This page is for research on Berkeley's historical and planned internet infrastructure and access statistics, active organizations tackling the digital divide, local ISPs that allow for sharing bandwidth in their Terms of Service, as well as community hubs, local businesses, and other potential locations for mesh nodes.

Research

City of Berkeley Broadband Infrastructure Report and Recommendations (June 2015): https://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2015-06-23-Item-11-Broadband-Infrastructure.pdf

Organizations

The following is a curation of organizations addressing the digital divide in Berkeley:

Mesh-friendly ISPs

Some ISPs allow sharing of Internet access and others do not. We provide node owners with a list of local ISPs that are known to allow sharing of Internet access and advise them that some ISPs may not allow sharing. The worst case scenario here is that one or more users get their Internet disconnected for terms of service violation.

The ISPs in the East Bay that allow Internet Connection sharing (that we know of) are:

Key

+ = contact(s)

! = rooftop(s)

$ = interested in a space

Italics are relevant musings.

Locations

See also prospective node map

Schools

Resilient communication; internship opportunities; mentorship

UC Berkeley
Maybeck High School

Libraries

Hooking up library catalogs would be rad... and libraries are the last bastion of nurturing public spaces.

Talk to Ivan

Public Areas

Public wifi on the streets and in parks

People's Park

Cohousing Communities

Hyperlocal economies/sharing/barter/timebank; resilient communication tools; neighborhood watch; storytelling

Urban Farms & Community Gardens

Hook up sensors to be informed eg; if garden needs water, coordinate shifts, info on plant care, cropswap coordination...

Phat Beets

Farmer's Markets

Announcing special kinds of produce / advertising healthy local food and crafts/vendors

Dover

Groups

Organizations Working to End the Digital Divide

Local Businesses

Free wifi attracts new people; community bulletin boards; local media streams

Hacker/Makerspaces

DIY instructables; Microcontroller projects; developing application; community media; community bulletin boards to promote classes and events; find tools / skilled people / projects

Hacker Moms*!?

Community Media

Local streams from community spaces that foster self-expression, art and politics; archives and zine library; radio podcasts;

Slingshot
KPFA
Berkeley Liberation Radio

Non-Profits

By Donation-based gift economies and lending libraries; solidarity organizing; "craigslist free and de facto locally-relevant"

The Long Haul*! - Infoshop.
La Pena

Collectives

Community events/gathering organizing; skill-sharing; documentation

A PLACE for Sustainable Living*! - Permaculture mecca located at 1121 64th St in Oakland.
Fort Awesome
Fort Radical

Worker-Owned Cooperatives

Self-organizing and coordination tools; hyperlocal economies;

Ideas

Talk to landlords who own a fair number of properties.
Find folks who might be interested in doing curriculum development for getting kids engaged in community media.
How to remain the anti-Ingress? http://searchengineland.com/ingress-googles-ar-game-a-stealth-local-data-effort-175417
More psychogeographic explorations of the urban landscape in which we live and move
Housing projects?
Put a post on NextDoor for each neighborhood - http://nextdoor.com

Maps of High Demand Areas

Areas where people bike and run - based on Strava Data

Map of the Backbone Fiber, Data Centers and Free Wifi in Oakland and Berkeley

Map of the East Bay

Key:

Red Lines = Existing backbone fiber optic lines in the East Bay

Red Dots = Data Centers connected the the internet backbone (which can be used for future exit nodes)

Green Dots = Existing Relay Nodes with internet access

Blue Dots = Existing Mesh Nodes without internet access

Light Gray Dots = Locations with free wifi (which could become future relay nodes)

Dark Gray Dots = Locations that would benefit from free internet

Mesh/Berkeley

Contents