[WLANware] FOSS.IN: Free Software for Wireless Community Networks

[rene at absorb.it]

Hi all,

being in Bangalore, India, I realized that at the FOSS conference
(www.foss.in) last years wireless was never a theme. So just announced a
talk about Free Software for Wireless Community Networks, and it was
preliminary accepted at the first stage. Here is the Abstract:

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Wireless networks are making a presence around the world. One
interesting approach is to build a community network, bottom-up, by the
use of shared network infrastructure and link-state routing algorithms.
Free Software developments, like OpenWrt or Freifunk, had shown the
possibility to convert usual consumer WLAN-routers into cheap
ready-to-use Wireless Mesh nodes.

The Opennet Initiative of Rostock, Germany developed a Free Software
solution called 'Opennet Firmware' that is currently running on around
200 nodes. The Firmware for instance implements a OpenVPN solution, over
OpenWrt, to enhance network security. OpenWrt has been the base for most
available community network solutions and there is active development
going on for a major upgrade. It is, therefore, a good time to join the
development work and the community network movement.

The talk will first introduce the concept of meshed wireless community
networks and give examples about their widespread adaption. An overview
of hardware and software used is given, software development groups are
introduced and current development problems are described. As a result,
participants should be motivated to start building their own wireless
community networks and software developers should get interested in
joining the Freifunk movement. There is enough to do from
firmware-hacking very close to the hardware to translation of interfaces
into local languages.
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Some of you which know me (Rene, Opennet Rostock, Maintainer of local
Opennet Firmware) will also realize, that I'm only a smaller part in the
whole puzzle an thats why I'm asking for your help. I planned - as far
as I'm able to do this - to introduce current developments in OpenWrt,
Freifunk, (madwifi?). Other related things I like to mention are for
sure olsr, B.A.T.M.A.N., X-Wrt and current mapping projects. And, you
can be sure, I'll give credit to you, who are doing the work.

So, if you have some information about recent development issues in your
projects or some related but forgotten themes please send me an email.
Or if you feel like there is a need for some developers in a special
field in your project, will be also good to know. And, you might also
think of passing by at the FOSS conference.

Regards,
Rene