Mesh/UserResearch

This page has been marked as stale, as it is outdated to the point of providing significant misinformation. Please update it before linking other pages here.

Information on our recent outreach, e.g. to LOLspace and the Village in 2018, would be appreciated here.

Based on the interviews and research below, a number of Use Cases were developed for the mesh.

We have also interviewed a number of other community mesh networks from around the world.

Digital Divide Working Group - OpenOakland (2013)

Meeting Minutes

• 24 January 2013
• 06 February 2013
• 19 February 2013
• 07 March 2013
• 19 March 2013
• 09 May 2013

Interviews

• Kapor Center - 17 April 2013 - Notes
• Kurt from Youth Radio - 22 April 2013 - Notes

User Research for Tidepools (2013)

February

• 7th, 5:30-7pm: Alcides Gutierrez - VaporOne - Designing a community mesh in Exelsior, San Francisco. Interview Notes
• 10th, evening: George Gleason - CTel - Creating a worker-owned cooperative telephony/mesh network to compete with AT&T. Transcription forthcoming Interview Transcription
• 11th-16th Attempts to schedule interview with Cassandra Chen - SOL (Sustaining Ourselves Locally) / Teacher at Oakland Unified School District - Works with middle- and high-school youth in East Oakland; has worked on neighborhood mapping projects.
• 18th, evening: Jen-Mei Wu - Liberating Ourselves Locally - Oakland Makerspace - Founder of a People of Color (POC) run and led makerspace in East Oakland that works alongside several other DIY community-based organizations. Interview Notes
• 22nd: Attempts to schedule interview with Matt from the Bikery, who also has a home 510pen node.

March

• 6th: Attempted Communication with Youth Movement Records - Organization that gets youth involved in music production and community leadership.
• 6th-13th: Attempts to Schedule Interview with Spike at Urban Strategies - Oakland organization focused on transforming low-income communities.
• 14th, 2-3pm: Angela Woodall - Reporter for the Oakland Tribune passionate about open data and app development, interested in discussing ideas for a crisis response app. Interview Notes
• 18th, 3-4pm: Open Garden - Startup focused on developing more robust internet connectivity through creating a network of bluetooth-enabled devices. Interview Notes
• 19th-22nd: Sustainable Economies Law Center - "Education, research and advocacy for just and resilient local economies." Correspondance with Sustainable Economies Law Center

Informants

• Mark Burdett - 510pen / EFF - Resuscitating an East Bay community mesh network, with a number of nodes deployed but currently inactive concentrated in East Oakland. Interested in integrating Tidepools.
• Greg Bloom - Provisions Library - Failed community mesh project in DC, now developing a social services directory to integrate with LocalWiki.
• Beau - The #Fort - Mobile hackerspace out of an ambulance, seeding grassroots pop-up hackerspaces across the U.S. Mobile mesh node.
• Dennis - East Bay Job Developers - Dedicated to helping youth, low-income, formerly incarcerated, homeless, and veterans find jobs in the East Bay and learn basic digital literacy skills.
• Bilal Ghalib - GEMSI.org - Starting and documenting makerspaces across the Middle East.

Still to reach out to

• Oakland Public Library Computer Education - Oakland Public Library branches offer computer education and training. Mesh nodes in public libraries??

Interview Questions

For People Working on Mesh Projects

• Who is this mesh network for? (What sorts of communities do you personally feel drawn to serving?)
• How are you involved in your communities mesh network? What is your role?
• What is the goal of this network/project? What are some of the problems you're looking to solve with your project?
  • (if this is a goal) How will the community mesh network enhance civic participation? face to face interaction?
• What kinds of data do you see as important for residents / community members to have instantly available to them?
  • What information do individuals want to share with each other within a community?
• What are the challenges that you see to making a community mesh network happen? What do you need to address these challenges?
• Do you have funding for the project? What is it from?
• What other organizations / projects (or types of organizations / projects ) are you going to be / hoping to collaborate with?

For Organizations Addressing Access to Technology

• Who (e.g. groups and communities) does your organization serve?
• What is your service / what do you provide for the community you serve?
• What's your role in the organization?
• How is your organization addressing the issue of access to technology in Oakland? What is your overall goal? How do you work to achieve that goal day to day?
• What technologies / apps are you currently using? What do you use to organize? To socially network online and offline? To spread information? To solve problems?
• What kinds of technologies are being used by the people you serve? What do you they to organize? To socially network online and offline? To spread information? To solve problems?
• What resources do you wish you had access to day to day?
• What kinds of data do you see as important for residents / community members to have instantly available to them?
• What would you need in order to effectively achieve your mission?
• What challenges do you face in achieving your mission? / What are some of the potential barriers to success for the organization?
• What other sorts of organizations / projects are you working with or are you hoping to collaborate with?