Freifunk Global Newswire Relaunched with Map and Embed Features

Tue, 13/12/2011 - 08:58 — Mario Behling
After several years of maintaining the Global Newswire, we have just launched a new site of Global.freifunk.net with updated feeds and cool map features. The new site uses the Managing News profile which is based on Drupal and developed by the folks from Development Seed. A big thanks goes to Thanh Nguyen from Vietnam, who set up the system together with me. As the other freifunk.net sites, the site is hosted at in-berlin.de.
 
Mario Behling and Thanh Nguyen working on freifunk.net in Vietnam 
Mario Behling and Thanh Nguyen working on freifunk.net in Vietnam 
 
It took us a few days to figure out how to make it work for us. Some errors like an issue with sharing just came up, because we had not activated clean URLs, other errors, because the different servers we use run slightly different MySQL versions with the one the site is hosted on. Initially we wanted to update the previous site with the new profile. This worked generally, but some features just did not want to get working. The Managing News installation profile has a number of preconfigured modules. After taking a week trying to figure it out, we went back to the start and took another way. We chose to use a fresh install and moved the content of the previous site with the node exporter module. While the old content does not show up in the history anymore now, it can still be found through the search.
 
Global Freifunk Newswire - Map View 
 
To geolocate places in articles we use Yahoo Placemaker, which seems to give a good outcome when tagging places in articles. As we have a rather large number of feeds that need to be checked and updated, we need to run cron every few minutes in order to avoid time outs.
Previously, we also had a special German news site focusing on the German speaking freifunk community. As hits on this website have been rather low over the last two years, we have closed that site and redirected it to the international news site saving us time to focus on one system.

So, here it is, the new Freifunk News Site. One thing I personally like is the embed feature that lets you embed any feed into your site. Please check it out and tell us which cool new features you like. 
 
 
 
If you would like us to include your feed, please add it to the wiki page on the freifunk wiki. We will check here from time to time and add feeds to the newswire.

Links:

Freifunk Google Summer of Code 2011

Sun, 20/03/2011 - 04:56 — Mario Behling
Freifunk has been is again a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code. We are looking forward to more people joining development. Please propose ideas for the program on our idea page. Students wishing to apply, please check out the Student Check List in the wiki and join us on irc://irc.fu-berlin.de/#freifun and freenode.net #freifunk.

Our mailing list is here: http://freifunk.net/mailman/listinfo/wlanware

You can also use the OpenWrt mailing list for discussing Freifunk specific plugins and tools with OpenWrt devevlopers: https://lists.openwrt.org/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel

The application period starts on March 28, 2011. Please use the time to discuss your ideas beforehand already.

Timeline: http://www.google-melange.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2011/timeline

  • March 28:19:00 UTC, Student application period opens.
  • April 8: 19:00 UTC, Student application deadline.
  • April 25: 19:00 UTC, Accepted student proposals announced on the Google Summer of Code 2011 site.
  • May 23: 1. Students begin coding for their GSoC projects; 2. Google begins issuing initial student payments provided tax forms are on file and students are in good standing with their communities.
  • July 11: 19:00 UTC, Mentors and students can begin submitting mid-term evaluations.
  • July 15: 19:00 UTC, 1. Mid-term evaluations deadline; 2. Google begins issuing mid-term student payments provided passing student survey is on file.
  • August 15: Suggested 'pencils down' date. Take a week to scrub code, write tests, improve documentation, etc.
  • August 22: 19:00 UTC, Firm 'pencils down' date. Mentors, students and organization administrators can begin submitting final evaluations to Google.
  • August 26: 19:00 UTC, 1. Final evaluation deadline, 2. Google begins issuing student and mentoring organization payments provided forms and evaluations are on file.
  • August 29: Final results of GSoC 2011 announced

Links

* Idea Page: http://wiki.freifunk.net/Ideas

* Student Check List: http://wiki.freifunk.net/Student_Check_List

* Mailing List http://freifunk.net/mailman/listinfo/wlanware

* Freifunk GSoC Page http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org/show/google/gsoc2011/freifunk

* Google Open Source Programs: http://socghop.appspot.com

Flaschenpost-Talk vom 26. September – Thema: Freifunk

Thu, 30/09/2010 - 03:10 — keks

In der Flaschenpost vom 26. Sep. ging es um Freifunk. Hierzu gibt es ein Interview mit zwei Freifunkern aus Chemnitz die ein bisschen über die Funktion des Freifunks berichten.

Hier findet ihr den Artikel

Freies WLan in Berlin mit Freifunk - Veranstaltungsinformation

Mon, 29/03/2010 - 16:49 — Mario Behling

Wie angekuendigt findet am 31. Maerz eine Veranstaltung zu Freiem WLan in Berlin mit Freifunk im Radialsystem in Berlin stat. Der Ablaufplan ist wie folgt:

18:30h Einlass
19h Beginn

Vorträge

  • Begrüßung & Einführung: Wulf und Stefan Ziller
  • Was ist Freifunk? Jürgen Neumann
  • Netz- und Dienstleister-Trennung: Ulf Kypke
  • Wichtige Punkte bis dahin:
  • Freifunk auf dem Kirchendach: Sven Ola-Tücke
  • Freifunkhain: Ulf Kypke
  • Beuth-Schule und Freifunk in der Wissenschaft, Afrika: Alexander Morlang
  • OLPC & VillageTelco: Elektra Wagenrad
  • Recht: Dürfen, aber Haften?: Jochen Bokor
  • Wirtschaftlicher Nutzen: Iris Rabener, Ingo Rau (via cven)
  • Szenarien zur politischen Umsetzung: Stefan Ziller
  • Offene Diskussion: Statements gern von allseits gesehen

Ab 21h: Ausklang im Foyer & Empfang mit Speis und Getränk

Ort/Datum

Mittwoch, 31. März 2010, 19 - 21 Uhr
Radialsystem V GmbH - www.radialsystem.de
Holzmarktstraße 33 - S-Bhf. Ostbahnhof

Wireless Battle of the Mesh V3 - June 2-6, 2010 in Bracciano, Italy

Tue, 23/03/2010 - 17:52 — Mario Behling

The next 'Wireless Battle of the Mesh' will take place from Wed 2nd till Sun 6th of June in Bracciano (near Rome), Italy. The event aims to bring together people from across Europe to test the performance of different routing protocols for ad-hoc networks, like Babel, B.A.T.M.A.N., and OLSR. This third WBM will be improving the testbed conditions for mesh protocols with standardized testing procedures that will be reported after the event for the wireless communities.

On the development side, a flashing tool will be presented to simplify the deployment of such wireless networks based on OpenWrt stable release and packages for each protocol.

If you are a mesh networking enthusiast, community networking activist, or have an interest in mesh networks you have to check this out!

Informations about the event are gathered at: battlemesh.org

The Wireless Battle of the Mesh is an event that aims at bringing together people from across Europe to test the performance of different routing protocols for ad-hoc networks, like Babel, B.A.T.M.A.N., OLSR, and Static Routing. It is a tournament with a social character. If you are a mesh networking enthusiast, community networking activist, or have an interest in mesh networks you might want to check this out! The goal of the WirelessBattleMesh events is to set-up hands-on testbed for each available mesh routing protocol with a standard test procedure for the different mesh networks. During the different WBM events, similar hardware and software configuration will be used based on the OpenWRT BoardSupportPackage and packages for each protocol implementation. The WBM events are also a great opportunity to develop testing tools for PHY/MAC radio layers (drivers, scripts and PHY analyzers). 

Google Summer of Code: The event will also offer opportunities for students and mentors participating in Freifunk Google Summer of Code to meet up and work on projects.
 
Date
========
The "tournament" will take place from June 2-6, 2010.

Location
========
The event will take place in the camping Porticciolo in Bracciano, Italy. along the border of the lake of Bracciano, just North-West of Rome.

Registration
============
Registrations will be available at different hackerspaces (Fusolab, HSBXL, /tmp/lab, metalab, CCC, ...) and on the official website for the event at http://battlemesh.org

Fees
====
Every participant needs to donate 50 EUR (this should cover the costs for the camping, and the infrastructure). To finance this event, we ask you to pay when subscribing (paypal, bank transfer or cash).

Contact
=======
* Web: http://battlemesh.org/BattleMeshV3
* Email: contatti@ninux.org
* IRC: irc.freenode.net #battlemesh
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