Community meetings

	It seems to me that BAWUG/SFLAN have some enormously technically 
talented people involved. But that their development has both stalled, 
probably because only the terribly technical people originally involved 
have reached their carrying capacity in terms of attention.

	I think, however, that wireless in the bay area has a ways to go. 
Those guys in Portland are seriously showing us up.

	To this end, I suggest we take a look at what they're doing that we're 
not. I'm looking for input on getting more _user_ involvement to take 
the burden off these guys and get the local network going, both in 
terms of increasing the number of Joe Publics making free hotspots and 
increasing links to SFLAN. A glance through Portland's site shows what 
they're doing:

1) Meetings, both user-level and developer-level
2) Organization. I'm not sure how much org there is. I think quite a 
lot in SFLAN, but it seems to be tightly held. I can't, for example, 
find any info about what IP layout they use, etc, etc.

	It seems to me the goal of a wireless group should be to encourage any 
kind of adoption, from getting people to put up SFLAN nodes (clearly a 
big win) to simply sharing their DSL. To this end, we need to make it 
_easy_ for people to walk up the wireless path.

	First, we need simple hand-holding explanations of what Joe User can 
do to put up a WAP and share his connection with his neighbor. This 
entails getting an ISP that doesn't mind, buying the tools, choosing 
the best channel, and securing their own machines. I think there will 
be a hand-out document* in the future here on this topic, but the best 
way to do research is to start helping people.

	Second, I know I'd like to see more of a plan, more info on what SFLAN 
is about and what their future direction is. It's hard to know it right 
now. To this end, Friday, I'll go down to archive.org and bother the 
fine gents at SFLAN, if I can find them, and see if I can fill the gaps 
in my knowledge. I'd like to see some network infrastructure plans, get 
a sense of how this all goes down. Ideally, this should be 
semi-documented, but I'm not sure how best to go about it or what they 
have done already.

	Third (I lied, there are three, I just thought of this): Recognition. 
Nobody knows to whom they should turn if they want to set up a wireless 
link. Many of the local cafes are already starbucked, which is a shame, 
because they both advertise and encourage if you get them in. A logo? 
Something to add to warchalking (does anyone warchalk anymore?) How can 
we let people know about what they could do for/with community 
wireless? I think if we get a little bit of organization, we could 
arrange an interview by eg the Guardian, and drive up membership or 
interest. We'll need an active group before that's smart, though.

	In the mean time, I think we need to light a fire. Mr. Pretorious has 
offered a meeting spot for a bigger, full-scale meeting, in Freemont. 
Does anyone have one in San Francisco? I think we'd get more people.

-- 
Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross 
a chasm in two small jumps.  -- David Lloyd George

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