[MLB-WIRELESS] ITNews Story.

[Ryan Abbenhuys]

xfesty,
by your strong stance and views against steve I assume you must be from
melbourne. Will you be attending the next Melbwireless meeting to sign up as
an official member as I'm sure something could be entered into the agenda
for you to speak about your view.  Also, I'm sure there are lots of other
people who would like to see/speak to you in person.

----- Original Message -----
From: xfesty
To: syd-wireless at lists.sydneywireless.com
Cc: melbwireless at wireless.org.au
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 3:48 PM
Subject: [MLB-WIRELESS] ITNews Story.


http://www.itnews.com.au/story.cfm?ID=10341

Just read that URL.  I'm a slight bit peeved after reading it.  I don't
understand how one man could make Melb Wireless look so freakin' bad.

I think this one quote is relevant, where the incompetency shines out:

> Melbourne Wireless president Steven Haigh said his organisation is not
trying to undercut the ISPs. "At the moment, we are not trying to rival the
ISPS at all," he said.
> "Not yet, but you never know what happens," he added.

....thankyou for the great representation of community networks, Mr. "War on
ISP's".

I've not heard a lot from Haigh, but I've heard him *continually* contradict
himself, and generally make Melbourne Wireless (and community wireless
groups in general) look very taunting to telecommunication corporations.
Its evident even in that one article.  Thank god Duane has half a clue on
how to explain things, which stopped the article from going the way it
seemed to be headed.

I'm strongly of the opinion that Haigh may mean the end of free community
wireless in Australia.  Statements that he makes *all the time* is going to
get us killed.  The reason we are here is because this is a hobby, not
because we're deliberately trying to rip off a company.  Our represented
attitudes is directly dependent on how the 'giants' handle us.  I honestly
do believe its possible that they could kill us completely off, if they
wanted.

Melb Wireless - I'm not sure if I'm the only one who feels this way, but you
may want to re-evaluate who you have as your head man.  Remember - these
people are representing YOU, and the future of community networks.
Personally I'm satisfied with people like Craig and Duane, who in media-type
situations have expressed the community's general interest accurately, and
not make us look like a bunch of warez kiddies.  That's certainly not why
I'm here.

My general problem is the fact that anything Haigh says to represent Melb
Wireless just doesn't nessecarily reflect them; it actually reflects any
community group in Australia.  And as a result of that, we get the
repercussions of such statements that he may make.  I'm not comfortable with
that, or the way things may be headed if this keeps up.

I think we all need to look at the big picture again and realise why we want
this.  People are getting a /tad/ distracted.

- Ryan


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