Mesh/UserResearch

Revision as of 22:39, 14 November 2017 by Tunabananas (talk | contribs)

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

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


Digital Divide Working Group - OpenOakland (2013)

Meeting Minutes

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

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

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?