Personal Telco Monthly Meeting for February 2004

When and Where

Urban Grind Coffee 2214 NE Oregon St. (take 22nd Ave. 2 blocks North of Sandy Blvd.)

Wednesday, February 25th, 6pm-9pm

Speaker: Phil Busse

Phil Busse is the managing editor of the Portland Mercury and a mayoral hopeful who has listed getting free Wi-Fi in all city buildings as one of his plans for his first 100 days in office. Mr. Busse will share his thoughts on the social implications of Wi-Fi. Phil would like to continue the discussion on his web site, http://www.meformayor.com/

Agenda

• 6:00PM - Introduction to Personal Telco for newcomers.
• 6:30PM - Phil Busse
• 7:30PM - Business followed directly by informal meet and greet.

Agenda Items

Multnomah County Libraries and PTP - AaronJohnson on behalf of Douglas Van Zandt who was unable to attend.

AntennaModWorkshop - AaronBaer

JiWire node branding - MichaelWeinberg

Disclaimer

This event should in no way be construed as an endorsement of Mr. Busse's mayoral campaign. The Personal Telco Project is always interested in speakers willing to share their views on Wi-Fi, be they from a technological, legal or social angle. It is in this spirit that Mr. Busse has been invited to speak.

Minutes

6:15 meeting called to order

• Schedule announced
• Speaker announced

• DarrinEden introduces PTP purposes

• Introduces Portland Area Captains:

  • NE Captain is TomFitzgerald

  • SE Captain is TomHiggins

  • NW Captain is RobertPetersen

  • SW Captain is DavidJensen

  • N and the rest of the globe Captain is JasonMcArthur

• Gives thanks to UG as sponsor of meeting

• 6:20 introduces NigelBallard

  • Gives updates
    • Ugly mug node is up
    • Subway node is up
  • IPPhone issues raised
    • IPPhones portable and upsetting the telco model
• More doorprizes this month.

  • A book, USB WiFi adapter, the O'Reilly Wireless Hacks Book, caps, stickers, etc.

• AaronBaer introduced

  • Introduce the new people
  • Encouragement to talk to regulars

• DarrinEden introduces MichaelWeinberg as Community Development Director

  • MichaelWeinberg introduces Mayor Candidate Phil Busse

    • Candidate Managing Editor of Portland Mercury

    • Wants to install free WiFi in every public building.

    • Campaign Questions Asked

      • NigelBallard mentions ( as part of the Portland wireless steering committee) that the City wide wireless access progressing. 802.16 radios on top of OHSU and PSU Ondine Bldg. oked Donations have been given

    • 7:35 Phil Wraps up and summarizes his platform
      • “PTP is at the cusp of things”
      • “City hall will be open to you.”
• 5-10 min break.
• 7:50 called back to order

• DarrinEden introduces AaronJohnson

  • Update on getting libraries unwired
    • Looking at other city models: lots of good material found: San Diego, Milwaukie, NYPL.
    • DVZ has contacted and completed notes from phone conversations with Library in Austin, TX.

    • The goal is to present a feasibility study report at the MeetingApril2004 (DVZ, AMJ)

    • Please contact DVZ if you have information regarding who at or how to contact Multnomah County Library.
  • In December 2003, VeriLAN completed installation on KGW tower in west hills and would like assistance in developing a PTP acceptable use policy (AUP) for outlier or edge nodes. i.e. wireless backhaul for hotspots. Contention from a member of the board regarding VeriLAN "advertisements" during a PTP meeting forced a change of subject.
  • More VoIP Phone talk..A hardware VON phone is shown

    • Discussion of alternatives to phone including free software http://asterisk.org, other services, other phones

    • DarrinEden discusses an analog phone connection as PCI card by digium.

  • Video shown of enterprise installation of pre-802.16 and 802.11b at 650' platform on KGW tower in the West Hills. It's the tower with the twin tips. Look for a slight buldge about 1/5 below top. That's the platform.

  • Acknowledgement that Aaron helped originate the UG node and the donation of the VON phone to UrbanGrind thus making UrbanGrind the first PTP node to have a free use Voip phone. Its number is 239153. To be installed in the coming week. For the record, UG already had wireless when it opened. NOTE: BrianBeattie and I swapped in a CloneArmyBox, veronica, with BeWitched on it effectively changing the ESSID to www.personaltelco.net. AMJ

• 8:10 DarrinEden introduces AaronBaer

  • AaronBaer talks about the antenna building fest day coming up

    • Attendees responsible for own equipment
    • Call for some supplies.
    • Supplies needed thrown from audience.

• DarrinEden introduces MichaelWeinberg

  • MichaelWeinberg talks about JiWire. If you want your node on JiWire, you can submit info to Michael. He will provide info on the JiWire wiki page.

  • CapitalFund campaign update

    • CapitalFund campaign is an effort to raise $1500 by July, initiated last month, with matching funds from the Board and Area Captians up to $1500. That would be $3000 if the goal was met and all the matching funds captured.

    • $390 dollars donated so far
      • Additional $170 made by auctioning off SGI system.

    • Check the CapitalFund wiki page for the progress of the CapitalFund campaign

• DarrinEden talks about meeting with BC wireless in Canada to try and link the two groups

  • Going to make wireless link across the boarder. July 3rd. Big work party and then big party party
• August 26th in PDX try and make wireless multi hop link for a day.
• New node map based on city bike maps up
• Discussion on necessity of captive portal. Continuing discussion from mailing list. Trying to enable mobile IPPhones on PTP nodes.

• Anouncement of the InstallFestMarch2004 was made, please go to that wiki page for more info.

• 8:25 DarrinEden tries to finish old business

• Question on how to remove or cull old nodes from NodeDB. NodeDB is a separate site that PTP has little control over. There does exist a system in NodeDB to cull old nodes, but there is a lag time.
• Other Comments on additional services via PTP nodes. Local Content Etc.

• 8:35 DarrinEden actually finishes old business

• 8:35 Names drawn for Prizes
• 8:40 People Disperse.

Thanks to SethShikora for keeping the minutes. -- DarrinEden