Difference between revisions of "Mesh"

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[[File:SudoMesh Node.png|frameless|right|300px]]
[[File:SudoMesh Node.png|frameless|right|300px]]


You can read about our progress on our [[Mesh/Blog|blog]]. We're in an alpha testing phase, and our monitoring results can be seen on [https://monitor.sudomesh.org/smokeping/smokeping.cgi?target=Mesh smokeping] or [https://monitor.sudomesh.org/cacti/graph.php?action=view&local_graph_id=217&rra_id=all cacti].
'''sudomesh is a group of volunteers operating out of the [https://sudoroom.org sudo room] hackerspace at the [https://omnicommons.org Omni Commons] - a collective of collectives stewarding a large community space in Oakland, California. We develop software and assemble hardware systems to help build open community networks like the [https://peoplesopen.net People's Open Network], a community-owned and -operated non-profit internet infrastructure in Oakland.'''


Check out the Join Us section below for opportunities to help out!
We're a people-powered project. That means that anyone can join the network if they're willing to contribute by [https://github.com/sudomesh/bugs/issues/new reporting bugs], improving [https://github.com/sudmesh software], fixing hardware, [https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/WalkThrough setting up a node], [https://peoplesopen.net/blog/downtown-oakland-access-point/ installing rooftop nodes], telling your friends about us, [https://peoplesopen.net/blog/build-your-own-internet-workshop/ joining for a workshop], bringing pizza to a hack session, donating  [[Mesh/Wishlist|equipment]]/[https://gratipay.com/sudomesh/ money]/Bitcoin, learning with us about how the internet works, or just being patient if something is broken :)


([[User:Maxb|Maxb]] December 22nd 2015)
You can read about our progress on our [https://peoplesopen.net/blog/ blog].
 
'''Interested in learning more and exploring?''' Check out our [[#Join Us|Join Us]] section. You do not need to be technically skilled to be part of this project. We need people willing to mount gear on rooftops, folks who want to do public outreach, graphic design artists, film-makers, documentarians and so much more! Show up at a monthly general meeting and get involved!


----
----
= Intro =
Imagine if the wifi router in your home connected to the wifi routers in your neighbours' homes and they again connected to their neighbours to form a huge free wireless network spanning the city! That's exactly what a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking mesh network] is, or at least what it can be. Roads and telephone poles are owned by government or private interests and laying down cable is expensive, but by using wireless signals that hop from building to building we can create a community-owned and -operated, free-as-in-freedom alternative to corporate Internet Service Providers. Community wireless mesh networks are growing around the world, creating local 'internets' that support Net Neutrality and community control of critical infrastructure.


'''We are an all-volunteer organization building the People's Open Network, a community-owned and operated non-profit internet infrastructure in Oakland.'''
sudo mesh is a non-profit organization consisting of a group of unpaid volunteers who are building the People's Open Network. Our mission is building open technology that helps to connect our neighbors, support local businesses, and enable community collaboration and cultural production. In the event of a natural disaster or state censorship, a community mesh network can be a resilient means of communication and sharing of information.
 
People's Open Network is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking mesh network] based out of Oakland, California.
 
Imagine if the wifi router in your home connected to the wifi routers in your neighbour’s homes and they again connected to their neighbours to form a huge free wireless network spanning the city! That's exactly what a mesh network is, or at least what it can be. Roads and telephone poles are owned government or private interests and laying down cable is expensive but by using wireless signals that hop from building to building we can create a community owned and operated free-as-in-freedom alternative to corporate Internet Service Providers! Community wireless mesh networks are growing around the world, creating local 'internets' that support Net Neutrality and community control of critical infrastructure.
 
sudo mesh is a non-profit organization consisting of a group of unpaid volunteers who are building People's Open Network. Our mission in building the network is to connect our neighbors, support local businesses, and enable community collaboration and cultural production. In the event of disaster or censorship, a mesh network can be a resilient means of communication and sharing of information.


We are spending a lot of time developing [https://github.com/sudomesh/ software] to make it cheap and easy for anyone to be part of People's Open Network, regardless of technical skill.
We are spending a lot of time developing [https://github.com/sudomesh/ software] to make it cheap and easy for anyone to be part of People's Open Network, regardless of technical skill.
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= Join Us =
= Join Us =
Ways to participate:


* Join the [http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/mesh email list]
* Join the [http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/mesh email list]
* Follow us on [https://twitter.com/sudomesh twitter] and like us on [https://www.facebook.com/sudomesh facebook].
* Follow us on [https://twitter.com/sudomesh twitter] and like us on [https://www.facebook.com/sudomesh facebook].
* Learn more at our general meetings, which are the last Tuesdays of every month at [[Getting_there|sudo room]] at 7:30 pm. We have focus groups and we collaborate on different parts of the project - from design to software development, documentation to community outreach and of course, community outreach and climbing rooftops to mount nodes!
* Learn more at our general meetings, which are the last Tuesday of every month at [[Getting_there|sudo room]] at 7:30 pm. We have focus groups and collaborate on different parts of the project - from design to software development, documentation to hardware hacking, community outreach and climbing rooftops to mount nodes!
* We have '''weekly meetings'' on Tuesdays and '''weekly hacknights''' on Thursdays, 7:30-11:00pm at [[Getting_there|sudo room]], but at these events we do not spend time introducing new people to the project. If you do not feel ready to jump right in and start contributing, please show up for our general meetings (mentioned above) where we specifically take time to intro new volunteers and answer questions :D
* We have '''weekly hacknights''' on the Tuesdays that are not general meetings, 7:30-11:00pm at [[Getting_there|sudo room]], but at these events we do not spend time introducing new people to the project. If you do not feel ready to jump right in and start contributing, please show up for our general meetings (mentioned above) where we specifically take time to intro new volunteers and answer questions :D
* Chat with us on [http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/irctutorial.html IRC]: [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=peoplesopen.net #peoplesopen.net]
* Chat with us on [http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/irctutorial.html IRC]: [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=peoplesopen.net #peoplesopen.net] (see also [[IRC | IRC Intro]])
* We generally collaborate on [https://pad.riseup.net/p/sudomesh meeting notes] at each meeting. Look at our archive of past [[Mesh/Minutes|meeting minutes]]!
* We generally collaborate on [https://pad.riseup.net/p/sudomesh meeting notes] at each meeting. Look at our archive of past [[Mesh/Minutes|meeting minutes]]!
* If you are within range of an existing node (if you can access the internet through a connection with the SSID of "peoplesopen.net") contribute to the network by installing a mesh node at your location - [https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/WalkThrough Follow the walkthrough to build a new node]
* Contribute to the network by installing a mesh node at your location using our handy [https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/WalkThrough Mesh Node Setup Walkthrough]. This is especially helpful for those who are within range of an existing node (seen as a wireless SSID named "peoplesopen.net").
 
If you want to join the mesh you'll need a mesh router at your home! Currently the best way to get one is to show up at our monthly general meeting as described above :)


= How to Help =
= How to Help =
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We need more people on the network to improve the quality of the service. When you setup a node, you improve the service for everybody on the network and give more access to your community. We encourage participants to ask their communities to join their networks and create distributed services for them. We have a [[Mesh/User_Guide|user guide]] to help you get on the network!
We need more people on the network to improve the quality of the service. When you setup a node, you improve the service for everybody on the network and give more access to your community. We encourage participants to ask their communities to join their networks and create distributed services for them. We have a [[Mesh/User_Guide|user guide]] to help you get on the network!


*Check out our [[Mesh/ToDos|action items]]
*Check out our [[Mesh/ToDos|ToDo list]]
*Support us with a small weekly donation on [https://www.gittip.com/sudomesh/ gittip], here's [[Mesh/Purchases|how we spend it]].
*Support us with a small weekly donation on [https://www.patreon.com/peoplesopennet Patreon] or [https://www.gittip.com/sudomesh/ gittip], here's [[Mesh/Purchases|how we spend it]].
*Send bitcoins to our wallet address: {{bitcoin wallet}}
*Send bitcoins to our wallet address: {{bitcoin wallet}}
*Check out our [[Mesh/Wishlist|wishlist]], we have requests!  
*Check out our [[Mesh/Wishlist|wishlist]], we have requests!  
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= Other Firmware and Networks =
= Other Firmware and Networks =


There are [[Mesh/Other mesh projects|other meshes]] around the world that have inspired us to make our own network! They use software from these projects:
There are [[Mesh/Other mesh projects|other meshes]] around the world that have inspired us to make our own network!  
 
* [[Mesh/wlan-slovenia]] (slovenia) - mesh network in Slovenia with the first cross-country links to Austria and Croatia! wlan-sl developers have been incredibly helpful mentors since the beginning of the sudomesh project, and are the founders of the Nodewatcher admin database as well as the Koruza wireless optical link project.
* [[Mesh/Freifunk]] (germany) - the creators of batman-adv (routing protocol we use) and one of the longest-running mesh networks in the world.
* [[Mesh/Freifunk]] (germany) - the creators of batman-adv and one of the longest-running mesh networks in the world.
* [http://guifi.net/en Guifi] (catalonia) - largest community network (using a variety of topologies) in the world - spanning upwards of 22,000 nodes across catalonia and spain. Guifi folks have also been incredibly supportive of sudo mesh and helpful in guiding the international movement toward community wireless networks.
* [[Mesh/Altermundi]] (argentina) - Connecting rural communities in Argentina to the Internet using long range point-to-point links connecting community mesh networks. Developers from Altermundi also contribute extensively to the Libremesh firmware and Librerouter, an open hardware mesh router in development.
* [[Mesh/Funkfeur]] (austria) - another old-school mesh network
* [[Mesh/Ninux]] (italy) - Spanning several cities across Italy, Ninux developers also contribute extensively to research on community networks, the dashboard admin interface NodeShot, and LibreMesh / Librerouter
* [[Mesh/Commotion]] - a very well-documented project from the Open Technology Institute creating a simple-to-deploy mesh firmware and setup for small community meshes around the world.
* [[Mesh/Commotion]] - a very well-documented project from the Open Technology Institute creating a simple-to-deploy mesh firmware and setup for small community meshes around the world.
* [[Mesh/San Francisco]] Mesh projects in San Francisco


= Web Resources =
= Web Resources =

Revision as of 03:04, 31 August 2017

SudoMesh Node.png

sudomesh is a group of volunteers operating out of the sudo room hackerspace at the Omni Commons - a collective of collectives stewarding a large community space in Oakland, California. We develop software and assemble hardware systems to help build open community networks like the People's Open Network, a community-owned and -operated non-profit internet infrastructure in Oakland.

We're a people-powered project. That means that anyone can join the network if they're willing to contribute by reporting bugs, improving software, fixing hardware, setting up a node, installing rooftop nodes, telling your friends about us, joining for a workshop, bringing pizza to a hack session, donating equipment/money/Bitcoin, learning with us about how the internet works, or just being patient if something is broken :)

You can read about our progress on our blog.

Interested in learning more and exploring? Check out our Join Us section. You do not need to be technically skilled to be part of this project. We need people willing to mount gear on rooftops, folks who want to do public outreach, graphic design artists, film-makers, documentarians and so much more! Show up at a monthly general meeting and get involved!


Intro

Imagine if the wifi router in your home connected to the wifi routers in your neighbours' homes and they again connected to their neighbours to form a huge free wireless network spanning the city! That's exactly what a mesh network is, or at least what it can be. Roads and telephone poles are owned by government or private interests and laying down cable is expensive, but by using wireless signals that hop from building to building we can create a community-owned and -operated, free-as-in-freedom alternative to corporate Internet Service Providers. Community wireless mesh networks are growing around the world, creating local 'internets' that support Net Neutrality and community control of critical infrastructure.

sudo mesh is a non-profit organization consisting of a group of unpaid volunteers who are building the People's Open Network. Our mission is building open technology that helps to connect our neighbors, support local businesses, and enable community collaboration and cultural production. In the event of a natural disaster or state censorship, a community mesh network can be a resilient means of communication and sharing of information.

We are spending a lot of time developing software to make it cheap and easy for anyone to be part of People's Open Network, regardless of technical skill.

Mesh Oakland High Res.png

Join Us

Ways to participate:

  • Join the email list
  • Follow us on twitter and like us on facebook.
  • Learn more at our general meetings, which are the last Tuesday of every month at sudo room at 7:30 pm. We have focus groups and collaborate on different parts of the project - from design to software development, documentation to hardware hacking, community outreach and climbing rooftops to mount nodes!
  • We have weekly hacknights on the Tuesdays that are not general meetings, 7:30-11:00pm at sudo room, but at these events we do not spend time introducing new people to the project. If you do not feel ready to jump right in and start contributing, please show up for our general meetings (mentioned above) where we specifically take time to intro new volunteers and answer questions :D
  • Chat with us on IRC: #peoplesopen.net (see also IRC Intro)
  • We generally collaborate on meeting notes at each meeting. Look at our archive of past meeting minutes!
  • Contribute to the network by installing a mesh node at your location using our handy Mesh Node Setup Walkthrough. This is especially helpful for those who are within range of an existing node (seen as a wireless SSID named "peoplesopen.net").

If you want to join the mesh you'll need a mesh router at your home! Currently the best way to get one is to show up at our monthly general meeting as described above :)

How to Help

We need more people on the network to improve the quality of the service. When you setup a node, you improve the service for everybody on the network and give more access to your community. We encourage participants to ask their communities to join their networks and create distributed services for them. We have a user guide to help you get on the network!

  • Check out our ToDo list
  • Support us with a small weekly donation on Patreon or gittip, here's how we spend it.
  • Send bitcoins to our wallet address: 12RxU4DpLpdWcmEBn7Tj325CCXBwt5i9Hc
  • Check out our wishlist, we have requests!
  • Come to our meetings in Oakland! (listed above)
  • Improve our documentation
  • Talk to your community about joining the mesh

Developers

We need hardware and software engineers to help us with our code. We have an overview of technical documentation that will be helpful in understanding the network.

If you want to immediately help, check out our code or look at our remaining issues for upcoming milestones.

Here are some of the projects that need attention:

Designers

We need artists and designers to make things look nice! We have design schemes we already use, but we're always looking to improve it. We need to improve our presentation content and diagrams too! We've been focused on these areas:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • Challenges - What sort of challenges and problems do we face?
  • Decisions - What decisions have we made, and why?
  • Funding - How the heck do we fund this thing?
  • Legal - How do we use exit nodes, relays and legal structures to protect node owners and ourselves?
  • Hosting - How are we hosting and what does it cost?
  • Backup - How do we handle backups?
  • Server security - How do we ensure server security?

Logistics

  • Checkouts - Who took what gear home.
  • Inventory - Continually-updated inventory of our hardware and gear.
  • Marketing - Inspiration and links to marketing materials in progress.
  • Naming - What do we call ourselves? A lineage of bikeshedding.
  • Purchases - Details on our purchases, made by either individuals or through our crowdfunded money.
  • Taxes - Filed taxes for the sudo mesh non-profit

Research

We need help improving our documentation about the area and other legalities.

  • Legal - we are becoming a 501(c)3 and there are other legalities of wireless networks
  • Interviews - we interviewed other experienced meshers
  • Other documentation - books, articles, wikis, blog posts.
  • Oakland - information and resources pertaining to Oakland community organizations, wireless initiatives, policy and research initiatives
  • Municipal projects - examples of progressive uses of municipal networks.
  • Decentralized FM/AM radio - Bit of research on adding legal FM/AM transmitters to nodes.

Other Firmware and Networks

There are other meshes around the world that have inspired us to make our own network!

  • Mesh/wlan-slovenia (slovenia) - mesh network in Slovenia with the first cross-country links to Austria and Croatia! wlan-sl developers have been incredibly helpful mentors since the beginning of the sudomesh project, and are the founders of the Nodewatcher admin database as well as the Koruza wireless optical link project.
  • Mesh/Freifunk (germany) - the creators of batman-adv and one of the longest-running mesh networks in the world.
  • Guifi (catalonia) - largest community network (using a variety of topologies) in the world - spanning upwards of 22,000 nodes across catalonia and spain. Guifi folks have also been incredibly supportive of sudo mesh and helpful in guiding the international movement toward community wireless networks.
  • Mesh/Altermundi (argentina) - Connecting rural communities in Argentina to the Internet using long range point-to-point links connecting community mesh networks. Developers from Altermundi also contribute extensively to the Libremesh firmware and Librerouter, an open hardware mesh router in development.
  • Mesh/Funkfeur (austria) - another old-school mesh network
  • Mesh/Ninux (italy) - Spanning several cities across Italy, Ninux developers also contribute extensively to research on community networks, the dashboard admin interface NodeShot, and LibreMesh / Librerouter
  • Mesh/Commotion - a very well-documented project from the Open Technology Institute creating a simple-to-deploy mesh firmware and setup for small community meshes around the world.

Web Resources

All Sudo Mesh Wiki Pages

Quick Links (see below for more details)
Documentation Technical Outreach Operations Research External Links
Install Instructions Overview FAQ Minutes User Research peoplesopen.net
Net Topology Hardware Blog To-Do's SF Bay Area network map
Presentations Power How to Help Legal Interviews code on github
History Security Wishlist Inventory Other Meshes DisasterRadio
Press Backup Website Meetings Software Tools BuildYourOwnInter.Net
Firmware Hosting Propaganda Funding Local Services
Mounting Decisions Self-Education
Next gen

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