All:
As of yesterday, we have a new Internet connection originating at
my house, and shared with Jake's and Marc's (is that LiveLabs2? Y'all ain't on the map!) and other neighbors.
There are a few significant bits of news here. I may be repeating myself on some of this:
- We're using Megapath business services as our ISP. In our case, they're reselling Comcast cable service -- the only reasonable/available option here. They are good because (1) there is no restriction on sharing or even reselling service; (2) it includes a Service Level Agreement, i.e. guaranteed uptime threshold. All that (especially #2) means that it's somewhat more expensive than other options, but we don't care -- it fits our needs. And having at least one node we can talk about very publicly, without fear of ISP objections, seems very worthwhile.
- The account is in Sudo Mesh's name, meaning that we could theoretically set up additional nodes. (But in practice, I will be paying the bills and collecting others' share -- so let's only do that if we have rock-solid payment processes in place first.)
- We're dividing this up in an interesting way, that might be a useful model. Marc and I are serving as "primary node sponsors" because we each rely on the connection for our work. We are taking responsibility for making sure the bill gets paid, even if others don't participate. In addition, we have up to four other households (in my house and next door) that we hope to join in, paying $30/month each. All have agreed at least tentatively. And if they do participate, we can extend the availability of the free #peoplesopen.net SSID from their homes too! The neighbors like both the idea of cheap Internet, and the idea that they are helping promote a social good.
- I wrote up a one-page explanation for those neighbors. I'll post a sanitized version of it on the wiki soon; hopefully it can help serve as a model for other neighbor arrangements.
- As it turned out, one of the neighbors (Frank) had FOUND the free WiFi node already, canceled his ISP, looked up the People's Open web site, and was enthusiastic about the idea before I even brought it up to him! He also paid his first month proactively, as soon as I suggested the idea. So, this is a good indication that our idea is working!!
Thought you'd all enjoy knowing about this. Please feel free to hit me up with questions or ideas!
-Pete
[[User:Peteforsyth]] on the wiki