Hi y'all,

A few of us have been hacking on the peoplesopen.net website, attempting to improve the content, flow, and general presentation of information. This has been long overdue and are looking for all the input we can get. If you would like to share your comments on the website, we are currently working out of https://pad.riseup.net/p/meshguides.

This effort was triggered by recent comments from a friend of mine for whom we installed a node. For posterity (and with his permission), I'm copying portions of my email conversation with him regarding node mounting and the website. I responded to his questions and concerns, but I'm hoping they get people thinking about what improvements could be made to our website and how we do outreach. Read his comments at your leisure.

Thanks,

-grant

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Hi Grant, The [solar panel installers] were here today...I got the idea to go up on the roof to photograph them and put a story about the company on Facebook as I do occasionally to spread the word about something I want to promote. I was surprised when they objected, not to me taking pictures but of the Facebook part, but only because they weren't wearing their special belts and anchoring safety ropes when I photographed...I got to thinking about your antenna installation. I told my neighbor about what you do and he seemed interested so I'll send him the web site. I also asked the solar man if he'd heard about your group .He said he had but didn't know much about it. I went on to ask about whether home owners would be concerned about liability and people going up on their roofs. The solar company has insurance for protection of worker and home owner but I doubt your group pays for that. I'm not worried about this - I can easily go up on the roof if I want and see where you are and what you're doing but most home owners never go up on her own roofs. You should consider getting some kind of legal waver to sign and get signed by people when you go up on a roof. You may have already done this but thought I should mention it.
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I just got some feedback from [my friend], one of two people (my nephew is the other one) to whom I sent the web site to in hopes that they could explain it to me. [He] is quite intellectual and I trust him to be able to understand many things I could never hope to get. He said he had doubts or didn't understand that what you're offering or providing is the same internet with the exact same features as the regular internet. He also didn't understand why someone would want to subscribe to it. This isn't in the spirit of putting it down but I think the web site needs some adjusting so that it can be more clear and streamlined.

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This is the explanation of the system my nephew sent me today. I hope you don't mind me sharing it with you for when you get a chance. I know it's very dumbed down. I told him I understood it except for two questions that remain : Should I expect at some point to get the internet via a different system (company ) than I do now ? How is the connection rendered ? How do I pay for the connection? But I haven't looked at the link he sent me yet.

"So I looked this over, and it is what I thought. I'll try my best to explain it:

I'll assume that you are familiar with home wireless networks. In those networks, you pay an Internet Service Provider (ISP) like Comcast or AT&T for a pipe to the internet. You then connect that pipe to some hardware that broadcasts the internet to multiple wireless devices.

In this "mesh" network they are setting up, the concept is similar. They set-up hardware on lots of people's roofs to broadcast the internet to local devices. These roof-top antennas are connected to one another by a different wireless transmission method, generally a line-of-sight, one-to-one connection. They call this roof-top network a "mesh" because that's what it looks like when you draw lines between the roof-top antennas and view it from above. Large companies often have a huge pipe to the internet, many times larger than homes, allowing them to share some of their internet access with the mesh network for others to use.

The idea behind some of these networks is to install enough antennas that they can cover many homes and offer their internet to low-income individuals for very low prices. Because of the cost of hardware, they rely on the charity of others. Also they need to ask people to install the hardware on their roofs."

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I think selling this as a way to donate to the less fortunate might be hard. I don't mind paying for the cost of the antenna but think most people are going to want to benefit from it directly. It would be a little like going to the March of Dimes and being told, "You can donate to birth defects but first we have a suggested donating fee". You've probably told me all this before and it went in one ear and out the other, but what is your favorite reason for doing it, for example, does your group have a list a charities that you want to help get internet ? Is it for building community and if so what kind of community ?
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