[Liverpool] Fwd: [DoES Liverpool] Come and define the future of Community WiFi in Liverpool - 7-8pm at DoES

Wed May 13 15:10:03 UTC 2015

I'm sure I've had discussions around this sort of issue with some of the 
LivLUG crowd in the past, so thought you might be interested. Sorry for 
the short notice, but the email has only just come through on the DoES 
list...

Cheers,

Adrian.

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[DoES Liverpool] Come and define the future of Community WiFi 
in Liverpool - 7-8pm at DoES
Date: 	Wed, 13 May 2015 13:37:46 +0100
From: 	Paul M Furley <paul at paulfurley.com>
Reply-To: 	does-liverpool at googlegroups.com
To: 	does-liverpool at googlegroups.com

Hello!

If you were at Ignite a couple of weeks ago, you'll have seen me raving 
about a thing called @MerseyNet. It went something like this:

*Open WiFi is Great For Tourists*

Isn't it cool when you're travelling abroad that so many places leave 
their wireless networks open? No passwords, no stupid captive portal thing.

When you're abroad and you don't have a roaming data plan, open wireless 
makes life so much easier! You can look up transport routes, find 
restaurant reviews, use Skype to call attractions, and send photos home 
to family.

Open wireless makes life easier for tourists - and happy tourists are 
likely to tell their friends, come back another time and probably spend 
more!

So what happened in the UK? Why all the lame passwords (c0ff33)? Why 
those awful "captive portals" that your phone can't handle? Or paying 
£15 per DAY for hotel internet access?

In Liverpool we have about half a million overseas tourists every year. 
They'd really appreciate a bit more sharing!

*Other Benefits*

According to the ONS 
<http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/rdit2/internet-access---households-and-individuals/2014/stb-ia-2014.html>, 
16% of households don't have Internet access. That's increasingly 
problematic as things move more and more online.

And of course, Internet of Things Things need the Internet!

All this talk of connected devices, wearable electronics, smart cities 
and whatnot is fantastic. But those things need to get online. As many 
of you know, it's really awkward for your toaster to enter a WiFi 
password, and having to put a simcard in everything is crazy.

*@MerseyNet*

The solution is simple, and many other cities in the world have embraced it.

Let's just open up our WiFi! (In a safe and secure way)

I propose @MerseyNet - part of the openwireless.org 
<http://openwireless.org> movement - which encourages businesses and 
individuals sharing their bandwidth.

Once you've paid for broadband, the marginal cost of sharing some of it 
is basically zero, especially when you've got unlimited monthly limits.

*Fear Sells*

So when I tell people I run open wireless networks they often tell me 
I'm crazy because:

 1. Paedophiles! Terrorists! (They're going to use my Internet and I'm
    going to go to jail)
 2. Bandwidth hogging.
 3. Snooping on my traffic.

TL;DR I disagree, others have answered 1) and for 2) and 3) I built a 
box - the @MerseyNet box!

See Bruce Schneier on the issue of open wifi 
<https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wireles.html>.

*@MerseyNet Box*

So the prototype box is a Raspberry Pi with some custom routing 
(iptables) stuff on it. You plug it in via Ethernet to your router and 
it makes a totally isolated open wireless network.

It can do various rate limiting things and kick people off who are using 
too much data. (Why isn't all this just built in to every router?!)

Of course, if you're not worried 1, 2 and 3 anyway, just rock on and 
open up like the good old days!

The box is primarily a *means to an end* - it's not the goal.

*Come And Help!*

Tonight's brainstorming meeting is about pushing forward the concept, 
rather than the tech.

We want to thrash out some answers to questions like:

  * What should the AIM of community WiFi be?
  * Which group of beneficiaries (tourists/people without Internet /IoT
    developers) should we focus on?
  * Which group of /providers/ (coffee shops, individuals' houses etc)
    should we focus on?
  * What's the pitch to the providers?
  * Which groups or organisations would make a good partner?
  * What do we do next?

We'll be starting at 7pm sharp and keeping it to an hour, with optional 
pub follow-on afterwards.

Kind regards,

Paul

*Paul M Furley* | Software Engineer

*Talks, Debates & Thought-Provoking Events in 
Liverpool:**thinkingliverpool.com <http://www.thinkingliverpool.com>*

l: linkedin.com/in/paulfurley <https://uk.linkedin.com/in/paulfurley>
w: paulfurley.com <https://paulfurley.com>
t: @paul_furley <https://twitter.com/paul_furley>
e: 0x309F635DAD1B5517 
<http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=0x309F635DAD1B5517&fingerprint=on&exact=on>
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