[Commotion-discuss] New here & International Development applications
Brian Duggan
bcdugga at gmail.com
Sun Oct 2 17:23:05 CDT 2011
Hi Laurence,
Great to hear you're interested in the project, and thanks for your
thoughtful questions. I'll answer them as best I can for now. Responses
inline.
On Thu Sep 29 12:38:25 2011, laurence bascle wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> better late than never!
> I also discovered Commotion via Le Monde's article (so this is almost
> a french speaker thread! ;), and currently working in the
> non-profit/human rights sector, I was obviously thrilled.
> I am Technical Project Manager though not a dev myself, and as such
> tend to think more of the gap between developers and users/potential
> stakeholders. I believe it would be great to get more plain language
> documentation (as accessible say, as the
> so-successful-LeMonde-article) to promote the concept and the progress
> of the project to potential community/institutional users. Because the
> people who will use it are ultimately not devs, but say emergency
> field workers and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs)! This in turn might
> totally influence your roadmap (and if you have some vague idea to
> service the 'third sector', then better develop something fits their
> need).
>
> I have seen this wiki entry which is a great start I think
> https://tech.chambana.net/projects/commotion/wiki/Newbie_How_it_Works
> but as a non-dev there are still a few things I am struggling to
> understand:
>
> 1) what are the USPs (Unique Selling Points) of this project compared
> to other open source wireless mesh networks initiatives already used
> (like OLPC
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1#Wireless_mesh_networking. Oh
> actually just reading that "Although one goal of the laptop is that
> all of its software be open source
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source>, the source code for this
> routing protocol is currently closed source" booh!). I understand one
> is the integration with TOR, but any others?
The concept behind Commotion is to make the barrier to entry into a
local mesh network as low as possible while leveraging the inherent
benefits of mesh networks.
Most existing mesh network platforms require a significant amount of
networking knowledge of users and deployers. A mesh device running
Commotion will require the minimum amount of configuration from the
user. The pre-release of Commotion basically reduces this configuration
to selecting the name of a mesh network to start or join.
No mesh platforms include a set of commonly-used services or services
that are suited to take advantage of the unique characteristics of mesh
networks. Commotion will include anonymization, encryption, and
communication services by default. Commotion distributions for end user
devices will also include a services browser. This tool will display
local services that have been deployed on the mesh network like video,
chat, streaming radio, and any other services that communities choose to
deploy on their networks.
Existing mesh platforms target a very narrow set of hardware, severely
limiting deployment. Commotion already targets the most common wifi
hardware, but will also be available for as many consumer wifi devices
as possible. Commotion will target consumer- and professional-grade
wireless routers, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and mobile phones. The goal
is to increase the quality of the infrastructure by encouraging users to
deploy Commotion on as many devices as possible.
>
> 2) how is the access to the internet addressed, and bandwidth in
> particular (access to a wider network for HRDs for example is
> strategically crucial). It would be good to have a non-tech version of
> why/how 100s can access the internet through the one point/computer
> and what kind of speed they can expect.
>
A mesh network does not include Internet access by default. At least one
mesh node must be connected to the Internet to provide Internet access
to other nodes within the mesh. The quality of that Internet access
would then, of course, be dependent on the quality of the link of that
single node, or "backhaul". But since wireless links between nodes are
inherently lossy, the quality of the Internet connection for any node
within the network would also depend on the number of links, or "hops",
between it and the backhaul node. It would also depend on the quality of
those hops.
But a mesh network can also utilize multiple backhauls. The more
backhauls that users can incorporate into the mesh, the more robust
Internet access will be. More backhauls - even low-quality backhauls -
will at the very least decrease the number of hops for some nodes in a mesh.
That said, developing a very basic non-techy table of number of
backhauls vs backhaul quality vs number of hops would certainly be
helpful, and we will attempt to incorporate this into our non-technical
documents as we go forward.
> 3) Commotion routers and their role, and access from say deep Rural
> Northern Uganda.
>
One of the primary benefits of a mesh network is its unique capacity to
distribute local services to mesh participants without Internet
backhauls. For example, in my hometown we have a low-power FM radio
station whose range has been severely limited by the geography of the
area. Once my community deploys mesh nodes, we can start a very simple
network service at the station that will stream the audio from the
soundboard out to any user on the mesh, effectively extending the range
of the radio station without any Internet access.
Rural areas are egregiously underserved by commercial Internet service
providers, but a mesh network reduces the need for Internet service in
the first place. By encouraging hyper-local services and communication,
communities can reduce their dependence on commercial Internet service
providers.
Further, mesh networks can be connected to other mesh networks very
easily. Mesh node radios within a village may be low-power or only use
low-gain antennas. But a high-power, directional radio could connect a
village mesh with any other village mesh within range. This would
connect multiple rural villages to each other the same way that
villagers are connected to each other by their local mesh. Local
services in one village could be extended to other villages.
Then, if one village acquired a sufficiently high-data-rate Internet
backhaul, that backhaul could be shared with other villages.
> Ok, that's a lot to address, but hopefully there will be a few people
> out there who are able to answer! I'd suggest best done via the wiki,
> and then send us a link,
> thanks!
>
Great idea. I think these answers should go on our upcoming
non-technical site. Meanwhile, feel free to respond with your thoughts.
> PS: wasn't chambana down yesterday?
>
Yes, it was. Our apologies. We're working to upgrade access to the
Commotion source code. It's up now, and all public-facing functionality
has been restored.
Thanks!
Brian
> Laurence
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 6:00 PM,
> <commotion-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:commotion-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>
> Send Commotion-discuss mailing list submissions to
> commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> commotion-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:commotion-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net>
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> commotion-discuss-owner at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:commotion-discuss-owner at lists.chambana.net>
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Commotion-discuss digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: New here (Yann Forget)
> 2. Re: New here (L. Aaron Kaplan)
> 3. Introducing myself. (Merouan Mekouar)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 00:19:58 +0530
> From: Yann Forget <yannfo at gmail.com <mailto:yannfo at gmail.com>>
> To: F L <legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch <mailto:legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch>>,
> commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Subject: Re: [Commotion-discuss] New here
> Message-ID:
>
> <CAKcJoPk0eSJwuBCU2N-_cX0fUPBFCMajnrB7YqBP-pC=jxtY5Q at mail.gmail.com
> <mailto:jxtY5Q at mail.gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 2011/9/1 F L <legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch
> <mailto:legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch>>:
> > Hi Yann,
> > Since you're in India, are you aware of?http://drupal.airjaldi.com/
>
> Yes, I wrote to them.
>
> > Cheers,
> > --
> > Franck
>
> Regards,
>
> Yann
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 20:59:31 +0200
> From: "L. Aaron Kaplan" <aaron at lo-res.org <mailto:aaron at lo-res.org>>
> To: Yann Forget <yannfo at gmail.com <mailto:yannfo at gmail.com>>
> Cc: commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net>, F L
> <legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch <mailto:legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch>>
> Subject: Re: [Commotion-discuss] New here
> Message-ID: <DF7F2CE4-1C42-4B9D-B062-6AFF77EA2B8D at lo-res.org
> <mailto:DF7F2CE4-1C42-4B9D-B062-6AFF77EA2B8D at lo-res.org>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> On Sep 1, 2011, at 8:49 PM, Yann Forget wrote:
>
> > 2011/9/1 F L <legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch
> <mailto:legendre at tik.ee.ethz.ch>>:
> >> Hi Yann,
> >> Since you're in India, are you aware of http://drupal.airjaldi.com/
> >
> > Yes, I wrote to them.
>
> Hehe, I proposed the same :)
>
>
> a.
>
>
> -------------- next part --------------
> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
> Name: smime.p7s
> Type: application/pkcs7-signature
> Size: 2213 bytes
> Desc: not available
> URL:
> <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/commotion-discuss/attachments/20110901/2c948fdb/attachment-0002.bin>
> -------------- next part --------------
> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
> Name: PGP.sig
> Type: application/pgp-signature
> Size: 243 bytes
> Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
> URL:
> <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/commotion-discuss/attachments/20110901/2c948fdb/attachment-0003.bin>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 12:10:42 -0400
> From: Merouan Mekouar <merouanm at gmail.com <mailto:merouanm at gmail.com>>
> To: commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Subject: [Commotion-discuss] Introducing myself.
> Message-ID:
>
> <CAK1MRQf8wwGUwKo1Vm0zvwxfiGPbfG4WVU5FJD7zs6Aon_PUvQ at mail.gmail.com
> <mailto:CAK1MRQf8wwGUwKo1Vm0zvwxfiGPbfG4WVU5FJD7zs6Aon_PUvQ at mail.gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> My name is Merouan, I am a PhD student in Political Science at McGill
> University - Montr?al. I also heard about commotion through the french
> website lemonde.fr <http://lemonde.fr> and I immediately fell in
> love with the project!!
>
> I am currently doing my research on the concept of "informational
> cascades"
> or why random instances of street protest spiral in some cases and not
> others (for instance, I am trying to understand why would the
> self-immolation of a street vendor trigger massive protests in
> Tunisia and
> not elsewhere in the Arab world). Nothing tech related as you can
> see but I
> do speak/write Arabic and French fluently and would be very very
> happy to
> help with translations or anything else if need be.
>
> Again, I would like to congratulate all those working on the
> project. Coming
> from the Arab world, I can only testify on the importance of a
> free (and
> secure) access to the internet for the defence of individual freedoms.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Merouan
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL:
> <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/commotion-discuss/attachments/20110902/f3214d8b/attachment-0001.html>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Commotion-discuss mailing list
> Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> <mailto:Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss
>
>
> End of Commotion-discuss Digest, Vol 2, Issue 2
> ***********************************************
>
>
>
>
> --
> Laurence Bascle
> Technical Project Manager
> mob: +44 7739 189 035
> skype: lbascle
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Commotion-discuss mailing list
> Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss
--
More information about the Commotion-discuss
mailing list