[Noisebridge-discuss] OT: 510pen, an east bay community wireless mesh network

mark burdett mfburdett at gmail.com
Wed Aug 19 20:14:28 UTC 2009


Hi noisebridgers, for those of you who live/work/etc in the east bay I
wanted to let you know about a project I've been working on, called
510pen.

Our vision is to build a community wireless mesh network, providing
low-cost broadband internet access across the east bay.  "Anchor
nodes" (e.g. offices of community organizations, cafes, folks' homes
and apartments) will connect the mesh network to the Internet, and we
also hope to link with other local community wireless networks.

Eventually the network could incorporate itself as a cooperative (like
the rural telecommunications coops that built the U.S. telephone
network decades ago); for now we're operating as a sub-project of a
501(c)3 non-profit so we can receive grants and donations.

We're just starting to soft-launch the project now (i.e. haven't even
finished the logo yet), but we're already setting up some test
deployments of mesh infrastructure in Oakland and Berkeley.

Ping me if you might be interested in setting up a mesh node, which
will require a small investment in hardware -- unless you happen to
already have a wireless router compatible with our (open-source) mesh
firmware, e.g. http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=Pico2HP&eq=&Tp=

Meanwhile you can follow us in the usual places e.g.
http://twitter.com/510pen
http://www.facebook.com/pages/510pen/93829078599 to get more updates!
And, we've been using this list:
http://lists.cernio.com/mailman/listinfo/cernio-cwn for technical
discussion re: 510pen and other community wireless networks.

--mark B.



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