Awesome. I've been wanting to start or help with a project like this for quite a while.<div><br></div><div>My home is at Vulcan Studios, about 1/2 mile from Fruitvale station. We have something like 250 people living here among the 50-some studios. Most studios maintain their own internet connections. My own studio provides connections to 2 other studios and it's awkward and often completely imbalanced in terms of usage.</div>
<div><br></div><div>What I'm getting at is that I'd love to use the Vulcan as an East Oakland epicenter and test bed for what you're talking about.</div><div><br></div><div>About the Vulcan: it's a warehouse community (now gated!) of artists, hackers, makers, and gearheads. We have a couple of front-facing public institutions: The Roll-Up Bazaar (a combination DIY bikeshop, bike parts outlet, computer outlet and fix-it shop, and second-hand shop) and the Vulcan Thai Cafe (decent for brunch).</div>
<div><br></div><div>--Naomi</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://twitter.com/nthmost">http://twitter.com/nthmost</a><br><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 1:14 PM, mark burdett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mfburdett@gmail.com">mfburdett@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Hi noisebridgers, for those of you who live/work/etc in the east bay I<br>
wanted to let you know about a project I've been working on, called<br>
510pen.<br>
<br>
Our vision is to build a community wireless mesh network, providing<br>
low-cost broadband internet access across the east bay. "Anchor<br>
nodes" (e.g. offices of community organizations, cafes, folks' homes<br>
and apartments) will connect the mesh network to the Internet, and we<br>
also hope to link with other local community wireless networks.<br>
<br>
Eventually the network could incorporate itself as a cooperative (like<br>
the rural telecommunications coops that built the U.S. telephone<br>
network decades ago); for now we're operating as a sub-project of a<br>
501(c)3 non-profit so we can receive grants and donations.<br>
<br>
We're just starting to soft-launch the project now (i.e. haven't even<br>
finished the logo yet), but we're already setting up some test<br>
deployments of mesh infrastructure in Oakland and Berkeley.<br>
<br>
Ping me if you might be interested in setting up a mesh node, which<br>
will require a small investment in hardware -- unless you happen to<br>
already have a wireless router compatible with our (open-source) mesh<br>
firmware, e.g. <a href="http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=Pico2HP&eq=&Tp=" target="_blank">http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=Pico2HP&eq=&Tp=</a><br>
<br>
Meanwhile you can follow us in the usual places e.g.<br>
<a href="http://twitter.com/510pen" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/510pen</a><br>
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/510pen/93829078599" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/pages/510pen/93829078599</a> to get more updates!<br>
And, we've been using this list:<br>
<a href="http://lists.cernio.com/mailman/listinfo/cernio-cwn" target="_blank">http://lists.cernio.com/mailman/listinfo/cernio-cwn</a> for technical<br>
discussion re: 510pen and other community wireless networks.<br>
<br>
--mark B.<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>---<br>Naomi Most<br>Producer<br>Little Moving Pictures<br><br>+1-415-728-7490<br><a href="mailto:naomi@littlemovingpictures.com">naomi@littlemovingpictures.com</a><br>skype: nthmost<br>
<br><a href="http://twitter.com/nthmost">http://twitter.com/nthmost</a><br>
</div></div>