Inspiring stuff happening in Kansas City :)
See http://oaklandwiki.org/Digital_Divide for relevant organizations
working on these issues in Oakland.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jenny <jenny(a)thepyre.org>
Date: Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 7:38 AM
Subject: [FNF] How We Connect Low Income People to the Internet
To: tunabananas <tunabananas(a)gmail.com>
* --- forwarded message --- *
Sun Nov 03 2013 06:52:01 AM PST from "Michael Liimatta" <
michael(a)connectingforgood.org> Subject: [FNF] How We Connect Low Income
People to the Internet
[image: hiring]
The Digital Divide is very real in Kansas City. We believe it is one of
the most important social justice issues of our day.
· 25% of Kansas City area residents don’t have broadband Internet access at
home. (3-5 Mb)
· 42% of those who don’t use the Internet have annual household incomes of
under $25,000, most of whom live in low income housing.
· 46% of nonusers are minorities.
· 70% of Kansas City Public Schools students do not have the Internet in
their homes. *
At Connecting for Good, our core belief is that connectivity equals
opportunity. Access to the Internet brings with it a chance to apply for
jobs online, connections with family and friends, access to virtual library
shelves, information about medical and health issues, online education –
GED completion and college courses – and a whole lot more. These are
resources with the potential to help an under resourced family move toward
a healthier, happier and more secure future.
To make the Internet more accessible, especially for those who live in
Kansas City’s under resourced neighborhoods, we have developed a
multifaceted approach to making affordable connectivity available.
*Affordable and Accessible Internet Through Wireless Networks*
[image: map]<http://www.connectingforgood.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/map.jpg>
We are uniting with other nonprofit organizations, schools, government
entities and neighborhood associations to increase Internet access to
underserved inner city communities. As a wireless ISP, Connecting for Good
is building a network of inter-connected microwave towers, along with our
partners, the Free Network Foundation and the KC Freedom Network.
Most recently, we were engaged by the Urban Neighborhood Initiative to do
an engineering and feasibility for the Troost
Corridor<http://www.big5kc.com/greater-neighborhoods/troost-corridor-map/>.
UNI is one of the Big 5 initiatives of the Kansas City Chamber of
Commerce. We have also been involved with similar studies with a school
and another community group. Our goal is to create a strategy for engaging
additional partners to work with us to build community owned and operated
wireless networks.
*Neighborhood-wide Wi-Fi Deployments*
[image: juniper]
The wireless backbone has created an opportunity to “light up” entire
neighborhoods with Wi-Fi mesh
networks<http://www.connectingforgood.org/understanding-mesh-networks-video/>that
will bring extremely affordable connectivity to individual homes,
businesses and nonprofit organizations. We are currently working
with neighborhood associations, property owners, residents and other
community groups who are interested in building such locally owned and
operated networks.
*Multi-family Properties*
[image: RR2]
One of the groups with the lowest rates of in-home Internet access is
families who live in public housing and Section 8 multi-unit properties.
We have already built Wi-Fi networks in three of these facilities that
provide free Internet to over 500 low income households. We are in working
toward developing similar projects at additional properties throughout the
Kansas City Metro area.
*Public Access Computer Centers*
*[image: public_lab2]*
Until everyone has Internet access in their own homes, we must provide
public places where people can connect to the Internet. Connecting for Good
is partnering with community groups to create more public access computer
centers. As a Microsoft Registered Refurbisher, we create high quality
inexpensive computers by collecting used PCs, wiping their data and
installing new operating systems and other software. Using this recycled
equipment, we are setting up public spaces where residents can access the
Internet and all the resources it offers. Through our free digital life
skills classes <http://www.connectingforgood.org/digital-life-skill/>, we
are helping many who have never used a computer to become productive
first-time Internet users.
*Free Wi-Fi in Public Spaces*
*[image: wifi]*
Working with community partners we are also creating hotspots in strategic
locations in the inner city such as bus stops and other well-trafficked
public places. The goal is very simple to bring the Internet to people
where they are.
If you are interested in supporting our efforts or wish to learn more
about engaging us for a project in your neighborhood or facility, please
use our contact form <http://www.connectingforgood.org/contact-us/>.
For more information about our efforts, watch our recent presentation to
the Kansas City MO City
Council<http://www.connectingforgood.org/city-council-presentation/>(
10/31/13).
* Google Fiber’s study Kansas City’s Digital
Divide<https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3QoaUQ_F4CjT3VuaGRxYW4yR28/edit?pli=1>released
on June 22, 2012.
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS NEWSLETTER SIMPLY REPLY AND TYPE “UNSUBSCRIBE” IN
THE SUBJECT LINE
*[image: horizontal2]* <http://www.connectingforgood.org/>
*Michael Liimatta, President & Co-founder3101 Troost Avenue, Kansas City MO
64109 Phone: (816) 217-9637 <%28816%29%20217-9637> **@connectingkc
<https://twitter.com/connectingkc>*
* http://www.connectingforgood.org <http://www.connectingforgood.org/>*
(, 0 bytes) Download <http://mimepart_download/0/>
Hi!
Great stuff.
Mitar
-------- Original Message --------
From: Kurtis Heimerl <kheimerl(a)cs.berkeley.edu>
Subject: [eecs-announce] Dissertation Talk: Community Cellular Networks
To: eecs-announce(a)lists.eecs.berkeley.edu
Title: Community Cellular Networks
Speaker: Kurtis Heimerl
Advisors: Eric Brewer and Tapan Parikh
Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Time: 2:00 PM
Place: 242 Sutardja Dai Hall (Not Soda, Jorge took the nice room :( )
Abstract: Cellular networks are one of the most important innovations of
the 20th century, with over six billion subscribers across all continents
on Earth. Despite this, hundreds of millions of people in rural areas
remain without coverage. We see two reasons for this: First, cellular
installations are very expensive to install in rural areas, with power
costs dominating the price of the total install. Secondly, cellular
equipment is traditionally installed top-down, with major nation-scale
providers bringing coverage to rural areas. In this work, we propose the
model of Community Cellular Networks, small scale, low cost, locally
operated cellular networks.
To enable community cellular networks, we utilize OpenBTS, an open-source
implementation of the GSM um layer. Building on this, we implemented two
key technological innovations. The first is Virtual Coverage. Virtual
Coverage introduces a sleep mode into the GSM protocol, allowing the base
station (BTS) to sleep when the network is idle, reducing power draw. An
autonomous radio, the WUR, allows users to wake the BTS when they need to
communicate. Secondly, we implemented the Village Base Station, a series of
extensions to OpenBTS and FreeSWITCH allowing for easily customizable
cellular networks.
These innovations were evaluated in the context of an in situ deployment of
both Virtual Coverage and the Village Base Station in a small community in
rural Papua, Indonesia. Through this 10 month ongoing deployment, we found
that Virtual Coverage reduced the night power draw of the network by 56.6%.
We also found that the Village Base Station allowed us to build a network
well suited to the community. As of now, it has handled over 200 thousand
SMS and is financially sustainable for the local operator, even if they
were forced to finance the network entirely.
I plan on purchasing Rambutan for this talk as well. Take that under
advisement.
--
http://mitar.tnode.com/https://twitter.com/mitar_m
May be a good target for finishing the mesh firmware and setting up some
nodes at sudo..
I can be there, anyone else interested?
On Nov 4, 2013 1:14 PM, "Jeremy Dalmas" <jdalmas(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Sudo-ers,
>
> I mailed this list a couple weeks ago, but wanted to ask again. For the
> next Oakland Nights Live, on the evening of November 9th, we are having a
> series of booths to visit rather than a proper stage show. There will be a
> variety artists, performers, and informers who will interact with a few
> audience members at a time. We would love to have 1 or 2 people from the
> Sudo room have a booth or do a demonstration if any of you are excited
> about it.
>
> I'd be happy to answer any questions, and I can give you more info to
> anyone who is interested.
>
> Thanks for any interest and thanks in general for sharing the space with
> us.
>
> -Jeremy
>
> _______________________________________________
> sudo-discuss mailing list
> sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org
> http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>
>
My friend Pete Eyre from Cop Block was in town last week as a part of a
Police Accountability Tour and met up with us at the MeshNets 101 meetup
to learn more about the technology. In hearing about the Sudomesh
project, he decided to check out the meeting last Thursday and also the
Cryptoparty this Sunday.
He wrote this blog post:
http://www.copblock.org/39047/meshnets-transparency/
And we're going to be working together on Pt. 2 which highlights the
more tech stuff for those that are interested.
Let me know if there's anything specific about community mesh networks
or specifics from the process that Sudomesh is going through to include.
Obviously I'm more familliar with mobile mesh tech that Open Garden
made, but I've got a good handle on the home router mesh tech too - but
any input is greatly appreciated!
Pete and Cop Block both have pretty big followings (at least nationally)
so hopefully this gets the word out a bit more about this technology.
Peace!!
-Paige
Hey all,
I'm at Laney College right now. They have an open wireless network! Perhaps
they will be interested in joining peoplesopen.net. Unsure if we have a
list already, but I set one up here:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Potential_locations
Going to do some hacking on the wiki for navigational purposes. If other
people have ideas for things that should be on the wiki, please start them!
// Matt
