Mesh/12 Dec 2017

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Peoples Open Meeting - Dec 12, 2017

attendees

  • Scott -favorite ice cream is cookies and cream, nothing else
  • Grant - doesn't really like ice cream, prefers soup but likes coconut
  • Robb - likes cherry garcia
  • Jenny - tonight dough.
  • Leez - pretty much all coconut-based ice creams. gelatos are okay.
  • Jorrit - still does not see the difference between ice cream and popsicles, so popsicles.
  • Brandon - down with coconut ice cream and coconut soup
  • Judy - also likes ben & jerry's: phish food
  • Mai - just got back from Cuba, coconut based ice cream, and black seasame
  • Sierk - cinnamon gelato
  • Andy - ice cream with chunky stuff like americone dream

discussion items

mai reportback on cuba

new people

  • Judy: staff at learner's guild, would like to know how to get mesh to SF and to the learner's guild, refered by Devin, et al.
    • Going to replicate the Althea demo at Learner's Guild
    • Would like software project ideas for Learners to build. We're a javascript shop - so web dev... how can we plug in ~20 people who might want to work on open source projects
  • also part of Tech Workers Coalition, also knows Praveen (sudoroom comrade and co-founder of LOLspace)
  • Brandon; learner's at learner's guild working on blockchain and is passionate about mesh technology & decentralizing the internet, would like to use it to realize dream about blockchain
    • learned about Althea through Devin, wants to convince others at guild to get involved with mesh networks. people seemed interested when brought up in meeting
    • building a mesh was one of his 5 projects he was interested in implementing
  • Jorrit: volunteers to give a walkthrough of mesh

next byoi

  • Jenny: next byoi is Jan 27, bought the domain buildyourowninter.net, good place to put documentation and guides and what not.
  • Mai: Outreach to other community groups. What kind of activities / discussions do we want to pin down before talking to them?
  • Jorrit: what would your ideal byoi look like?
    • Mai: the ideal would be that we come out knowing that we converted some people and figuring out what we can learn from the community
    • communicating why PON would be really valuable for the community... dialogue of what a community-controlled mesh network would look like and what value it provides
    • right now we have and etherpad, but if we could have more vibrant network using more services,
      • eg patchwork/ssb, a local wiki, etc
        • having conversations about how all this
  • jenny: maybe a station on how to deploy local applications on the mesh?
    • grant: would like to work on that over the next month... step-by-step guide to building your own internet
  • mai: community events, going into those spaces to pitch them on the mesh... not just inviting people to come into our space, but building bridges / meeting people where they're at
  • grant: previous workshops have been picking at that idea, but have missed a step-by-step. haven't yet had a consistent thread running through them... more step-by-step - crimp cable, flash router,
    • jorrit: like a cooking class, start with the basics
  • judy: more to implementation than the technology - there's also content creation. eg; DSA SF - everyone's on Signal - what convinced people was "the police are watching, we're planning protests - don't use google groups!" workshop on how to reduce your dependence on Google Docs. I'm personally begging for that. show people what the direct benefits are, make it relevant to them
      • mai: are hope is to get people in the room, hopefully some are community organizers who see the value in non-corporate services and networks.. have a convo on why and how a community mesh could circumvent the problems wrt death of net neutrality, surveillance, etc first step to create a flyer to explain the dangers of net neutrality and how community meshes could circumvent this problem,
        • start flyring at least two weeks before hand, zine would be a great idea
    • sierk: that has been on the list
      • scott: could describe each of the stations / skills, with a section for people to take their own notes
        • mai: both in technical terms and plain terms
      • mai: reach out to groups by first week of janaury
      • sierk: spent last byoi making smooties, according to others, there were more technical people at last byoi,
  • jenny: since theme is "build your own neighborhood mesh" - perhaps spec out a map and try to get representatives from as many neighborhoods across the East Bay as possible
    • sierk: we should look at the text and wording to see who we are getting to come out
    • judy: what's your one sentence proposal for mesh networks, like "use signal so the police can't see your messages"
      • andy: you can't sell the mesh as a privacy and security option. end users need to practice good security hygiene.
      • jorrit: you want to own your own infrastructure,
      • judy/jnny: true sharing economy. mutual aid
      • jorrit: to me it is about empowerment, but that isn't a catchy
      • brandon: have you looked at Guifi and how they get people in

format brainstorm

  • presentations / talks (2-2:30pm): overview project (history of PON/sudomesh), how internet works
  • add a community brainstorm / discussion? (2:30-3pm) - mai would like to lead
    • grant: invite someone from a community group to come and talk, possibly a panel or something... maybe someone more suspicious of it, to provide a foil
    • ask "how would the mesh benefit you?" of the attendees
  • learning stations (3-5pm): node flashing, cable crimping, radio propagation, how to deploy in your org (judy) & forward team that will come to your org and help start this up [roles/equipment/budget etc], app deployment, how to run a byoi (or a cryptoparty??)
  • start with 15min primer then panel discussion for 30 min followed by hands on training for rest

status of PON

  • Jorrit: Been trying to get a 2-node setup to work for a few weeks now. Learned a lot, and it wasn't working. Found out yesterday that the VPN tunnel was down for 2-3 weeks. Tells me a couple of things - more incentive for me to learn how it works. More incentive for me to spread what I've learned. 1 person (Arthur) had said his node doesn't seem to be working. How/why does it work for you and not other people?
    • Grant: If exit node had IPs routing to it with older DHCP leases - something may have gone wrong with the new leases.
      • Jenny: Daniel has an Uptime Robot subscription. . strange not to get a notification. Also didn't we switch to the new Hurricane Electric server 3 weeks ago?
        • Grant: Hasn't been switched over yet [action item]

node mounts

  • Jenny, Sierk & Robb attending a FNB party on Saturday at Diane's place in the hills - will scope out the Line of Sight and make the pitch
  • Jenny waiting to hear back from ChrisJ (Kensington with LOS to Internet Archive)

newletter, social media, blog posts

  • jenny importing Mailman mesh list members to Mailchimp & sending tonight with x-posts to FB & Twitter

breakout groups

  • newbie orientation - Jorrit / Judy / Brandon
  • byoi marketing? - Mai / Jenny / Grant / Sierk
  • hardware hacking - leez / fritz / juul / scott

action items

  • elevator pitch - mai?
  • flyer designs - mai, jenny, grant
  • identify groups we want to work with
    • community organizers to talk to - mai / jenny / ?
      • potential list of groups: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Oakland#Groups
      • reach out to the MADE - Brandon
      • reach out to the Vulcan - Robb
      • reach out to LOLspace - Jenny
      • reach out to libraries - jenny pinging Ivan (Marin Library) - done 12/12
      • reach out to schools - jenny pinging Hilary (OUSD)
  • start to finish, build your own mesh guides -- grant
    • people power and equipment needed (roles, routers, budget, etc)
    • operators manual/table - jorrit
    • services manual - grant
    • cryptoparty table - sierk
  • switch exit server to new server

gratuitous link dump