Feb 21: Launched "Snow Crash" release candidate v.0.1.0 - now deploying the first batch of experimental nodes!  

We are an all-volunteer organization building the People's Open Network, a community-owned and operated non-profit internet infrastructure in Oakland.

A mesh network is a network that allows the participants to freely share internet connectivity and build their own community-owned communications. It consists of routers running software that allow them to communicate with other routers around them. People who join the network enable others to be on the network and support net neutrality. Community wireless mesh networks are growing around the world as alternatives to the existing system, creating local 'internets' rather than being dependent on the infrastructure developed by large Internet Service Providers and companies that mine and sell your personal information.

The software we've created is open source and we're using it to develop free internet for Oakland and the surrounding areas. 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.

Mesh Oakland High Res.png
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

 

Join Us

  • Join the email list
  • Follow us on twitter and like us on facebook.
  • We have weekly hack nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:30-11:00pm at sudo room. The first three Thursdays of the month are work nights -- help us change the internet!
  • Learn more at our general meetings, which are the last Thursdays of every month. 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!
  • Chat with us on IRC: #peoplesopen.net
  • We generally collaborate on meeting notes at each meeting. Look at our archive of past meeting minutes!

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 introduction to help you get involved!

  • Check out our action items
  • Support us with a small weekly donation on 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! We're focused on these areas:

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)

Logistics

  • Mesh/Checkouts - Who took what gear home.
  • Mesh/Donations - What's been donated to the group.
  • Mesh/Inventory - Continually-updated inventory of our hardware and gear.
  • Mesh/Marketing - Inspiration and links to marketing materials in progress.
  • Mesh/Naming - What do we call ourselves? A lineage of bikeshedding.
  • Mesh/Purchases - Details on our purchases, made by either individuals or through our crowdfunded money.

Research

Other Firmware and Networks

  • Mesh/Freifunk - Germany - Home of the creators of batman-adv (the routing protocol we use) and one of the longest-running mesh networks in 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.

Web Resources