Free and Low-Cost Wireless Session

(disclaimer - a lot of this session was over my head and so i am not going to pretend that these notes are awesome. if you were there and you have suggestions, please post them in the comments!)

Speakers:
Jim Forster
Chris Vein
Esme Vos
Lauren-Glenn Davitian

Jim Foster

Bottom of the Pyramid and ITC- even poor people spend money on communications. Even the poorest will spend 5% on communications.

- communication leads to transparency, which leads to less corruption, and better government

Mesh Networking - wireless nodes with clever routing to pick the best path

Costs a surprisingly small amount to do this.you need 10 to 30 nodes per square mile, which cost 2-5 thousand per node. So 20 - 80 k per square mile (the price of a few cars).

(I'm getting lost here in the slides which seem very technical.)

Example Network: There is a network in Dharamasala. Mesh backbone. 

Lessons from the Mobile Phone Phenomenon

- biggest ICT success in developing countries in the past 10 years

- very largely private sector 

Barriers to Internet Access

- knowledge

- capital

- licensing – This is a BIG problem. Reduces investment, especially small businesses.

NGO-Nonprofit Issues

- network infrastructure is not a core competency of most NGOs

- they can be anchor tenants

ISP issues

- staff mostly in cities

ISs and communities working together

community can supply faciltiies, people with installation capacities, protection from vandalism. ISP supplies technical experticse and some of the capital. community gets cheaper voice service and connected to the world, and ISP gets customers and revenue.

Resources

www.wndw.net

www.itrainonline.org/itrainonline/mmtk/wireless.shtml

www.diirwb.net

http://ictinafrica.com/vsat

http://airjaldi.com

Esme Vos 

why is municipal broadband gaining popularity in a city like SF which already has wifi?

most networks she's seen are deployed in the US

often small towns in the midwest and the south which are not too far from a large city

Scottsburg - about 25 miles from louisville kentucy, and people were going to move if they didn't get broadband, because they couldn't do their jobs.  so they had no choice they had to set up a broadband network.  the city had to do it.  hire someone to come and do it and charge people $30 a month or something.

other option is cities that already have broadband. there are places within those cities that don't have broadband, though. apparnetly large portions of New York don't have broadband.

Brodband can greatly increase efficiency in many fields - police officers, inspectors, etc. they can also save money.

think of it as the next big IT upgrade.

we can use that network for VOIP to replace some cellular

In the US, you need a 3rd force. need someone else in there to keep the prices lower.

incumbent operator should be forced to open up to all networks.

in europe it's taking off – crazy bandwidth compared to what's proposed for SF

corpus christi - automated meter reading project. wireless meters that talk to mesh nodes installed on lamppost. 

unels cities take charge of their rights of way, unless we take cahrge as citizens, we won't have that access. we need to be operating on a policy level to protect our rights of way.

Chris Vein 

San Francisco case study

senate bill is bad. spend a lot of time convincing them that cities are where innovation happens. companies shouldn't be the ones that benefit. two bills in the house currently which stand to have a detrimental impact on our cities.

Mayor Newsome came in with new ideas, including that these idas need to get out into the communities, rather than expecting peope to come to city hall.

resulted in the Connect Strategy. initial projects include homeless connect (and four others?)

Even in SF, there is a digital divide. approx 1/3 of residences lack internet access and computers at home. it's racial, class, and gender based.

TechConnect

- sustainable program to ensure that all Sf residents have acess to the benefits of technology- 

- goals - use internet to increase access to jobs, education, healthycare and gov't services. enable residents to better engage and participate in their communities. enable residents to more fully participate in the globla information encoomy and society.

Framework - access, hardward, focused content, training and support.

program design - community input, two others i didn't get

process - must go through a competitve proces. started with request for information and comment. then request for proposal, which included 60 critiera.

Earthlink got the deal with partners google, tropos and motorola. mesh technology

then vendor negoitions. city processes will be followed, and finally the project will begin.

governmetn role - providing vision, understanding need, finding ways to meet need, communication, planning for the future (make sure you don't have an obselete system in a few short years)

Some issues - privacy, encouraging competition, performance, process.

SF ACLU has concerns – i didn't capture them all... could someone from there chip in in comments with their concerns? http://aclunc.org 

Vein says that these issus hven't come up in other cities, and this is because we have the ACLU here in SF.  ACLU is happy to help and support the city.

what are these issues?
- signing in - why do you need to? (so privacy)
- business model of private-public partnerships - how do you make sure both partners get what they need?

Privacy issues - what kind of information do you have to supply? where does it go? do you have the right to look at the information that's keep being kept about you? how difficult is it to get that information? 

constant battle between those who want the info and theose who don't want to give it. from the private companies side, they want ot make sure the customers data is private, because it makes people paranoid, and then peole won't use it, which isn't commercially viable!

our youth culture is very accustomed to being public - cameras, etc.

good that the ACLU is working on these issues because they won't go away.

http://muniwireless.com - Esme's org.

what do you do when someone logs on and causes harm? how do you find them and deal with them?

privacy - it's a balance that nees to be struck.  

In closing: if you were giving advice to organizers, what things would you say a community organizer needs to know to get broadwban wireless in their cities?

- try it smallscale
- wirless network for the developing world - free book available online
- make sure you involve the community as much as possible
- be really careful when the incumbents come and respond to your bid. they have an interest in dummying it down so it doesn't compete with them
- look at open source alternatives. cuwireless.net - good OS mesh networking software
- be careful what you wish for- communicate!
- no deal will be perfect

there is a long history of communities taking charge of their telecommunications future. this is a tried and true path, remember that! also remember that there is a loegitimate role for government to play, so don't let private sector companies tell you otherwise. Right is on your side.

(Eddie taped this whole thing and said he would post it online... Eddie please leave a comment with the link)