[Commotion-discuss] Commotion Wireless Fano(Italy)

Ryan Gerety gerety at opentechinstitute.org
Tue Jun 17 16:03:22 EDT 2014


Hey Luigi,

Since we have had some conversation off the list, I wanted to bring it  
back to the list....

As far as the initial steps of the networks--I think it varies quiet a  
bit. In Tunisia, the initial network was build over 4 days in a large  
community workshop that had about 10-15 core people and 20-30  
additional participants.  In that workshop they talked about what they  
wanted the network to do, where it would connect, etc. During the  
workshop the participants went through several of the Commotion  
Construction Kit activities (like http://commotionwireless.net/docs/cck/planning/design-your-network-every-network-tells-story/) 
. The group made a map of where they wanted to connect with the  
network and of rooftops they might have access to. I think a few core  
people is great, but a larger community meeting is important for  
getting more people involved and donate their rooftops.

In other places the process has been over a longer time frame, and  
groups will do one or two activities a week together. If you guys  
wanted to go that direction, I'd be happy to make some suggestions  
about how that could be structured. I'm sure others on the list would  
also have suggestions.

If you do go through the Commotion activities we would love to get  
pictures and blog about it.

Other community technology projects have been launched using a  
DiscoTech model, which is a fun way a community can engage with new  
technologies:
http://detroitdjc.org/2012/07/01/discotech-zine-out-now/

We also recently made a Digital Stewards facebook group, which will  
hopefully be a good resource on all the community network and digital  
stewardship projects: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalStewards?fref=nf

In terms of commitment to Commotion, I think the good thing about open  
source router firmware is that you arent locked into a single firmware  
or hardware. As new versions of openwrt mesh come out--you can try  
those too.

If you'd like help going through the installation process, I'm sure  
people would be willing to jump on a video call to do it together....

Cheers!
Ryan


On May 15, 2014, at 12:43 PM, LuigiScop wrote:
> Hello Josh and Dan,
> I contact directly you because I have already contacted you in the  
> past.
> I have talk to Josh and Dan in Berlin at IS4WCN 2013.
>
> I have spent a lot of effort to perform tests Commotion Wireless  
> firmaware and
> I think you(all the team) did a great job.
> The test has been done, until now, in my Home, with 2 picostations,2
> raspberry,1 nanostation,several PCs,smartphone...
> But much more effort has been spent  to create a community and  
> spread around
> the idea of your project.
> This has been much more difficult that the technical evaluation of  
> the firmware.
> I am ,now,at a point where the idea has very good chances to be  
> realized.
> In the last few weeks I have constituted a team( 3 young boys(18/19
> years old), 1 adult and me).
> I don't bother you on how much effort it took to achieve  
> this:time,meeting,money,advertisements,for months and months.
> I have already showed to team how the commotion wireless mesh works  
> and I have used MediaGrid installed on a mini server (raspberry).
> The outcome of this?
> The boys have bought the Raspberry by their own and have created a  
> facebook page:
>
> https://www.facebook.com/pages/Commotion-Wireless-Fano/138757409627896?notif_t=page_invite_accepted
>
> (See the picture with all of you!)
> But more important achievement is that a community representative of  
> the local church contacted me saying that he wants to support the  
> project.
> This is a great start,because ,soon lot of people in the city will  
> talk about this project and you.
> I have called this approach "Internet at Km 0" where,with this, I  
> mean that the data and the network are used  by the local community  
> who created them and therefore own them.
> Like goods locally produced are consumed locally, the same for the  
> data and internet.
> I have learned a lot from you and this is the key point I have got  
> form your experience.
> But I have talked a lot and I go directly to the point.
> Few questions.
> a)I'm going to invest in Commotion Wireless :How long the  
> CommotionWireless project will be supported by you(OTI,)?
> I would like to avoid that I start with your solution and after 1  
> year all will be shutted down.
> b)I need to understand better which effort has to be done to be in the
> condition to modify commotion software and develop specific  
> applications
> for the community.This will not done tomorrow,but I want to create  
> some
> local competencies for developing applications and support software
> development .We need to go by our legs.
> In other words:how did you reach the competences you have now?
> Which are your suggestions?
> c)For planning and installing the network I need really your support.
> I can follow the guidelines on Commotion web site "Get started".
> But it is save to have the final approval from who has already  
> implemented successfully the network several time.
> I saw the second Commotion node installed by Dan in Baltimore!
> d)Where the IS4WCN will be in Europe on 2014?Can you take this  
> opportunity and come in Italy and meet us and the new"Italian Digital
> Stuart"?
>
> Thanks a lot to all of you.
> Waiting for your reply.
>
> Luigi
>
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> Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
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_____________________________________
Senior Field Analyst, Open Technology Institute
New America Foundation
1899 L St., N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
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