I have more or less an idea, but I'm going to get a wiki page up with the
offerings/speeds. It's gonna make u wanna cry when u see it. I'll hit you
back here when I finish.
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On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 3:12 AM, Matt Senate <mattsenate(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Kevin,
Have you found any example mesh or community networks that might parallel
the context of Puerto Rico?
Also, I'm curious, do you know of any good sources on the access and
distribution of internet connections as well as broadband or high-speed
service currently available there?
Thanks,
Matt
On Saturday, February 3, 2018, Kevin Shockey <shockeyk(a)gmail.com> wrote:
How de we get here??????
Disclaimer: I've been in Puerto Rico for 23 years, more than any other
place
I've ever lived, even good ol'e Kokomo. I've visited back to the
states as often as I can, but living on a retired veterans income places
it's own limitations on mobility. So this is all I really know. I know
other places share similar behaviors and traits. My frustrations are the
same as the FUD resistance for any community. Oh yeah, please don't judge
me if my observations are harsh. Sometimes science can be cruel.
A brief riff on FLOSS, community, and the IT
industry in Puerto RIco
Let me preface this by saying that I believe that science is the route I
will
follow at the beginning of this. The post-Maria disaster presented
some very significant findings and they must be documented to move things
forward.
So, here we go, take a deep breath. We're
about dive into a hard
answer. Lately I've been trying to look at my
observations from some very
open places, so that I may gain some perspective. So this is the first
forum where I'm trying share this new view.
I believe that there are some very strong
communities on the island, but
only a few are what we might call technology
communities. Let's take car
enthusiasts as an example, the coherence within these groups is high, they
meet regularly and openly share tech, ideas, values, etc. They are active
online and connect regularly. Coming from the Midwest, racing and cars are
common. Enthusiasts pursue a strong community for the love of racing and
cars. Some can make a career and/or profit off of the base, most do it
because, as we say here they are "fiebru." Translated it basically means
they have a fever for the topic of their obsession. I believe that these
groups are the future of community in Puerto Rico.
Now let's look at the tech arena. To my
knowledge, there only a couple
of "open" communities. One is the social
media arena, but they don't have
a core group, more like a core group of people from varying orgs. Some
groups have come and gone, but none has withstood the inherent pressures of
being the "lead" group. there some quazi-tech groups which are parts of
other purpose groups, like a local sales and marketing association.
The other group has an information security focus
and they have been
operating for about 6 years now. They are a talented group and
I'm sure
they will help. I know the founders so, I hope that we're good (more on
them later). In the 23 years I've been here groups come and go, but most
(all?) fell prey to market forces. My new theory is that these types of
communities fail because of the intersection between business/career
interests and the welfare of the community.
An associate of mine from the prPIG days shared
this observation
recently. Only 3.5 million peeps, and dropping quickly, live on
the main
island. Maybe 1.5 million households. We are just too small to have any
technology niche.
Negative forces on community:
1) Due to our small population, just how muchy technology talent do we
have? With
low high-school graduation rates, it probably at the low end of
any national norms.
2) PR has a very low incoming migratory rate. As
opposed to the 48
contiguous states, you just can't drive to relocate here.
Most immigration
we have is from the Dominican Republic.
3) PR has a very high migration out of island,
the infamous brain
drain. Yes the hurricane has accelerated the process but we
retain very
few of the most talented of our new graduates. They are heavily recruited
on campus. Outside the scope (or is it?) of this research is the brain
drain within the medical community. We face an uncertain public health
issue with the very real lack of doctors. Many have not reopened after the
hurricane and have relocated. It is unknown if they will return to their
practices
4) Many participants within technology
communities are more interested
in personal advancement. No different than most
places, but bear with me.
5) Finally, if you accept that a community is
strongest when it is
driven for the love of it, and not merely to advance the
community, then
what happens when the leaders of the organizations, which are meant to
address deep social problems (literacy, media literacy, a free and open
Internet, the digital divide, etc) siphon off the energy from their
communities for personal reasons? Happens everywhere right, but what if
this behavior was systemic.
After applying all of these forces, we are
limited to a very small
population of technology enthusiasts who are just not
enough to keep a
community alive (the negative forces grind them down until they move on to
something else). It is not unheard of someone coming into a community to
spread FUD within the ranks, especially when the advancements of the
community would have threatened an established player.
Bottom line, my theory is, to get enough nodes to
create a viable
network, it will come from a community of communities (collective
of
collectives). I further believe that public safety might be the in for
this rich tapestry of fiebrus across the island. Sorry if this was too
long, but there are no easy answers when it comes to community in Puerto
Rico.
BTW, IMHO for the gold-standard metric of our IT
industry, look at the
Puerto Rico economy at a glance.
https://data.bls.gov/
pdq/SurveyOutputServlet It goes back to 1990. If you will notice, the
size of out IT industry has been in sharp decline for a while. Without
effective leadership we will have nearly erased all of the job growth back
to when I first came in 1995. Meaning, there are no more IT jobs today than
there were back in the mid 90's
PS: Eve, I would love to hear more about the ham
relay system. Since
I'm still doing research so I don't know enough yet,
but I've heard of ham
radio based tcp/ip, which sounds very promising.
--
Kevin Shockey
Artist, Scientist, Activist
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Kevin Shockey
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