Archive for the Social category
What happens when a group of gadget loving web geeks get inspired? They start a quiet revolution in their backyard. That’s what happened after Mark Pesce’s “Mob rules” keynote presentation at Web Directions South late last year, where he described people as the network, and presented the little Meraki’s, allowing you to easily share your internet connection. These $US49 ($55) wireless devices offer the ability to create wi-fi mesh networks that link Meraki to Meraki (as a repeater) until the devices find a gateway with an internet connection. That’s what sets it apart from most other wireless routers. Meraki has its roots at MIT, and are as such the commercial implementation of the MIT Roofnet mesh routing protocol. They are cheap, offer reliable performance and are easy to use. They need very little end user configuration, which is handled through a back-end management/monitoring system hosted at Meraki.
Of course you could open up any regular wireless router too, but most of them miss the user management offered by Meraki. It provides basic system statistics, connected MAC addresses and computer names, and bandwidth usage. In its Standard edition it offers bandwidth throttling and you can block any abusive users. On the Pro edition you can set different tiers with different limits.
But why open your wireless network to begin with? Didn’t we all learn to use WEP at first (which was broken pretty quickly) and now WPA2? As security guru Bruce Schneier (CTO of BT Counterpane) wrote in the January edition of Wired, it’s basic politeness, it’s the neighbourly thing to do. In his “Steal This Wi-Fi / My Open Wireless Network” article he gives his thoughts on open and secured wi-fi and explains why his wireless network is open for everyone to use, and has since generated a lot of controversy. It comes down to the fact that your own pc needs to be secure to begin with. Of course the nay-sayers have valid points too, about leaching, illegal downloads, liability, and those are probably the biggest hurdles in setting up a community driven, free wireless network. Free for people to use occasionally, paid for by me, sharing my monthly bandwidth allowance.
But Meraki offers both options, so you have an open network section, and for yourself you can use the WPA2 enabled private section. It also has a feature to block all traffic going to the local LAN, to alleviate people’s concerns about “guests” being able to connect to the people’s private LANs.
In the end, Meraki’s are a means to an end. There are other options available (Fon, Open-Mesh), which miss some of Meraki’s features or are not mature enough. Meraki’s run on Linux and are pretty hackable (“We would like to encourage you to play with this platform and add your own features to it”). You can SSH into it and add iptables rules if required. And if you’re willing to void the warranty, you can replace it’s firmware with a more secure, more open version like ROBIN.
It’s early days. You don’t change things by doing nothing.
Bruce Schneier: My Open Network
As the Google/Earthlink plan for a free ad-sponsored wifi network last year fell through in San Francisco, Meraki steps up its effort and is to expand its current network of 500 repeaters covering 40.000 users in a few neighborhoods, to a city-wide deployment of 15.000 devices, offering 1Mb/s speeds. As other US municipal wifi networks got canceled or postponed, San Francisco would be the showpiece for the company to use to attract business elsewhere. In the 500 days since Meraki got started, they are present in over 70 countries (including Australia of course).
Read the full article on SFGate/San Francisco:
“After a tough year for municipal wireless in which projects in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago were canceled or postponed, cities have been looking for alternatives, said wireless consultant Craig Settles of Oakland. The Meraki example in San Francisco could inspire communities to look at such a low-cost approach in lieu of larger, more expensive networks.“
Through Engadget.
And Wired.
Monday, Dec 31st, 2007
Categories: Social
Project Australia looks like a promising group of people concerned about social change:
Australians are constantly told that progress is about having more wealth, hooking into the latest technology and pursuing individual dreams, but where is all of this taking us? What happened to our shared vision of hope for a brighter future, based on community action and a little Australian ingenuity?
Project Australia is a nationwide incubator for progressive ideas, driven by people seeking a brighter Australian future.
Our vision is for a more genuinely connected world where people and their ideas are at the heart of building stronger communities and a truly sustainable society.
Established in 2006, we are non-profit, not linked with any political party, and secular. Please feel free to post/advertise any existing or new ideas on how we can create a brighter future for all.
Let’s hope 2008 brings about some social change, even if it is just charing our broadband connection…
Happy New Year!
Thursday, Nov 22nd, 2007
Categories: Social
As Mark Pesce’s keynote already made clear, technology shapes everyones lives, not only here but in the third world too. Technology is transforming humanitarian relief—and is shifting the balance of power between donors and recipients, as outlined in this the Economist article:
Now, when an emergency occurs, the first people on the ground are often computer geeks, setting up telephone networks so other aid agencies can do their stuff.
Télécoms sans Frontières (TSF), a French voluntary agency (total staff: a dozen), goes in with the UN team that does the first needs-assessment in the hours after disaster strikes.
You too can help SydneyFreeNet grow by putting a Meraki Mini in your front window, balcony or rooftop.
If you have a broadband Internet connection, you can share (part of) your bandwidth, by having your Meraki set up as a internet gateway. If you don’t have a broadband Internet connection, you can still help out by extending the network if you can see the SydneyFreeNet wireless network signal, by setting up your Meraki as a repeater.
If you already provide free wireless Internet (that’s great!), you are welcome to join SydneyFreeNet by adding Meraki Minis to your existing access point(s). By combining our efforts, you’ll become part of a larger wireless network, improve the quality of service for your visitors and be helping to build a unified and robust wireless network.
If you are a business or property owner (cafe, bakery, restaurant, bar, laundromat, hotel, apartment complex, conference center, etc.), you can attract new customers that stay longer by providing them free internet access.
You can get one or more Merakis from the Meraki website. We don’t sell them.
Again, we are not affiliated with Meraki, and we don’t make any money selling them. We just like their technology, which is cheap and easy to set up and manage.