Mesh/04 December 2018

People's Open Network Weekly Meeting - 4 December 2018 7:30pm-9pm

Agenda

  • Introductions and Meeting Roles (10 mins)
  • Check in on previous action items (5 mins)
  • Updates & Reportbacks (20 mins)
  • Next Sunday (5 mins)
  • Proposal: Re-naming "Consensus List Members" to "Stewards" (15 mins)
  • Proposal: Fund two people to go to Nonprofit Democracy Network Gathering
  • Discussion: Oakland Tenants' Comms Choice Ordinance Language
  • Discussion: Review Project Proposal (15 mins)
  • Action Items (5 mins)
  • Breakout Groups

Introductions

Introduce yourself: Name; Preferred Pronoun; Icebreaker Response; BRIEF Announcements

  • Icebreaker question: What's the last cool thing you saw on the Internet?
  • jenny - she/her - Got an email back from Mobile Citizen!
  • amanda - she/her - pass
  • sean - he/they - spaceplan - about potatos and spacetime, based on steven hawking
  • juul - he/him - bought at 80 freezer at auction
  • ben - he/they - overthewire's advent CTF is up - lets make a team! (one security challenge a day til the 25th) https://advent2018.overthewire.org/
  • andra - he/him - netflix last kingdom
  • stephan - he/him -
  • seth - he/they - gmail just kicked me off of their platform
  • eve - she - episode of dr who (the penultimate one)
  • null - him/he - I've been watching Cheers and having a lot of fun doing so.
  • Tyler - he/him/they - Cool with re amateur radio emergency data network
  • lesley - *remote* she/they/etc.
    • welcome, lesley!
  • james - he/him - little art video / weird - baliwood song - Terrorist of Love
  • mai - she/they - Story of this farmer in rural England who was tired of the fact that she didn't have internet. Got her tractor, dug a multi-km trench, laid fiber, and started a local ISP. -- https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37974267

Meeting Roles

Check in on previous action items

Check previous meeting minutes at https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Minutes and past action items below:

  • add everyone who signed up at the BYOI to the PON newsletter list, and let them know about the mesh mailing list (benny)
    • done!
  • encourage people to submit a proposal for $ and add to next's week agenda (mai)
    • mai - encouraged in rocket.chat
    • jenny - I was encouraged!
  • post re: richmond tower link on SF Chalkboard (mai)
    • mai - didn't post yet
  • double check w/ juul then send e-mail to jonah to schedule server install (benny)
    • did not do - are you coming tonite?
  • talk to the people that calyx gets internet from

jnny - mobile citenze - (originally 400-500 a year) non profit for 120-140 a year, then we could get like four hotspots, asked if we have a 5013c exmemption, which we don't really need. Could we become a reseller, there is a process that we are looking into. juul - tried hotspot downtown and was not able to get very good service, tried at omni/sudoroom and getting good service.

  • implement calyx hotspot @ the housing & dignity village! - jenny / juul? mux? & village building crew
    • currently waiting on word back from judge re: permanent injunction
    • jnny - Village lost their push for their permanent injunction; eviction slated for tomorrow. Help wanted for copwatch, resistance, etc
  • jnny: HDVillage being evicted tomorrow -

Updates & Reportbacks

Bugs/Technical

Priority bugs we need help with are located at: http://peoplesopen.net/helpwanted - For a high-level overview of recent Github activity, see the Trello: https://trello.com/invite/b/r9l5ouQ4/3b2eecd83bb9e7a57a339cf1ee038288/sudo-mesh-github- repos

  • juul - unsolved mystery with libre router won't communicate on the mesh when flashed.

Node Mounts & Outreach

Node Mounts Trello: https://trello.com/invite/b/DtzngKaM/49e1c21fc9da199fcdeceb8623b5117a/node-mounts

  • seth- node mount at kristoffs thurs morn if anybody interested. Maybe use a nanostation?m5
    • ben - when mounting, its helpful to have a really long patch cable to move antenna around to find the line of site to connect with another site. (If you're worried about where to put a J-pole)
  • do we have a node at or near PLACE?

Communications & Events

Comms Trello: https://trello.com/invite/b/f3ugMPNU/94033ee6c2cef93fc1b1637b727c902a/sudo-mesh-communications // Events Trello: https://trello.com/invite/b/Y3XfDK85/2b6fcb4fa92788609692a53a96fb4614/peoples-open-events

  • weird spammy ransomware email?
  • ben - spam email - info mailing list with bitcoin address (no link inside)
    • juul - speaking of spooky email, Outlook proxies IMAP connections (e.g. to your IMAP server) through their cloud, not directly through your client.
  • email from Jay of Anaheim California
    • noone knows about this
  • response to Matt at Paxio re: mount?
    • juul - <stricken>

Internal Logistics / Finance

Internal Logistics & Bureaucracy Trello: https://trello.com/invite/b/LzVQlW3X/1bb8bd543c8633688175365d2554c2c2/internal-logistics-bureaucracy-brainstorms

Next Sunday

We host office hours every Sunday from 1-3pm in Sudo Room, and often arrange a rooftop node mount.

  • To sign up to bottomline, fill in your name here: https://ethercalc.org/byoi_office_hours
    • mai + ben + null
  • Ongoing node mounting spreadsheet is located at: https://peoplesopen.net/sundays
  • Notes from this past Sunday's session:
    • null - lots of people were here! tyler, seth, eve, amanda, marc, jenny, dig, robb (maybe more?)
    • several nodes dispensed
    • now ~400 assets in the inventory, only 120 unique item types
    • null - should we get rid of the stuff in the corner next to the cage? It would be nice to have that space for staging.
    • jenny - I've taken apart that printer that's there so many times. Maybe it's time to get rid of it

Proposal: Re-naming "Consensus List Members" to "Stewards"

Please add any proposal needing consent from or action by the group below:

  • What if we changed the name to those who have the ability to approve project proposals as Stewards or Network Stewards?
  • Consenso?
    • Quorum, consensed (7/7 STEWARDS :). *Very* easily reversed.

Proposal: Fund two people to go to Nonprofit Democracy Network Gathering

  • Can we spend between $400 ~ $1500 to send two people to this? https://www.theselc.org/npdn_2019
    • From the description: "We launched the network at our inaugural gathering in fall of 2017 (read more about it here). At our second gathering, March 27-29, 2019, we’ll dive into the nuts and bolts of co-creating forms of collective self-governance, taking on topics like compensation, inclusive decision-making, the impact of identity and culture on participation, coordination and accountability, and collective budgeting of time and money."
    • Cost depends upon our budget so it will probably be closer to $400.
    • Who's interested? Mai, Benny, ...?
  • '"Consenso?"'
  • mai - I will also put this on loomio, but wanted to get a temperature check
  • null - might be able to get sponsored via APC, who does grant funding and travel budgets
  • move to next week post-Loomio discussion

Discussion: Oakland Tenants' Comms Choice Ordinance Language

  • Effort with Media Alliance, EFF, MonkeyBrains and others to improve Health & Safety Code in Oakland to prevent landlords from interfering with tenants' choice of telecom provider, as well as building in remedies for code violations.
    • eenblam: SF had an ordinance approved ~2yrs ago to prevent landlords & ISPs from creating anti-competitive agreements. can't deny access to certain kinds of orgs - some complexities to SF ordinance we'd like to improve upon for Oakland. John(?) came to some meetings a few months ago to discuss this.
  • In particular, they want our help to ensure that the definitions of communications and communications provider would include Sudo Mesh and other future and similar nonprofit community internet projects.
    • mai: tracy from Media Alliance taking the lead on this. In SF it's in the police code (?) - we intend to put it in Health &Safety instead. want to ensure projects like Sudo Mesh are included in the language of the ordinance.
  • Would this suffice?
    • "Communication services" means any of the following a) video service as that term is defined in the California Public Utilities Code 5830(s) b) telecommunications services certified by the California Public Utilities Commission under California Public Utilities Code 1001 c) services provided by a telephone corporation as that term is defined in California Public Utilities Code 234 d) peer to peer mesh infrastructure for local area networks. Nothing in this definition is intended to limit the types of services that a communications services provider accessing an apartment building may provide to occupants.
      • juul: "mesh" is too specific
        • but easy enough to install meshing on one node and it would fit
        • distributed / peer-to-peer(?) community-owned(?) networking(?) infrastructure for local area networks
          • "community-owned" might be complicated to describe in a legal document, since a good portion of the work would likely be done by nonprofits and cooperatives (public benefit corporations)
          • "access to a community network"?
      • eenblam: this is in part about building access, phrasing should optimize for this.
    • "Communication services provider" means any of the following a) a person that has obtained a franchise to provide video service from the California Public Utilities Commission under California Public Utilities Code 5840 b) a person who has obtained a Certificate of Public Interest and Necessity (CPCN) from the California Public Utilities Commission under California Public Utilities Code 1001 to provide telecommunications services c) A telephone corporation as defined in Public Utilities Code 234 d) A California not for profit corporation offering a peer to peer local area communications network within the City of Oakland
      • from Media Alliance: "Mai, my two cents would be that since we're talking a semi-permanent ordinance that we want to be as broad as we can be while addressing two primary concerns:
1) Wording that unambiguously includes Sudo Mesh or any other actors doing similar work at some point in the future.
2) Wording that excludes scam artists, irresponsible parties or those not capable of actually delivering service 
I emphasized nonprofit status since it takes some work to achieve it and requires a public interest nexus, and excludes profit making entities who haven't been through the CPUC process. But I'm open to any other ideas as long as they more or less meet the two above reasons goals for the language."
** jnny + 1, but maybe also include worker-owned cooperatives?
** eenblam: think provider definition is solid, <sorry forgot -notetaker>

Discussion: Review Project Proposal Process

Action Items

Breakout Groups

At the end of the meeting, break out into small groups to hack on or discuss specific topics.

Last Meeting Notes

End of Meeting