[sudo-discuss] International Community/Mesh Network Coalition

Hi Labitators! We're starting a coalition for an international coalition of free/libre community and mesh networks. One of the first goals is to define a license for free networks similar to a free software license, so that all of the current free networks can connect to each other. We're trying to get funding from the Night Foundation and your tweets, facebook likes, etc. will help a lot! Here's the main link with more info: https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/2014/submissions/toward-a-network-c… Also, thanks to everyone from Labitat who helped fund our local Oakland mesh project! Here's a small status update: We've developed a new OpenWRT compatible firmware based on German and Slovenian projects + our own code. We are currently testing ~25 nodes deployed around the bay area to find and eliminate the worst bugs before a wider release of ~100 nodes. We've been developing an automated mesh node deployment system that allows us to take supported routers out of the box and flash and configure them for use in our network with minimal human intervention. It is almost complete, and it uses the sticker printer program developed by Asbjorn from Labitat to automatically print a sticker with your basic info (e.g. your default password) that we stick on the the routers before shipping to new node operators. One of the awesome things about our firmware is that it allows you to choose how much of your own internet connection you want to share with the mesh, and all mesh traffic is routed through a VPN owned by the local mesh organization which handles all abuse complaints or legal inquiries. This functionality makes the mesh nodes immediately useful, even before we reach a node density where new nodes are likely to be within reach of existing nodes. This concept was first implemented by wlan slovenja so all credit to them! Our local non-profit mesh organization is called sudo mesh ( https://sudomesh.org ) and the network is called People's Open Network ( https://peoplesopen.net ). sudo mesh is providing a firmware and support for getting on peoplesopen.net and will start selling pre-flashed routers for peoplesopen.net later this year. sudo mesh is focused on Oakland. We are making sudo mesh an easily forkable organization, with all material (legal documents, code, marketing material, documentation) available under open licenses, and we are encouraging others to create groups like sudo mesh that support peoplesopen.net in other geographic areas. If someone wants to start a mesh organization in e.g. Copenhagen, as a fork of sudo mesh, then reach out to info(a)sudomesh.org and we will do our best to facilitate! -- marc/juul