Das Community Blog
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.
Eine Idee, die auch in freien Netzen genutzt werden kann: Bereits 2004 haben
Peter K. Ibach, Tobias Hübner und Martin Schweigert
von der HU Berlin auf dem Chaos Communication Congress 2004 ein Paper über kooperative Positionsbestimmung mit Hilfe von WLAN veröffentlicht. Auf dem Gründerkongress in Berlin stellten die Entwickler die neueste Version der Software vor, die aus dieser Idee entstanden ist: MagicMap
Das Projekt wird am Lehrstuhl Rechnerorganisation und Kommunikation des Instituts für Informatik der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin umgesetzt. Die Software steht unter der GNU General Public License (GPL) und ist bei Sourceforge für Windows und Linux verfügbar. Das Wiki mit vielen weiteren Infos ist hier: http://wiki.informatik.hu-berlin.de/nomads/index.php/MagicMap
Mit der Idee lassen sich Locations Based Services umsetzen. Auch in Räumen, wo die Positionsbestimmung von Personen und Gegenständen sinnvoll ist, kann die Software hilfreich sein, z.B. in Kraftwerken, auf Schiffen oder möglicherweise auf einer Mondbasis :-).
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
Freifunker Rene (ursprünglich aus
Rostock) ist schon seit einer Weile in Indien unterwegs. Nun hat er ein Interview
mit "The Hindu" gegeben und berichtet über seine "Free Wireless"-Aktivitäten und die Idee hinter Freifunk.
“The idea is to network neighbourhoods wirelessly using consumer equipment and share broadband Internet over it. This ‘infrastructure idea’ has great potential in the world’s rural and semi-urban areas where broadband Internet has not caught up,” explains René.
(Mission Connectivity, The Hindu, 15.3.2008, Vishnu Menom M, http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/03/15/stories/2008031552030200.htm)
Und er selbst zeigt sich auch ganz erfreut darüber, was herausgekommen ist bei dem Interview.
Großartig, und diesmal wirklich und ehrlich, war mein letzter Presse-Auftritt. Kam neulich ne email mit ner anfrage ob ich nich ein Interview für die Wochenendbeilage von ‘Hindu’ geben kann. Wenn sich Pressefritzen melden werd ich natürlich skeptisch, aber die Zeitung ist gut, wohl die brauchbarste Tageszeitung hier, also zugesagt. Dann mit Vishnu getroffen der von Gopal – den ich neulich in Delhi getroffen hatte – über mich erfahren hatte. Netzwerke. Funktionieren. Und, Vishnu ist ein angenehmer Zeitgenosse. Er studiert Elektro-Engineering und schreibt nebenbei für die Zeitung, um später mal nachweisen zu können das er mehr als Elektrobasteln kann. Und gut hat er das gemacht, wow. Okok, ein paar kleine Details kommen nicht hin, aber was solls. Und wieso hab ich eigentlich ne skurrile Brille? (http://blog.absorb.it/2008/03/15/mission-connectivity/)
At the CeBIT I had the chance to talk to some fantastic folks of direct open embedded systems, a new Latvian company that is producing WLAN devices based on the GNU/Linux distributions like OpenWRT, OpenEmbedded and FlashSYS Linux.
In the video they present their devices and some show cases as well as FlashSYS, their own web based firmware for small router computers.
FlashSYS environment is a cross-operating system clent-server environment that allows developers to use existing web development skills (HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, Flash, SQLite, and Lua) to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIA) for an embedded system with a very small footprint. (http://openrb.com)
direct open embedded systems is able to produce WLAN devices that can act as small web servers with currently up to 64 GB storage space.
Most of the free and open source companies presented their products in hall 5, which was packed with crowds of people. You can get an idea when you hear the background noise in the video. The interest in free and open source technologies is amazing and ever increasing.
Some more specifications of the router devices:
Bittorent, FTP, HTTP download clients included. Now you don’t have to leave your computer on to complete your downloads, they can be easily stored on a Compact Flash card (up to 64GB) or on external USB Flash / hard disk
Network OS with AJAX user interface
Integrated organizer with Calendar, To-do and Notes
RSS feed reader
LCD screen for displaying news, notes and current activities
P2P streaming media server for video and audio
Very rich network functionality (QoS, tunnels, routing, firewall, NAT, etc.)
Extendable
PCI bus for wireless interfaces, video, Ethernet and other miniPCI devices
I2C bus for serial memory, A/D and D/A converters, temperature/voltage monitors
RS232/RS485 for keyboard, LCD and other devices for industrial applications
USB host with two ports for various serial devices from flash disks to web cameras
GPIO for relays, LEDs, etc.
Memory
RAM: up to 512 MB
Flash: 8 MB on-board, extendable up to 64 GB using CompactFlash
Green and energy saving
Fully ROHS compliant
Processor power consumption (typical): 0.72 W at 266 MHz
Stable
Hardware watchdog timer
Industrial temperature grade
ESD protected Ethernet and power ports
Reliable tantalum capacitors on board except for only one electrolytic cap
Software ported to
OpenEmbedded Linux
OpenWRT Linux
FlashSYS Linux with revolutionary AJAX interface
eCOS Real Time operating system
Created for
Wireless and wired router solutions
Machine2Machine (M2M) applications
Industrial applications
Home wireless AP and media servers
Automation devices
Wireless
Chipset Atheros AR5414
IEEE Standards 802.11a/b/g (2.4/5 GHz)
Security Hardware 64 and 128 bit WEP; Hardware TKIP and AES-CCM encryption; WPA authentication
Bandwidth up to 108 Mbps
Modulation OFDM, TDD
Technical details
PowerPC processor: 266 or 333 MHz clock frequency
1 or 2 ESD protected Ethernet ports
miniPCI sockets for 802.11 wireless cards and other expansion
32-512 MB SDRAM, 64 bit wide for high memory bandwidth
8 MB FLASH for system BIOS and programs
True IDE CompactFlash (CF) header for custom OS and applications
7 to 36 V DC supply through DC jack or passive power over LAN connector
2 RS232 serials ports (1 DB9 male socket), RS485 interface header
JTAG interface header
Hardware and software watchdog timers
LM75 thermal monitor
GPIO header
USB 2.0 host
I2C bus header (can be used for front panel interface)
2 LEDs and 1 pushbutton switch, freely programmable
Board size: 115 mm x 97 mm
CE certified
Morgen, am 27. Dezember beginnt der 24. Chaos Communication Congress (24c3) im Berliner Congress Center am Alexanderplatz unter dem Motto Volldampf voraus!
Der Kongress dauert bis zum 30. Dezember. Die Freifunk-Community trifft sich hier unter anderem in der Embedded Corner auf der Ebene C im ersten Stock neben der Treppe. Im Wiki haben sich bereits Freifunker aus Bern, Hamburg, Leipzig, Rostock sowie der Berliner Initiativen aus der City, vom Kiezfunk und aus Berlin Nordost angekündigt. Themen werden die aktuelle Firmware, die Erfahrungen mit dem neuen Routingprotokoll B.A.T.M.A.N. und die Idee der Open Hardware Prism sein.
Wir freuen uns auch auf interessante Zusammentreffen mit "wireless groups from all over", Gnu Radio, Decentral applications/protocols, Openembedded, Opemmoko, Settopfoo und vielen anderen.
Zur Einstimmung findet heute ab 20:00 das WaveLoeten auf der c-base statt. Die c-base ist während der drei Tage bereits ab morgens um 9:00 geöffnet. Eintritt ist frei.
Freifunker sitzen nicht nur vor dem Computer und basteln Antennen. Echte Freifunker klettern auch schon mal auf Dächer und Türme. Ein Video von Julian Percy (Kamera) und cyper (Schnitt) von Visual Berlin zeigen uns das jetzt sehr anschaulich.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpO7LEBud1o
The first english Videocast of Flo Fleissig with Kloschi (Freifunk), Kurt Jansson (Wikimedia), Jürgen Neumann (Freifunk), Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (United Nations University), Lawrence Lessig (Creative Commons) and Allison and Benoit (Montréal Wireless)
Direct Videolink: http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=-345577071434265096
Production: Mario Behling
"Hello this is Flo!" .. from the free culture, free software, free infrastructure conference Wizards of OS in Berlin. "It is good stuff you can do here. There are excellent panels with excellent people from all over the world." And Flo is gonna go out to interview some of those excellent people. Watch how Flo talks with Kloschi, Freifunk activist and developer from Leipzig (Germany), finds out that Kurt Jansson, head of the Wikimedia association in Germany, uses the same Freifunk gateway as himself or learns about the early days of free infrastructures in Germany by talking to Jürgen Neumann one of the "founding fathers" of the Freifunk community. Further on Rishab Ghosh from the United Nations University in Maastricht explains how open content and open infrastructure are closely related, before he gets an overview of the development of the world’s biggest wireless network in Berlin by Flo … And of course he also gets to know where he finds Flo’s node in the network. Also, Lawrence Lessig from Stanford University and Creative Commons (and without name tag) describes the free network project in Berlin as “an extremely important project to liberate the physical layer right now.” Flo: “Thank you Larry … and here is your name tag, which I found.” Finally Allison and Benoit from free wireless community in Montréal explain about different models to share and give us a few insights into the chances and difficulties you face when you try to establish a free and open network.
Flo firstly conducts an interview with Kloschi, one of the developers of the Freifunk Firmware and network builder from Leipzig. Flo: “What can you tell us about Freifunk at the conference?” Kloschi: “We have a long shot through this area. It is 6 km … and we get Internet from over there. It is rock solid mesh!” Flo: “Wow! Great! And what are you interested in at the conference?” Kloschi: “I am really interested in the community activism and in the open source business model… How does it sustainably and positively integrate – to have a survival in a commercial world and still going the free or open way…”
Kurt Jansson (head of the Wikimedia association in Germany), talks about the connection of open content, free licences, free and open source software and the development of free infrastructures. Freifunk… "I am using it when I am out in the park and I site there in the green and edit Wikipedia. I think it is a great way to give access to people." By the way the favourite article of Kurt on Wikipedia is "French Kissing".
Then Jürgen Neumann, one of the brilliant people who initially came up with the idea of Freifunk in Germany explains more about the idea behind free wireless infrastructures: "The idea is to have a local wireless network, which is run by the users, where people just add their own access point to the network. It becomes part of the infrastructure. Between all these access points they have their own network. They can do whatever they want with this network. There is no regulation. They have a symmetric connection. They can share information. They can use VoIP and everything for free."
Following Jürgen, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh from the United Nations University in Maastricht and founder the most widely read peer-reviewed on-line journal of the Internet First Monday shows the relationship and the commons and differences of free and open content and infrastructures: "Open content and open infrastructure are fairly close related. When you got open content you need to distribute it somewhere and there is no point of having open content if nobody can access it or there is high barrier to access it. … The main thing about content is, when you contribute and collaborate content it can be copied many times. With infrastructure on the other hand it is hard. Once you got infrastructure you can’t duplicate it. It actually costs money. …What you can do by opening it, you allow many more people to access the infrastructure once you paid for it already. … It does not matter to you if one person using it or a hundred… But it provides a benefit to a lot of people."
Lawrence Lessig (without name tag) from Stanford University and Creative Commons and one of the biggest open source persons in the world underlines the importance openness in every layer: "It is extraordinarily important to have openness really in every layer of the network. The physical infrastructure needs to have open and free resources, the logical and the application … needs to be open and the content layer too has to be open. These things work together to encourage a wide range of innovation and creativity. So it is an extremely important project to liberate the physical layer right now." Flo: “Thank you Larry … and here is your name tag, which I found.”
Finally Allison and Benoit from free wireless community in Montréal talk about their new project to create an island without wires and their idea of a mesh network. So far they could already set up about 120 hot spots in public places. Benoit also explains the difficulties to share in a mesh network and the need to establish a network in a sociological sense as well. Benoit: "I am a bit disillusioned… I am really looking forward with meeting the Freifunk people to see how they made a mesh sociological successful…. because I kind of don’t believe in it anymore. So I am looking for some fresh ideas." Flo: "… Hey! We all wanna share.. Hm.. Maybe not…" Allison: "I think sharing is good, but I think there are different kinds of models to share… another kind of model to share… it is a model to create a space for sharing for people … If they are in their favourite café, (our) captive portal page gives them a kind of identified virtual space that goes along with the physical space they share."
