Freifunkblog

The Journal "Community informatics" has published a special about Wireless Networking for Communities, Citizens and the Public Interest. Authors include Michael Gurstein, Alison Powell, Sascha D. Meinrath, Marco Adria, Hanna Hye-Na Cho, Laura Forlano, Andrea H Tapia, Julio Angel Ortiz, Kim Dara, Seán Ó Siochrú, Vidyut Samanta, Chase Laurelle Alexandria Knowles, Jeff Burke, Fabian Wagmister, Deborah Estrin, Ermanno Pietrosemoli, Andrew Clement, Amelia Potter,  Alisha Bhagat.

This special issue documents the state of the art in research on community wireless applications, and presents assessments of community wireless projects in a variety of local contexts: from large urban centers in North America to rural locations in Asia and Latin America. Together, the papers and field notes in this special issue reflect on a community-centric approach to communications infrastructure development. These works describe the challenges – both practical and theoretical – that face community wireless networking, as well as the implications many of these projects have to support social and economic justice around the globe.

The papers in this special issue demonstrate that community-based approaches to Wifi development are part of a broader integration of technology, organizational capacity, and local culture. Social goals are part of most community Wifi projects, and integrating these goals and the technical structures of Wifi networks is part of what makes many community Wifi projects successful. Both full papers and field notes explore this integration and focus on various facets of the community wireless networking movement.

The papers included in this issue explore different theoretical approaches that help situate community wireless networking as social and technical phenomena. Adria provides a meta-theoretical discussion of how Wifi networks reconfigure space and time -- using the medium theory of McLuhan and Virilio to suggest that Wifi networks have the potential to integrate local geographical and temporal experiences.

The other papers use empirical approaches to assess the social aspects of community wireless networking. Tapia and Ortiz explore the claims made by operators of municipal-community networks that these projects are addressing the digital divide. Using a textual analysis of claims made in documents including “press releases, requests for proposals, letters of intent, and other official policy documents,” as well as interviews with key informants in US municipal-community projects, they interrogate the extent to which networks facilitate meaningful digital inclusion.

Both Cho and Forlano explore the social aspects of community wireless networking in more detail: Cho focusing on the development of networks and Forlano on their use. Cho reveals how the development of community wireless networks (CWNs) builds social capital for the participants. She develops the concept of “place-peer community” to explain how Wifi projects define “community.” Cho also describes how contributions to community wireless networks help to develop ‘civic bandwidth’ among their contributors. Like Tapia and Oritz, she identifies CWNs as developing a discourse that connects the development of digital information and communication technologies with efforts to improve communities.

Forlano explores the new social relationships created through the everyday use of community-based Wifi networks, examining the gap between media representations of Wifi as an “anytime, anywhere” solution and the socio-cultural practices of people using free Wifi hotspots in New York City. As she discovers, freelance workers use Wifi hotspots to create temporary working environments that eliminate some of the isolation of working without a fixed office, while providing a basic infrastructure including network connectivity and electrical power. These Wifi hotspots support communities of mobile, flexible workers who establish relationships with a particular place and its people. Together with Cho’s insights about the social capital mobilized through the process of developing community Wifi networks, this suggests that Wifi hotspots may have a unique role to play in redefining the experiences of community in urban areas.

The field notes in this issue offer a window into the realities of local experiments with Wifi technology. The impacts of the projects they document depend on the local political context (Clement), the community’s capacity (Dara, Dimanche, and O Siochru; Bhagat), the potential for community and industry partnerships to create new ways for community members to gather data and to aggregate it (Samanta), and how changing our assumptions about the role of wireless infrastructure can open up new opportunities for affordable broadband (Pietrosemoli).

These notes highlight how local contexts influence what is considered the “public interest” and how community wireless projects can best serve the general public. For example, Clement criticizes the Toronto Hydro Wireless project, considered a technical success, because its governance structure forces the network to be operated for-profit rather than as a public service. Samanta provides an outline of some potential social uses for an experimental wireless network that could aggregate data from numerous wireless devices. Some suggested uses of this network include collecting ambient audio data that, when mapped, could provide quality of life indicators.

In the global South, the public interest is served by the communication and applications made possible by wireless networks established in previously un-served areas. In these contexts as well, important challenges also emerge. Bhagat assesses the results of a mesh network built in Mahavilachchiya village where a local entrepreneur developed a wireless network as an extension of a computer school where local children learned ICT skills. This Wifi connectivity project extended internet access to homes, and encouraged more local residents to use the internet. However, Bhagat also notes that connecting the village to the internet may have negative impacts as well: introducing new forms of media and new social expectations to the village and disrupting historical cultural norms.

Dara, Dimanche and O Siochru explore how local political and social contexts impact the design and deployment phase of one local wireless network. From the challenging context of Cambodia, they report on the first phase of the I-REACH project, a distributed mesh network providing internet connectivity and local media using solar-powered devices. The project’s challenges in obtaining permission from local government, sourcing material, and recruiting qualified local staff and contractors underscores the notion that community-based infrastructure implementation is a social (and an institutional) as well as a technical endeavor.

Ermanno Pietrosemoli and his international team of Wifi researchers have deployed wireless links spanning hundreds of kilometers. By proofing out a methodology for creating low-cost, long-distance Wifi, Pietrosemoli forces us to question the notion that Wifi is just for local networking. As a potential backhaul solution, Wifi may offer an exceptional value for communities and constituencies that would not otherwise be able to afford broadband connectivity.

Across these paper and notes, a common thread linking the articles is the importance of establishing local strategies for leveraging wireless technologies in the public interest. (Alison Powell, Sascha D. Meinrath, Introduction to the Special Issue: Wireless Networking for Communities, Citizens and the Public Interest, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2008, http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/490/389)

The global freifunk newswire is back online. There were some problems with the newswire server in Switzerland. Alex Antener who is the main admin taking care of the server now switched to another provider. Unfortunately we lost some updates. I put in recently added feeds again. In case I forgot a feed or if you have suggestions for a new feed please drop me a line by using the contact form at http://kontakt.freifunk.net. Thanks for supporting me in keeping the service running to Alex Antener and Sascha Tamim Asfandiar!

Saverio from the Italian Ninux community has now published a video interview Daniel Paufler and I conducted with them at the Wireless Community Weekend in Berlin. Thank you very much for the great montaggio! It is real fun to watch!

Direct Link: http://www.vimeo.com/1052320

In Berlin, at C-Base, people from wireless communities all around Europe meet to share ideas and experiences. See this interview by Mario Behling with free networks activists from Ninux.org and Freifunk.net

What happened to the application of the freifunk community (Blog entry) for the Google Summer of code? Well, as you can guess by now, unfortunately we did not get it.. even though we were close. I had asked Leslie Hawthorn and she wrote us back the following lines:

"I know OpenWRT and like them. We simply couldn't accept everyone. You folks made our short list if that helps. I can give you more feedback if you send me the URL for your ideas list. Is there a way Google can help you beyond Summer of Code? Leslie Hawthorn"

We had some nice ideas. Our intention was to serve as an umbrella for all the freifunk projects here, but maybe we can join the program next year. We still have the ideas pages, which is probably also intresting for developers who want to join freifunk projects in the future.

Some of the project ideas were/are:

• Multimedia Streaming in Mesh Networks / Porting Obamp to C++
• Passive + Active Measurement in Mesh Networks / Porting OpenIMP probes to OpenWRT
• Traffic Flow Visualization / IPFIX DataSource for freimap
• Mesh Node Status Monitoring / SNMP DataSource for freimap
• Service Discovery in Mesh Networks / Avahi DataSource for freimap
• Service Control Module for freimap
• Topology visualization / B.A.T.M.A.N and olsrd routing decision recovery for freimap
• Database output for freimap
• Antenna placement information elements in freifunk map data
• Search in Wireless Mesh Networks - Yacy
• Search in Wireless Mesh Networks - Nutch/Lucene
• Peer-to-peer file sharing applications in Wireless Mesh Networks
• Developing a Freifunk Theme for CMS
• VoIP phoning in Freifunk Mesh Networks
• Porting Freifunk to EeePC
• Freifunk Webinterface for OpenWrt Kamikaze

( http://wiki.freifunk.net/Ideas)

Talking about OpenEmbedded: The BeagleBoard will be available soon. A Motherboard with 600MHz ARM CPU + 256 MIB NAND-Flash + 128 MiB RAM + USB Host + and many more features. Details here: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard. The price will be around 150.-US$. This matches perfectly with the new regulations of small selfimports from outside the EU. Starting from December 1, 2008 products not exceeding the value of 150,- Euros will be freed from paying tariffs and tax. Until then the limit was 22,- Euro.

Mit Verordnung (EG) Nr. 274/2008 (PDF-Datei) wurde unter anderem die Wertgrenze für die so genannten Kleinsendungen (Artikel 27 der Verordnung (EWG) Nr. 918/83 – ZollbefreiungsVO) auf 150 Euro angehoben. Bislang wurden bereits bei Sendungen, deren Wert über 22 Euro lag Einfuhrabgaben fällig – außer es handelte sich um Importe aus Staaten der Europäischen Gemeinschaft. Die angegebene Verordnung und die damit erhöhte Wertgrenze gilt ab dem 1. Dezember 2008. Damit ist eine bislang sehr enge Grenze für Eigenimporte etwa von HD-Discs aus dem Ausland gefallen. (nij/c't, 08.04.2008 08:38, http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Goldene-Zeiten-fuer-Eigenimporte--/meldung/106159/from/rss09)

Comment of Robert Schuster: "Ich finds gut: Embedded Systeme für alle und nicht für jene, die sich
teure Evalboards leisten können und ätzende NDAs unterscheiben wollen. :)"

By the way, Robert will have a presentation on OpenEmbedded at the upcoming Linuxtag in Berlin on from 3-4 pm on Thursday May 28, 2008 in Saal London (UG),

open80211s.org is an interesting project to open up the IEEE 802.11 industry standard for wireless mesh networks. Current mesh networks are based on mesh routing software working on higher network layers and on the 802.11a/b/g standard hardware. Mesh-Routing with the 802.11s standard is intended to be more efficient as the routing is "happening" at the MAC layer.

open80211s is a consortium of companies who are sponsoring (and collaborating in) the creation of an open-source implementation of the emerging IEEE 802.11s wireless mesh standard. The resulting software will run on Linux on commodity PC hardware.
Goals
* To create the first open implementation of 802.11s.
* To let the world use it, understand it and contribute to it.
* To connect all the Linux devices in the world to One Big Mesh.
(open80211s.org)

IEEE 802.11s ist eine bisher noch nicht angenommene Teilspezifikation des IEEE 802.11-Industriestandards für drahtlose Netzwerkkommunikation. Ziel von 802.11s ist ein herstellerunabhängiger Standard zur Einrichtung von drahtlosen, vermaschten Netzwerken. Im Unterschied zu derzeitigen Mesh-Netzen, die auf vorhandener 802.11a/b/g-Standard-Hardware und auf höheren Netzwerkebenen arbeitender Mesh-Routing-Software basieren, findet das Mesh-Routing bei 802.11s in der MAC-Schicht statt und ist daher wesentlich effizienter, insbesondere auch in Hinblick auf Hardwareanforderungen und Energieverbrauch. (Version 3.2. 2008, 14:30, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11s)

IEEE 802.11s is a draft IEEE 802.11 amendment for mesh networking, defining how wireless devices can interconnect to create an ad-hoc network. 802.11 is a set of IEEE standards that govern wireless networking transmission methods. They are commonly used today in their 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g versions to provide wireless connectivity in the home, office and some commercial establishments. It extends the IEEE 802.11 MAC standard by defining an architecture and protocol that support both broadcast/multicast and unicast delivery using "radio-aware metrics over self-configuring multi-hop topologies." (2 May 2008, 16:55, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11s)

 [via alx]

Thee free wireless community is growing and for some time I tried to keep a list of communities on the Global Newswire Site at http://global.freifunk.net/free_global_wireless_community. The bigger the community gets the more difficult it becomes. Instead of maintaining a seperate list of freifunk communities I will join the maintainers of a list of communities in the English Wikipedia, who have created a wiki page here: List of wireless community networks by region.

Juergen Neumann hat Elisabeth Rank vom Spiegel ein Interview  ueber die OpenTech-Konferenz in Taiwan vor zwei Wochen gegeben. Daraus ist ein Artikel entstanden, den ihr jetzt auf Spiegel Online lesen koennt "Freie Hardware, Die Zukunftsbastler".

In Taiwans De-facto-Hauptstadt Taipeh traf sich in der letzten Aprilwoche ein Kreis von rund hundert freien Entwicklern, viele davon Studenten, und bastelten gemeinsam an einer alternativen Technikzukunft. Unterstützt von Asus und zwei Universitäten kamen dort eben nicht IBM und Intel oder HP und Microsoft zusammen, sondern Vertreter der KDE-Entwickler (Linux-Benutzeroberfläche), von Open Pattern, der Berliner Initiative Freifunk, dem freien Geo-Informationssystem Open Streetmap oder der freien Mobilplattform OpenMoko. Die Idee zur Veranstaltung hatten Jürgen Neumann von Freifunk und Joy Tang von der One Village Foundation vor zwei Jahren bei einem Treffen der Open Hardware Initiative im indischen Dharamsala entwickelt. Letztes Jahr im Sommer wurde die Konferenz konkret beschlossen. Asus übernahm einen großen Teil der Finanzierung, Organisation und Logistik. Der Rest wurde von den Teilnehmern finanziert. (Die Zukunftsbastler, 8.5.2008, Elisabeth Rank, http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/tech/0,1518,551818,00.html)

The Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend 2008 is over. I had a fantastic time meeting so many people pushing the idea of free networks to new hights. The interest in free wireless was overwhelming and we probably had more than double the number of the 51 visitors who put their names on the participants list. Many developers were taking part. We saw presentations about OpenWRT, B.A.T.M.A.N., the HorstTool, mikroFM, OpenHardware and the Luci-Interface for Freifunk networks. Receiving questions about "free networks and the implications of the law" regularly, we were extremely pleased that Reto Mantz recently published a doctoral thesis about this subject and held a presentation at the WCW (slides now available).

Besides German communities we were very happy to meet many friends from other countries like www.guifi.net from Catalunia, Spain, Sergey Yugov from Russia, Jesper Svarre with 28 people from Denmark and our friends from the Rome community ninux.org.

Together with the help of Italian and German Freifunkers Saverio and me made tons of interviews. Be sure it will not take two years this time to see them online ;-) Get a little taste of the WCW2008 with the first of a series of videos already published by our Italian friends.

Per ora vi lascio con questo breve video, che mostra qualche immagine della domenicale del Wireless Community Weekend. Molto presto verranno pubblicate le interviste. (http://blog.ninux.org/2008/05/05/lultima-sera-al-wcw2008/)

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGZcH49j4hw

The countdown for the Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend 2008 conference is running and cven is haevily working on the final preparation.

As of now we have 48 people who have put their name on the participants list on the wiki at http://wiki.freifunk.net/WCW08:participants and many more who have confirmed their participation to us directly. People are joining us in the upcoming days from Freifunk communities from all over Germany and from communities in other countries. Our friends from Italy will be represented by the two well known free wireless evangelists Nino and Saverio from ninux.org and we expect Jesper Svarre from Denmark with a group of 25 people from the Association of Computer Professionals.

The WCW is a self organized conference and community gathering. We will have a community track with communities presenting themselves, e.g. from Bastian from the Weimar Freifunkers and from Keks from the community in Berlin North-East.

On the other side there will be technical talks from developers of OpenWRT, the B.A.T.M.A.N. routing protocol developers Marek Lindner and Simon Wunderlich; Thomas Hirsch - the developer of the freimap and a presentation of sven-ola - the main developer of the Freifunk Firmware,

Further panels cover subjects like Web 2.0 in the Freifunk Universe (by me, Mario Behling) or Open Networks and the current law by Dr. Reto Mantz, who has recently published a book on "Offene Netze und Recht",

Many opportunities to meet with some of the most exciting people in the international freifunk sphere! Open Mesh advocat Electra will take part in the WCW and after returning from the Open Tech Summit in Taiwan Juergen Neumann will present the latest advancements on Open Wireless Hardware. 

Last but not least we are happy to welcome participants from the academic scene coming from the TU Berlin and the Fraunhofer FOKUS Institute.

Join us at the Freifunki Wireless Community Weekend in Berlin from May 2-4! Check out the latest updates on http://wiki.freifunk.net/Wireless_Community_Weekend_2008