Frank

Project Continued: New links and possible leads

Well we should be getting back to this project at this coming week.

Some new links and ideas that stemmed from a discussion with someone who has documented municipal wireless growth. MuniWireless looks to be a great source of possible contacts and information. They have a pages dedicated to funding options and wireless technologies. These pages get to the core of our project, helping people and communities understand the basics and benefits of a community wireless network.

The New America Foundation has an interesting video and links to reports they published regarding wireless networks, and even something on carterphones.

Ethose Wireless is a consulting firm prioritizing in affordable and accessible wireless internet. Sascha Meinrath, an advisor of ours, and Joshua Breitbart are principals behind the firm.

Civil Defense is a blog written by the aforementioned Joshua Breitbart.

I found Wi-Fi Net News's sister site WiMAX Net News very helpful when researching the hype behind WiMAX as the supposed next great technology. Glenn Fleishman appears very knowledgeable and particular about technicalities in some news reporting.

If we start with some of these links, and continue to hound our other contacts, hopefully we will make sufficient progress towards a quality output.

          On Thursday March 6, 2008, Chris K. and I, Frank S., had the opportunity to attend the broadband meeting in the state capitol of Springfield. Speaking at the Lt. Governor's Broadband Deployment Council meeting represented a chance to not only introduce our wireless project to a vast number of interested parties, but to also get a chance to see some inner workings of state government.

          The day before the meeting, our team started a draft for the handout we would distribute at the meeting. Burning the midnight oil, Jameson O. and I began to refine the document. Lucky for us, Jameson has quite an eye for layout and some graphic design; he ended up producing this magnificent document in about an hour. Even though I was already happy to be attending the meeting, after receiving the final version of the document, I was ecstatic about our potential to make quality contacts at the meeting.

          Upon our entry to Springfield, Chris and I were filled with anticipation and excitement to be presenting the start of our project. We were also optimistic regarding our chances to make a good impression on the Lt Governor's council. We assumed seats around the u-shaped tables they had set up in the Stratton Building. Besides the thirty plus people attending in Springfield, nearly twenty people were videoconferencing with the meeting from Chicago, and another ten people were listening in via a teleconferencing line.

         We were initially astonished at the great variety of projects and opportunities for broadband and wireless technology in the state of Illinois. On the national level, we learned that the USDA is offering grants ranging from $50,000 to $1,000,000 to furnish broadband service in rural communities under 20,000 residents that currently have no access to this service. Chris passed this information along to the Tribal Digital Village project group as a variety of groups can apply for the grants, including state and county governments, as well as Native American tribal governments and 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

         Eventually the meeting approached discussion of the Community Wireless Grants that the Lt. Governor's office will be giving out later this year. Ryan Croke, policy advisor for the Lt. Governor briefed the council on the remarkable interest in the grants, citing that nearly 50 communities submitted applications this year alone. They expect to fill 6 of those requests each for $10,000. After his progress report, Ryan introduced Chris and me.

          Together we briefly discussed the class and the purpose of Project broadCAST, and mentioned the variety of projects making progress in the class. Chris covered our project of assisting communities hoping to setup wireless networks by putting together a freely accessible document that provides information for those most in need. Whether they are applying for the $10,000 grants from the state or applying for national grants, many underserved communities need help just getting the project off the ground. It is our hope to put together information regarding the initial planning stages of the network, including budgets, possible designs, and useful tips from those who have succeeded.

          The brief time we had to speak flew right by in what felt like a few seconds. We continued listening to the variety of projects being instituted in the state of Illinois. One project that piqued our interest came from the southern tip of the state. Connect SI is a project to connect the two southernmost counties in the state of Illinois. Sadly, in percentage of broadband penetration Southern Illinois at 12% is lagging behind rural US average of 24 percent. In a little over a years time, Connect SI's project has increased penetration by 25 %, bringing their total to 16 percent. Chris and I felt this showcased the need for a project such as ours, and provided us with some raw numbers to use as a reference point for how far the state needs to progress to keep up with the rest of the country and the world.

         After the meeting ended, Chris and I were ready to walk out feeling like we did a great job introducing our project and group to a much larger, more influential audience. But, we could not escape too quickly. We were approached by four individuals wishing to speak with us further. With business cards in tow, a quick conversation and an exchange of excitement over future collaborations, we departed from the Stratton Building anxious to share our victories.

         The meeting was a great opportunity for us both on a educational and professional level. It has increased our anticipation of getting more in-depth with the project and communicating with the contacts we met at the meeting, as well as others from whom we have tried to get information regarding setting up community wireless networks. Now it is time to put our nose to the grindstone, and get to work.

In hopes of calming any fears, the Products group will attempt to provide a brief elaboration and rundown of how to accomplish said tasks.

Create a potential for a media event that could spread the word around campus/community.
    -This would likely involve previous contact with a client or audience. Once a relationship has been established, and a product has been produced, we can move toward free press.
    -A press release would be the most practical step if it is local. We can target the DI, News Gazette, WPGU, as well as the three East Central Illinois broadcast networks.
    -Plenty of "How To" examples are available by searching Google. If you browse a few, you can pull useful information from many without paying for any information.
    -What also is useful is our personal connections we listed in our skills post. No doubt many of us have friends that work for the local media outlets that would help us get our information out.

University help for dissemination of scholarly information
    -University Press Officers are responsible for publicizing professors from the University some positive press.
    -If we determine this is the correct area to pursue (ie audience), we can inquire further about the steps and information they would need.

Though I can probably assemble a bicycle with some rudimentary tools, and Jameson can rise from the dead, our powers combined could not piece together a foxhole radio in class on Monday.

Perhaps we were too far removed from any motivation. Though Davenport looks pretty archaic, we had no impending threat of bombs falling upon us in our computer lab. About the only thing I had to scavenge was a means to sharpen a pencil. Even in this instance I had to rely on the resources found in the Department of Anthropology's main office (and the very nice lady inside that permitted me to use their electric pencil sharpener).

Alas, we attempted to follow the directions for a "weekend project" foxhole radio found here.

As Jameson tediously wrapped the magnetic wire around the toilet paper tube 120 times, I attempted to multitask. Note our two computer screens showing both the pencil drawing and picture of a completed foxhole radio.

We continued to follow all the very, very detailed directions under the "Make it!" heading, but to no avail. Needless to say, the wood I procured from a dark, dingy, likely asbestos laden corner of the Lincoln Hall basement (15 feet from my office), was a bit overkill. Outside of being hard to balance on our desk, it proved very difficult to penetrate with the tacks Jameson brought. Lesson learned: soft wood or cardboard would work just fine next time.

We fashioned our antenna out of our first attempt at the coil with the thicker gauged wire, which refused to be wrapped 120 times.

Was this our downfall? Or was it the razors, which although very much blue in the case-even having a strip of blue on the razor, did not have the bluish oxidation required to receive a signal.

Jameson claims to have heard a "pop" at some point, but it never returned. I like to think it is floating out in the ether somewhere, never to be heard by a human ear again.

We were immensely disappointed with our inability to fashion a radio after we had compiled the whole list of materials, scoured the Internet, and even attempted to copy classmates that mentioned attaching a battery to the radio (really don't know where that was supposed to go).  

We did not take much solace in the fact that most foxhole experiments in the classroom failed that day.  I guess we are just lucky the air raid sirens didn't go off. Then again, at least we would have picked that up on our earphone.

• Laptop, with single layer dvd burning
• Car that can seat 5 in a pinch, but 4 comfortably
• I work for a national electronics retailer, which might be good for something
• Some decent software skills: Office, Photoshop, InDesign, used to know iShell multimedia pretty well.
  
• 2 digital cameras
• Lots of bikes (with one more coming on Wednesday!)
• I have a DeWalt power set (circular and reciprocating saw and drill).
• Efficient use of sarcasm
• A few spare routers, wired and wireless
• Access to cheap cables/accessories (see above retail job)
• My roommate builds robots. No, seriously, he does.
• Cell phone with camera and bluetooth. Not really that handy, but i can create my own ring tones and send them to myself.
  
• Father is Superintendent of Parks, as well as Building Maintenance, so some connections to suburban politics
  

If this were a real entry, really important things would appear here.