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International Summit for Community Wireless Networks 2008 — Washington, DC.

Dana — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:40:38 +0000

Please help spread the word!

The New America Foundation, CUWiN Foundation, the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, and the Acorn Active Media Foundation will be hosting the annual International Summit for Community Wireless Networks in Washington, DC on May 28-30, 2008. More information will be forthcoming at wirelesssummit.org in coming weeks.

Hosted by the world’s largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), this year’s summit will continue its tradition of featuring wireless leaders, innovators, activists, and community networking visionaries from around the globe. “With large-scale network implementations demonstrating the viability of open source wireless technologies, and corporate franchise business model faltering, the movement is at a critical juncture in its development” states Sascha Meinrath, Summit Director. “This year’s International Summit for Community Wireless Networks will explore issues of global integration and local control over these vital communications media.”

Additional summit topics include:

The role of community wireless networks in supporting human rights
The current state of US and international telecommunications policies
Exploration of state-of-the-art FOSS wireless technologies
Social networking and other WLAN services and applications
Community wireless updates from Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia
White space devices, “device as infrastructure” networks, & disruptive tech
Legal issues in community wireless networking
Alternative business models and sustainable networking

Laura Forlano's Presentation on Search and the City — A Comparative Analysis of WiFi Hotspots in New York and Budapest

Dana — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:37:30 +0000

Maxigas of “Indymedia/IMC Hungary”:1 has posted Laura Forlano’s talk on how people use hotspots. She’s been working on this research (as her PhD at Columbia) for quite a while, and has some very interesting results.

Laura gave her presentation at the *The Philosophy of Telecommunications Convergence Conference* at the MTA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) in Budapest on September 27, 2007.

“MP3, 20min, 30MB”:2
“Quicktime Movie, 20min, 128MB”:3
“Quicktime Movie, 20min, 6MB”:4

[1]http://indy.media.hu
[2]http://metatron.zapto.org/log/audio/filtel/laura-forlano.mp3
[3]http://metatron.zapto.org/log/video/filtel/laura-forlano-opt2.mov
[4]http://metatron.zapto.org/log/video/filtel/laura-forlano-opt.mov

Rosario, Argentina Uses Open Source to Power Free Muni-Wireless

Dana — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:18:27 +0000

“The Inquirer”:2 reports that the city of “Rosario, Argentina”:1 decided to build a free municipal wireless network for residents and visitors. Instead of buying a proprietary solution, the city decided to use open source software, including “OpenWRT”:3 and “WifiDog”:4.

NYCwireless and “many other community wireless groups”:5 also use WifiDog, a hotspot management system from Ile Sans Fil, the Montréal, Canada wireless group.

[1]http://www.welcomeargentina.com/rosario/index_i.html
[2]http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41344
[3]http://openwrt.org
[4]http://dev.wifidog.org
[5]http://dev.wifidog.org/wiki/Community

Presentation on Estonia Wireless

Dana — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:21:47 +0000

John Heywood, Assistant Director of CITI, the “Columbia Institute for Tele-Information”:1, spoke at our February NYCwireless meeting about his research in Estonia and their extensive Wi-Fi program.

He talked about how Estonia became so Wi-Fi savvy. Apparently, when the country was still part of Russia, residents were able to receive TV and radio signals from Finland, and saw how wireless technologies were helping that country grow. When they became independent, the country as a whole made a decision to pursue what it saw as a way to become an economic powerhouse, and started innovative initiatives to develop wireless technologies. Estonia is now synonymous with technology innovation.

Estonia also has one of the most extensive “community wireless Wi-Fi networks”:3 of any country. And apparently the guy who started wifi.ee took as his inspiration the work NYCwireless has done building wireless parks, like Bryant Park.

Check out “John’s presentation (pdf)”:2, which has lots of interesting information about what’s going on in Estonia.

[1]http://www.citi.columbia.edu
[2]http://www.starfid.com/nycwireless.pdf
[3]http://www.wifi.ee

DailyWireless Publishes 10 Most Connected Cities Report

Dana — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:22:36 +0000

“DailyWireless”:1, a great site with lots of technical and non-technical in-depth articles about wireless technology has published a report about the “The 10 Most Connected Cities in the World”:2.

Unfortunately New York City isn’t one of them. In fact, about half of them are cities in Asia, and most of the rest are ones in Europe. When the rest of the world is beating us at technology, we’ve really got to start working harder to catch up!

[1]http://www.dailywireless.com/
[2]http://www.dailywireless.com/features/most-connected-cities-030607/

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Dec. 4, 2006)

Dana — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:46:27 +0000

h2. Agenda

* Attendance
* Announcements
* First New York-Berlin Live Community Wireless Video Conference
* Examples of successful local/municipal/city motions in favor of supporting community wireless infrastructures
* Updates from Community Wireless Groups Worldwide: Pakistan Wireless Networking Session

h2. Participants

* Alison Powell, Île Sans Fil
* Dan Adelman, Director of New Media, KDHX FM 88.1 / KDHX TV 21+2
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless
* David Young, CUWIN
* Gabe Sawhney, Toronto Wireless
* Jonathan Arbib, Rome Wireless Community
* Kafui A. Prebbie, oneVillage Foundation
* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Malcolm Matson, OPLAN
* Mike Lenczner, Île Sans Fil
* Rich MacKinnon, Austin City Wireless
* Roland, wireless Network Administrator, WISP, North Cyprus
* Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN
* Sylvia Cadena
* Tracey Lauriault ogWiFi (Ottawa Gatineau Wifi)
* Vickram Crishna
* Warren Noronha

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Jan. 8, 2007)

Dana — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:50:17 +0000

h2. Agenda

* Attendance
* Announcements:
** Identify yourself and your organization
** Backchannel chat log
** Recording conference call
* OPLAN Foundation
* COMMONS Project
* “Media Reform Conference”:2 (this week)
* “International Community Wireless Summit”:3 (May 2007)
* Updates from Community Wireless Groups Worldwide
** France
** Austin

h2. Participants

* Alison Powell, Île Sans Fil
* Benoit Gregoire, Île Sans Fil
* Jonathan Arbib, Rome Wireless Community
* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless
* Malcolm Matson, OPLAN
* Mike Lenczner, Ile Sans Fils
* Rich MacKinnon, Austin City Wireless
* Michel Memeteau, France Wireless
* Andre Marais, Pretoria, South Africa
* Joy Tang, One Village Foundation

“Community Wireless Roundtable — Jan. 8, 2007″:1

[1]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/queenszoo3.pngwp-content/uploads/2007/01/community_wireless_roundtable_20070108.mp3
[2]http://www.freepress.net/conference
[3]http://www.cuwireless.net/summit

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Nov. 5, 2006)

Dana — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:33:23 +0000

h2. Agenda

* WSFII/AirJaldi Summary
* CUWiN Summit Overview
* COMMONS Project Announcement
* FCC Logan Airport Ruling Overview
* Community Wireless Survey & Interviews
* Updates from Community Wireless Groups Worldwide

h2. Participants

* Benoit Gregoire, Ile Sans Fils
* Dan Adelman, Director of New Media, KDHX FM 88.1 / KDHX TV 21+2
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless
* Ermanno Pietrosemoli
* Gabe Sawhney, Toronto Wireless
* Gregers Petersen, Denmark
* John Kibuuka, FADECO IT team
* Joseph Sekiku, FADECO
* Joy Tang, OneVillage
* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Malcolm Matson, OPLAN
* Matthew Asham, British Columbia Wireless Network Society
* Michael Maranda, CTCNet Chicago
* Michael Mee, SoCalFreenet
* Mike Lenczner, Ile Sans Fils
* Sascha Meinrath, CUWIN
* Thubten Samdup (Sam), Tibetan living in Montreal Canada
* Vickram Crishna

“Community Wireless Roundtable — Nov. 5, 2006″:1

[1]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/queenszoo3.pngwp-content/uploads/2007/01/community_wireless_roundtable_20061105.mp3

Podcast: Community Wireless Roundtable (Sept. 28, 2006)

Dana — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:31:47 +0000

On September 28, a number of community wireless leaders from North America held an inaugural Community Wireless Roundtable via Skype in order to discuss the latest developments in community wireless organizations in New York, Champaign-Urbana and Montreal. The lively discussion demonstrated the benefits of more regular networking across community wireless groups nationwide and worldwide. This networking across organizations is especially important over the next six months in the lead up to the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks, which is from May 18-20, 2007 at Loyola College in Columbia, Maryland.

h2. Participants

* Laura Forlano, NYCwireless
* Michael Lenczner, Île Sans Fil
* Sascha Meinrath, CUWiN
* Dana Spiegel, NYCwireless

“Community Wireless Roundtable — Sept. 28, 2006″:1

[1]http://wirelesscommunity.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/queenszoo3.pngwp-content/uploads/2007/01/community_wireless_roundtable_20060928.mp3

International Icon for Wireless Internet Access

Dana — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:56:44 +0000

A couple of months ago I was asked by “WIRED”:2 magazine to judge a contest as part of “NextFest”:1 they were holding to create a Universal Wi-Fi Icon. In speaking with them about why they were holding the contest, the Drew Schutte, “WIRED’s”:2 publisher, told me that he and his staff saw how Wi-Fi networks, especially free, community-based ones like “NYCwireless”:3 were using their prevalence and success to cause social change. He said he believed that through Community Wireless Networks and Municipal Networks, the dream of universal, affordable internet access was finally making progress. Drew thought that with all of their organizational vision, the one thing that lots of these networks lacked was visibility. And what better way to bring some visibility to their work but to create an an icon that can be used by all of those communities to indicate the availability of free Wi-Fi.

Barbara Bloemink, Curatorial Director, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and Colleen Macklin, Design Department Chair, Parsons The New School for Design, the other judges for the icon contest, sat and discussed the many creative submissions for hours on end. The choice was difficult. We thought about lots of different directions, from showcasing the “free” part to of community wireless networks, to the internet connectivity that such networks usually provide, to the community engagement and development that generally lives at the core of such groups, to the ubiquitous nature of most municipal wireless efforts. We even had discussions about the nature of the design language that we wanted to promote with the icon choice so that when given to the community, the icon can be developed and take on a number of descriptive roles.

!http://static.flickr.com/144/320591936_cefda250a6_t.jpg!:6 !http://static.flickr.com/132/320591927_9f39f45481_t.jpg!:7 !http://static.flickr.com/131/320591920_9ebde88f6a_t.jpg!:8 !http://static.flickr.com/135/320591913_703eb1db9f_t.jpg!:9
!http://static.flickr.com/141/320591905_099ab24390_t.jpg!:10 !http://static.flickr.com/138/320591896_938c17dc0d_t.jpg!:11 !http://static.flickr.com/129/320591890_05b8af528e_t.jpg!:12 !http://static.flickr.com/133/320591884_180fa19ef2_t.jpg!:13
!http://static.flickr.com/138/320591878_a949e07781_t.jpg!:14 !http://static.flickr.com/129/320591867_72c1def1e9_t.jpg!:15 !http://static.flickr.com/123/320591862_230383c858_t.jpg!:16 !http://static.flickr.com/131/320591854_42e7798fe3_t.jpg!:17
!http://static.flickr.com/126/320591847_a369e15364_t.jpg!:18 !http://static.flickr.com/135/320591839_93c7efdd62_t.jpg!:19 !http://static.flickr.com/129/320591830_bebf9bf415_t.jpg!:20 !http://static.flickr.com/123/320591825_98cfde7e4d_t.jpg!:21
!http://static.flickr.com/130/320591819_d4372aff37_t.jpg!:22 !http://static.flickr.com/139/320591812_e78106646b_t.jpg!:23

In the end, because of how such community and municipal networks are expanding across the world, especially in developing countries, and because we didn’t want to constrain the iconography to a single language (English), we chose a simple globe with the ubiquitous radiating signal lines. The design is both easy to understand (these networks connect us to each other throughout the world) and universal (at least, we believe that a “globe” is mostly understood as representing the Earth), and should be able to be used across the myriad community and municipal networks around the world.

The winning design was submitted by Val Frixione from Los Angeles, CA:

!http://static.flickr.com/127/320635794_598c6856ac.jpg!:24

Val says, “A wireless hot spot is like a digital oasis that enables us to connect to the world. This is the main concept behind the proposed design: the depiction of planet earth offering a wireless connection to those who need one.”

One of the interesting extensions that we finished our day discussing was the concept of locality that is a basis of most community networks. Though people understand that the internet a universal and world-wide tool, community networks are local creations, reflecting the needs and structures of local communities. For example, in New York City, our community wireless networks are based in parks and public spaces, since that’s where so many residents and visitors spend their time. Compare that to Montreal (home of “Ile Sans Fil”:5), where the culture (and weather in the winter) drive many indoors to cafes, or to Champaign-Urbana (home of “CUWiN”:4), where lack of choice and affordability of internet access has driven a suburban and rural community to develop a mesh network that grows from house to house.

In order to reflect the different types of local structures and venues, one of the first iconographic extensions I’d like to see is the creation of supplemental icons, like coffee cups, buildings, trees, houses, and so on that can be used to indicate the type of nodes that are available on the network. Such icons can appear on the node profiles and maps.

Continuing in this local context, additional icons that reflect the capabilities and content of each local node should also be developed. For example, for the urban style hotspots in New York, Montreal, and many other cities, we can have supplemental icons that indicate there’s local content, music, art, and commerce that is available at that location through the hotspot.

There are lots of other ideas that are possible. We’ll be starting to develop some of them, and others should make use of the icons and come up with other ideas as well.

[1]http://www.nextfest.net
[2]http://www.wiredmag.com
[3]http://www.nycwireless.net
[4]http://www.cuwireless.net
[5]http://www.ilesansfil.org
[6]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591936/
[7]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591927/
[8]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591920/
[9]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591913/
[10]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591905/
[11]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591896/
[12]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591890/
[13]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591884/
[14]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591878/
[15]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591867/
[16]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591862/
[17]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591854/
[18]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591847/
[19]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591839/
[20]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591830/
[21]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591825/
[22]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591819/
[23]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320591812/
[24]http://www.flickr.com/photos/danaspiegel/320635794/