[Cu-wireless] organize!

[Zachary C. Miller]

We have a ton of volunteers and almost no organization. I think it is
time to apply some structure to our meetings so we can leverage all
our energy into getting concrete things done. 

I propose that we develop a schedule of _focused_ topic oriented
meetings. We should have more than one meeting each week with the
expectation that not everyone will come to all the meetings but people
will come to the meetings that interest them.

Proposal: 

1) Seminar/Theory Meetings - Every Tuesday at Zach's

  I propose we meet every Tuesday from 5:30pm-7:30pm at my house for a
  different lecture/discussion each week from someone (typically from
  our group) about a different technology or other area of expertise. 

  I would take care of organizing a speaker each week. We would combine
  the session with a dinner which would be either potluck or order out
  (e.g. pizza). 1 hour of eating, 1 hour of lecture. 

  Example Topics: 
  * Structures for a CU community wireless network
  * Basic TCP/IP and OSI network theory
  * OSPF and other TCP/IP Routing Protocols
  * NoCatAuth 
  * Microwave Physics and implications for Antenna design
  * Practical strategies for Antenna mounting on houses
  * Wireless Roaming and Ad-Hoc Mesh networks
  * Embedded router hardware overview
  * Antenna design overview
  * Wireless networking in a campus setting (NCSA's wireless network)
  * NCSA's research on developing embedded wireless routers for ad hoc networks
  * etc. etc. etc. 

2) Affinity Group Meetings

  We should form affinity groups to take on specific tasks and the
  affinity groups should determine their own meeting schedule. I
  propose the following groups:

  1) Standard PC based wireless router development - work with the
     Dell Optiplexes that are currently sitting at my house and make a
     bootable CD-ROM based router that supports N wireless cards, N
     ethernet cards, and is as self configuring as possible. Work done
     on these platforms can be directly translated to various embedded
     platforms like PC/104 or the linux STB or even just a regular PC
     in a weatherproof container at a later date.

  2) OpenAP based wireless router development - work on developing a
     linux/OpenAP based wired<->wireless router that is as self
     configuring as possible and speaks OSPF. Modify the case to allow
     the connection of an external antenna.

  3) Antenna R&D - research, design, build, test, document antenna
     designs. Do the field testing of antennas. 

  4) Node installation and testing - Using whatever tools are
     currently available from the other groups, install antennas and
     nodes at various locations so that there is a real world testbed
     platform to play with routing protocols and to test throughput
     and antenna designs.

  5) Policy group - learn about routing protocols and establish some
     policies for the wireless network. How will IP address blocks be
     allocated. What routing protocols will be used. What authentication
     schemes will be used? What traffic flow schemes will be used? What
     aspects of the policy will be mandatory and what will be suggested?
     How will channel usage be tracked/allocated? Develop a database for
     information about nodes. What kind of statistics will we generate?
     This is all network administration kind of stuff. Planning,
     tracking, coordinating.

  6) Outreach group - Work on the website. Prepare snail mailings
     soliciting interest/funds in/for the projects. prepare FAQs on
     safety and other such issues for concerned members of the general
     public. Work on acquiring grants or donations of equipment. 

  These groups need not meet every week. They can meet once a month, or
  whatever. Perhaps groups can meet on a rotating basis after/during/as
  the sunday meeting. Groups should make some effort to have their
  schedules be non-overlapping so that people can participate in more
  than one group. 

3) Reportback and orientation meeting

  I propose that the first 30 minutes of the Sunday meetings be used
  for orientation of new members and reporting by the affinity groups
  of what they are working on and what their needs are. This part of
  the meeting should only take up the first 30 minutes or so and then
  perhaps we can have a rotating affinity group or two meet or have a
  general work party depending on the scheduled the affinity groups
  choose.

Comments? Support? Lame? 

-- 
Zachary C. Miller - @= - http://wolfgang.groogroo.com/
IMSA 1995 - UIUC 2000 - Just Another Leftist Muppet - Ya Basta!
 Social Justice, Community, Nonviolence, Decentralization, Feminism,
 Sustainability, Responsibility, Diversity, Democracy, Ecology