[wsfii-discuss] Re: CUWiN follow-up...

Fri Oct 14 12:13:53 UTC 2005

hi Everyone, nice thread, thanks Sascha, Jo.

---- quick thing about lists / contexts ---------

May I suggest that everyone wishing to continue this discussion subscribe
to a list that was specially designed for a nice big wireless / geo /
captive portal / mesh / hive / civic information development mashup:

http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wsfii-dev

So far there are not so many on this list - but that's really what it's
for! Continuing development threads of conversation that started at
WSFII.

If this is acceptable 'neutral ground' (ie, not the wifidog list, the
hivenetworks list, the foowireless list etc..) let's use it!

If anyone else would like to be a listadmin (please! that would be great)
let jo & I know..

---------------------------------------------------

> >on wed, oct 12, 2005 at 05:31:39pm -0500, sascha meinrath wrote:
> >
> >>basically, i'm interested in cuwin integration of "best of" technologies. 
> >>-- and i want to find folks who aren't ego-driven, but are 
> >>rather interested in building cross-project collaborations, 
> >>standardizing, and partnering on development.  right now i'm especially 
> >>interested in distributed multimedia access and production.  anyway, is 
> >>there any way i can get a brain dump on what you're all up to, visions 
> >>for the future, etc. etc. etc.? 

Well, I'm not sure I qualify as not being 'ego-driven', but perhaps
that's a problem for my analyst.  I hope jo's braindump is sufficient to
express that we are also *really* interested in standardising, developing
in partnership, collaborating and developing platforms for less technical
people to get involved in a useful way. There is a whole queue of
projects that involve media distribution / platforms that are crying out
for someone to come up with a compelling framework.

> The next 6-12 months will be critical in getting pilot sites up (beyond our 
> own communities) that we can point to as success stories.  Right now we're 
> working with folks setting up CUWiN networks in Algiers (New Orleans), 
> Tribal Digital Village (near San Diego), Ghana, South Africa, and Brazil, 
> to name just a few locations -- the problem is, these systems are still not 
> identical replacements for commercial products (because they don't have 
> authentication/captive portals built in, bandwidth-shaping, etc.).  So 
> tackling some of these features and getting them integrated is a high 
> priority for us; likewise distributed storage (a la Alexei's 'Hive 
> Networks') and applications/services is also of great interest.
> 
> I'd be interested in hearing what people thing the highest priority next 
> steps might be.

I think the communal braindump of ilesansfil / wirelesslondon /
nycwireless and others on which applications we want in our framework was
recorded here: http://www.okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/LocationPortalsRoadmap and
here: http://www.okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/LocationPortals which I see from
RecentChanges, you've already found Sascha.

Here's my back-of-the-envelope sketch of how I would prioritise, on 3
levels: network infrastructure, applications / content & development and
organisation to keep things running smoothly.

I think there's a bunch of people who could do this - and a tremendous
energy to move in a togetherish direction post-wsfii.. how does this
sound?

I can't prioritise these as I think the way we've been working so far is
that each project has it's own priorities, which could be shaped to some
extent by the demands of a gaggle of people from each project who want
everything to work together - but essentially each project has it's own
priorities... So I think things would have to move in a more
oil-spot-spreading way, than slinky-moving-down-stairs way.

Maybe the thing to do is see which projects are actually working on which
things, plug them together with a representative on the wsfii-dev list /
wiki etc.. and see if others who aren't tied into a specific set of
priorities can plug any gaps.. or find groups who can.

Here's my list of things that I think need doing - please add to them!
I've started a wiki page about this here:
http://www.okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/WsfiiDevelopment - it would be nice to
work that into something more front-pagey I suppose, but I'd like to hear
other people's feedback first.

1. Network Infrastructure
    - mesh
    - splash
    - local storage
    - bandwidth shaping
    - metadata exchange
    - authentication / id-sharing
2. Applications / Content 
    - network monitoring
    - analysis tools
    - Mapping Annotation
    - Displaying geolocated content
    - events
    - peer produced / micro-produced content
    - civic data
    - user interaction & communication
    - currency / trading / barter systems
3. Development / Organisation
    - sustainable communications & neutral-ground hosting
    - integrated shared code repository
    - sustainable project roles / responsibilities

It would be good to expand on this list then make a wiki page for each
one - with best advice etc.. The shared code repository etc.. seems like
a big co-ordination challenge somehow - and making sure everything plays
nicely with everything else. But then, maybe not so if we have a good
wsfii-dev group.

X

Saul.