On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 3:05 AM, howard dyckoff <howarddy@gmail.com> wrote:

Most of the Mesh network activity was previously confined to SF.

I think there was some activity in North Oakland 2-3 years back.

If I recall correctly, the cells have to be within half a mile or a third of a mile of each other.... pls verify, I'm sure the range has increased gradually.

And I think the min cost of a local neighborhood transmitter and antennae was between $500 and $1000 a few years ago. I hope that pricing is better now.

The problem, I think , is that the areas most in need of this have fewer and less successful neighborhood associations and fewer households that could afford to setup mesh nodes.

That's unfortunate since this could provide really inexpensive internet access for everyone.

I am sure "Business Improvement Districts" could be involved, but there are few of them operating in East and West Oakland. We'd need a big grant to cover those areas -- or a lot of neighborhood organizing.

And we'd have to plan for some of the equipment being stolen. As an example, the new library at 81st Ave, where we held an event earlier this year, had many of its computers stolen a few weeks after it opened.

But I don't want to be too negative here. I would definitely support this effort.

On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 7:14 PM, Eddie Tejeda <eddie@codeforamerica.org> wrote:

Hey everyone!

Checkout this cool project by Preston Rhea, from Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation. He's thinking that Oakland will be one of the pilot cities. There are existing local mesh network projects in the area, right? People know how those projects are doing? This could be a collaborative opportunity.

http://crowdhitch.millennialtrain.co/campaign/detail/1330

The project is to spread locally-managed community wireless mesh networks around the country. I'll teach local technologists and community organizers how to use regular Wi-Fi routers and free, open source software to build their own community Internet infrastructure.

The project will use Commotion, a free, open source software project designed to make it easy for anyone to set up their own mesh network. We'll share tools and methods for participatory technology pedagogy, and the routers that we set up together will remain with the locals to seed their own mesh networks. With these seeds spread, people in each city can continue to grow locally-managed Internet networks and spur innovation on a shared platform accessible to any resident.

--

Eddie A. Tejeda

@eddietejeda
2012 Fellow, Code for America

http://codeforamerica.org

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