Mesh/20 June 2013

June 20th Meeting Minutes

Attendees

• Chris J, Jenny, Max, Juul, Miguel, Eddan.com, Sam

Action Items

• Decide on name (some suggested options further down in the notes)
• Research 501(c)x statuses: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Tax_Structure_Research
• Put together a brochure / pamphlet
• Website (contingent on name)
• Splash page design
• Glossary of terms (eg Fresnal zone, Hidden Node problem, etc) on the wiki - MaxB began: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Terms

Misc Notes

• Community wireless vs. Municipal (gov run) or Corporate (eg Google Wifi)
• Hidden Node Problem:
  • Request-to-Send and Clear-to-Send
  • TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_division_multiple_access
    • Someone at Noisebridge has worked on this, could maybe help port from FreeBSD to Linux?

Checking out the hardware!

• • Don't power them up without the antennas!!
  • Need adapters for the external antennas to bullets
  • AirGrids can only run on 5.2V max, meant to run off USB
  • NanoBridges and AirGrids are 5GHz and will serve as the rooftop backbone of the mesh.
  • PicoStations are the street-level routers

Crowdfunding Campaign

• Raised over $1600 in one week! Awesome!
• Legal structure of accepting donations
  • Very good accounting
• Should investigate 501(c)4
  • Talk to folks at the SELC, recommended 501(c)7
• Talking to Noisebridge and SchoolFactory in the next week or two about umbrella-ing under their 501(c)3

Survey Responses

• FILL IN
• 2/3 like the current logo

Name Suggestions

• Mycelium
• Wicelium
• Sudo Mesh
• Meta Mesh
• Root Net
• Super Web
• The Trunk
• Hive 10
• Orga Net
• Open and Notorious
• Sudo Net
• Oakland Wireless Network (OWN)
• Oakland Community-Organized Resilient Network (OCORN)
• Oakland Community Network

Marketing Discussion

• Sudo meant to reflect empowerment to fix it or make it yourself
  • Include a brief definition of SUDO at the bottom of marketing materials
• 'FREE WIFI' sign and/or stickers for the mesh
• Adopt-A-Picostation
• COLLATe utf8mb4_unicode_ci for mounting and running a node and link to online marketplaces on the site

Folks to reach out to

• Internet Archive and Brewster
• Kapor Foundation

Report Backs

• Still need to make a protocol decision
• Inventory Tracking! Mycelia Zero should be completed by next week: Decentralized network of tools/objects, projects and people/skills - Access control (choose to share)
  • Need a weather-resistant sticker or tagging system - RFIDs?
  • MyAssetTag.com - aluminum matte tags - available very tiny (0.25" x 1") in batches of 100 for $32
  • 'Property Of' stamps / tattoos to discourage theft
• OpenOakland feedback:
  • Someone has a roof in the hills with a view of the airport (and thus LOL)

Outreach Strategy

• Origin of the outdoor mesh could be LOL/SOL/Cycles Bikery
• Would be easier to connect W Oakland
• We could split the hardware 50/50 between West and East Oakland, then run a campaign to reach across the divides in Oakland to connect the two meshes!
• Reach up to Richmond to Internet Archive's awesome node!

Mounting Solutions

• Flower pots! (with plants that won't obstruct!)
• Birdhouses
• On the eve of the rooftop outside would be ideal
• Flags (American or Pirate version)

Firmware

• Directing network traffic is the major technical challenge
• Encourage participants to use BitTorrent clients that support uTP (microtorrent protocol)
• Should have two options:

1. People replace their existing access point (which they donate to us) with a PicoStation 2. People keep their existing access point and add the PicoStation to their setup, which runs off their router

• • Folks can also host a rooftop node
• Focus on aesthetic unobstrusiveness
• Set up a way to split the network into several access points: back channel (for the mesh nodes to connect to eachother), open channel (for public connecting) and private channel (for folks in house/etc, more bandwidth, can be secured with password, etc)
• Things to add to the firmware:
  • Privoxy! Non-caching web proxy for block "obnoxious internet junk"
  • Ghostery (protect from tracking)
  • Adblock (allow for easy opt-in)
• Put passwords on the PoE adapters and let people maintain their own node's level of privacy, upgrades, etc

Useful Anecdotes

• Internet Archive has created a super node up in Richmond (~15km from here)
• Chris has used a dish and 4ft antenna like ours and with line of sight reached up to 2 miles
• Chris has created a router with an xbee radio (cheaper, takes less power) hooked up to the serial port to take in different kinds of sensor data
  • Air quality egg
  • Router w/ xbee unit for additional cost

Needs

• Antennas towers
  • Telescoping flagpoles! (suggested by Seattle Meshnet) - up to 20ft, available Harbor Freight for $50
• Wooden blocks with hinges to direct the Picos
• Ubiquiti sector antennas as major backbone points (2 x 2 x) - up to 40 subscribers, with dishes pointing the signal outward in all directions

Research Assignment

Homework Assignment: Research a Mesh Project that has succeeded or failed

• Week 1: Marc
• Week 2: Jenny
• Week 3: Chris
• August: Eddan

Web Resources

• RadioLabs (antennas and such): http://www.radiolabs.com/
• CeroWRT - solving the issue of bufferbloat in OpenWRT: http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/cerowrt
• BISmark (detect ISP issues and home traffic): http://projectbismark.net/
• MyAssetTag.com (for tagging outdoor routers with barcodes): http://myassettag.com