:1 video archives. We will be live at Castle Clinton in Battery Park, New York City, where there will be many other activities going on as part of the event.

Please join us in Bryant Park and participate! Bring your mobile phones, PDAs, laptops and other wireless equipment. Feel free to host your own live video conference with friends around the world to participate in this event as part of “OneWebDay”:1.

*UPDATE: There is a change of location. We will be at Castle Clinton in Battery Park.*

[1]http://www.onewebday.org
[2]http://www.nycwireless.net

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, New York City, NYCwireless

June 21, 2006 • 1:42 am 0

2006 African Conference on Formal Consensus and Nonviolent Social Change

While the title seems to indicate a very wide social agenda, I received an invite by a social activist I met at the “NYC Grassroots Media Conference”:2 to lead a session teaching people in Africa how to set up Free Hotspots like NYCwireless.

I won’t be able to make it to the conference, but we’re trying to put together a few people from NYCwireless to go over there. If you know of any sources of funding for this trip, please let me know. Also, if you have an interest in any of the conference’s agenda, you should definitely apply using the information below!

bq. *The 2006 African Conference on Formal Consensus and Nonviolent Social Change*
*Lagos, Nigeria September 24 – October 1, 2006*

bq. Some Volunteers with Food Not Bombs and Indymedia will host the 2006 African Conference on Formal Consensus and Nonviolent Social Change.

bq. Community activists from all across Africa are invited to Lagos, Nigeria to study the democratic decision making process of Formal Consensus and share strategies and techniques for nonviolent solutions to Africa’s social problems. Africa is on the verge of an exciting new era of social transformation. Nonviolent horizontal structures of grassroots community development have caught the attention of Africans of every social class. The conference will have workshops on many subjects like Formal Consensus, women’s empowerment, vegetarian cooking, FM radio broadcasting and web-based community organizing. The week long conference has the support of many African organizations and prominent people including the National Association of Nigerian Students, The Nigerian Network of NGOs, the Association For Women’s Rights in Development, Alesa Eleme’s Elder Igwe Ejireyi, the musician Charly Boy, Nigerian Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe and The Special Assistant to the President On Food Security Mrs. M. Oluwatoyin Adtunji. Food Not Bombs co-founders C.T. Lawrence Butler and Keith McHenry will be among the facilitators at the conference. Mr. Butler will teach a comprehensive workshop on Formal Consensus based on his book “On Conflict and Consensus.” Food Not Bombs chapters from Ibadan, Owerri, Jos, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Calabar are eager to help coordinate the logistics for food, housing and West African outreach.

bq. On Nigerian Independence Day there will be a large concert celebrating the power of Africans to build a better future. West African musician Charly Boy and many other local artists will perform live at one of the large stadiums in Lagos to close the conference. After that Keith McHenry will join local activist on a tour of West Africa visiting local Food Not Bombs chapters and assisting those starting Indymedia collectives.

bq. This conference was proposed in March 2006 by Food Not Bombs organizers in Nigeria and some Indymedia activists from Africa and the US. West Africans are on the threshold of an exciting new era and your support of this ground breaking event can make a difference. The 2006 African Conference on Formal Consensus and Nonviolent Social Change will set a solid foundation for this bright future for Africa

bq. Join the discussions subscribe at:
“http://lists.riseup.net/www/subrequest/africanconsensus”:1

bq. *Application for Conference:*

# Name of group/organization:
# Name of three delegates for Conference:
# Does your delegates need invitations to secure Nigerian visas:
# Country from which the delegates will be traveling:
# Can your group support the conference preparation with contributions to cover travel cost for delegates whose organization cannot afford their travel cost? Yes or No
# Does your delegates need support with travel cost? Yes or No.

bq. Send application to “africanconsensus@lists.riseup.net”:mailto:africanconsensus@lists.riseup.net

[1]http://lists.riseup.net/www/subrequest/africanconsensus
[2]http://www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org

Filed under: Event, International, NYCwireless

April 21, 2006 • 11:36 am 0

NYCwireless Meeting on April 26th at 7:15pm

_All are invited – please re-post everywhere!_

*Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 7:15pm*

“*Bway.net*”:http://www.bway.net — “Google Map”:gmap
568 Broadway at Prince St, NE corner
Suite 404
New York, NY 10012

*Agenda:*
* *Jamie Paquette/Solar One* — discusses the launch of NYC’s first solar powered access point in Stuyvesant Cove Park in collaboration with NYCwireless.
* *Kirby Nash/Protexx* — Wireless Sniffing Legal?

18 U.S.C. sec. 2511 (2)(g)(v): “[It shall not be unlawful] for other users of the same frequency to intercept any radio communication made through a system that utilizes frequencies monitored by individuals engaged in the provision or the use of such system, if such communication is not scrambled or encrypted.”

Features and Benefits of Protexx Wireless Security Connect securely with up to 2048 bit encryption with Protexx easy-to-use wireless security protection,and keep your computer anonymous from other wireless users.

*”Join/Renew Your NYCwireless Membership”:1 — Only $30* — Members get exclusive use of NYCwireless Safe Mail Account

_”NYCwireless”:http://www.nycwireless.net is a non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless networks._

[gmap]http://maps.google.com/?q=568+Broadway,ny+ny+(Bway.net)
[1]http://www.nycwireless.net/membership

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, NYCwireless

April 18, 2006 • 7:27 am 0

Interactive Wireless Sculpture

Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, is introducing a “large scale sculpture”:1 that will “visualize people’s use of the University’s wireless network”:2. Artists Jesse Allison, John Fillwalk and Keith Kothman created the sculpture.

bq. “Part of what we hope to accomplish with the sculpture is to help people see a wireless network as a physical thing,” Fillwalk said. “When people think of this form of technology, it usually doesn’t bring to mind something that is tangible.”

bq. Fillwalk came up with the sculpture’s concept with help from music technology professors Keith Kothman and Jessie Allison. Creating the piece of public art has taken months and required the assistance of University Computing Services, Kothman said. The project is sponsored by the Center for Media Design.

Visualizing network traffic through physical, interactive sculptures has been around since computer networks came into common use. Pioneering work by Natalie Jeremijenko at Xerox Parc in 1995, “Live Wire”:4 “is an 8 foot piece of plastic spaghetti that hangs from a small electric motor mounted in the ceiling. The motor is electrically connected to a nearby Ethernet cable, so that each bit of information that goes past causes a tiny twitch of the motor. A very busy network causes a madly whirling string with a characteristic noise; a quiet network causes only a small twitch every few seconds.”

The sculpture is intended to celebrate Ball State University’s ranking by Intel as the nation’s most wireless campus. Most of the network’s equipment was provided by Cisco, which provides all of the live data that feeds the artwork. “A live camera and processed video feed”:3 is available for viewing remotely.

[1]http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006604150323
[2]http://www.bsu.edu/web/jfillwalk/wireless/
[3]http://dvisweb1.bsu.edu/media/journalism/johnfillwalk/live.asx
[4]http://www.ubiq.com/weiser/calmtech/calmtech.htm

Filed under: Art, Event, News

April 17, 2006 • 12:23 am 0

Words of Wisdom from Harold Feld

A couple of weekends ago, I was at the “National Summit for Community Wireless Networks”:1, Sascha Meinrath’s wonderful conference (the second one, in fact) where I met and worked with Community Wireless organizers from around the country (and around the world, too). The event was inspiring. There are so many ways that people are using wireless technologies to help each other and to connect their local communities.

One of the most important aspects of the work we do is that, unlike traditional broadband, CWNs engage local community members and connect people to each other — as opposed to connecting individuals to commerce and media consumption. There is richness and diversity to the ways that people solve local problems and create new media and avenues for its interaction. CWNs inspire people — not just technologists, but moms and dads, students and teachers, grandparents and grandchildren alike — to discover each other.

I’ve always said that Community Wireless Networks are about *community* first and technology second. This years Summit drove home that point.

Here are some photos from the event:

More Flickr photos tagged with NS4CWN

Harold Feld “wrote up his closing remarks from the event”:3, and I would suggest everyone read them to get a sense for the importance of the work we do:

bq. Because our struggle to make a better world must be a universal struggle. One that changes and betters the lives of everyone, not just the techie elite or the chosen few believers. If there is one failing of the “open source” movement that has crippled it more than anything, it is the failure to understand that real movements help everyone. As long as open source coders see themselves as separate from everyone else, because they will always be able to get around the legal and regulatory restrictions and the rest of the world that’s too stupid to figure it out can go hang, they will remain marginal. Because the vast majority of people cannot figure this out, and therefore do not see why they should care.

bq. We must always remember that wireless is a tool, not a goal in itself. What we do has value because it changes peoples lives for the better. Wireless doesn’t create jobs or educational opportunities on its own. It gives people a new way to get information, to create new kinds of speech or applications, and share these applications with others. We can’t just “unwire” neighborhoods or throw up nodes or write code. We need to reach out to the communities around us, show them what they can do, give them what they need, then let go when they take it in completely different directions.

[1]http://www.cuwireless.net/summit/
[3]http://www.wetmachine.com/item/481

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, NS4CWN

April 13, 2006 • 10:52 pm 0

Vlog Interview: Santa Barbara Forum on Digital Transitions

I was invited to an interesting conference in Santa Barbara this past weekend called the “Santa Barbara Forum on Digital Transitions”:1, held at UCSB. The conference had a number of engaging attendees (I even got to catch up with some people I haven’t seen since grad school, like “danah boyd”:2 and “Marc Smith”:3). I was also interviewed by Jay Dedman for the vlog he was compiling for the conference:

http://33whitehall.video.blip.tv/uploadedFiles/Jaydedman-DanaSpiegel893.mov

[1]http://www.transitions.cits.ucsb.edu/
[2]http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/
[3]http://research.microsoft.com/~masmith/

Filed under: Event, Interview

March 27, 2006 • 3:00 pm 0

NYCwireless Meeting on March 29th at 7:15pm

_All are invited – please re-post everywhere!_

*Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 7:15pm*

“*Bway.net*”:http://www.bway.net — “Google Map*”:gmap
568 Broadway at Prince St, NE corner
Suite 404
New York, NY 10012

_Please note: Bway.net’s offices are still under construction — we apologize in advance for our appearance. Also, everybody will need to sign-in in the lobby._

*Agenda:* What the future holds for wireless… (speaker TBA Shortly)

*”Join/Renew Your NYCwireless Membership”:2 — Only $30* — Members get exclusive use of NYCwireless Safe Mail Account

_”NYCwireless”:http://www.nycwireless.net is a non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless networks._

[gmap]http://maps.google.com/?q=568+Broadway,ny+ny+(Bway.net)
[1]http://www.nycwireless.net/membership

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, New York City, NYCwireless

March 20, 2006 • 1:18 am 0

Appearing at Building the Broadband Economy 2006: Municipal Broadband

Mark your calendars! I’ve been invited to speak at the *”Building the Broadband Economy”:1* conference being held by the Intelligent Community Forum and Polytechnic University. The event promises to be an “idea exchange for government officials from around the world and their private-sector partners in telecom, IT, consulting, finance and real estate.”

[1]http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=16

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, Muniwireless, NYCwireless, Policy

March 2, 2006 • 2:38 pm 0

Celebrate the release of Bruce Kushnick's new ebook — $200 Billion Broadband Scandal

bq. TELETRUTH NEWS ALERT: All are invited!

bq. *Special Book Signing Edition — Jeweled Boxed CD Version.*

bq. *Monday, March 6th, 2006, 7PM*

bq. “*The Half King*”:1
*505 W 23rd Street*
*New York, NY 10011*
212.462.4300

bq. Did America pay over $200 billion for fiber optic broadband services we never received? Is this why America is 16th in the world in broadband? Are you owed $2000.00 from Verizon, SBC, BellSouth or Qwest?

bq. Get your own autographed (CD) copy — Help Send Kushnick to Washington!

bq. The New York Times, Muniwireless, Good Morning Silicon Alley, Techdirt, Media Access — “a ‘sordid story’ of business fraud” — “damning list of indictments” — “meticulously documents” — “a powerful critique” — “serve as a warning for the promises made by the Bells today.” — “A Rant: All 406 Pages of it.”

bq. DSLPrime, Broadband Reports, Cook, Voic.us, Sociate, NYCwireless board member: “talented, persistent, honest” — “brilliantly documented this fraud” — “stunning in its implications.” — “Kushnick is in a long tradition of advocates like Ida Tarbell and Jane Jacobs” — “Anyone who wants the U.S. to thrive in this connected future should read Kushnick’s book.”

bq. Can’t make it and want to make a difference: Buy the book, donate money to help send Kushnick to Washington DC.

bq. More about the Book, Donate, Online ebook Version, about the Author: “http://www.newnetworks.com/broadbandscandals.htm”:2

bq. Read what the Experts are Blogging About: “http://200billionscandal.typepad.com”:4

bq. “Teletruth”:4 is a nationwide, independent customer alliance dedicated to broadband and telecommunications issues and a former member of the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee (2003-2004).

[1]http://www.thehalfking.com
[2]http://www.newnetworks.com/broadbandscandals.htm
[3]http://200billionscandal.typepad.com/
[4]http://www.teletruth.org

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, New York City, Policy

February 15, 2006 • 8:01 am 0

2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks

The 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks will be taking place this spring. The last “Summit”:3, which took place in the late summer of 2004, marked the first time that the Policy, Wireless, and Municipal leaders came together to discuss the future of Community Wireless. The event was organized around both educating each of the different interest groups, and generating goals and next steps for the evolution of Community Wireless Networks.

The landscape has changed significantly over the past one and a half years. Like the last summit, this year’s promises to be a very important event. We’ve made significant headway, in large part because of the connections we made last time.

Here’s the annoucement from “Sascha Meinrath”:4:

bq. I’m extremely excited to announce that CUWiN, Free Press, and Mid-Rivers Community Wireless Network will be hosting the 2nd National Summit for Community Wireless Networks at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO (right outside St. Louis) March 31-April 2, 2006. More information is available here:

bq. “http://www.cuwireless.net/summit”:1

bq. or skip straight to the registration page and sign up here:

bq. “http://cuwireless.net/summit/2006registration”:2

bq. Like the first Summit, we’ll be gathering in a beautiful building and location, holding numerous small discussions and participatory panels, eating great food (and drinking plenty of coffee ;) , and hosting off-the-record evening socials each night of the Summit. Focus areas for this year’s Summit include: Katrina, lessons learned and next steps; how to fight back for public access to the public airwaves; municipal wireless success stories and how-tos; the latest in bleeding-edge wireless technology developments; (free) open source open architecture wireless alternatives; and much, much more.

bq. 2006 is shaping up to be a huge year for wireless networking — and the National Summit for Community Wireless Networks is going to be a key event that will help set the agenda for further wireless growth.

bq. See you there!

bq. Sascha Meinrath

bq. Summit Director

[1]http://www.cuwireless.net/summit
[2]http://cuwireless.net/summit/2006registration
[3]http://cuwireless.net/2004Summit
[4]http://www.saschameinrath.com/

Filed under: Community Wireless, Event, NS4CWN

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