[MLB-WIRELESS] Re: Providing free *real* internet access to the community...

[Rowan Crowe]

Whoah there Rick!!

A donation is just that - an optional handing over of an unspecified
amount of cash, or something else of value. Since when did you see a
business (ie: a commercial operation) that was funded solely by donations?

I'll repeat it again: the majority of people connecting to my AP are
likely to be people interested in getting free net access; not people
interested in wireless networking. There's no direct benefit back to
myself apart from the satisfaction of providing that service for people.
If everyone was connecting in order to *network* - as MW nodes do - then
we would all benefit. That's the main reason I was *considering* asking
for donations when people connect.

As far as net access? I pay for it all, of course. They are only helping
to fund the purchase of wireless equipment.

One other cost recovery option I came up with: anyone who has the
technical know-how and equipment to connect to my AP can do so for free.
Not even a hint of a donation. However, if Joe Consumer wants his Windows
box set up with a card then I charge a small fee for my time. How does
that one grab you?

Although this is a noncommercial project it's certainly not cost free.
Being a hobbyist doesn't mean that I am obligated to, or can pay for
everything; I don't have limitless amounts of my own funds at my disposal.

One more thing, I never suggested that MW would be associated with this
project. I'm simply discussing it on this list. I'm sorry if you
misundersood my intentions there.


On Wed, 21 Jul 2004, rick wrote:

> yeh if someone offered you, but what if you said that they had to donate or
> not access?
>
> someone has to pay for the net, i pay for mine and if someone wants to check
> his emails on the way to work he can use mine 2, he says a small donation to
> who wants net access, where does he draw the line, and matt i do think its
> my busniess if they call there node a melbourne wireless node and start
> making cash out of it. who are we to dictate? we are the 'community' we arnt
> a small busniess starter if they want someone to buy there eq for them well
> wtf are they really here for, i have given stuff away, alot of people have,
> but the idea that someone says i HAVE to give them a cisco wireless card
> well we are a community not a charity,
>
> everything i say is of my own mind and well matt are you charging for your
> wireless?
>
> as for being narrow matt can you donate some money to me to cover my
> wireless equipment? infact i will like a donation as well for any future
> equipment i buy, come on, get real, even sydney guys arnt that bad that they
> would foce people to donate to other people just to get on the mesh/online
>
> if someone is shareing FREE net then it is free, its not free if it has a
> stupid catch, agree or not matt?
>
> "While you might have this dream that net access be free, someone
> somewhere has to pay for it, why should this not be the end users ??
> Are you honestly expecting someone to spend hundreds if not thousands of
> dollars, plus a lot of time and effort to be able to give people access
> to the internet and incur a loss for their generosity ??  Wake up and
> smell the roses, this is the real world."
>
>
> maybe you should look at what the real world is doing, personaltelco
> seattlewireless are just 2 examples
>
>
> rick
>
>
> >>>
> If someone wishes to charge people to access there network then that is
> entirely their business, who are we to dictate to people how they will
> conduct themselves ??  For that matter who are we to tell people how to
> do anything ??  We can recommend they do things this way or that way,
> but if they are putting out cold hard cash of there own then they have
> 100% choice of what they do providing it is legal.
>
> While you might have this dream that net access be free, someone
> somewhere has to pay for it, why should this not be the end users ??
> Are you honestly expecting someone to spend hundreds if not thousands of
> dollars, plus a lot of time and effort to be able to give people access
> to the internet and incur a loss for their generosity ??  Wake up and
> smell the roses, this is the real world.
>
> If I choose to do this then that is entirely my choice, but it should
> not be asked for nor expected.  If you choose to do this then that also
> is entirely your choice, but to flame someone for thinking about trying
> to recover some costs shows just how narrow minded you really are, maybe
> its time you got out into the real world for a little while.
>
> Personally if my neighbor down the road said he would pay me to connect
> to my internet I would definately do it, as the overall cost of my
> connection would fall, this benefits everyone except the big Telco's.
>
> Matt.
>
>
>
>
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