Hakais has put up some info about student projects that were accepted as Freifunk Google Summer of Code projects and which are taken care by Guifi.net. Two students involved in Guifi.net have been accepted for the Gsoc 2012.

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers students stipends to write code for open source projects. We have worked with the open source community to identify and fund exciting projects for the upcoming summer. One of these projects is named Guifi.net integration for QMP system, which has been applied by Joel Espunya and mentored by Pau Escrich. The main objective of it is to provide an easy way to use the QMP Mesh firmware inside the Guifi.net community network. (http://guifi.net/en/node/47699)

More info on the projects:

State of the art

• Quick Mesh Project (http://qmp.cat)

The main purpose of QMP (Quick Mesh Project) is to provide an open and free software solution for the quick deployment of a WiFi network based on Mesh/MANET technology. It is focused to be useful mainly in the wireless community network. It is based on OpenWRT Linux and it is completely OpenSource.

The QMP project was drafted by Guifi.net (http://guifi.net/en) active members during year 2010. It was started on the beginnings of 2011 thanks to the funding of a local fundation named puntCat (http://www.fundacio.cat/en_index.html). This funding was ended on december 2011. However the project development still alive by a volunteers team.

• Mesh Network

Strictly speaking, a Mesh network is one where all nodes (participants) are routers, meaning that all the nodes accept and forward packets from other nodes according to the routing rules. Thanks to this property the physical topology of the network is only restricted by the need of all nodes to be connected through at least one link.

• Community Network

A community network is a network made and maintained by the same participants. Unlike the model used by the global telecommunication companies (which are business-focused), each user is owner of his stretch following the philosophy make-it-yourself. Using some agreements and organizations (e.g web site) they are able to connect with neighbours, neighbours of the neighbours and so on.

Project description

• Summary

The objective of the project is to provide a software solution to easy integrate the Guifi.net characteristics into the QMP system.

• Why this is needed

Currently QMP is a working system, that can be used to easy deploy a Mesh Network but there are several missing features. One of them is the integration with the Guifi.net community. It can also be used as a template for the integration of other Network Communities like Freifunk, Funkfeuer, AWMN, etc.

Just after the Wireless Community Weekend 2012 at the c-base, the next event is approaching. Starting Wednesday May 23 till Saturday May 26, 2012 the freifunk community participates in the Linuxtag Berlin. There is space for community members available and the opportunity to present own projects. Depending on the level of participation of the community we can showcast freifunk projects on a shared booth or get our own booth. Please add your name to the list of potential participants in the wiki and add how long and how you would like to contribute to this event.

When

• Date: 23 – 26 May 2012
• Opening hours for visitors: Wednesday – Friday 09:30 - 18:00, Saturday until 09:30 - 17:00
• Conferences: daily 10:00 – 18:00

Where

• Messe Berlin
• Berlin Fairgrounds Hall 7 (Messedamm 22, 14055 Berlin, Germany)
• Venue: Hall 7 (Station S-Messe Süd)

Locations

• Shared Booth

Links

http://wiki.freifunk.net/Linuxtag_2012

Starting Friday May 18 till Sunday May 20, 2012 freifunk.net, c-base and the German community invite you to the "Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend" at the c-base space station in Berlin.

when

• 18.-20 May 2012 at c-base berlin

where

• c-base space station, Rungestrasse 20 10179 Berlin Germany Terra
• c-base e.V.
• Google Map of c-base entrance
• S+U Jannowitzbrücke, City Railway and Subway Station (Info of BVG, Berlin Public Transport Company)

topics

• B B Q
• Störerhaftung myass --> reto
  • Die aktuelle Rechtslage
  • Unsere Forderungen
  • Das freifunkVPN
• Freifunk in den BVVs von Berlin (Bezirksübergreifender Austausch/Perspektiven) -->
• socialAPP für Dezentralenetzwerkstrukturen --> carlo
  • SecureShare, peer-to-peer social network with end-to-end encryption talks, workshop
• Protokollentwicklung NEWS olsr, B.A.T.M.A.N.  ???
• openWRT Now and Beyond --> nbd
• was andere Leute denken und schreiben, was wir machen (Presseschau) --> wetterfrosch & cven
• community best practice presentation --> YOU!
• ad-hoc und olsr mit Android --> sven-ola
• Möglichkeiten im 800MHz ISM-Band / wifi im TV-whitespace
• Joint Rate and Power control - Performance of Minstrel-Blues --> Bluse, TU-Berlin & FF Sundhausen

Updated Info in the wiki: http://wiki.freifunk.net/Wireless_Community_Weekend_2012

Sign in at: http://wiki.freifunk.net/WCW12:participants

Bei der Cebit habe ich einige spannende Freifunker kennengelernt. Ein Projekt wird von einer Schülergruppe namens Techtorium in Radevormwald umgesetzt. Dort entsteht mometan ein Freifunkprojekt über das Christian Melzer schreibt:

Freifunk Radevormwald! Endlich ist es soweit seit langem haben wir darauf gehofft nun am heutigen Tage ist unser Wunsch in erfüllung gegangen. Das offene Wlan in Radevormwald hat seinen ersten Tag. Seit heute morgen startete es parallel zur Rader LokalZeit. Das projekt Freifunk ist in ganz Deutschland vertrete, es ist das vorhaben, die Innenstädte vieler Orte mit frei zugänglichem W-Lan auszustatten. Dazu werden in verschiedenen Gastronomien und Geschäften Router aufgestellt, die das Internet von einem einzigen Anschluss Repeaten. Das heißt man braucht um eine gesamte Innenstadt abzudecken nur einen einzigen Internetanschluss. Die Firmware für die Router wird vom Freifunk e.v. ausgeteilt. Diese Firmware ist genau auf die Version des freien Internets zugeschnitten. Also falls ihr mal Internet braucht kommt nach Rade oder organisiert euch in eurer eigenen Stadt ein freies W-Lan Netz. Nur Mut selbst wir in unserem Jungen alter haben das auf die Reihe bekommen :) Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Christian (http://www.techtorium.de/2012/03/freifunk-radevormwald/)

Links:

• Freifunk Radevormwald: http://rade.freifunk.net
• Techtorium http://www.techtorium.de

The International Space Apps Challenge, which might be interesting for the freifunk community is taking place on April 21-22, 2012. The event is an opportunity to build, create, and invent new solutions to challenges of global importance. It focuses on topics such as "Software, Open Hardware, Citizen Science and Data Visualization".

An idea is for example an app project proposed by Andreas Hornig and AerospaceResearch.net, the app "Ham, Beacon & Hacks". It could be interesting for freifunk enthusiasts, because we could use it to include "freifunk stations" into the DB.

"There are several governmental & public, amateur and private radio transmitters and receivers of all kind all over the world. There are ground stations for space applications like the Deep Space Network, space and terrestrial amateur radio relays and even private ones. Although they are known because of licensing reasons and because of detectable transmission, it's sometimes hard to find a map for all of them. HAM, beacon & hacks is a challenge to create an app for a community driven database of such radio stations, that allows easy submission of new station data and editing of existing ones and vizualisation of the location and further parameters. This makes it possible to filter for stations of a certain frequency band and to identify their propagation sphere or direction. HAM, beacon & hacks will support several things: It will allow to identify gaps in coverage areas and where to set up a possible new station. It will allow to identify bottle necks in bandwith in communication relays It will allow the community to increase collaboration when they see and know their neighbours It will allow student teams to find possible reception points for communication of their high altitude flying (balloons, drones) or orbital reentry vehicles It will also provide a database of stations to be used for coverage optimization algorithm in general and for neighbouring freqency protection in particular (Colomb Ruler, Costas Arrays). The challenge can be a community driven database on a website and can be extended as a hardware project to dectect stations and measure their properties. It can also be extended for WIFI meshes with OLSR or B.A.T.M.A.N and other usefull wireless communication links." (http://spaceappschallenge.org/challenge/ham-beacon-hacks/)

For interested developers there are coding events all over the world on that day. Developers in Germany could meet up during the SpaceApps Challenge event in the hackspace Stuttgart (Date: 9am Saturday, 21st April to 4pm Sunday 22nd April 2012; U4/U9 “Im Degen”, Ulmer Straße 255, Stuttgart Wangen / across from Kulturhaus Arena; http://shackspace.de/?p=3001)

The initiative for the app challenge goes back to no-one else than President Obama. So, let's see what will come out of it!

"On September 20, 2011, President Obama, together with other heads of state, endorsed the principles of the Open Government Partnership – a new multilateral initiative to promote transparency, participation and collaboration between governments and citizens. Since then, 52 countries have joined the global partnership. NASA is working with other organizations around the world on the International Space Apps Challenge as part of the United States’ domestic commitments to the Open Government Partnership." (http://spaceappschallenge.org/faq/) 

[via Andreas Hornig]

Super Hack von Freifunk Augsburg. Zigarrenkiste + Display + Router + modifiziertes Lcd4Linux-Paket = Die Augsburger Freifunkkiste.

"Ich hab heut mal nen Router und Display in eine alte Zigarrenkiste gebaut und das passte da wunderbar rein. Das Display ist von Pearl und kostete da gerade mal 2,90€, die Routerstation lag hier noch so rum. Zusammen gibt das ein recht nettes Austellungsstück... Um das Display anzusteuern wird ein modifiziertes Lcd4Linux-Paket benutzt. Irimi hat dazu im Openwrt Forum eine ausführliche Anleitung geschrieben: Digital Photo Frame as OpenWrt display howto. Für Freifunk hab ich ne angepasste lcd4linux.conf geschrieben, die zwei WLAN-Karten anzeigt. Das kann man hier Downloaden: lcd4linux für Freifunk (http://augsburg.freifunk.net/blog/show/archive/2012/Maerz/13/die_augsburger_freifunkkiste.html)"

Freifunk.net and Ninux.org have been accepted as mentor organizations for the Google Summer of Code 2012. It is fantastic news that the growing international free networks community is now represented by two organizations in the study program.

If you are looking for more information on how to participate get in touch with your local wireless community or introduce your ideas on the wiki or Wlanware mailing list. People on the list will direct you to specific subprojects and contact points if needed.

Freifunk.net is an umbrella organization for wlan networks and community projects around the world and welcomes student applications for software tools to build and enhance free networks including:

* projects for routing protocols like OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. or other freely licensed protocols

* firmwares for routers and software for network devices

* software for network specific content creation like network CMS'

* any other network related software project

If you are a student there are important links to follow:

* 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/gsoc2012/freifunk

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

There is an info day on March 15 in Rome. You can also meet many contributors to the community at the battle of the mesh in Athens from March 26-April 1: http://battlemesh.org/BattleMeshV5