Babel Wireless Mesh hackathon (Paris, 19-20-21 July 2013)

A hackathon dedicated to the Babel wireless mesh routing protocol will be held during three days in Paris, at the LeLoop.org hackerspace. The event primarily aims at testing the new features of Babel (diversity, RTT metric, source-specific routing, etc…) in a real-world environment.

Date
====

Start: Friday 19 July @ 09:00

End: Sunday 21 July @ 22:00 

Goals
=====

  • Setup of a testbed of 20 nodes or more, some of them on batteries
  • Test the new features of Babel in real-world conditions
  • Test interoperability between different implementations and different extensions of the protocol
  • Basic tests inspired by the Wireless Battle Mesh ones
  • Data collection, statistics and reproductibility of the experience
  • Bug hunting (hopefully there aren’t many)
  • Degustation of belgian beers, and probably Attitude Adjustment cocktails too 🙂

Program
======

Along with the main events, some talks are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. Feel free to propose a talk, they will be listed on the wiki page of the event: http://wiki.leloop.org/index.php/Babel_hackathon

More information will be available on LeLoop website: http://leloop.org

We provide
========

  • electricity
  • internet connectivity
  • meeting place
  • coffee and tea
  • toilets
  • if needed, hosting, but get in touch with us before

Do not forget:
==========

* Bring your laptop/computer and european power plug wire (multiprises)

* Bring your compatible router(s) with OpenWRT pre-installed

* Bring your WiFi antenna(s) and connectors

* Bring your sleeping bag, and if you need hosting send an email

Registration
=========

Please register as soon as possible on Framadate: http://framadate.org/studs.php?sondage=q4hlhbsehmh37kgm

The entrance is free, both as in “freedom” and as in “free beer” (although the beer won’t actually be free).

Location
========

LeLoop.org

La Gare XP

0bis avenue Lucien Descaves

75014 Paris

Tramway: Montsouris, on T3a

Metro: Porte d’Orléans on ligne 4

RER: Cité Universitaire on RER B

Google Maps: http://ur1.ca/ej4jb

Open Street Map: http://osm.org/go/0BOc0dK0C–?m

Web
===

* http://www.pps.univ-paris-diderot.fr/~jch/software/babel/
* http://leloop.org
* http://garexp.org

Contact
======

IRC: #babel on irc.freenode.net

Wiki: http://wiki.leloop.org/index.php/Babel_hackathon

Baptiste Jonglez
Email: baptiste.jonglez at ens-lyon.fr
GSM: (+33) 6 03 72 24 79

Benjamin Henrion
Email: bh at udev.org
GSM: (+32) 484 566109

Freifunk Halle Interview Loop von Tmk

Freifunker aus Halle (Saale) haben einen Film gemacht und erklaeren die Motive und Begeisterung fuer freie Netze.

“Freifunk Halle Interview Loop” von Tmk, Oktober 2009, Creative Commons: by-nc-sa.

Freier Informationsaustausch ist ein Grundrecht – Keine Rechtssicherheit um den Preis der Freiheit

Zur Bundesratsinitiative “Änderung der Störerhaftung für WLAN-Betreiber – Freies WLAN in Berlin”[1] der Großen Koalition in Berlin erklärt der Förderverein Freie Netzwerke e.V.:
 
Wir begrüßen sehr, dass sich die rot-schwarze Koalition für Anbieter freier WLAN-Zugänge einsetzt, denn die Anwendung der sog. “Störerhaftung” macht die Betreiber von offenen WLAN-Zugängen für den Datenverkehr ihrer Nutzer juristisch verantwortlich. Die Störerhaftung ist damit Angstmacher und größtes Hemmnis für die Weiterentwicklung Freier Netze. 
 
Gleichzeitig fragen wir uns jedoch, welche “Anforderungen an die jeweils einzusetzenden Schutzmaßnahmen” gesucht werden und warum man zwischen befugter sowie unbefugter Nutzung differenziert. Hierzu möchten wir feststellen, dass solche “erforderlichen Schutzmaßnahmen” technisch wie juristisch äußerst fragwürdig sind und für kommerzielle Anbieter bislang nicht vorgesehen sind. 
 
Diese Forderungen stehen sowohl dem Fernmeldegeheimnis wie den allgemeinen Grundsätzen des Telemediengesetz entgegen, in denen es heißt: “Diensteanbieter (..) sind nicht verpflichtet, die von ihnen übermittelten oder gespeicherten Informationen zu überwachen” (§7 Satz 2)  und “für fremde Informationen (..) nicht verantwortlich” (§8 Satz 1). 
 
“Ob des Grundrechts auf vertrauliche und verschlüsselte Kommunikation lässt sich der Austausch von Daten, praktisch nicht verhindern – hierfür technische Auswege zu suchen ist schlichtweg naiv und gefährdet die Integrität der Informationsnetze” warnt Netzaktivist wetterfrosch. Er erinnert, dass der Gesetzestext vom Anbieter explizit fordert “die Nutzung von Telemedien (..) anonym oder unter Pseudonym zu ermöglichen, soweit dies technisch möglich und zumutbar ist” (§13 Satz 6).
 
“Im Gegensatz zu kommerziellen Providern welche aus guten Gründen nicht in den Datenstrom eingreifen dürfen, wird dies im Moment von privaten WLAN-Betreibern – wie Freifunkern – verlangt” erklärt André Gaul und fordert, dass eine solche Benachteiligung privater Initiativen verhindert wird.
 
Freifunk ist eine seit 2002 existierende nicht-kommerzielle Initiative für freie und selbstverwaltete Funknetzwerke. Freifunker aus ganz Deutschland stellen an über tausend Punkten freie Internetzugänge zur Verfügung. “Wir stehen für diskriminierungsfreie, dezentrale und für jeden nutzbare Möglichkeiten zum offenen Informationsaustausch” stellt Freifunker cven klar.
 
Weitere Informationen
 
[1] Antragstext der SPD/CDU-Fraktionen des Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin “Änderung der Störerhaftung für WLAN-Betreiber – Freies WLAN in Berlin”
 
Kritik des Medienrechtsanwalts Thomas Stadler
 
TMG §7 Allgemeine Grundsätze
 
TMG §8 Durchleitung von Informationen
 
TMG § 13 Pflichten des Diensteanbieters
 
Störerhaftung in der Wikipedia
 
Kontakt
    Website von Freifunk
 
    @c_v_e_n / cven@c-base.org

    Matthias @wetterfrosch Mehldau
    wetter@netzpolitk.org

    André Gaul, wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der TU Berlin
    @andrenarchy 
    gaul@math.tu-berlin.de

NinuxDay in Rome from November 27-29, 2009

The Ninux.org team announced the first “Ninux Day”, a weekend with about and for wireless communities. You will meet software and hardware hackers, geeks, nerds, engineers, artists, the curious and
academics. Experts from all over Europe offer technical and social presentations in the area of wireless community networks.

Join the Ninux Days in Rome, Italy, from November 27-29, 2009.

More Info here:

* http://wiki.ninux.org/NinuxDay2009
* http://wiki.ninux.org/NinuxDay2009en (English)
* http://wiki.ninux.org/NinuxDay2009it (Italian)
* Announcement: http://blog.ninux.org/2009/09/03/ninux-day-2009
* Ninux Blog http://blog.ninux.org

[via ZioPRoTo]

Juergen Neumann about the Roots of Open Wi-Fi at Open Tech Summit in Taiwan 2008

Xavier Carcelle has put some videos online from the Open Tech Summit in Taiwan at the beginning of 2008. Juergen Neumann of the Freifunk Community talks about the beginnings and history of open Wi-Fi.


Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4426529986868760558

Journal for Community Informatics Special on Wireless Networking for Communities, Citizens and the Public Interest

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.

http://ci-journal.net

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)

Wireless Kernel Tweaking or how B.A.T.M.A.N. learned to fly – Presentation at the 24c3 by Marek Lindner and Simon Wunderlich

Marek Lindner and Simon Wunderlich from the Berlin freifunk community gave a talk on Wireless Kernel Tweaking and the B.A.T.M.A.N. routing protocol at the 24c3 Chaos Communication Congress. The video is now available on the torrent network.

Kernel hacking definitely is the queen of coding but in order to bring mesh routing that one vital step further we had to conquer this, for us, unchartered territory. Working in the kernel itself is a tough and difficult task to manage, but the results and effectivity to be gained justify the long and hard road to success. We took on the mission to go down that road and the result is B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced which is a kernel land implementation of the B.A.T.M.A.N. mesh routing protocol specifically designed to manage Wireless MANs.

During the last years the number of deployed mesh networks has increased dramatically and their constant growth drove us around the edge of what we thought was possible. To cope with this rapid development we had to leave the slow and limited track of tweaking existing approaches and take an evolutionary step forward by porting the B.A.T.M.A.N. protocol into the kernel land and going down to layer 2. Using B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced as a showcase we will, in our lecture, deliver a detailed review on how one can go about developing linux kernel modules, give insights in what difficulties to expect and provide practical tips on how to go about this challenge without experiencing a damaging kernel freeze in due process.

We will describe what problems we faced migrating down to layer 2 and how we went about solving them for example how we moved away from the kernel routing and handle the actual routing and data transport in B.A.T.M.A.N. itself. Also moving to layer 2 meant to leave IPs behind and solely rely on MAC-routing enabling features like DHCP, IPX, IPv6, etc which up to now was not possible and therefore comes as a big plus. On the other hand there were little if none diagnostic tools at all for routing on that level so we had to go back one step and develop the tools we needed ourselves.

These and other things we will cover in our presentation and also give an outlook into the future of mesh-routing, which will bring it even closer to the source of wifi – the wireless stack and its drivers and thereby improving the overall performance even more.

Link: www.open-mesh.net

 

Wireless Community Weekend 2008 in Berlin

vom Freitag 2. bis Sonntag 4. Mai 2008 werden freifunk.net, c-base und die Berliner Community wieder ein *Wireless Community Weekend* auf der c-base Raumstation in Berlin ausrichten. Für den Event hat Cven bereits eine Wikiseite eingerichtet unter:
https://wiki.freifunk.net/Wireless_Community_Weekend_2008_c-base_berlin.

Unter „Wishlist“ gibt es hier Platz für euer Topic-Brainstorming.

neben den bereichen routing, hardware,firmware und layer8, werden wir auch probieren einige papers zu erarbeiten, die den umgang, mit den in einem mesh/community/network anfallenden daten beschreibt, und es waere auch schoen, wenn wir als gegenstueck zu der lobbyarbeit von einigen firmen und anderen angstmachern, richtern und anwaelten eine art "leitfaden" fuer den umgang mit community netzwerken und gateways an die hand geben koennten.

Da genau dafuer aber 3 tage nicht ausreichen, wird es ende januar einen termin fuer juristen geben, wo wir probieren moechten einige ziele auszuarbeiten und anzuformulieren, damit wir dann waerend des wcw2008 nicht bei null anfangen muessen. (Cven)