[CUWiN] Son's "volunteer" project

[Sascha Meinrath]

Hi Todd,

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005, Todd Boyle wrote:

> My son has to do a major volunteer project for a graduation requirement 
> and also, to beef up his resume.  I suggested a media democracy project, 
> preferably on infrastructure instead of content.
>
> I think there's a possibility based on his reaction and his friends. 
> Suppose we order parts, build 4 to 6 nodes, find homeowners between the 
> High School and the local Starbucks 1 mile away.

This sounds doable -- one could even wireless the entire area around the 
high-school.  The main issue is where would the bandwidth come from?  If 
it's a school project, you may be able to use the school's -- which would 
be extremely interesting to the CUWiN project generally.

> Then, what is the sexiest application that High School kids can 
> demonstrate?  I'm thinking
>
> 1. transfer music and video files around,
> 2. maybe demonstrate a live video feed, or
> 3. maybe some telephony between laptops at starbucks, and the high 
> school?

The live feeds are probably the sexiest -- what sort of timeline are they 
working on?  Also, how technically savvy are the folks involved?

> My first instinct is the students build something for themselves. 
> Maybe I should suggest they link two nonprofits like the teen center and 
> a local church, or something like that....  Or some long-distance link, 
> that's actually needed by some hospital or clinic.

I like the idea of connecting/linking several important 
buildings/organizations.

> Does anybody have any experience with such craziness? At this point it's 
> a personal chemistry thing more than a technical thing... for example if 
> its a hospital or a charity thing it might be easier to get donations, 
> and political cover....

There's definitely no shortage of areas in need of wireless/connecting. 
I'm happy to work with folks to vett areas and talk feasibility.  One 
important caution to throw out there before they get started is that the 
software is under _heavy_ development -- so there's a sort of chaotic 
element to deploying these networks at the moment.  This is not to say 
that they shouldn't do the project, but that this is a situation where 
real-world conditions may mean that their network won't work until certain 
bugs are fixed.

But let me know,

--Sascha

-- 
Sascha Meinrath
President                 *   Project Coordinator   *   Policy Analyst
Acorn Worker Collective  ***  CU Wireless Network  ***  Free Press
www.acorncollective.com   *   www.cuwireless.net    *   www.freepress.net