Mesh/01 September 2015

SudoMesh Monthly Organizing Meeting, 1 Sept. 2015

Attendees

• maxb - working on some software stuff, some firmware stuff, brought some toys
• alex - interested in networking aspects, and going forward the uplink aspects (which are becoming more urgent)
• chad - trying to build a web app, need assistance with linux
• blueminder (enrique) - been on our irc channel, interested in SDRs, if we need help with crowdfunding he works for a crowdfunding company, really interested in seeing where it goes, always been interested in other mesh projects like hacDC
• marc - firmware in general. coming back. has a job now ($$$). interested in sdr, and flutter devices (low-power, cheap, long-range).
• captain morgan - general programmer, used to be really good at networking but haven't done it in a while and is brushing up
• brendan - interested in connecting people who don't have the means to get a node, so an offline phone app
• remote-jnny - currently flying from chicago -> sfo;
  • alex: she should !fsay it
• sigma - working on robot arm, it's quickly becoming more of a software problem than a hardware problem
• paige - been interested in mesh networks for a couple of years. used to work for a startup called open garden, but wasn't really inspired by them due to their closed source nature. went to battlemeshv8 in Slovenia
• jake - heard that the free software foundation is doing a push and the eff is supporting them
• matthew (not senate)
• pete forsyth -

Updates

Firmware

Where are we and what do we need for beta network and further rollout - http://192.241.217.196/smokeping/smokeping.cgi?target=Mesh - http://192.241.217.196/cacti/graph_view.php?action=tree&tree_id=1&leaf_id=40&select_first=true (username: guest password: sudoer)

FCC

The FCC is considering a proposal that would make projects like ours impossible. We are currently in the open comment period. Please visit savewifi.org and inform yourself. fuck em :( maxb: we should figure out which groups are already doing advocacy work on this and get behind them alex: we should put up a network that demonstrates what the fcc would be shutting down matthew: we should collect testemonials testemonials from users of the network saying alex: maybe we could set up a demo mesh at a farmers market or something getting people involved blueminder: is the arrl involved? jake: is prometheus involved? http://savewifi.org

Finances

• sudomesh is a california non-profit. We'd like to be a 501c3, but haven't gone through application process.
• something happens if you don't apply for fed non-profit quickly enough
• wrought knows more about this?
• Maybe we can pay the first installment and hopefully get it back once we figure out how to avoid it?
• sudo mesh is broke. we need to figure out an alternative donation schema as gratipay is kaput.
• I (Marc?, yep) just withdrew $99 from our paypal which had come in from gratipay
• We apparently have to pay $1000+ taxes. No idea why. Could use help figuring it out.
  • Jenny will look into this imminently.
• We will talk more about this on Thursday.

Discussion

• How have current APs held up with the new firmware (eg; hearth node)?
  • Sounds like things are working pretty well?!
  • Craigslist in particular is unhappy about traffic from our digital ocean IP

Uplink ideas

Megapath: megapath.com for a dedicated line that could be shared amongst a few houses? A bunch of smaller uplink tubes instead of a giant centralized big tube?

* Pete's gonna look into a megapath

• What are next steps for deploying a beta network?
  • See map of potential locations here: http://map.sudomesh.org/
• Plans for after beta network (crowdfunding?
  • Figure out where places like dollar stores and woot buy their stuff and get access

BattlemeshV8

Probably a good idea to read the mailing list. All videos (she thinks) are posted online now. Specifically the talk by Julien on Babel was good. One business that was making routers for both EU and US was saying the FCC stuff would affect them because now they need two firmwares, one for US and one for Europe. The core of battlemesh is testing the routing protocols. They just released an overview of the results. It seems like they definitely improved. IPFS people were there. IPFS is a distributed storage system. Paige was there representing maidsafe. GNUNet people were there. Interesting mixture of old-school network guys (and I say guys because they were all guys) and a wider community of people. Jenny suggested a battlemesh in Oakland. Metamesh guy was there. Jenny, Paige and Ryan did a bunch of interviews with the different communities. Those videos are not out yet. Ryan Taylor is from around here and he got a travel scholarship to livestream anything and he is still traveling around europe. It seemed like academically everyone was more impressed with Babel but it seems like OLSRv2 one the test that they did (but they didn't get to do all the tests they wanted to do). <how many communities were there> maybe 10-1. A couple from Athens and a few others from greece. Ninux from Italy. People from France (though prob no large networks in France). Freifunk. Slovenia. Really cool to see all the communities coming together to do the testing. Did learn that a bunch of freifunk people were thinking of switching from using just batman-adv to batman-adv for homes + OLSRv2 for backbone connections. Musti is working on his free space optics project. If we were to run this in the U.S: There could be improvement on bringing in more non-technical people. <discussion> How would we run a battlemesh-type thing here.

Outreach and communication

Paige will look into finding techical folks in Richmond via community centers, etc. for potential test bed with Internet Archive uplink

Brochure

We looked at Nic's brochure and people like it. Pete suggests a simpler brochure as well with even less technical stuff. He will draft one.

Random

* We have to respond to those "CHIP" folks?

• GPL violations

https://web.archive.org/web/20150412091922/http://libertybsd.net/ubiquiti/ http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/04/07/1740217/how-ubiquiti-networks-is-creatively-violating-the-gpl