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Poster: Andrew Morrow Date: Oct 22, 2007 3:38pm
Forum: sflan Subject: Re: SFLan made obsolete by sf.meraki.com

I updated the verbiage at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Municipal_Wireless

to read:

SFLan, a project of the Internet Archive, constructed an experimental cooperative wireless internet service provider (WISP) that grew to approximately 30 nodes, using an over-the-air backbone relying on line-of-site transmission. Noise level in the ISM bands due to proliferating and competing Wi-Fi signals made many of their long distance links (several miles) nonfuncitonal. The network contracted from 30 functioning nodes in February 2007 down to four by October. They are considering changing their architecture to a fiber and wireless hybrid.



Please feel free to "edit that page"


I have technical questions:

Has SFLan attempted to get a press release out in reaction to the cancellation of San Francisco Municipal Wireless to explain lessons learned and SFLan's role in any future networks?

By "fiber and wireless hybrid" do mean the creation of a new fiber ring or just replacing your line-of-sight connections with point-to-point fiber that the SFLan the community will somehow share in the cost of?

Is SFLan going to design and publish a new architecture document?

One comment: The "neutral network" you define as no ads, no censorship, and no restrictions on privacy might help to generate some enthusiasm, but I have to wonder how much, especially if you expect your volunteers to pay the monthly fiber bill. The EarthLink/Google project did not fail because of any these kinds of concerns. Put in marketing terms: how much of a marginal loss of network neutrality do your volunteers and donors perceive in these commercial solutions and how much are they willing to pay to keep that neutrality?

I am not trying a marketing type and I am not trying to badger you: I simply recognize that your network has collapsed and I am concerned that SFLan have a viable future.