The Golden Age of Wireless

Two Collaborative Projects from the Fab Lab

2008-03-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

We completed three team projects a the Fab Lab Bootcamp in Lyngen, Norway. A good indication that the many of us who stayed up to 5 am on a regular basis did more than hang out in the sauna and play Arctic Circle-style Kabbadi.

Below, Vincent Musau and Kamau Gachigi, both from Nairobi, Kenya, give wonderful descriptions of the "Radio" and "Wave Guide" projects completed by their respective teams. An exciting next step possibility is to use the radio circuit to remotely control the motor on the wave guide. It's entirely possible that someone responsibly documented these projects in other fashions on the Bootcamp site.

"Radio Project" at Fab Lab Bootcamp. Video hosted by Veoh.com

"Wave Guide Project' at Fab Lab Bootcamp. Video hosted by Veoh.com

Fab Lab "Bootcamp"

2008-03-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

Just now coming to my senses following a two-week stay in the Arctic Circle at the Norway Fab Lab. Here are some first looks from the trip:

First view of the Haaken farm; Sun peeks at path toward the fjord; Long view of the Longhouse; Night on the Norway Cabins

I joined other Fab Lab folk from around the globe for an intense period of training and an inspiring sharing of ideas and experiences. The official documentation site is on this Bootcamp page. I'll be doing posting a fair bit of documentation on this blog, as well.

Fruit Fun with the GHICP

2008-03-02T07:09:00.001-08:00

I have criminally kept these revealing pictures of the GHICP crew out of the public eye. I have no excuse and am suitably ashamed. Here's me, Drew and Morgan holding our mangolicious treats, seated next to Beryl, the mangophilic benefactor. Plus, close up view of the tasty and tastefully decorated mangoes.

Here's an update on our Community Wireless progress: four months we agreed on final MOU language with the Golden Hill Recreation Council. We still have not heard back from the Citty Attorney's office. Getting antsy at this point.

The Mobile Fab Lab

2007-08-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

Working inside the Mobile Fab Lab; Mobile Lab Exterior; exterior close-up; Sherry Lassiter from CBA leads tutorial inside the Mobile Fab Lab; participant shows newly fabbed product from the tutorial.

The Center for Bits and Atoms team managed to put together a working, networked , Mobile Fab Lab in the few days before the Fab 4 Forum and Symposium started. The interior design is all "press fitted" woodwork, designed by MIT architecture students and produced in a Fab Lab. That brings us spectacularly close to the M.C. Escher-like prospect of a Fab Lab making a Fab Lab.

I believe this option might actually be the menu when the Mobile Fab Lab makes its first tour, landing for a few weeks at the home of Sustainable South Bronx. SSB's outreach director, Dolge, painted the side of the lab shown above.

Making Almost Anything

2007-08-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

The range of Fab-able products I've seen this week has included key-chains, furniture, Lego blocks, boats and houses. Foe some insight into the latter, check out Larry Sass's project here: http://ddf.mit.edu/projects/CABIN/index.html. His ideas will meet up with the Mobile Fab Lab to make housing for New Orleans later this year.

I've been expressing my desire to use the Fab Lab to give folks an open door to unfettered possibility. That door really opened for me when I understood how the Lab can be used to design , fabricate and program circuit boards. Here's a short video showing the Modela machine printing out a circuit that we made this week...

Fab 4 Scenes

2007-08-23T19:16:00.001-07:00

Yuen from Costa Rica putting in a little night work on their award-winning 4x8 contest entry; Lass and the Sustainable South Bronx's Dynamic Duo; Detail from the exterior painting of the Mobile Fab Lab; Epilog laser cutter; Netherlands Fab Lab presentation;

Fabbing Wireless Mesh Computing Centers

2007-08-23T04:37:00.000-07:00

Neil Gershenfeld, Center for Bits and Atoms Director; Copper antenna elements designed and produced in the Fab Lab; Earlier version of antenna; Cisco's Kerry Lynn explains the production process

The week's workshops are divided into four tracks: Beginning Tutorial, Hardware, Software and Operations. They're planned to give essential new information as well as opportunities for extended group conversations with other Fab Labbers, but they're happening concurrently. If you're here by yourself or with just one other person from your org, there's a good chance you could miss some vital tidbits or moments. I hooked up with Nele from Belgium, Ivan from Portugal and Smari from Iceland to form a "Fab Singles" group. The four of us are at relatively the same stage in getting a lab set up. We agreed to each take on a track and share notes so we don't miss anything.

Appropriately for me, and for this blog, the first session I attended was wedded to the idea of developing rural wireless mesh networks. Neil explained a concept for making Fab Labs community computing centers residents as far 10 km away from the lab. The concept and fabrication process emerged from different nodes on the Fab Lab Network which goes far toward supporting the assertion that Fab Labs are a mechanism for distributed invention. The key components can be made in a Fab Lab and include thin(ner) client computers and high gain antenna elements. The application power for the thin clients will reside in a server at the Fab Lab, the clients, which only have to to send and receive text, will use Internet 0 delivered over the wireless network to communicate with the Fab Lab server. George Sergiadis and Kerry Lynn guided us through the fabrication process including using the Vinyl Cutter to produce the copper antenna elements

Estimated cost for the thin clinet is $10. $1 - 3 for the antennas.

Becoming FABulous

2007-08-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

I'm spending a rainy week in Chicago at "Fab 4: The Fourth International Fab Lab Forum and Symposium on Digital Fabrication.

A few weeks ago, folks from MIT's "Center for Bits and Atoms" because they thought Heads On Fire and San Diego might provide a good home for one of their Fab Labs. These are advanced centers for digital design and fabrication that they've been creating in cities around the world, including some very remote sites and sites in the developing world. I agreed and began the whirlwind tour that's led me here. See what it's all about here: http://fab.cba.mit.edu/.

One of the aspects of the Fab Lab that I'm most excited about is also my justification for writing about it in a blog dedicated to community wireless networks. Community networks that aren't primarily about connecting people to the Internet , really emphasize the possibility of community advancement that can come about through a network. The Fab Labs are both a physical network, connected by a video conferencing system, and conceived as network for "distributed" inventing.

First Step into 25th Street Park

2007-08-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

On 15 August, Beryl, Drew and I met for the first time with Ranger Casey Smith, who is the ranger for all of Golden Hill Park. From our initial planning meetings, our goal has been to unWire the Golden Hill Recreation Center and use that Internet connection to send a signal down the hill to the park at the end of 25th street. For about a year (yes a year) now, we've been managing the city negotiations with Debra Jones who has jurisdiction over the Rec Center, but we've always known we'd have to speak with Ranger Casey to get the go ahead for the rest of the park. It's been a good six months since we started contacting him, but our previous attempts never led to an actual connection.

It seems we're close to getting a solid draft of our MOU with the city completed, so we put forth a more strident effort to meet with Ranger Casey and succeeded. Like Debra, Ranger Casey is very supportive of GHICP and has already made some invaluable connections for us.

Air Jaldi Summit Presentations

2006-11-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

The Summit Presentations were launched with an great meal served in a traditional manner for beginning celebrations. The food is served on leaves and eaten without utensils. That's my hand pictured above delivering goodness to my mouth.

Early on, Yahel Ben David chastised the attendees for using the network to watch the live-feed from our lap tops, thus slowing down the network and making it more4 difficult for people who actually aren't here to see whats going on. Since the day 's program hadn't even begun (waiting on the arrival of dignataries) we're all apparently attracted to the idea of watching a live feed of ourselves. Somebody's got to come up with a word to describe that particular strand of geek narcissisum..

Yahel's opening remarks included a really excellent quote from His Holiness regarding the Internet. I was too busy with audiovisual documentation to write it down, but you can hear it if you view the video Yahel's statement that I've posted below.

Other highlights for me included Dr. Richard Stallman from the Free Software Community and David Hughes. Stallman framed everything from his unrelenting ascetic viewpoint that all software should be be free, but his comments had broad enough strokes to be inspirational to anyone who's passionate about protecting human rights, from any platform. They included the observation that human rights support each other: if we lose one human right, it becomes harder to support all the others. And that the free software movement strengthens the appreciation of of freedom leading to more people willing to resist the revocation of any freedom. Stallman is pictured above in a performative p

And as for David Hughes. The content of his presentation was very instructive and flavored by the experience of installing wireless networks and VOIP systems on Mt. Everest at the advanced age of 75. However, I equally enjoyed the fact that I felt I was receiving these illuminating words on community technology deployment from Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. You'll know exactly what I mean when you h=check out the video here or on the Air Jaldi archive later. The "Public Policy" slide pictured above is just one of many Hughes items I'll later reference in my work.

At one point, the conference structure was opened up to allow attendees to take 5 minute slots at the mic. This allowed for info to slip in in that was slightly divergent from the Summit focus. I was particularly happy to be introduced to Sheel's work with kiva.org, an online tool that allowas individuals to micro finance low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world, and a project called Postamanet that delivers Hi-bandwidth courseware through the mail on cds and flash drives. I think both are excellent examples of using the "right" technology.

Of course after slaving away to document as much of the conference as I could, I manage to somehow not record the closing panel, which included me as a panelist. I'm sure though it will soon be up along with everything else on the Air Jaldi Archive.

Air Jaldi Summit Tours (Day One)

2006-11-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

Day one of the Summit included tours that allowed us to see both the installation of radio's and attennae and the manner in which community groups are using the Internet connection provided by Air Jaldi. There were three tours, ranging from a "strenuous trek" to an "easy bus tour". I chose the easy option , which turned out to be strenuous to me, since it lasted 8 hours, after my 5am arrival from a 12 hour hit-your-head-on-the-roof-of-the-bus bumpy ride from Delhi, which directly followed 30 hours of travel time from San Diego.

The pictures here show Dawa, one of my tour guides at an Air Jaldi antenna; a garden at the Norbulingka Institute for Tibetan Culture; play at the Lower Tibetan Children's Village (TCV) campus; open lab hours at a the most remote TCV campus; and a one of the artists at work in the Norbulingka studios.

My tour was incredibly informative and, from comparing notes with others, it seems all the tours were equally jam-packed with info and experiences. From the roof of the Lower TCV, we were able to see the Omni-Directional antennae 20km away that help make the mesh network redundantly reliable. At Norbulingka, Dawa explained that web developers have their own servers and use them to continue growing the world's largest archive of Tibetan culture. This includes storing and editing video footage that gets included in productions sent out to support the Dalai Lama's work. We were also treated to a wonderful Tibetan lunch here and got much education on Tibetan cultural practice and the life of Buddha from our guide Hans, who seems to know everything.

While some of the sites we visited could get their service directly from the National Telcom, BSN, the campus where I took the lab picture is so remote (think about it, when there's a place that other places in the foothills of the Himalayas describe as remote, it's really remote) that they would not be able to have service at all without Air Jaldi. Possibly dial-up, but that would be even more unreliable than BSN's DSL service which drops connections constantly.

It's worth noting that Air Jaldi uses wireless to get the Internet connection around the hills of Dharamsala, but the service sites themselves are all set up with wired networks.

Desire For Free Tibet Pulses Through Air Jaldi Summit

2006-10-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

The cry for a free Tibet has definitely been a persistent underscore to the Air Jaldi proceedings, as evidenced by this poster from nearby McLeod Ganj and the art work made by students at the Tibetan Children's Village Schools we visited (they're eight schools in all). I got to speak to a number of students and asked them what they liked most about their access to the Internet. Taped an interview with one student who explained his use of Google in creating a fairly complex MS Word doc. about icons of political liberation. Students were most enthusiastic about using chat to stay in touch with friends at other TCV campuses and back home, using the social site Hi5.com.

This video has been mentioned several times during the Summit, so I thought I'd put a link to it here (thanks to Michael Lenczner for including it on his blog): video of Chinese soldiers shooting at Tibetans

Opening Remarks from Yahel Ben-David at the Air Jaldi 2006 Community Wireless Summit in Dharamsala, India

2006-10-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Air Jaldi Site>>

Part I

Part II

2006-10-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

And now...

Sixth Meeting: 09 Oct 06; Debra, Morgan, me, Beryl, Drew, Mary Jo, GH Rec Council and a Rec Council Spouse/community member with experience at an Internet filtering firm.

The GHICP addresses the Rec Council concerns, in part, with the following responses: our proposal is not a panacea-- it is conceived to address a part of a larger problem, the Rec Council can set and enforce whatever policy it chooses to govern use of the network within the Rec Center grounds, nothing prevents an adult from exposing a child to explicit material from a laptop in a park-- just as nothing nothing prevents an adult from exposing a child to explicit material from a book in a park, just as the Rec Council currently does not patrol any activity in the 25th street park -- the Rec Council should not patrol future Intenet usage in the 25th street park, the GHICP proposal supplies the Rec Center with a computer lab and an an Internet connection-- it ADDITIONALLY supplies the community-at-large with free wireless access point, the GHICP will be the owner of the network and will be insured through a fiscal agent relationship with the GHCDC, the City will draft a leased use agreement that will transfer all liability for the wireless network to the GHICP. Debra adds that she is working on that draft agreement and that City attorneys will ensure that City's interests (including those of the Rec Center) will be protected. The Rec Council moves to review a leased use agreement and a reporting mechanism that will allow the Rec Council to communicate concerns and complaints to the GHICP.

2006-10-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

Further down the rabbit hole...

The project needed a physical site to host the ISP connection and SDCTC had been looking for a site that needed help setting up a computer lab. The Golden Hill Rec Center was a perfect site for both of these aims. It had no computer lab at all and sight lines would allow an antenna to beam a wireless Internet connection from the Center to the 25th street.

First Meeting: Beryl, Kristie Rice who is Executive Director of the GHCDC and Mary Jo Ricanor who directs the Rec Ctr.

All agree to move forward. Mary Jo agrees to submit the idea to her supervisor for approval.

Second Meeting: 13 June 06; me, the SDCTC VISTA staff and Mary Jo Ricanor.

We agreed on the Computer Lab specs and set a tentative date in July for setting up the Internet connection, the lab and the wireless network. Later, SD Park and Recreation administrators request a meeting to discuss details before giving approval to go ahead.

Third Meeting: Morgan, Beryl, Kristie, Mary Jo, Debra Jones, who supervises the Rec Center and Golden Hill Park, and a representative from the Golden Hill Recreation Council, a resident advisory group.

Some technical concerns are raised, including questions about security. All agree Park and Rec IT staff will be asked submit questions about any issues of concern and that the partner ship will respond to those questions in a timely fashion. Later all parties are invited to submit questions and responses via a collaborative Writely document.

Fourth Meeting: me, SDCTC VISTA Morgan Sully, Beryl, Drew Macullough from SoCalFreeNet.Org, Debra and the Park and Rec IT staff: Kamal and Woody.

Details about the lab, the wireless network, the plans for the 25th Street Park other intended community benefits are shared. Concerns raised include whether or not it will be possible to restrict access to the network during certain hours (yes). The Partners point out that the San Diego Public Libraries (also City entities) do not restrict access to their wireless networks in this way. Park and Rec IT staff OK the project's technical components. All agree to move forward. Later, the Partnership is named The Golden Hill Intelligent Community Project. A steering committee is established with a standing monthly meeting.

Fifth Meeting: 11 Sep 06 (regularly scheduled GH Rec Council Mtg): Beryl, Kristie, Drew, Mary Jo, the Rec Council, SD Policeman, me.

GHICP presents full scope of the plan, to prepare the Rec Council to vote to approve or disapprove. Presentation includes network specs, lab specs, planned education classes, planned community portal design, planned expansion of the Steering Commitee and description of the wireless network policy established by the SDPL. Concerns are raised by the Rec Council include security issues previously discussed, legal liability, ethical responsibility, how to protect youth from sexual predators that use laptops, the Internet and/or sexually explicit images as lures in the park, should parks be places where people use computers, how does providing wireless access for people who can't afford laptops advance the GHICP's aim of removing barriers to benefitting from the Internet and why is a wireless network needed when it seems that the teen computer lab would be served just as well by a wired network. The metaphor of the wireless network being a "can of worms" is referenced several times. All agree that the Rec council will submit all of their questions to the GHICP and that the GHICP will answer these question at special emergency council meeting called just for the purpose of addressing the GHICP. Later, a listserv is established to facilitate communication among the Rec Council, the GHICP and other interested parties.

2006-10-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

From the beginning...

Beryl Forman got in touch with me last spring to find out more about the Chicano Park Wireless Network (El Ombligo) which Heads On Fire had helped to launch. She had proposed to the Golden Hill CDC that unwiring (unwire: to make wireless) their neighborhood's 25th Street Park. as a part of a larger plan to revision Golden Hill as an Intelligent Community. In our first talk, I agrred that Heads On Fire should come on as a partner. I also that the road ahead held some of the same hurdles the group working on Chicano Park had to clear: presenting a case to the City to get permission to use City property; figuring out how questions of ownership and liability would be answered; and addressing an assortment of security concerns from multiple parties. These are just a few of many. In the case of Chicano Park and some other community wireless efforts I knew about, these issues had mostly been sidestepped with varying degrees of deftness. Beryl and I agreed that someone ought to stop the madness and document some answers to these issues so that the community wireless effort seeking to share municipal space could at least have a road map. Producing that map seemed to me to be an excellent vehicle for the SDCTC to realize its mission. The Board of Directors agreed with me, SDCTC came on as partners. So did SoCalFreeNet.org and the Media Arts Center of San Diego. LessNetworks from Austin, TX agreed to be consultants.