Yes, I think excessive planning is what doomed the Corvallis effort. -- Allen Brown http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown/ In general, avoiding problems is better than solving them. --- Spencer & Collyer, USENIX 1992
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Miller" <mike.mikemil...@gmail.com> To: "Eugene Unix and Gnu/Linux User Group" <euglug@euglug.org> Cc: w...@euglug.org Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 1:46:17 PM Subject: Re: [Eug-lug] Fwd: Re: Community Wireless in Eugene! Nicholas, Thanks for sharing that e-mail. All of Russell's points are valid. I think there are lessons to be learned from the Personal Telco experience. I also liked his warning about too much planning and not enough action. I've seen other attempts fail due to that same issue. I hope this time out there is enough interest from all to get this off the ground. I'm wondering if Russel could talk at one of the upcoming IT ProForum meetings, that does not currently have a speaker scheduled? Maybe one of the usual suspects could comment on the portability of that? Thanks, --mmiller On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 1:28 PM, Nicholas Chase <nick.nchas...@gmail.com> wrote: > I just emailed Personal Telco, the nonprofit running over 100 free public > hotspots in Portland. Here's what I got back. I like his idea about just > getting started. > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: "Russell Senior" <russ...@personaltelco.net> > Date: Mar 16, 2011 1:09 PM > Subject: Re: Community Wireless in Eugene! > To: "Nicholas Chase" <nick.nchas...@gmail.com> > >>>>>> "Nicholas" == Nicholas Chase <nick.nchas...@gmail.com> writes: > > Nicholas> Greetings fellow internet freedom fanatics! I'm trying > Nicholas> to get what you guys got in portland to happen here in > Nicholas> Eugene. A I've been having a conversation with people in the > Nicholas> Eugene Linux User Group, and there's a lot of enthusiasm for > Nicholas> it. A Lorraine Kerwood, the CEO of NextStep Computer Reuse, > Nicholas> has expressed interest in supporting a community wireless > Nicholas> project. > > Awesome! > > Nicholas> I'm a 23 year-old self-taught tech enthusiast who thinks > Nicholas> internet should be a human right. A I'm looking to expand my > Nicholas> usefulness to my community in this capacity. A Do you have > Nicholas> resources you can recommend along these lines? A Could we > Nicholas> collaborate or learn from your experiences setting up a > Nicholas> network in Portland? A Maybe we could be a satellite of > Nicholas> personal telco's! A I just want to play with the > Nicholas> possibilities and see how I can facilitate this expansion of > Nicholas> information freedom in my community. A Any input you'd have > Nicholas> would be much appreciated. Nicholas Chase > > There are a variety of models you could adopt. We were initially > interested in building "alternative infrastructure" using wifi. > However, for technical reasons (mostly trees and lack of tall > buildings with line of sight) that didn't work for us. Instead, we > have gone the wifi hotspot model, with one or two bigger networks. > Another model would be mesh networking, though it has some issues. > > We rely on node hosts to fund the bandwidth. Right now we are > relatively hardware rich. In fact we have some gear from the defunct > MetroFi network. If you can figure out a way to use it efficiently, > we could loan you some of it. > > The biggest ongoing cost is the internet bandwidth. Everything else > becomes inconsequential over time. My biggest advice is to get > together with like-minded people and do something to get started. Set > up your own node. Cast your bread upon the water, etc. Efforts > snowball when results can be seen. Too much talk and planning and not > enough action will die on the vine. > > If you can make it up for a meeting you'd be welcome. If you want me > to come down and do a presentation about Personal Telco, I might be > able to do that too. > > Let me know if you have any specific questions. > > > -- > Russell Senior, President > russ...@personaltelco.net > > _______________________________________________ > EUGLUG mailing list > euglug@euglug.org > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > > _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list euglug@euglug.org http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list euglug@euglug.org http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
