Best Practices in Innovation and Sustainability for Community Wireless Projects

Ross Musselman — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:15:00 +0000

The attached presentation contains best practices on community wireless projects as well as some case studies on successful projects that have already launched.

Newer wireless technologies can replace phone lines with Voice Over Internet cost savings. The telcos are fighting these new technologies because their profits dwindle as new and better technologies become available while they have already invested in obsolete infrastructure and want to recover their investments. There's a technological and political revolution taking place that will set the stage for new forms of social empowerment, as well. (- Frank Odasz, frank@lone-eagles.com)

Wireless (and Satellite) Internet Resources
http://lone-eagles.com/wireless.htm

Municipal Community Wireless
Municipal Wireless
http://www.muniwireless.com Reports on municipal and wireless broadband projects

A New Municipal Community Wireless Site
http://www.unwiremycity.com

Save Muni-Wireless
http://savemuniwireless.org
Related to Texas legislation to outlaw municipal wireless even for communities where telcos refuse to provide access.

Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee
http://www.phila.gov/wireless/index.html

State laws and lobbying related to wireless
http://www.muniwireless.com/archives/000513.html
Information on state regulations on cities interested in
broadband utility networks.

Civitium
www.civitium.com
Powering the digital city. Municipal broadband and telecommunications. Civitium is routinely asked about how state laws affect the ability for municipal governments to provide telecommunications and/or information services. See their State by state statute listings regarding this issue.

Digital Watershed Community Wireless Services
www.digitalwatershed.org
Digital Watershed is a non-profit Community Technology Center offering wireless collaborative community services. Our offering goes beyond standard municipal infrastructure and e-government services to include social networks, performance arts, neighborhood projects, and more.
Greg Daigle
Executive Director
Digital Watershed
m 612 636-7227
gdaigle@digitalwatershed.org

"Wireless Broadband: The Foundation for Digital Cities,"
http://www.muniwireless.com/reports/cookbook1form.html
A cookbook for local leaders interested in deploying a community wireless broadband network. The cookbook can be downloaded for free.

FCC Wireless Resources and Article on Rural Community Wireless Vision Program
http://wireless.fcc.gov/outreach/ruralvision/index.html

Main FCC Wireless Site
http://wireless.fcc.gov

Mesh Community Wireless
Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN)
www.cuwireless.net
Founder Sascha Meinrath's site featuring perhaps the most advanced open-source dynamic mesh networking software available anywhere. See also his latest web site www.communityinternet.us and his personal archives of wireless resources at http://www.saschameinrath.com

"Wirelessing the World Socio-Historical and Technological Factors
Affecting the Battle over (Community) Wireless Networks"
http://www.saschameinrath.com (Select Writings and then the 11th article in listing)
From: Sascha Meinrath
A good introduction to the technologies and politics of community wireless networks.

Free Press Community Wireless http://freepress.net/wifi/
See also http://freepress.net Dedicated to media reform.

Community Wireless Project Summary
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wireless/
Sourceforge presents a summary of the CU Community Mesh Wireless project.

Wireless in California
www.ca-wireless.org

Directories of Wireless Communities
Personal Telco's International Listing of Wireless Communities
http://wiki.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/WirelessCommunities
An excellent listing!

International Wireless Community Network Directory (802.11b)
http://www.toaster.net/wireless/community.html

Unique Wireless Experts and Related Resources
Richard MacKinnon
http://lessnetworks.com Free WiFi
Richard has helped volunteers to establish over one hundred wireless hot-spots in Austin Texas.
www.austinwirelesscity.org

Dewayne Hendrick
http://www.firstmile.us/blogs/wireless
Dewayne was one of the first wireless pioneers. A quality resource person.

Old Colorado City National Science Foundation Wireless Testbed Project
http://wireless.oldcolo.com David Hughes' Wireless Innovations Web Site

Other Unique Community Wireless Resources
Wireless Technology Radio
http://wirelesstechradio.com

National Summit for Community Wireless Networks
http://www.wirelesssummit.org

Global Wireless Developers Conference and Technical Resources
http://www.freifunk.net/
FreiFunk.net summit in Djursland, Denmark where community wireless developers from over 30
countries compared notes. It was overwhelmingly agreed that the CUWiN
project had arguably the most advanced (and most promising) software
anyone knew about. If you're tech-saavy, you may
want to look through our CVS repositories, available from:
Rice University Community Mesh Wireless TAPS Project
www.taps.rice.edu

O'Reilly Publisher's Wireless Development Center
http://www.oreillynet.com/wireless/

Book: Building Wireless Community Networks, By Rob Flickenger
ISBN 0-596-00204-1, 125 pages, $24.95 A second edition is now available
O-Reilly Wireless Development Center
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2004/01/22/wirelessmesh.html

New Book: O'Reilly Releases "Building Wireless Community Networks"
For more information, a review copy, cover art or an interview with
the author, contact: Suzanne Axtell, (707) 827-7114 or suzanne@oreilly.com

Article: Renegade WLANs: Parasitic or Free-Spirited Anarchistic?
http://www.80211-planet.com/columns/article/0,4000,1781_896641,00.html
More on the new Freenet Wireless community model and related issues.

Personal Telco Project
http://www.personaltelco.net/

Wireless Anarchy
http://www.wirelessanarchy.com
WirelessAnarchy is about creating your own long range
infrastructure, without having to pay anyone or jump through
government hoops. Cheaply and easily, using off the shelf
equipment, and a little ingenuity, you too can create your own net.
International listing of community wireless sites included.

MIT Roofnet Community Wireless Implementation
http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/roofnet/design/

Wireless Community Networks, a Guide for Library boards, educators and community leaders
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/wireless/contents.html

Airshare.org
http://airshare.org/.
"Kelly Abbott" is the founder of Aishare.org, which offers news and knowledge of community wireless networks. He is also a co-chair of the San Diego Telecom Council's Wi-Fi Special Interest Group
Their collected resources: http://www.airshare.org/share/links/index.cfm

UK Wireless Community Model Project
http://www.wlan.org.uk Henry O'Tani

Digital Arts Service Corps - community wifi

Best Practices in Innovation and Sustainability for Community Wireless Projects