Mesh/20 Feb 2018

From Sudo Room
Jump to navigation Jump to search

People's Open Network Weekly Meeting - 20 February 2018 7:30pm-9pm

Agenda

  • Introductions and Meeting Roles (10 mins)
  • Check in on previous action items (5 mins)
  • Updates & Reportbacks (20 mins)
  • Sundays (5 mins)
  • Proposal: Node Explainer Program (10 mins)
  • Discussion: Jeff's Place (10 mins)
  • Discussion Dev's Place (10 mins)
  • Discussion: Community Survey (10 mins)
  • Action Items (5 mins)
  • Breakout Groups: software/firmware feature planning; biz plan / budget

Introductions

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

  • Icebreaker question: First song/thing you pirated
  • blake, *, wants to plug protest, rob zombie==
  • Daniel, he/him
  • Rob, he/him, Do You Believe in Magic?
  • Jeremy, probably Aphex Twin or Crystal Method
  • Eve, a bunch of songs off of a website
  • Ben, he/they, age of empires
  • Bengo, they/them, Napster'd something?
  • Mai, she/her/they/them, Beck's Odelay
  • Jorrit, he/him, songs off of a radio
  • Scott, Doom
  • Grant, he/they, Da Drought 3

Meeting Roles

Check in on previous action items

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

  • Send CT-1 and W-9 - Jenny - done
  • Follow up on D&O Insurance - Jenny, ? - pending completion of biz plan and budget. underwriters are concerned that we have no moneyz. they want business plan
    • Mai spent a while copy editing the business plan
  • Reply to Julia / AJ+ - Jenny - did not do yet, as no consensus on location / interviewees...
    • Jenny: Some folks from Al Jazeera wanted to work on a short documentary, but had a short timeline. Exit node down, hard to get installs going, limbo with IA, etc. made it difficult to schedule.
    • had responded based on the notes from previous meeting, did not want to paint ourselves as a successful community network project
    • To move forward: node mount they can join us on, find people that can be interviewed that are directly affected
    • if we get confirm from this weekend's miount... is it worth the effort?
  • Move peoplesopen.network emails to new Migadu server - Jenny/Jehan - pending jnny. Jenny: Next week
  • Get rocket.chat secure and persistent on sudomesh server - grant - https://peoplesopen.net/chat/
    • Mai wrote back to RocketChat support re: iOS support and they got back to her immediately
    • Benny debugging,got RocketChat working in Android
    • Jorrit noticed a FileUpload Error (maybe by size limit in nginx?)
  • Draft group consensus and send to Amos White (Alameda) - grant
    • he'll come to a meeting. invited to office hours
  • Send survey to mailing list ahead of strategic meeting - mai - did not send, decided to hold off until after the strategy meeting where we came up with solidiefied list of action items
  • Weekday node mount with Jeff 12pm Wednesday - Ben, mai, grant
    • went, no mount but good location survey

Updates & Reportbacks

Bugs/Technical

Priority bugs we need help with are located at: https://peoplesopen.net/issues &&: 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

Node Mounts & Outreach

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

  • Mai: what would get the internet archive tower link moving?
    • jenny: need to figure out what hardware, coordinate with jonah
      • ben: what hardware? :: may coordinate::
        • jorrit: concerns was that they don't want to be on the line in any way , no formal agreements w/ internet archive or partnership
          • blake: need to get equipment. action item
    • ben, daniel, blake, jenny, grant?
  • Diane's - Jenny has contact info, Robb will help with power supply

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

  • Jenny: Re: AJ++ documentary, we'd need to plan a nodemount to take them along with, strategize where/with whom that might be, and get buy-in from 1-2 people who can attest to how PON could help them. No reply back from LOLspace on collaborating with this. Planning to discuss with Needa Bee (The Village) tomorrow.

Internal Logistics / Finance

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

Strategy Meeting Reportback

Brief summary/highlights below, notes are here: https://peoplesopen.net/pad/p/pon-strategic-plan

  • Mozilla WINS grant as a means to set a deadline — June 2018 — for goals we already hope to achieve.
  • SWOT analysis
  • Group's reflection on capacity and interests in contributing
  • Discussion of labor compensation — cooperative, collective, or other social enterprise?
  • Action plan highlights
    • Tangible network: mapped and monitored, access and mount nodes on Richmond/Internet Archive tower and LOLSpace
    • Toolkits & Prototypes: internet-in-a-box, battery powered node,
    • Documentation: Node mounting guide, community outreach guide,
    • Fundraising: Selling swag & toolkit, things like eg; Internet-in-a-Box
      • Jeremy? interested in working on fundraising
  • Blake: Do we have tangible deliverables?
    • Mai: Site where network is actively being used
      • Jorrit:
        • Jenny: Think written documentation would include potential mapping/monitoring as well as interviews / case studies with people and groups that are using it. They want us to be able to demo it, also - so cow/chicken demo would be prudent
          • Sierk: Have workshops in that neighborhood before & after. Think we should document with video, interviews etc
      • Blake: Sounds like we still need a hard timeline of deliverables for June. Would like to have that discussion on another Sat, to figure out deliverables & timeline.
        • Sierk: end of meeting, maybe try out mai's suggestion for decision-making tool
          • jorrit: people engaged responsible for figuring out how to make it work moving forward
    • jenny: not much different from round 1 application
      • jeremy? - look at what they've previously funded and tailor research to that
        • sierk: not a grant - a competition, not a grant.
          • jenny: agreed on point - if you look at who won the top prizes, they had something demonstrably different going on than the rest

Sundays

Node Mount

We try to arrange a rooftop node mount every Sunday afternoon. Ongoing spreadsheet is located at: https://peoplesopen.net/sundays

  • Next Sunday's mount: See Discussion Items below - meet @ sudo @ 1pm for 3-4 potential mount fieldtrips

Office Hours

We host office hours every Sunday from 1-2pm in Sudo Room. To sign up for a shift, fill in your name here: https://ethercalc.org/byoi_office_hours

  • Next Sunday's volunteer: Mai
  • Notes from this past Sunday's session: Interview with Cindy from Institute for the Future.
    • Jeremy: Cindy is my colleague. The interview was prompted by BYOI fliers I distributed around the office.
    • Mai: worked on PON wikipedia article. Gotta vote to keep it alive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Open_Network
    • Jorrit: worked with Benny to deploy new Markdown site based on Sierke's project
    • Grant/Ben: contacted potential node operators to coordinate mounts.

Proposal: Node Explainer Program

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

  • Jorrit proposing: The Node Explainer Program (NEP, better names proposal encouraged: node whisperer, node operator?) - Node explainers explain how (exit/home/extender) nodes work and keep them from misbehaving by troubleshooting, preparing bug fixes, applying patches, implementing new features and upgrading software. To become a node explainer, you should be able to show someone how to build your own internet by configuring one, (ideally two) home node(s) (https://peoplesopen.net/walkthrough ) to use a custom, self-created exitnode (https://github.com/sudomesh/exitnode ). This also includes showing how babeld and tunneldigger work together by using (and improving!) https://github.com/sudomesh/babeld-lab and https://github.com/sudomesh/tunneldigger-lab on the home and exit nodes using tools like ip route , ip addr, tcpdump .
  • grant - i'd like to work on a improve/expand https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/Flashing_extender_nodes
  • Consenso?
  • jorrit: test involved: flash a node, set up an exit node, connect your flashed node to exit node, explain it to someone else, explain babled to someone else, how to monitor it, how to explain how tunneldigger works. then you're CERTIFIED
    • reason: two weeks of outage & accumulation of knowledge in very few places. first session @ 9. hope many can join (not just the Bens) - plz join so you can explain how shit works.
      • grant: propose including how extender nodes work. namely because neither of us know how. can take lead on documenting that then explain it to someone else.
        • jorrit: Extended Node Explainer Program

Discussion Item: Jeff's Place

  • Ben: I talked to Jeff again Sunday night. He's checking in with property owner re: consent for structural mount.
- * He's rented since 1984 and has rent control. Other tenants are in a similar situation. Many do not have internet at all.
  • Owners behind LLC. One maintenance worker. One absentee property manager.
  • Opportunities abound!
    • Solid view with good super structure to mount to
    • Abandoned boiler room on roof could house beachhead with switch. Possibly power. This would let us mount several higher-end extender nodes.
    • Possible link to Richmond (2 hops!)
    • Units supposedly have phone lines. I can wire up the building from MPOE if tenants can pitch in for a VDSL dslam or G.Hn switch.
    • Hip House (BSC) next door might be interested (~57 residents)
    • Wood walls, so Motorola meshing routers could work as well.
  • So, is there interest in using the mesh to deliver to multi-tenant dwellings, assuming they can organize internally? If so, this could be a good place to try it.

t

  • jenny: Re: Landlords - if we present as an ISp - what we do is no different - landlords shouldn't bat an eye
    • ben: correct, no larger would want this to be a reliable site... expect them to cover equip costs.
      • mai: benefit is if the tenants are reliant on it, more political power to stay
  • ben: who would be interested in pursuing this level of project?
    • mai, jenny, grant, blake, ben

Discussion Item: Dev's Place

  • grant - reconnected with Dev, he is willing to go forward with the chimney mount, but is hesitant with powering the equipment,
  • he would like to get someone with electrical expertise to diagnose a box of wires on the side of his house
    • not sure if Ben or Mike (built mesh cage) would be able to check this out
      • Ben: I'm not qualified for high voltage, but I think we can implement a solution with POE that bypasses the box. E.g. the WS-6-Mini would support up to 5 radios https://www.netonix.com/wisp-switch.html
    • anyone else with electrical install experience?
  • he is interested in reaching out to someone further up the hill who has shortwave radio equipment.
    • wants someone to go with him to talk about making a connection
  • requests one-two weeks to sort out wiring after being advised by professional electrician
  • requesting outreach support re: a person further up the hill with shortwave radio equipment
  • do we want to put equipment (eg $150 switch) on a location where the housemates/landlord are uncertain?


Action Items

  • Document RocketChat instance - Grant
  • Move peoplesopen.network to Migadu instance - Jenny
  • Follow up with AJ+ - Jenny
  • Follow up with Benny + Jeremy of Rocket.Chat to debug iOS app - Mai
  • Send community survey to mailing list to solicit volunteer help for projects - Mai
  • Patch makenode - bug #5 + bug # 17 - grant
  • Contact Diane re: Power - jenny, robb
  • Contact Jonah re: Richmond tower - Jenny
  • Spec out gear for Richmond tower - Ben and anyone interested
  • procure equipment and coordinate with Jeff for Benvenue mount - Ben
  • Give access to passpack to Mai, Robb, ? - Jenny
  • ping Ryan G re: electrical issues w/ Dev's place - jenny
  • respond to Dev about group's position, agree on plans for moving forward - grant

Breakout Groups

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

  • (exit) node whisperer explainer session
  • review sudo mesh business plan and budget

Last Meeting Notes

https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Mesh/13_Feb_2018

End of Meeting