I had a stimulating chat with Paul Goldman this afternoon and began to talk about the need for socio-technical protocols that would enable the grassroots spread of community wireless networks.
It only occured to me after our meeting that I was in part reinventing a notion I had last spring, when I initiated my current obsession with wireless community networks. That was the notion of a wifibox, a simple device that might serve as an "atom" in a self-organizing wireless mesh network. In my work with ww.netsville.com the phrase we are using is "cacheing access point" but that sounds like just another piece of hardware. This is more than that.
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A WifiBox is a GenerousAndGentle HardwareAndSoftwareCombination that joins with other nearby WifiBox 'es to create a Wifinet that gives WifiBoxUsers OpenAccess to a WirelessBlanketOfInternet whenever they are NearBy. WifiBox connections can be DirectOrIndirectConnections.
One possible variant, a wifibox in a plastic bucket, is pictured at left.
(This is from a bunch of pages I put on the www.PersonalTelco.com wiki last June hoping the notion would catch fire...but it didn't, so I thought it must be too obvious or already implicit in everyone's thinking. But over a year later, my openAP box (a partial wifibox) is still "just working." And while the name "wifibox"has not stood the test of time, I still think the world needs a good cheap wifibox. (What should we call this Building Block of the New Millenium? a a Karma Node for building KNetworks?) |
Today's conversation made me realize that a simple list of "good KarmaNode behaviors" would be a useful way of moving toward a set of requirements.
1. Provide maximal connectivity to your owner and freely donate unused bandwidth to visitors. (Thus cost-free public good).
2. Establish direct connections with other KarmaNodes whenever possible. (Thus minimize load and dependency on the internet).
3. If you have an internet (backend) connection, make it available to your neighbor KarmaNodes.
4. If you have a hard drive,
(a) cache recent, frequent, critical, or locally relevant content
(b) deliver it to Users and to neighbor wifiboxes (at top speed, and without imposing on the internet backend)
(c) present an introductory homepage to users who happen by telling them where they are, what they can do, and how they can get help, and how they can help.
5. Accept firmware and content updates from trusted neighbors and trusted users, local and remote.
6. When given power, "just work".
Could a protocol that met these requirements spread like a grassroots wireless digital commons wildfire?
6:05:46 PM 
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