19 Jan
2018
19 Jan
'18
8:11 p.m.
(I'm sharing my own statement, as proposed in the KoM preparation
thread, to "break the ice" and invite every other proposed WG
coordinator to also share theirs)
========================
I have worked for the past 15 years in many aspects of Community
Networking, in particular during the past 6 years I have coordinated
many free software projects related to the deployment of "geek free"
mesh networks for under-served communities. This process has involved
numerous efforts to help merge different initiatives from a number of
communities into collaboration projects where we can better ... our
collective efforts. From these efforts LibreMesh was born as a firmware
created by members of AlterMundi, Guifi.net, Ninux from the merge of
their respective mesh firmware projects. LibreMap was also the result of
merging Freifunk's OpenWifiMap and AlterMundi's AlterMap. During 2017,
we embarked in our first open hardware project: LibreRouter. As a
coordinator for this project I was amazed to see how a team of more than
20 people from every continent was able to work together towards a
commong goal. We are now producing the second prototype and expect to
have an initial LibreRouter batch around May 2018.
In my role coordinating these and other cross-community initiatives I
learned that there is much more we could be doing to collectively
improve the technological base on which our networks are funded. There
are frequent overlaps where we could create synergy and there is also
unnecessary competition for development funding when we could coordinate
better and think bigger.
From my personal perspective, the first project the Tech WG should
undertake is to create an internal survey of what technologies we are
using, what are the scenarios where we deploy them, what are the
shortcomings we have identified and what is the identified path forward
in each community / organization.
Studying the results of this survey we can have a better picture of
where we are standing, what are the possible synergies now and what
collective action we can undertake in the future.
Important areas I imagine the Tech WG working on over time include:
evaluation of our tech status quo and state of the art, development
projects in every area of incumbency, help with lobbying for our market
segment with commercial tech providers, undertaking standardization
processes for technologies we use and develop, creating support channels
for existing and new community network projects.
In relation to the other WGs in the CNSIG, I can see a tight relation
with all of them, both supporting their work, producing relevant
information, identifying needs from our area in their fields and
maintaining an alert attitude towards the real impact of our work at
every step.