[MLB-WIRELESS] Fwd: [mesh] WOAH!

[Tony Langdon]

> personally, I would love to have internet access augmentation 
> of MW, but 
> will still likely retain some other internet connection 
> anyway (melbpc, 
> for example).

I guess I'm a bit in this boat.  I will be keeping my cable, regardless of
what happens with MW, because I want and am prepared to pay for broadband.
However, it would be nice to have limited Internet access for the odd email
or IRC, when away from home.  Also would like to be able to VPN back to home
so I can use my own Internet access remotely. :)

> I don't have an opinion one way or another, except to point out there 
> are a lot of options between baring the public and letting 
> anyone use it 
> (eg.  paid up, signed up (authenticated) members get to make internet 
> requests, everyone else is limited to proxy cache or distributed 
> files...  there are other models too).  The level of access 
> will change, 
> depending on the average enthusiasm and wealth of the group.  
> maybe we 
> will morph into an ISP, or not.  in a way we are already doing that - 
> every one of us who has a public AP will be a mini ISP (well, 
> intranet 
> service provider anyway).

We all have different needs.  am likely to use the network to "keep in
touch", or occasionally shunt some data around that I've already downloaded
(i.e. not adding any extra costs to someone's ISP bill).

> What other services (for want of a better phrase) can we offer? (i.e. 
> why would someone want to join us?)
> 
> Data access and storage - aka ftp, BBS, etc.
> this is a no brainer.  access to 100's of GB of data locally 
> distributed 
> for the cost of setting up the hardware....

Agreed.

> Distributed network proxy to reduce internet connection 
> download costs.
> amortise the cost of internet access - ie. no internet access 
> as such, 
> just reduced load on your existing internet access.

Possibly, though the above aproach may be the better one - a series of local
mirrors of popular stuff.

> Community and Fun
> chat, gameLAN, other funky stuff (think small world theory, spam and 
> antivirus, gnuttella and P2P).  I am personally looking 
> forward to some 
> interesting fun hardware hacking antennaes and messing with 
> small world 
> theory using the MW as a test bed (all your bases belong to me)

Yes, chat, fun, file swapping will be major features, IMHO.  Hardware
hacking is always good fun too!

> that last item is interesting.  this is a hacker community.  It is 
> currently not a Joe Public network.  It may never get to 
> that.  but I am 

Count me in, hardware and network hacking (in the traditional sense, not the
intrusion sense) is why I'm interested in wireless.

> Public access models. (my prefered embodyments)
> 
> 1)
> free open internet access to anyone who wants it - member or not.
> 
> problem - who pays?
> I don't think this will work.

That'd suck, the freeloaders would clog the network. :)

> 2)
> free open network (intranet) for anyone who wants it - member or not.
> 
> access to files (P2P/gnuttella style or BBS style), chat, 
> forums, news, 
> games, etc.
> 
> limited internet augmentation if distributed proxy caching 
> can be made 
> to work (well, in a regulatory sense. we know this can be 
> done physically).
> 
> No internet access provided through MW
> 
> I believe this is the most likely outcome and worthwhile

I think this is the most likely model we could persue.

> 3) as for 2, but with internet access provided for MW members where 
> local POPs can be established.

This might be another useful alternative.  Excellent for the travellers like
myself when I'm on the opposite side of town.
> 
> This would be the ideal embodyment - we may have to do some fiddling 
> with download limits with members, etc, but at least it'll be 
> member we 
> have to organise, not just anyone.

Agreed. :)
> 
> 
> BTW, how many female members do we have?  why?  I can't quite get a 
> handle on this.  Maybe I hang with a different crowd, but my geek 
> friends are pretty much split 50:50 M:F.  On the other hand, it is 
> mostly my male friends that play the one-up-man-game and tend 
> to Herbert 
> a lot more....

The gender distribution (from the people I've seen at MW meetings) is rather
similar to ham radio, from my observations - male dominated by a large
degree.

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