WCN blog

We heard horror stories as we drove south from Chicago to Louisiana that we’d pay $15/gallon for gas, hit 2+ hour lines and then the pumps are dry when you get there, etc. So we found 2 5-gallon tanks and filled ‘em in northern Mississippi, and almost immediately regretted it as now we had a big new bomb on board as we cruised down I-55.

In any case, we never saw gas more than $3.25/gallon, never any lines or shortages. We haven’t yet been further south than Jackson, but the point is, roads are fine, gas is available, you can get to the region. Stuff changes of course as you get into the zone of course.

Rogers and I arrived at Mac Dearman’s farm in Rayville, LA this evening, and found about a dozen enthusiastic wireless engineers in Mac’s communications shed. Mac has an amazing facility here: what seems to be a hundred foot tower, the ability to link locations 50 miles away, 6 muxed-T1s, a OC-12 ring (the only one in the parish!) ready to be lit up.

He’s hooked up shelters all over his parish and the next one over, providing VoIP phones so evacuees can call their loved ones, and Internet access so they can email, check for news updates, and connect to databases like Red Cross’ Family Links registry.

Paul Smith and Rogers Wilson III have arrived at Mac Dearman’s ( www.inetsouth.com) in Louisiana. They are currently planning with other community activisits and technologists on strategies for deploying infrastructure tomorrow morning.

We are so grateful for all of the generous support we’ve received to make this relief effort possible. Big THANKS to individual donors, Metrix Communications, LLC and the Disaster Resource Network! We’ve received money and materials for repeater nodes, computers for end users and more.

CNT is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit corporation. All donations are tax deductible within the guidelines of the IRS.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s (CNT) Wireless Community Network project (http://wcn.cnt.org) has responded to the call for technical expertise in establishing communication infrastructure for first responders and evacuees in the Gulf Coast area following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. There is a “desperate need” to re-connect people with basic resources which communication systems help facilitate. An initial team of CNT network engineers (Paul Smith and Rogers Wilson III) is on its way to Louisiana as a component of Part-15.org (http://www.part-15.org/), an operation of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to provide the necessary broadband and phone services to people with no or limited access to their families and friends, emergency services, and government authorities. CNT’s Community Wireless Team will help deploy wireless networks, that will allow evacuees and first responders to email, make phone calls, post pictures of missing people, request services, and report conditions in evacuee camps that are popping up across the region, among other important tasks. The networks will be similar to those being deployed in Illinois as part of CNT’s Wireless Community Network project.

CNT’s team is scheduled to arrive in Louisiana later today (Tuesday, September 6). While Senator Barack Obama is providing critical support for this effort and several individuals have pledged financial support to get us this far, more help may be needed. We anticipate that we may need more equipment, funds for travel and materials, and volunteers who can make the trip to the Gulf region to assist with network set-up. We will keep you updated as to our Team’s progress and the needs they identify. In addition to email alerts, you can track developments at http://wcn.cnt.org. You can contribute to this effort by going to CNT’s donation web page.

CNT is working with other community internet and media justice groups throughout Illinois and the nation, including the Champaign Urbana Community Wireless Networks (http://cuwireless.net/) and the Media Access Project (http://www.mediaaccess.org/). We are pleased to be a part of this effort and to be able to lend our expertise at this crucial time.

We will let you know how you can help as soon as we have more information.

Thank you!

CNT, along with CUWiN, is leading the community wireless networking volunteer effort directed by Part 15.org, the official organization coordinating emergency communications relief in the Gulf region hit by Katrina for the FCC and FEMA.

For the people who are stepping up to volunteer, the cost of this work (time, equipment, expenses, etc.) can be defrayed by making a donation:

Both CNT and CUWiN are 501(c)3 organizations, so your donation is tax-deductible as allowed by law.

We’ll be updating the site as updates are warranted!

The Illinois Commerce Commission is holding a workshop Wednesday, August 31st in Springfield on community broadband options. There will be discussions and demonstrations of broadband over powerline (BPL), fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), wireless technologies and more. Questions, comments? Ask Nicole Friedman, WCN project manager.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sets the rules governing all broadcasting and telecommunications services in the United States. They also regulate the use of the ‘airwaves’ by allocating specific frequency bands in the spectrum to specific purposes such as AM radio, television, and cellular phone service. Most of these bands are licensed for exclusive use, f.ex. by a cellular phone service provider.

Some bands in the spectrum are unlicensed. They can be used by low power devices such as walkie-talkies, garage door openers, microwaves and - wireless internet connections! The Wireless Community Network project in North Lawndale is operating on the unlicensed 2.4GHz band, whereas the West Frankfort project uses the 900MHz band. Bandwidth on the unlicensed parts of the spectrum becomes scarce as more people and communities recognize the benefit of using wireless technology.

The unlicensed, or “open” spectrum is a vital resource for projects like the WCN - hence we have filed comment with the FCC to tell them about the need for more open spectrum. You can read CNT’s comment here. For more information on spectrum issues, check out the Wireless Future Program of the New America Foundation and read the Spectrum Policy postings on this website. If you’re into rules & regulations, have a look at the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force.

A kiosk has recently arrived in the lobby of the Homan Square Community Center thanks to Kristin Dean and the Homan Square Community Center Foundation. The kiosk will be a resource that people walking through the lobby can use to find out more about the Wireless Community Network, Neighborhood Technology Resource Center trainings, and all of the great offerings at Homan Square Community Center.

On 08/05/05, the FCC adopted new rules eliminating the “mandated sharing requirement on incumbents’ wireline broadband Internet access services”. This means that Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) will not have to open their wires for competitors any more. The FCC believes that this step will foster competition between cable and DSL broadband providers, encourage ILECs to invest in infrastructure and thus improve broadband availability and service. (Read the FCC’s press release (Word document))

Consumer and Public Interest groups like the Media Access Project have a different take on the situation. They say that only open access brings true competition - the new ruling in contrast will give people less choices and higher prices.

In fact, the U.S. keep falling behind in world broadband penetration rankings. Whether or not a citizen has access to broadband Internet depends strongly on his socio-economic status and his location in a rural or urban area. This ‘digital divide’ will not be removed by the new FCC regulation, says Jeannine Kenney, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union. “If the FCC is content to let cable and phone companies control the broadband market, then consumers need a third option — wireless broadband that is less expensive and which doesn’t depend on DSL or cable modems. It offers the best and perhaps now the only way to close the digital divide.” Read the Free Press Broadband Report for more.

Should the City of Chicago go wireless? This question has been posed at 3 recent community hearings hosted by the City’s Wireless Task Force and attended by dozens and dozens of interested citizens. Check out CAN-TV to watch the hearings. A fourth hearing will be held this fall at City Hall. Call your alderman and share your views!

“Edens Lost & Found” - the documentary on sustainable cities and especially the people who put effort in environmental and social projects all over Chicago. Just like the Wireless Community Network project! The film features Kristin Dean, Nicol Turner-Lee, Danielle Riley (first North Lawndale WCN participant!), and Paul Smith. It will air on PBS this fall - details about a companion book and action guide can be found at the Edens Lost & Found website.

It’s been a long time since we’ve updated the website, but the WCN project is alive and well. We’re still in major deployment mode, installing nodes each week and connecting more families.

Obviously a lot has happened in the world of community wireless networking since we last posted to this blog, especially on the municipal broadband front here in Illinois. From state legislative efforts to curb municipally-driven networks to Chicago’s citywide wireless task force, there’s a lot of buzz about connecting people to the digital economy, which is a good thing. I think most people agree this is a worthy goal, regardless of what they think about how it should be done. So we will continue to write from our perspective as on-the-ground practioners, seeing the challenges, successes, and stories first-hand as we grow our CWNs.

We’ll also have more to say about what’s happening with municipal broadband and spectrum issues at the federal level. Look for posts from our intrepid intern Carla Herwig on these topics soon.

Finally, this site is due for an overall. The FAQ is woefully out of date, we have software and manuals for you to download, and plenty of amazing photos. We’ll be improving the site incrementally over the next few weeks. I’m finally getting around to exploring Wordpress and taking advantage of its features. This site should really be a clearinghouse, a community resource: we want to share the knowledge we’ve gained building CWNs: we took the lumps so you didn’t have to! So let’s us know what you’d like to see from us.

One of the challenges of deploying the network in Pilsen is that most homes are A-frame-type houses, the kind with steep, pitched roofs. In North Lawndale, most homes are the 2- and 3-flat variety with flat rooftops, making it easier for your intrepid WCN Strike Force Tech Squad to get up there and get our gear in place. But Pilsen, more often than not, it’s simply too difficult for your friendly neighborhood geeks to safely get up top.

But thanks to a new relationship with Kruger Communications of Burr Ridge, IL, we’re no longer constrained by height or type of building. They’re going to handle the heavy-lifting of some of the more challenging installs, and today they proved their expertise by knocking off two new nodes in Pilsen, one at the Tovar’s on W. 21st. Pl. and the other at the Garibay’s on W. 19th St.

We at WCN are very excited to be working with Kruger and today’s success is an auspicious beginning. Also, many thanks to the Tovar and Garibay families for the patience and determination, and to Moe Ceniceros, our man in Pilsen. Great work, everyone!

The south side of North Lawndale (that’s fun to say) got its first taste of community wireless networking today, as a new rooftop node went up at the Popes, a lovely family near Ogden and 18th.

Currently, the coverage of the Lawndale network is mainly north, between I-290 and Roosevelt. But with the Popes’ node and the soon-to-be-connected node at Carole Robertson Center for Learning, the other end of North Lawndale will begin to be able to tap into the advance networking infrastructure that a mesh network provides. Ok!

Our project took a huge step forward Wednesday when ten volunteers identified by the North Lawndale Employment Network got together with the WCN tech team at the NLEN offices to build nodes for the network. It was a big success and we got our first nodes built by the community!

For those who aren’t familiar with them, NLEN is amazing organization that helps ex-offenders find employment and acquire job skills as they come back into the community. Our crew of volunteers was enthusiastic, and I swear they were putting nodes together faster than the geek crew did back in October!

The Ceniceros’ became the proud hosts of the third rooftop mesh node in the Pilsen neighborhood community wireless network on Thursday.

The install was probably our trickiest to date because it was the first one on an a-frame home with a peaked roof. Luckily, a portion of the house had a flat roof from which we could scramble up to the peaked part. There was good line-of-sight from the chimney were we mounted the node to the antenna of the i-node at Gads Hill Center, several blocks to the east.

The WCN project was profiled by Chicago’s NPR affiliate, WBEZ (91.5 FM), for its morning news magazine program, Eight Forty-Eight on Monday. It highlights our efforts in North Lawndale, and our very own Rogers Wilson III gets top billing. Congrats, Rogers!

You can listen to the segment (MP3, 9.1 MB), which is about four minutes long, followed by a interesting discussion of the City of Chicago’s plan for citywide wireless with the Daily Southtown’s Jonathan Lipman.

The Daily Southtown’s Jonathan Lipman has a nice piece in Monday’s edition that summarizes the recent efforts by the City of Chicago to explore a citywide wireless data network.

While the City weighs its options and begins to develop a plan, it would do well to look to CNT’s WCN project, which demonstrating right now that wide-area community wireless networks can be built inexpensively and flexibly and deliver high-quality performance. The key for communities, small towns and big municipalities is to not lock themselves into an expensive, proprietary system that limits them to a single vendor or technology: mesh networks, as implemented with the software our friends at the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network have developed, can be deployed using open architectures—meaning based on open source software and standardized hardware and protocols—can provide a clear upgrade path that adapts to inevitable changes and improvements in technology (either in routing software or wireless radios).

Wireless already here

The Center for Neighborhood Technology last summer started building networks in Chicago’s Lawndale community and Pilsen neighborhood one house at a time. Every subscriber gets a rooftop antenna that can then broadcast to participating neighbors and bolster the network.

Working with other community organizations, the center is offering free WiFi service in those neighborhoods to anyone demonstrating a need. More than 30 people have signed up, and 200 people are on a waiting list.

“We only have so much money and equipment to dole out, and right now demand exceeds supply,” said Paul Smith, technology director for the center’s Community Wireless Project.

The center eventually wants to turn the network over to a community-run cooperative or coalition of organizations. Smith said there is no proven model for building large-scale WiFi networks.

“I think (the city) will be surprised what kind of revenue they can generate because the technology is so cheap and so ubiquitous; there’s no one now who knows what kind of money can be made from WiFi,” Smith said.

Thanks to all volunteers!

We’d like to thank the volunteers who participated in one or more of three recent Volunteer Days:

• Sunday, October 17th: Node Construction Party at CNT. Over 20 volunteers spent the afternoon assembling rooftop nodes which will be deployed as part of the critical infrastructure for the wireless community networks. Pictures soon …
• Thursday, September 30th: Chicago Volunteer Session at CNT
• Tuesday, September 28th: Elgin Volunteer Session at Gail Borden Public Library. Volunteers learned more about the technical construction and operations of the wireless community network. The volunteers had the opportunity to discuss their interests in working with the wireless community network.

Interested in Volunteering?

• Coming soon … more volunteer trainings and opportunities in your community!
• Want to get involved with the wireless community network? We’re looking for volunteers with technical, community organizing, and teaching experience and/or interest. Learn more by contacting Lisa McNally at the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Wireless West Frankfort will launch this Friday at the Imagine Center, a youth center on the northeast side of West Frankfort, which is a city in Southern Illinois. Residents will soon be connected to the network and have access to broadband and trainings on using the internet.

UPDATE: Photos of the launch event are now available.