“When I was young, we needed line-of-sight!”
I received a great email from Casey Halverson on the PTP mailing list. It was his response to someone’s question about how to startup a wifi group in his area. This is great timing since I’ve been trying to be helpful to a few people in Toronto and BC in getting projects started.
It’s so good that it reminds me of that fake graduation speech set to music. When I read it, I hear and old man stroking his beard and talking about the wifi-hijinks he used to be up to when he was young. Thanks Casey!
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> but, I think you hit the nail on
> the head when you mentioned having a few core people
> incolved. Half a dozen excited, tech-abled people would be
> more effective in the beginning than 50 people who are “just
> interested.”
Go to a SeattleWireless “General Meeting”, and you’ll see exactly why this is the case.
Nearly all of the core SeattleWireless p2p network and other ventures were a direct product of something we call HackNight. While a couple people from time to time show up to ask questions, this is generally the night of core SWN people to actually accomplish something. HackNight over the last year has accomplished more than all other SeattleWireless years combined. Its amazing what a small, dedicated core group can do.
I would suggest building as large of a network you possibly can, documenting your cause on the internet, meeting regularly in a coffee shop/meeting space with core members, and financing this one on your own. Don’t waste too much time marketing vapor and advertising. While a lot of groups (including SWN) uses these techniques to gain this long sought after “critical mass”, ultimately it was a waste of time.
In the beginning, nobody had line of sight to one another. That’s why you have to find high places to put antennas. This should not be a holding point, never say “well, as soon as we find someone line of sight, we’ll do it…”.
Be careful who you give gear to and the arrangements you make. You never know if they will quickly lose interest, don’t truly have the authority to offer collocation or it may even come back to haunt you (seattlewireless.com). Some people may have great locations, great line-of-sight, but make your moves wisely.
Finding the best/highest sites will not be easy. Its non-technical and more political. You will need to make good friends and find people sympathetic to your cause to gain free roof space. After that, your financing and technical skills will follow. And if you ever need any help, there are a billion other community networks that will answer your questions.
There is no one magic technology. Don’t ever wait for the next, greatest technology around the corner that will save your network. When it comes, it won’t save your network. The technology today is good enough.
You will need to dedicate lots of time to your project, at 4-6 hours a week. Make use of weekends to gather people for installs…during install campaigns, it will eat your weekends too.
I don’t ever regret venturing into this madness. Its interesting, and you learn a little bit on your way. I could care less about “freeing the internet from corporate America$#@#”, “OPEN SOURCE AND DOWN WITH MICROSOFT”, or “down with the phone company/man/etc/whatever”. I do it for the thrill and technical aspect.
I hate being long winded on mailing lists, but if I was any help to you, feel free to ask more.
- Casey Halverson
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UPDATE March 12, 2005: Casey blogged his advice.